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Measure V Too Costly funding
After reading the Voice piece on the funding of the Measure V Too Costly campaign (“Landlord group spent $260,000 on rent control measure,” Aug. 3), perhaps now is a good time for local, county and state officials to think about changing the disclosure requirements for this type of political operation and perhaps those for any independent campaign operations.
It’s only now that we learn that the highly deceptive signature gathering operation for the very deceptively written Measure V Too Costly was entirely funded by the California Apartment Association and a handful of developers. If this had been known at the beginning of the signature-gathering effort, it might have been halted at a very early stage, with public disclosure of who was behind this. The information only appeared now because of the July 31 deadline for semi-annual Form 460s. How about requiring at least monthly filings for initiatives and independent expenditure committees, or perhaps even sooner when these committees are formed?
David Lewis
Oak Street
Future MV
Wow, Mountain View’s population could rise by as much as 50 percent if all housing possibilities currently up for discussion are implemented. At least, that’s what the Voice stated in one of its past issues. I’m not against growth. I think it’s inevitable, but the question is whether or not it is done in a smart, practical way. Is there a finite number of people the city can support and still maintain the quality of life we currently enjoy? Isn’t that what sustainability is all about?
With more people comes the need for higher-density housing, which we are seeing now. Is it necessary to build six-story or taller buildings just to house people? Is commercial on the bottom and housing on the top of taller buildings the answer? With an increased population comes more city employees, more water use, more waste production and less open space. Unless there is a functional transportation system that people actually use to get around, what will downtown and neighborhood streets look like with increased traffic flow, especially if Castro Street is blocked off?
No matter how much housing is built, not everyone working in Mountain View will live here, and there will be those living in Mountain View who work somewhere else. Even if rents grow at the rate of inflation, many of the people rent control is supposed to help will continue to be priced out of the area given the new norm for affordability, and making a six-figure income is not a guarantee that one is even able to buy a condominium in today’s market.
Steve Fishman
Serena Court
The malignant disease
Capitalism is a malignant disease. It has transformed society, using existing human institutions to create a world where money is the only thing that matters.
The vector that spread it worldwide was an economic theory called neoliberalism. This theory placed the market above government and human need. It used bought-and-paid-for academics and politicians to implement its global spread and used debt to force open underdeveloped nations to the parasitic workings of the global financial system. It also used those same politicians to forge rules that guaranteed that the vast bulk of global profits went to a tiny number of global capitalist elites.
The only way to undo the ongoing damage is to pass a constitutional amendment that affirms corporations are not people and legitimizes limiting campaign contributions to avoid the current system of rule-by-dollars destroying our democracy.
Once that is in place we can finally think of a new system, built on real human needs.
Ed Taub
Devoto Street
Send letters to the editor to letters@mv-voice.com.
Send letters to the editor to letters@mv-voice.com.
Send letters to the editor to letters@mv-voice.com.
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Candidate Comparison Grids: Mountain View Whisman School District Board of TrusteesOctober 5, 2026 12:47 pm
Regarding the recent signature gathers around our city, the opposition to that initiative was hedging their bet that if it was to get on the ballot, they would have filed a lawsuit to stop it claiming fraud.
No one produce one video of said wrong doing that was allegedly being done by the signature gathers. As The Business Man has said, “you have no proof of that happening, no proof-it did not happen.” Even thou the Mountain View Tenants Coalition went to the table’s of some of these signature gathers trying to intimate people in not stopping by to talk or to sign the initiative.
Measure V was a lie to the people of Mtn. View. That side has repeatedly said that it says that landlords are still “guaranteed a fair rate of return?”. The recent landlord who went thru the cities petition process was denied a rent increase because the hearing officer said the landlord is still making $35,000 profit a year, but Measure V does not allow the mortgage interest to be used as a business expense. Figure that interest to be $70,000 annually minus the $35,000 of said profit and you see that landlord is losing roughly $35,000 a year on that property.
Where is this “guaranteed a fair rate of return”?
@Ed Taub
As someone who escaped communist oppression, I’m shocked to see a comment here that’s so disdainful of capitalism.
Capitalism is why your electricity is on 24/7, why you have a dozen different kinds of bread to choose from in the supermarket and why you can buy fresh food year round. You have toilet paper when you need it, shoes when your old ones wear out, and you probably have a car. Imagine not having those things – which is what happens when something other than markets provide goods and services.
American-style capitalism is a bit broken, agreed, because we have something called corporatism – the collusion of big business and big government, and that certainly needs addressing, but capitalism itself has elevated more people out of poverty than the hundreds of millions of people the alternatives directly, and intentionally, murdered.
So, I’ll take my damaged capitalism over your alternative any day, sir.
@Marcin What country did you escape? In any event, most of us view rent control as a form of property regulation (like zoning) and a stop-gap measure addressing a disfunctional, uncompetitive market.
I agree that capitalism, as it exists in the US today, is damaged, but I don’t think “a constitutional amendment that affirms corporations are not people and legitimizes limiting campaign contributions” is necessarily the best way to fix it. That solution appears to me to be a way to fix our political system.
Repairing capitalism is done via regulations and laws that control capitalism to prevent such bad aspects as trashing our environment. Capitalism’s focus on cost reduction means that throwing away unwanted, harmful stuff like lead, mercury, and carbon dioxide is better because it’s cheaper than storing it safely or making it harmless. Unfortunately, the Republican Party has bought capitalists’ shortsighted claims that regulations are bad.
Without restraints imposed by laws and regulations, capitalism will ruin itself.
Capitalism is hard – it means constantly trying to be better than your competitor, or losing customers and going out of business. So, companies try to avoid competing fairly, by lobbying regulators for an environment which makes it hard for upstarts. They get the industry they monopolize regulated, then it’s smooth sailing, guaranteed profits without having to innovate too much. It’s gross.
I’ve never seen grosser polluters than the communist governments of eastern europe and the soviet union. When “everyone” allegedly owns everything, then you have the tragedy of the commons (google that term) on a national scale. Every factory bureaucrat will destroy the environment to make his five year plan numbers, since there is no recourse.
In my opinion, if you want to protect the environment, keep capitalism from eating itself, people need recourse against abusers – strong court systems, and incredibly strong property rights. Polluting your land should be an offense for which you can sue, and society overall will then drive those out of business. Anyhow, anti-capitalist screeds make me twitch, since people who haven’t experienced the alternative have no idea what they’d be giving up
No one more zealous than a convert, eh, Marcin? How well has capitalism protected us from climate change? We’re going to hit 4 degrees of temperature rise under capitalism’s watch: how many people globally will die and be displaced due to that? On that alone, capitalism will kill more people than all the dictators could have dreamed of.
@LOL
Capitalism means that private individuals control capital. It has no goal, it’s an organization of the market which leads to pretty good allocation of resources. It means that suppliers provide what we, consumers, want. If consumers want to drive SUV’s, live in big houses, and run their air conditioners, companies will provide those things. If we, as a society, were ecologically minded and demanded efficiency and changed our lifestyles to drive less, fly less, and use less energy, then we could reduce our carbon output, but it’s pretty clear that society overall isn’t willing to do that.
So, given that, you now have to discuss how you force people to behave differently. I’m not one for force, it’s wrong when you or I do it, and it’s wrong at larger scale as well. I don’t blame capitalism for this, as it reflects the wants of society, I simply blame society.
You gave capitalism credit for “lifting people out of poverty” and blamed the alternatives for murdering people. Now that it’s been pointed out that capitalism will kill far more than that and lead to massive amounts of unrest, you’re retreating to “I simply blame society”? Sounds like you have a religion rather than a set of rational beliefs.