DIARY OF A RENTER: PART 6

Signs of a need to vacate the premises. Soon.

By Jerome Gagnon, Special to The Chronicle
June 17, 2006

PART SIX

April 10

As I exit the elevator I see M and S, a young married couple, juggling boxes, preparing for their move. I knew they were leaving but I had no idea it was going to be so soon. Even though we haven't seen much of each other lately, I'll miss them.

We talk about the downside of living in San Francisco. About people who are so "into their own space" that they'll walk into you on the sidewalk without even saying "Excuse me."

"We're so over Pacific Heights," S says.

But it's not other people's rudeness that's prompting their move to Chicago. His parents live nearby, and they'll be able to afford a house or a condo in town. In the meantime, they've taken a lease on an apartment on Lakeshore Drive that has a view of Lake Michigan for days.

We joke about the Midwestern winters, which are in a whole other category than our recent cold spell here. It's like the difference between a plunge into an unheated swimming pool and being locked in a gigantic -- albeit culturally enriching -- freezer compartment for four months.

"At least we'll have a good summer," S says. I expect they'll have no problem with the winters, either. They're both from hearty mitten-and-scarf stock.

I am reminded of an old Animals song:

We gotta get outta this place

If it's the last thing we ever do.

We got to get outta this place.

Girl there's a better life, for me and you.

April 14

When I return home around 6 p.m., the first thing I notice is a 3-by-4-foot sign on the front of the building notifying all and sundry of a public hearing. The hearing is a legal requirement before proposed work can begin to bump out the existing garage with a two-story addition that will eliminate the backyard entirely.

In the lobby I run into X, a long-term tenant, who briefly discusses this prospect with me.

"If Matt Gonzalez was mayor, we wouldn't have to be concerned about this," X says, as we ride up in the elevator together.

I don't know about that. But the question is how the proposed addition will affect us as tenants. Certainly the noise of such an extensive project is likely to have an impact for months. And will the proposed "deck" on top of the garage actually be a viable site for plantings and patio furniture? Or will it resemble the rooftop of the garage next door -- a barren expanse of some kind of gray synthetic material where rainwater collects and stands for days?

There are other questions, too, not so readily apparent. Is this project a step toward turning the building into tenancies-in-common (in which owners share a mortgage but live in separate units) by providing additional parking on the premises? If so, how will such a conversion affect current tenants?

Frankly, I'm still slipping and sliding on the fence about TICs. On the one hand, I don't want to be thrown out of my apartment. On the other, I can't imagine buying this place, where I can hear the toilet flushing across the light well.

April 23

I get a call from a friend whose roommate has "trust issues" and has told her that she needs to move out of the rental they've shared together, otherwise amicably, for four months.

That's the thing about roommates. Sooner or later you run up against whatever it is that you've avoided confronting in your own emotional life. I volunteer that, for my friend, this can be an opportunity to explore unresolved mother issues. For her roommate, it may be an opportunity to discover how she's projecting her own personal fears onto others.

OK, maybe I've watched one too many segments of "Oprah." But if you're lucky enough to have a roommate who's sane, keeps the place clean and pays their rent on time, how do you take a step back from your conflict and reassess the situation? I wish both of them the best and suggest they contact Community Boards/Neighborhood Conciliation Services at (415) 920-3820 should they need an intermediary party. Meanwhile, I make a mental note that I'd rather be forced to watch a season's worth of "Friends" reruns back to back than to have another roommate.

April 25

I head out to see an apartment on lower Nob Hill, my old stomping grounds. It's smaller than my current place and faces a busy street, but it is $250 a month less than I'm paying now -- a significant savings. The sunny backyard is the clincher. With a wide expanse of lawn and a variety of plants, including roses in bloom and fragrant jasmine, it's a little paradise in the heart of the city. I tell the manager I'd like to take it, details to be worked out later.

April 26

There doesn't seem to be much reason for me to attend the public hearing on the proposed garage addition because I'm set on moving. Instead, I take in a hearing of the Board of Supervisors at City Hall, a new experience for me. On the agenda is a proposed ordinance, by board President Aaron Peskin, that's designed to reduce the number of Ellis Act evictions. The state law, which allows property owners to quit the rental business, is allegedly being used as a backdoor tactic by real estate speculators to evict tenants and convert apartments into TICs, in effect bypassing the city's condo-conversion ordinance. As I understand it, Peskin's measure would ban the subsequent conversion of TICs into condominiums in those buildings where tenants -- many of whom are seniors, disabled or catastrophically ill -- were evicted after Jan. 1, 1999.

The prevailing argument: Why should the city permit the conversion of TICs to condominiums where such callous evictions have taken place while the stock of affordable rental housing continues to erode? This only further encourages the flight of minorities, artists and blue-collar workers from the city and puts our most vulnerable citizens at risk for homelessness. Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval admits the proposal is a Band-Aid to stop the bleeding, yet he and supervisors Sophie Maxwell and Jake McGoldrick lend their approval and recommend that the full board do so also before the measure is sent on to the mayor for his approval or veto.

But the conversion of apartments to TICs may likely continue, one way or the other. With newly streamlined TIC loans, such deals will become even more desirable to investors. You can be sure they'll lobby for the conversion of larger buildings, too, threatening to make affordable rentals -- and rent-controlled apartments -- a thing of the past forever.

When I get home I find a notice in the mailbox from the landlord informing me of a rent increase based upon bond/utility pass-throughs and banked increases for the last few years. My rent, which was $1,200, will be $1,299 as of June 1.

I'm outta here, for sure.

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