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This is a developing video story but given the length of it, I elected to write a short blog presenting the larger story, then work on the video.

I got a tip from a source in East Palo Alto who claimed that Page Mill Properties was a "ripe" story. But when I made calls and visits to conduct video interviews, I learned that the real story was of a housing company that was working to strike a balance between community good and business good, a redevelopment agency that seems so politicized it's almost not effective, and a tenant activist who's made himself a one-man action hero scaring the housing company in the process.

The "housing company" is Page Mill Properties. About two years ago the organization, which is based in Palo Alto began buying and redeveloping residential buildings in East Palo Alto (EPA). Now, if you at all know East Palo Alto the first picture you get is one of crime and substandard living conditions and you would have history on your side.

In 1992 EPA had the highest per capita rate in the United States, with 172 murders per 100,000 people. The crime rate has subsided since that time, and new development projects like the IKEA, The Home Depot and the Four Seasons Hotel have worked to slowly transform EPA. In 2007, California Attorney General Jerry Brown declared EPA's crime problem "over"; now the battle has been one of gentrification and those trying to stop it.

That's where our story starts.

Page Mill Properties (PMP) now owns over 1,700 residential units, mostly on the West Side of EPA. According to several sources, most notably the firm's general council Jim Shorr, the company purchased many of the substandard buildings as investment property and began to make improvements, adding paint and new walls for example. Page Mill learned the rents of the properties had not been raised for seven years in some cases, and were at levels of between $300 and $400 per month. Thus, in order to recover its investment, PMP raised rents.

This is where the story gets ugly.

The City of East Palo Alto's council members were put into action partly by a tenants right group called "Tenants Together" and also by a man names Chris Lund, who's the "action hero" I described earlier. The result was a flurry of lawsuits by both the City of East Palo Alto and PMP, the basis of the lawsuits was the legality of Page Mill's rental increased. Page Mill won all the court battles.

The problem focuses on two issues: 1) East Palo Alto's rent control system and 2) EPA's monitoring of rental units. You can raise the rents if the rental property is vacated. But get this, EPA had no provision for knowing when a rental property turned over. Meanwhile, Page Mill's Shorr reports that in a number of cases, rental units were in the name of someone other than the person living in them, which means a kind of underground economy had grown up, where the person who had the lease was making money "off the top" of the rent that was charged by Page Mill and the property owners before PMP.

So Page Mill had a right to seek rent increases for two reasons, the initially hyper-low level of the rents and the under-economy that had been created because of EPA's less-than-well-implemented rent control system.

Now you housing planners may be thinking what I'm saying: "Where's the Redevelopment Agency in all this?" The answer for now is "I can't find them." In other words no one I talked to as of this writing has explained that the EPA got involved by offering development loans to assist Page Mill in helping tenants pay the new rents or keep them at affordable levels. To its credit, Page Mill's Shorr has explained they offer to work with tenants to allow them to stay in their buildings. But no one told this to Chris Lund.

Lund is an activist who has been a thorn in Page Mill's side, but not always in a good way. Shorr said on camera that Lund tried to extort PMP for $20,000; Lund will not talk about this except to say that the Palo Alto Police have been investigating the matter in a way favorable to Lund. Shorr makes other charges that will be in the video when it's released. They're explosive.

I tried to get Lund to talk on camera, but he refused pointing to a supposed police investigation.
But to me the real bad guy here is the East Palo Alto Redevelopment Agency. Page Mill opened its doors to me and showed me first hand how they worked to improve the community they're in. From what I've observed, many tenants seem very happy to have them involved in the neighborhood and there are arts and service projects and events produced by Page Mill to help tenants better their lives.
The charge of a redevelopment agency, as its stated on the EPA website is to:

"eliminate physical blight, expand the City's tax base, create and retain employment for local residents, and improve the City’s physical infrastructure."

From my conversations and research, and experience as a redevelopment agency intern , consultant, and mayoral advisor, and my background in city planning and knowledge of California Redevelopment Law as described in the California Heath and Safety Code from Section 33000 to Section 33999, it appears Page Mill Properties was doing that work for them. My next question is "why?"