It Could Happen Here - Resisting Mass Eviction in Santa Barbara Part 2

Episode Date: June 6, 2023

 In part 2 of our interview we discuss Core Spaces escalating tactics and attempts to subvert the laws passed to slow them down.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowbride. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast

for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking. It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires.

From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. Welcome to It Could Happen Here, a podcast about landlords doing bullshit and how you can stop them. Today, we're continuing our interview with two tenants in California fighting a mass eviction by landlord ghouls core spaces. Enjoy. Yeah, something else I wanted to ask about that I'd heard about was like harassment from the guards and the fact that there suddenly started being security guards after this started. Yeah, either of you want to talk about that a bit?

Yeah, I would love to talk about that. So I have lived here for almost three years. We did have security. I want to say it was Saturdays between it was one security guard for all four buildings, Saturdays between 11 PM and like three, 4 AM. Just, just one security guard that would walk around just during that time. Since Core Spaces has purchased the property,

we have two to four, 24-7 security guards. I know. They've made me personally super fucking uncomfortable. I've had them ask me where I live. I'm going around canvassing, right? get flyers people's doors let them know like hey this is these are the actual facts stuff like that they've they've asked me like where what building do you live in what's your name creepy things and i'm like'm not going to tell you that. I have no idea who you are. They walk past our apartment constantly.

It's every time I go outside, they're waiting right outside the building. They're taking photos of the things across the buildings, like stuff outside of people's units. It's really uncomfortable. And it's kind of telling because it's like, well, we never needed security before. Oh, but once you bought the building and wanted to kick everyone out, oh, all of a sudden you're hiring these random people, which I will also add, one of our neighbors talked to one of the security guards. He worked there for a day and was like, yeah, they lowered my pay to like minimum wage. I'm not going to stay here. Yeah. Yeah. He literally told me.

Maybe we should try to like help you to nice. Dude. Yes. Man, core spaces. You guys are such uh mark lipschen and chris richards you guys are the cheapest scummiest human beings on the planet right and and he was like yeah i'm leaving like i'm not gonna do this this is stupid um but usually when i go out you know i mean for the part, they're usually just sitting on their phone, standing in front of the entrance, locking the doors,

the normal cop stuff like that. Kind of. Yeah. Well with. Yeah. Well, the, the,

the, the, the, the, the standing around part of the cop job so far, hopefully not the other part of the cop job where they, yeah. Minus any credentials,

basically not that I want cops here either but um but yeah it's been um in in my own personal opinion it's harassing behavior you know and it's in and i've talked to so many tenants here um especially again the the more marginalized tenants i'm not i'm not gonna like specify them but they're very intimidated by them, and they actually do think they are cops. They don't know that, no, these aren't police officers. They aren't trying to...

They don't have the power to do certain things that you may be afraid of. Are they in police-y uniforms? Yeah. They have security uniforms. They have tasers on them. They

like to direct their power. Yeah. It's probably not similar enough to be able to get them on a person and get a police officer. But it's still really depressing that... Yeah, I don't know. But again, the strategy is to scare the shit out of people. really depressing that yeah I don't know but again

the strategy is to scare the shit out of people so they'll leave it's just terror it's uncomfortable it's uncomfortable when you go out of your apartment and there's just some random person with a taser just like right next to you and you're like uh

I'm just trying to go check my mailbox like what the hell yeah yeah well you guys are safer though right so that like if bad stuff happens like if a like if an evil landlord and their slimy scummy evil law team were to try to like put you guys under the streets the security guards would come and defend you against them right oh wait no do i am i mixed up oh they're here to serve the evil people trying to put you on the streets oh that's for minimum wage for minimum wage yeah i mean that's the sad thing too is that the security guards are probably going to get renovated by like the homeboys of the core

spaces executives at some point right like? Like, uh, they're, they're going to get renovated. Somebody is going to look at their, wherever they're living as a, as a low performing asset that needs to be retenanted and shit. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't, so that's fun. That's cool. I don't, I don't blame. I know. I understand, um, the job. I don't blame them, I guess, as individuals. Well, some of them I do because they're clearly on power trips. They like to enforce their power, but I do understand that they are being hired outside to do a job, but it's really not fun. I couldn't imagine ever doing that myself. I wouldn't feel right but i don't know you know

everyone we're all suffering right like the you know we're all trying to survive so i try not to judge too much but can't help it when you know they're taking photos inside the windows of my apartment it's freaking creepy like yeah pretty creepy. and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast Post Run High is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's

lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by I Heart and Sonora. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires.

From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology.

