Tag Archives: Berkeley

Free Junk Removal

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Junk haulaway services are always busy in college towns at the end of the school year. Hauling away bulky items, like furniture, can be very expensive, but did you know that the cities of Berkeley and Oakland offer free bulk junk removal? Every house and apartment in Berkeley and Oakland is entitled to one free bulk waste pickup a year. They will take away almost anything, including mattresses, box springs, sofas, and other things that are too big to fit in a garbage can. This is a really valuable free service! If you live in Oakland, give me a call if you want a bulk junk pick-up. In Oakland, the owner of the property has to make the appointment. If you live in Berkeley, go to: Berkeley Free Bulk Waste Pick-Up. At this web site, you can make an appointment yourself for a free pick-up and see a complete list of what they will take away and what they won’t take away. For example, they won’t take away boulders, explosives, or plutonium. Hopefully, you don’t have any plutonium in your apartment, but this is Berkeley, so one can never be sure.

Competition With My Free Chocolate Room?

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I recently toured Varsity Berkeley Apartments in downtown Berkeley. This is a huge complex. The building runs across an entire block. The building is still under construction, bu they are signing leases now for occupancy in late July. The rent on 2 bedroom apartments ranges from $3,750 to $4,200 a month. Parking is extra. They are advertising these apartments as rentals for college students, hence the name ‘Varsity Berkeley’, but I wonder – how many college students can really afford to pay $4,000 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment?

What is a ‘luxury apartment’? The sales brochure says that you will ‘live in luxury’ at Varsity Berkeley. It seems like every new apartment house in Berkeley uses the word ‘luxury’ to describe their apartments, but what exactly does that mean? ‘Luxury apartment’ could mean almost anything and based on my observations, it usually just means ‘expensive.’ If there is a legal definition of the word ‘luxury’, I would like to know what it is. To be fair, Varsity Berkeley has some very nice amenities, including a spacious rooftop garden. They will also have valet garbage collection. That means they will pick up your garbage at your apartment. You won’t have to carry your garbage to a garbage can or a garbage chute. That is not a service that I provide. I do not pick up my tenants’ garbage and put it in their garbage cans for them.

varsityapartmentsVarsity Berkeley has some interesting swag at their rental office. They have free bags of gumballs with the name ‘Varsity Berkeley’ printed on the bag, but I wonder if that is enough to get people to sign leases. I always keep my eye on Berkeley landlords who give free candy to their tenants; however, I am not convinced that bags of gumballs are real competition with my free chocolate room. You know, you can buy a lot of gumballs for $4,000 a month!

Berkeley’s Soda Tax.

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In November, 2014; Berkeley became the first city in the U.S. to pass a soft drink tax. The tax is 1 cent an ounce, a high rate as a percent of the wholesale price of the product The Berkeley soda tax is collected in an unusual way. It is not paid like sales tax. Instead, the tax is paid by wholesale soft drink distributors. I think that method of collecting this tax will become a problem for Berkeley.

Wholesale vs. Retail. Taxing wholesalers has largely disappeared in America. That is because club stores and the internet have blurred the line between wholesale and retail. My father owned a furniture store back in the 1960s. In those days, you couldn’t buy furniture directly from a furniture manufacturer or distributor. Only retailers could buy furniture from the big manufacturers. Today, you can buy furniture at Costco at nearly the same price that retail stores pay for the stuff.

Costco. A lot of stores and restaurants in Berkeley were already buying their soft drinks at Costco even before this tax was passed. Now, more of them are driving to Costco for their soft drinks. Costco does not and will not pay the Berkeley soft drink tax because they are not located in Berkeley.

Dollar Tree. Other stores in Berkeley have just stop selling soft drinks. Dollar Tree stores in Berkeley used to sell a lot of soft drinks. Now as a result of this tax, Dollar Tree has stopped selling soft drinks. They are not alone. A number of other stores in Berkeley have also stopped selling soft drinks. This soft drink tax was supposed to raise money for the city of Berkeley, but if enough retailers decide to stop selling soft drinks, the city could wind up with a net loss of revenue instead.

The University. However, the big question is this – will the university pay the tax? U.C. Berkeley is, by far, the largest vendor of soft drinks in Berkeley. There are over 200 soft drink vending machines on campus, plus there are self-serve soft drink dispensers in nearly all the dining halls, and bottled soft drinks are sold in stores around campus. The university says that according to the state constitution, a city cannot force a state agency to pay a city tax and that the university will not pay the Berkeley soda tax. The people who wrote this law claim that the city can make the university pay the tax.  I don’t know how that will play out, but in the past, whenever the city of Berkeley tried to tax the university, the city of Berkeley lost in court.

How Come I Never Advertise My Vacancies?

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I get asked this question quite frequently, usually by tenants of mine who have friends looking for housing and having a hard time finding anything. Well, the answer is simple. It has been a very long time since I had a vacancy. When one of my tenants moves out, a new tenant usually takes possession the next day.

