Tenants’ Rights Law Draws Fire

From the article by Eric Bailey, “Issue Pits Landlords Against L.B. Tenants,” (Southeast / Long Beach sections, March 16) it is noted that one of the backers of the proposed “just-cause” eviction ordinance to be considered by the City Council on Tuesday is “Dennis Rockway, senior counsel at the Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach.”

Other proponents of the ordinance mentioned in the article were Councilman Wallace Edgerton, along with social reformer Sid Solomon and his 580-member radical group Long Beach Area Citizens Involved (LBACI).

What the article didn’t reveal was that Rockway and Edgerton are both members of the LBACI--not to mention the fact that three members or former members of the LBACI sit on the council.

One must agree with Carlos Galindo of the Apartment Assn., California Southern Cities, when he says, “It’s the foot in the door. This is clearly just to lay the groundwork for rent control.” And, as was noted by staff writer Bailey, the LBACI “pushed for rent control in 1979, when the issue was on the ballot as an advisory measure and defeated by a 2 to 1 margin.”

--SIDNEY S. WATTS

Long Beach