www.montereycountynow.com SEPTEMBER 11-17, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 17 For many of the 28 years Paula Pelot has lived in her two-bedroom apartment at Preston Park, a city-owned complex in Marina, she has been the public face of tenants. Preston Park and next-door Abrams Park comprise 548 housing units originally built by the U.S. Army during the Fort Ord era, and these complexes stand apart as a success story in base reuse—they are now city-owned residential units for civilians. These complexes also stand apart in Monterey County because they include rare rent-stabilized units. In 2010, Marina City Council adopted a 3-percent annual rent increase cap on units or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. (Some units in each complex are set aside under deed restrictions for low- or very-low-income tenants; some are rented to tenants with Section 8 vouchers. A separate federal formula is used to calculate rent on those units.) The result is that tenants like Pelot, who’s been around since the beginning of the civilian era starting in 1997, pay $1,503/ month in rent, plus utilities. (She keeps track of the numbers: “I have paid over $380,000 in rent since I have lived here,” she says.) Her rent is likely to increase at her 29-year mark in December. Under current policy, it can go up no more than 3 percent, or $45/month. But it’s possible that ordinance will no longer apply. For several years, City Council has been broaching the subject, raising questions about whether to amend its 2010 policy and instead default to the state’s maximum annual increase of 10 percent. After years of prodding at the question, council is set to confront it directly at a workshop on Sept. 30. Pelot will be there to advocate for keeping the 3-percent cap in place. “Rent stabilization helps to stabilize the community,” she says. “It keeps the community intact. That helps the community become more engaged in local government.” Rent stabilization even at its best is an imperfect solution to a complicated problem of exorbitant housing costs. One issue is the creation of a sort of a two-tiered system—long-term tenants enjoy lower rents, while newer tenants pay more. That’s because landlords can only reset the rent to market rate when there is a vacancy. Greystar Residential manages the properties. According to a 2023 report from the company to Marina City Council, for existing tenants, the average rent for a two-bedroom was $1,604/ month at Abrams and $1,716 at Preston Park. Average rent for four bedrooms in Abrams Park was $2,279; the average for three bedrooms at Preston Park was $2,242 at the time. Market rates at that time ranged from $2,350 for two-bedroom units per month up to $3,450 for four-bedroom units at the city-owned complexes. But the meaning of “market rate” has recently been questioned by the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ’s Antitrust Division announced in August that it had settled with Greystar, the country’s largest landlord. While the company admitted no wrongdoing, it agreed to stop using software to align its rental pricing with five other companies—which DOJ was investigating as anticompetitive. “Whether in a smoke-filled room or through an algorithm, competitors cannot share competitively sensitive information or align prices to the detriment of American consumers,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Abigail Slater said in a statement. It’s too soon to know if the agreement will make a noticeable difference for ever-rising market rent. But public sentiment in support of tenant protections—even imperfect ones—is strong. Salinas City Council voted on Sept. 9 (after the Weekly’s deadline) on how to proceed with a referendum, faced with more than the 6,998 signatures needed. Renters hope to repeal council’s vote to walk back four renter protection ordinances, including a 2.75-percent annual rent stabilization cap. Speaking of imperfect and incomplete: It applies only to multi-family units in older buildings, built before Feb. 1, 1995. It all points to tenants, increasingly frustrated and desperate, claiming their power. Pelot says that if Marina ends its 3-percent cap, she will pursue a citywide rent stabilization effort, not unlike Salinas’ policy. These policies may be imperfect, but they are something. And for desperate tenants, that is better than nothing. Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Raising the Rent Cities of Marina and Salinas face moments of reckoning over rent control. By Sara Rubin MOTION SICKNESS…Sometimes, if Squid can’t sleep, Squid looks for something to watch. On Wednesday, Sept. 3, at Squid’s bedtime of 11pm, Squid curled up on the couch with a bowl of shrimp-flavored popcorn and found the Marina City Council meeting still going—no surprise, given that their meetings often stretch to near or past midnight. Normally, at least items listed for approval on the consent agenda go quickly and require no discussion. But around 11:20pm, Councilmember Liesbeth Visscher announced an item Councilmember Brian McCarthy had pulled from the consent agenda: approving the minutes of a July 1 council meeting. He didn’t feel the confusing, back-and-forth banter of a 23-minute-long, multi-part motion about Locke-Paddon Park was accurately reflected, and that the minutes stated things that weren’t actually said by councilmembers, even if that’s what they meant. McCarthy wanted the minutes to be verbatim, “So when the [Monterey Peninsula Regional] Park District sees what we talked about, they know what a shitshow we are, quite frankly,” he said. “It’s messy, but we don’t get to rewrite history.” Over his objections, council voted 3-2 to approve the minutes, shitshow not included. BOOM AND BUSTERS…Squid oozed over to Northridge Mall in Salinas over the weekend to hit the arcade and a few pins at Round1. As Squid tried to leave, Squid got the jalopy stuck in circles in the parking lot, a sea of pavement and faded lines. This is especially true at the southern end of the mall, where the massive former Sears building has been vacant for five years. But it is starting to show signs of life. Squid is excited to see all the new businesses coming. Who’s not excited? The Northridge Mall itself. Among the new businesses is Dave & Buster’s, a national arcade and sports bar chain. On July 15, the Salinas Planning Department approved an alcohol permit for the business, yet 10 days later, a law firm representing mall owner Steerpoint Capital appealed the decision. (Despite being connected physically to the mall, the Sears building is under different ownership, Ethan Conrad Properties.) At a Sept. 3 Salinas Planning Commission hearing, Jason Jaffe, representing the mall’s ownership, called Dave & Buster’s a “literal half-acre bar” that will bring trouble to an area that already has a higher crime average than other parts of the city. Stephen Jamieson, the attorney representing Dave & Buster’s, suggested the mall was acting in “bad faith,” using “fearmongering” tactics by cherry-picking headlines about other locations around the country. The commission sided with Dave & Buster’s and unanimously denied the appeal. That’s one win for the tenant—let the games begin. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. The meaning of “market rate” has been questioned. SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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