Why? Well, it is not because of the chocolate room. I don’t tell prospective tenants about the chocolate room until we are ready to sign a lease. I don’t want people renting apartments from me just so they can get free chocolate. Of course there is a housing shortage in this area, but I like to think the main reason why I never have vacancies is because my units have more amenities than most rentals in this area.

Chemistry At U.C. Berkeley

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Over half of my tenants right now are majoring in physics or chemistry, so it is time for a little Berkeley chemistry quiz.

HOW MANY CHEMICAL ELEMENTS WERE DISCOVERED AT THESE WELL-KNOWN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES?

Duke. 0 elements
Harvard. 0 elements
Johns Hopkins. 0 elements
M.I.T. 0 elements
Princeton. 0 elements
Stanford. 0 elements
U.C.L.A. 0 elements
University of Chicago. Maybe 2 elements, maybe none. See note below.
University of Maryland. My alma mater. 0 elements.
University of Virginia. 0 elements
Yale. 0 elements

University of California at Berkeley. 16 elements. Technetium #43, Astatine #85, Neptunium #93, Plutonium #94, Americium #95, Curium #96, Berkelium #97, Californium #98, Einsteinium #99, Fermium #100, Mendelevium #101, Nobelium $102, Lawrencium #103, Rutherfordium #104, Hahnium #105, Seaborgium #106.

Note: Americium and Curium were first identified at the Argonne National Lab at the University of Chicago during World War 2 by a team of scientists from U.C. Berkeley led by Glenn Seaborg.

Measure ‘R’, The Anti-Green Green Initiative.

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I never write partisan political articles for my tenant newsletter, but I feel so strongly about this issue, that I am breaking my own rule. In November, Berkeley citizens will vote on Measure R ‘The Downtown Green Initiative.’ While the name of this initiative sounds very appealing, it is misleading. This measure will do precisely the opposite of what the name implies.

Subways or Freeways. The city of Berkeley should be encouraging real estate developers to build new apartments near subway stations and the U.C. Berkeley campus, not next to freeway entrances. This law will do precisely the opposite. Only one freeway goes through Berkeley, Highway 880, and it is choked with traffic every day. Berkeley has 3 subways stations. This city has never allowed high-rise residential buildings to be built near 2 of its 3 subway stations, Ashby and North Berkeley. That leaves the downtown Berkeley BART station, where a lot of new apartment houses have been built over the past decade. However, if Measure R passes, new apartment construction near the downtown Berkeley subway station will be severely reduced, probably down to near zero, while allowing unfettered construction of new apartments near freeway entrances. This is terrible environmental policy.

Real estate developers already have powerful incentives to build apartments near the freeway instead of downtown. Land in Berkeley near freeway entrances is much cheaper than downtown. It is also easier to get demolition and building permits near the freeway. Although apartments are cheaper to build near the freeway, rents are the same as downtown. This explains why hundreds of new apartments are now under construction near Berkeley’s freeway entrances. Consider Avalon Apartments, which just opened last month. It is 2 blocks from the University Avenue freeway entrance. 1 bedroom apartments start at $2,750 a month, and 2 bedrooms start at $3,400.

Measure R is opposed by many environmental organizations, including the League of Conservation Voters and the Greenbelt Alliance. Please remember on election day that ballot initiatives often have misleading names. Don’t vote for this measure simply because the word ‘green’ is in it’s name. Think about what this measure will actually do.

If we build housing at places where people have to get and drive cars in order to get to work or school, then that is what they will do. That is a no-brainer.

The Best College Swimming Pool.

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lazyriverThe swimming pool at the RSF (Recreational Sports Facility) on the U.C. Berkeley campus is certainly much better than the average college swimming pool, but it is far from top of the heap. The best college swimming pool in the United States is probably the one at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Below is a photo of the pool’s indoor lazy river, which is lined with palm trees and passes under a waterfall. Students can also join an on-campus, resort-quality beach club called ‘Truman’s Pond,’ named after President Harry Truman, who lived nearby.

About U.C. Berkeley Parking Permits.

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A new school year is about to begin at U.C. Berkeley. If you are considering buying a campus parking permit, there are 2 things that you should know before making a decision to get one.

1. A campus parking permit does not guarantee you a parking space. U.C. Berkeley does not assign specific parking spaces to students. Your parking permit merely gives you the right to hunt for a parking space at university-owned garages and parking lots. The fact that you have a prepaid parking permit does not mean that you will actually be able to find a place to park your car on or near campus. I think the university should make it clear on their web site that a perking permit does not guarantee you an actual parking space. Parking Permits.
2. If you live off campus, a Berkeley student parking permit costs $344 a semester. If you live on campus, a student parking permit costs $1,224 a year.

Berkeley’s Hyenas.

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For over 30 years, U.C. Berkeley has maintained a hyena colony on campus up in the Berkeley hills. It is the only captive hyena colony in the world. Unfortunately, due to big cuts in federal science funding, U.C. Berkeley will be shutting down its hyena colony later this summer and will ship their hyenas to zoos and parks around the country. I have never seen the hyenas myself, but I have heard them. As you drive past the U.C. Berkeley botanical gardens, you can hear the hyenas howling and giggling. They make an eerie sound, and you can hear it at a considerable distance.

