The results of a survey of the strength of Lakewood’s rental market are in. A survey?
Letter: Lakewood’s landlords run amok
The sticky note from the landlord on their apartment doors said, in effect, ‘like’ me on Facebook or get evicted. Said one of the tenants, complaining to the news outlet, “I don’t want to be forced to be someone’s friend and be threatened to break my lease because of that. It’s outrageous as far as […]
Letter: Marshmallow roasts and rental inspection programs
Can you safely roast marshmallows without the government’s help? Are BBQ’s using too much BBQ sauce a fine-able infraction during a burn ban for which surreptitious photographs are taken and mailed – along with the fine – when a courtesy contact might have sufficed? Are rental inspection programs that sweep into the dustbin all landlord […]
Letter: Contrasting the Lakewood Council position on smoking bans vs. rental inspection
Lakewood is in the news again – mentioned in an August 16, 2016 Editorial Opinion of the Tacoma News Tribune – for having created buffers surrounding children in public parks to distance them from obnoxious adult behavior, i.e. smoking. Unlike the Fife City Council whose members voted 4-2 earlier this month to ban “all tobacco […]
Letter: Lakewood’s RIP, a glorified ‘HOA from hell’?
“Home associations that once protected residents now prey on them,” read the August 3, 2016 headline in the Kansas City Star. Author Judy L. Thomas describes some of the highlights – or perhaps more appropriately the lowlights – of home associations gone bad.
Letter: What’s in a name?
The French have a proverb: “Bonne renommee vaut mieux que ceinture doree.” Loosely translated the meaning is, “A good name is better than gold.” A good name. Is that a never-rock-the-boat name? An accept-the-status-quo name? An aversion to calling-power-to-account name? A go-along-to-get-along name?
Letter: Rental laws analogous to ‘Soviet-style regulations’
“The current wave of regulations being considered . . . (among them) telling landlords who they must rent their property to . . .” leads Shiftwa.org (Aug.22, 2016) to conclude Seattle’s “liberal leaders’ ‘progressive’ reforms are becoming synonymous with Soviet-style regulations.” With its Rental Inspection Program (RIP), Ordinance 644, passed 6-1 August 1, 2016, Lakewood’s […]
Letter: Clawing their way toward profits
The claw hovers over the cute little stuffed toy hamster. Descending via joy-stick control, the claw pinchers close around the hamster’s head, snatching him away from his friends, fetching him closer and closer to dangle over the chute serving as the exit that will permanently extricate him from his enclosed glass prison to enter a […]
Letter: Heads I win, tails you lose
It’s a game I sometimes play with groups of youth: flipping a coin after announcing the rules – ‘heads I win, tails you lose.’ Hand after hand goes up to win the quarter (nickel, dime, penny, whatever I have in my pocket). Nobody ever wins, only me.