The Coalition for Economic Survival (CES), the tenants’ rights organization that led the effort to incorporate the City of West Hollywood and who is credited for the city’s rent control law, has charged that West Hollywood City Council Candidate Steve Martin is fraudulently misleading voters by implying CES has endorsed his candidacy.
CES is pointing to a recent Mr. Martin voter mailing sent out by the “Friends of Steve Martin” that includes a quote by CES Executive Director Larry Gross, as well as CES’ organizational logo.
CES has not now or ever endorsed Steve Martin for anything. In fact CES views Mr. Martin as a threat to rent control and tenants’ rights based on a long history of positions and action he has taken.
In the mailer Mr. Martin not only uses CES' logo without authority to do so, but he fabricates a quote to benefit his point of view.
The quote at issue comes from a March 21, 2009 Los Angeles Time article titled, “A New Direction for West Hollywood” Mr. Gross makes a general comment about the possible impact and dangers of redevelopment.
In the mailer, Mr. Martin fabricates a quote to make it appear that he was directly criticizing specific West Hollywood city actions.
The actual published quote (with context provided by the LA Times reporter)is as follows:
“Gross said developers are hedging their bets until the economy begins to recover, because projects probably won't get built until construction loans are easier to obtain. But he added that actions now can have dire consequences later.
"’When no one is looking or thinks it's going on is when they are laying the groundwork to accelerate the gentrification of a community,’ he said, ‘and when the economic situation picks up, that will directly result in displacement of lower-income working people in that community."
“Gross said the City Council needs to act to stem the development that is threatening to overwhelm the city's east side, where Russian and other immigrants have found a home. Those residents, he said, ‘give the diversity to that city that could all be threatened, could all be gone.’”
Mr. Martin’s revision is: "Developers are laying the groundwork to accelerate gentrification that will directly result in the displacement of working people in West Hollywood."
Steve Martin has stooped to outright lying in order to deceive the voters of West Hollywood.
CES is considering legal action it might take against Mr. Martin for the illegal use of it logo and misrepresentation of the position of its Executive Director.
In addition, Steve Martin claims to be part of the grass-roots effort to incorporate West Hollywood. Actually, Mr. Martin aligned himself with opponents of West Hollywood Cityhood and only became a supporter when it was inevitable the city would be a reality.
Having been denied membership in the West Hollywood Incorporation Committee, the official Cityhood organization, he helped develop an opposition group whose positions were more favorable to the business community and landlords, and advocated for a much weaker and ineffective rent control law.
Mr. Martin, at the time, even wrote an article in “Apartment Age,” the magazine of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles advocating that West Hollywood should embrace a weaker form of rent control.
During his term on the West Hollywood City Council, Steve Martin was, in a sense, the landlords’ “go to guy.” Mr. Martin advocated for and supported measures to weaken rent control, kill a needed affordable housing project and fire the city’s Rent Stabilization Director. The Rent Stabilization Director had an impressive of upholding tenants’ rights and was firmly committed to implementing and enforcing the city’s rent control law.
At a recent West Hollywood Candidates’ debate Steve Martin proposed that the Rent Stabilization Administration should not longer be self-funding which could threaten the entire operations and enforcement of the rent control law.
The defunding of rent control is a position that Mr. Martin raised while previously serving on the West Hollywood City Council. Mr. Martin also suggested that taxpayer dollars be used to provide grants to landlords with low rents.
Mr. Gross stated, “Regardless of all his rhetoric, Steve Martin’s is like a leopard who’s not changed its spots. Tenants couldn’t trust Mr. Martin during the Cityhood campaign, couldn’t trust him when he was on the City Council and cannot trust him today.
He has demonstrated that he is nothing more than an agent of landlord interests who will undermine rent control if given the chance. West Hollywood tenants, especially, must not vote for Steve Martin and all other candidates who falsely claim to be friends of tenants and rent control, but in reality are being backed by landlords and landlord interests.”
FAIR USE NOTICE. This
document may contain copyrighted material the use of which may not have been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Tenants Together is making this
article available on our website in an effort to advance the understanding of
tenant rights issues in California. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair
use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the
U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes
of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.