WORST APPLICATION EVER.

Did You See ‘The Lion King’?  A long time ago, I got a rental application for a house I owned on Shafter Avenue in Oakland from a group of 3 U.C. Berkeley graduate students. All 3 of them were involved in research at the U.C. Berkeley hyena project. One of the applicants told me that he was in charge of transportation. I asked him: “What do you mean by ‘transportation’? Do you ever bring hyenas home with you?” Now I know that sounds like a silly question. After all, it would be grossly irresponsible for anyone at U.C. Berkeley to let a grad student take a hyena home with him; however, I have known quite a few very smart and very well educated people in my life who were completely irresponsible. From my observations, it appears that there is absolutely no correlation between education and a sense of personal responsibility. Anyway, this guy didn’t answer my question and changed the subject, which made me suspicious. I am always suspicious whenever applicants give me evasive answers to my questions. Since this guy was not going to answer my question and was beginning to look annoyed, I decided to ask a different question.
hyenas
The Lion King. I said: “Aren’t hyenas dangerous?” The guy said: “Did you ever see ‘The Lion King’?” I said: “Yes, I did. I liked that movie.” He said: “Well, everyone who has seen ‘The Lion King’ has a very negative impression of hyenas.” I said: “Yes. The hyenas in ‘The Lion King’ were evil, but they were just cartoon characters. I know that. However, that doesn’t answer my question. What I want to know is this. Aren’t hyenas dangerous, and do you ever bring them home with you?” The guy changed the subject again. He told me how hyenas organize their society and raise their young. He showed me pictures of his hyenas. I learned a lot of interesting things about hyenas. For example, I learned that a hyena can eat 30 pounds of raw meat in 10 minutes. However, that wasn’t what I want to know. What I wanted to know was whether this guy was planning to bring wild, vicious, carnivorous animals onto my property.

Hyenas Are Good For You. My applicant also told me that “hyenas are good for people.” He said that hyenas control the spread of disease by picking off and eating sick animals before they can infect other animals and humans. That sounds believable to me, and while that may work very well in the jungles of Africa, there was an obvious flaw in his guy’s logic that he did not see. Here in the United States, we do not control the spread of contagious diseases that way. For example, when someone is admitted to Kaiser Hospital with a contagious disease, like tuberculosis for instance, the doctors there don’t prevent that person from infecting others by putting him in a sealed room with a pack of hungry hyenas and let the hyenas devour him.

I learned a long time ago that the owners of exotic and dangerous animals are very defensive about their pets, and that it’s best not to argue with them about it. Although these hyenas were not pets, these grad students were talking and thinking about them as those they were. I rejected this application and rented the house to a young couple with 2 cats.

Disney World. It looks like some of U.C. Berkeley’s hyenas will be going to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando. That will be ironic. When Disney made ‘The Lion King’, animators from Disney studios came to Berkeley and spent a good deal of time here studying and making drawings of the hyenas here. The hyenas in ‘The Lion King’ were based on those drawings of Berkeley’s hyenas.

Berkeley’s ‘Windfall Profits Tax’.

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I am always very suspicious whenever I hear the term ‘windfall profits tax.’ The term ‘windfall profit tax’ is just a euphemism, and it is invariably used as a gimmick to get a new tax measure passed that could not get passed on its own merits. A windfall profits tax is never actually a tax on windfall profits, like winning the lottery or finding a chest of pirate gold in your back yard. A ‘windfall profits tax’ is called that because a lot of voters will support anything called a ‘windfall profits tax’ without thinking about it because it appeals to people on an emotional level.

Right now, the ‘Berkeley Robin Hood Committee’ (as they call themselves) is collecting signature to put a measure on the November ballot to create a ‘windfall profits tax’ on landlords. The new tax will be 3% of gross rents collected. A tax on gross rents is not a ‘windfall profits tax.’ In fact, it is not a tax on profits. It is a sales tax, and like all sales taxes, it will be paid by consumers, in this case, tenants. Businesses do not pay sales tax. They collect sales tax from their customers and send the money to the government. All sales taxes work this way. You know that. You have paid sales taxes often enough. Landlords will simply add the cost of this new tax to their rents. The money will not come out of the pockets of landlords. It will be paid by tenants. This so-called ‘windfall profits tax’ will simply raise rents in Berkeley. It will not reduce landlord profits.
It is ironic that the sponsors of this ‘windfall profits tax’ call themselves the ‘Robin Hood Committee.’ According to legend, Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor; however, sales taxes are regressive in nature. They take a disproportionate amount of money from the poor, not the rich, and this tax will be paid by tenants, not landlords or homeowners.
As you can tell, I don’t like this ‘windfall profits tax’, which I think is a cruel voter hoax; however, there is one good thing about it. I will be exempt from paying it! Yes, this ‘windfall profits tax’ ballot initiative specifically states that landlords who own single family houses and duplexes will not have to pay the new tax, and the only rentals I own in Berkeley are single family houses and duplexes. So even though I think this tax is a bad idea, I don’t plan to get involved in this campaign.