Calabasas is not renter-friendly

Calabasas' attempt to ban smoking in apartments is nothing more than a ploy for the city to gain publicity and national recognition.

The city's current smoking ordinance was simply based on a councilmember's desire to gain a seat in the state Assembly (a failure), using the national coverage from the smoking ordinance as a means to gain notoriety much like the city's recent attempt to gain a national award from the "National Civic League," also a failure at the taxpayers' cost of $30,000.

You see, Calabasas is the same city that refuses to help apartment renters from receiving inordinate rent increases of as much as 18 to nearly 40 percent ($300-$700 per month). The same uncaring city has gone so far as to threaten the president of the Tenants' Alignment Association, a proponent for more reasonable rent increases, with a restraining order, in essence, to silence the city's tenant movement.

As president of the Tenants' Alignment Association and a 13year resident of the city of Calabasas, I have lobbied the city for nearly a decade to no avail.

Since Archstone-Smith Trust took possession of this 600-unit Calabasas apartment complex, rents have skyrocketed to unbelievable levels, and the city simply threatens the tenants' movement with a restraining order, allowing the rents to increase at phenomenal rates, coupled with new fees by "adhesion contract," payment for vehicle parking and diminishing of services such as the removal of sprinklers as a ploy to further increase and supplement rental income. Anthony Pecoraro Calabasas