Rent Control ‘Brutality’

I was very pleased to read your analysis (Oct. 5) of rent control. As a small-property owner in Santa Monica, I am amazed at the brutality of radical rent control.

Construction costs and the expense of maintaining apartments are published frequently by the U.S. government and are available at a very nominal price. The rent control board completely ignores the financial information available and fabricates its own numbers, resulting in the very minimal rent increases of about 2% per year.

My proposal is for the rent control board to purchase its own apartment buildings, fill them with tenants and run them according to its own standards. If they can operate at this low level, then their numbers may have some validity.

NICHOLAS L. PARRIS

Santa Monica