Angelika We've reported a few times already that rental prices in San Francisco have been exploding lately, rendering the city unaffordable to many people. This has led to some animosity targeting well-off techies, living in San Francisco and working in Silicon Valley, but the problem is complex there's several contributing factors. I personally find that landlords play a major role in this game, a role which is quite often conveniently overlooked.
After all, no one forces landlords to raise the rents, which destroys the current city landscape and limits access to city living to a very specific affluent populace. Michael keeps saying that it's naive to think that people won't always act in their best self-interest, but recently, I found out that there are indeed still a number of landlords with integrity left around here.
The other day, I was strolling along 24th Street in our neighborhood. I stopped at the gift store "Just for Fun" and noticed a letter to the customers, displayed in the window by the shop owners David Eiland und Robert Ramsey. Their landlord, Angus Brunner, had just passed away and the two owners emphasized how modest Angus had been towards them. During the economically challenging years 2000 and 2006, a time when many stores in Noe Valley had to close due to sharply declining revenue, Angus stopped by at the store in person and offered them to lower the rent. I was quite moved when I read this.