Emeryville's Poet Laureate, Now in Richmond, Excoriates Emeryville's Lack of Housing Affordability

Sarah Kobrinsky
Emeryille's Poet Laureate
Formerly of Emeryville
Artists and others not in the
Information Technology field
increasingly are being
priced out of Emeryville.

Emeryville's poet laureate, Sarah Kobrinsky, chased out of town by rising rents, has moved to Richmond  where she has successfully appealed to the city council in her new hometown to institute rent control.  This week Ms Kobrinsky, increasingly drawn as a bellwether and who's plight has come to be seen as emblematic of all that is wrong with Emeryville and its lack of affordable housing policy, joined with her new neighbors in the grassroots push to avoid the Emeryvilleazation of their town.

"Overnight our stability was taken out from under us," Ms Kobrinsky told the Richmond city council of her time in  Emeryville, "I urge you to do the right thing and protect the people of Richmond."

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Richmond becomes first city in Contra Costa to approve rent control

By Karina Ioffee

kioffee@bayareanewsgroup.com

POSTED:   07/22/2015 01:32:51 AM 

RICHMOND -- In a raucous meeting that lasted more than six hours and drew hundreds of people, the Richmond City Council has passed rent control, making Richmond the first city in Contra Costa to enact such an ordinance.

The meeting, which was filled to standing room capacity, was the culmination of nearly six months of discussion about how to best protect low-income residents from displacement. Rents have increased by an estimated 30 percent over the past four years, although housing prices are still much lower than in many surrounding cities.

 Read the rest of the story HERE.