Now is not the time for rent control

I take exception to the rent control letter posted in the E-R. Andrew Bosse says his mortgage is $1,300, when did he buy his house? The mortgage on a $375k house is $1,750 at 4%.

What he doesn’t factor in is the cost of maintenance, exposure to market downturns, tenants not paying, tenants trashing the house, tenants moving out and the house not earning while it is empty.

The university will be offering remote learning in fall and we will have many fewer residents this fall. That coupled with the fact that tenants who are out of work due to Covid don’t have to pay rent, this is hardly the time to think about rent control.

Rent control will give those in housing already a break at the expense of the landlord and will kill the market for new renters as it makes investment in rentals less attractive. It has a detrimental impact like most price control measures and can turn good landlords into slumlords. Why fix anything you absolutely don’t have to if the tenant is getting below-market rent?

See the podcast from a famous University of Chicago Economist titled “Why Rent Control Doesn’t Work.”

— Bruce Nikolai, Chico

Police in Butte County are not the problem

But what about the bad cop? It will happen. We need to be vigilant. Our community must not tolerate any prejudice. I have faith in those of oversight over the police, but all the safeguards must be in place. Public Defenders and defense lawyers are dedicated to oppose any misconduct and over the years these lawyers have exchanged names of any officer who overstepped the line. There were some over the years. Today I was not able to find any names on my list. Instead I have a long list of good cops, many whose work with juveniles is one of the reasons juvenile crime is down 60 percent. We are not Minneapolis.

It scares me that the anger felt today will be directed toward the police. To accuse a police man or woman of racial biases without just cause is in itself an act of racism and should not be tolerated no matter what color the skin of the offender. It is an act of hate that diminishes our goal of unity.

The outrage over what has happened to people of color is justified and the police share our anger. There is a problem in our nation. When confronted with a problem you first seek the source of the problem and then look for solutions. The police in Butte County are not the problem, they are part of the solution.

— Ron Reed, Chico