[pcwalton]

> It's not nearly as atrocious as the reputation profit hungry landlords have tried to give it.

Please don't tar all landlords with the same brush. I might well be a landlord in the future if I ever move out of the Bay Area, because I really like SF and would like to keep owning my (small, modest) condo even if I have to take a job elsewhere in the future. Right now, because of Costa-Hawkins, rent control won't affect me even in that scenario. But, suppose CH were repealed and the Progs decided to throw owners of those "luxury condos" everyone hates under the bus to score political points by implementing vacancy control. In that case, I'd have no choice but to sell, because I literally couldn't pay the mortgage if I couldn't charge market rent. (Actually, even market rent, right now, would not be enough to pay the mortgage--I would have to start low and raise the rent over time, or else I'd have to sell.)

For some of us, it isn't about profit. I'm happy to give up profit for a good tenant. It's about not having the bank foreclose on our property--which, needless to say, would in eviction for our tenants.