I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHot Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Yeah, I guess, okay, is there anything else that you specifically wanted to talk about? Let's see, we got the beginnings. We got the law passed, and then we got the slimy, fine Taylor Fox Howard LLP garbage law firm came along.

Well, okay. So one, one thing that's been a struggle, and I would say like Sam and a couple others have been, it's just nuts to me like how much stamina, well, no, actually let me say this. Like, uh, so I am, I am a mental health professional, which I don't like to say in organizing spaces a lot because i don't like to mix up the role too much but like straight up everybody i talk to in these situations like in the role of like tenant organizer not not like therapist

it's just everything reeks of ptsd symptoms like straight up like people can't sleep people are hyper vigilant they're going out to their car and they're looking around to see if there's a security guard they're in constant fear they're confused they're looking around to see if there's a security guard. They're in constant fear. They're confused. They're, you know, they're stutter, they're stutter responses up, which is, which is hypervigilant. I mean, there's literally, you can pick up a fucking DSM five and look at the definition of PTSD. And I would say, uh, I can't say everyone, I haven't talked to everyone in the building, but I mean, this process creates fucking PTSD. Like I'm not exaggerating. I'm not making this up. Um, and also because the also because the mental health field as a side note is such a like neoliberal individualistic fucking trash fire it's hard to actually look at this correctly to say like this is this is like a mass like trauma event but despite the mass trauma that everybody experiences with this the resilience in it of being like okay we're still gonna go out and we're gonna flyer and we're gonna knock on doors and so like there's been this phase, like a two part kind of phase,

which has been continuing to talk to the county supervisors to try to get them to pass a stronger law because there's kind of this race now where if and when course spaces gets permits, then they can send out like actually proper notices. Although maybe there'll be problems with the notices and that can be addressed or whatever but like it is it is kind of just buying time right if they if they get permits and then they try to evict everybody then then then there's the actual 60-day uh like countdown i guess um depending depending on a lot of different factors right but so the county one of the supervisors said you know i want to i want to make like the most gruesome speed bump to, you know, to, to speed bump this eviction for core

spaces. And so what they did is it is a big speed bump, but it actually doesn't like solve the problem. What would solve the problem is either a no fault eviction moratorium, which would be like really broad. We're not sure how, how, uh, what the chances are of getting them to pass that. But another thing would be, it's usually called right to return, but we're calling it right to re-rent because right to return, I guess, is a thing that like, I don't know, like Zionist say or something.

I don't know. Yeah, it's a whole. Right, right, right. But right to re-rent, which is like a thing that is in several other cities and counties, which just means like, if the landlord legitimately needs to make renovations because of like safety and habitability concerns

or whatever, they have to relocate the tenantate the tenant temporarily. And then they, they have to re-rent to the tenant, um, for what we were asking is the same rent. We also think that like using the, using the 10% a year framework would be fine, like relocate them and then raise it by 10% if you didn't already once that year, right. Um, just, just treat it as a normal thing. Like, raise it by 10% if you didn't already once that year, right? Just treat it as a normal thing. So if we get them to pass that law, then they can't evict anybody, right? So on the one hand, we're really trying to get the supervisors to do this.

And it's just unknown how likely we are on that in this moment. But then simultaneously, we need to continue educating the tenants on their rights because they keep, as of today, management started illegally and in a racist way targeting Spanish speaking Latino tenants, telling them that they have to pick up their checks right now. And Sam, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's like, you have to pick up your checks by now and sam you can correct me if i'm but it's like you have to pick up your checks by today i don't know like next week or something it's like really soon or otherwise like you don't get your relocation money and then you're going to get an eviction lawsuit and core space already has permits just making up all this like all these things are lies none of them they're true i was just gonna say i'm white so i actually didn't get

that notice but i you are correct the latina families did get that yeah yeah because core spaces are racist and and john tyne is a racist and lacey taylor's a racist and they're fucking evil pieces of shit and i'm i'm glad they're listening to this and they can quote me as many fucking times as they want in any context um but so having to like try to counter counter those, all that disinformation, all those lies is like this constant, like parallel process, like trying to get the county to do stuff, but trying to get people to like, understand, like, no, they're lying to you. Right.

Like while they're in this like chronic state of kind of like PTSD, they're like, where am I going to go? What am I going to do? What's happening? And it's hard for them to know who to trust because they're being pummeled with, with disinformation and lies from people with a lot of power over them uh i don't know if you had anything else um sorry i kind of went off there no you're you're fine it's yeah that's that's kind of the way i see it as well um i guess what i would add is if the county doesn't do something, this is going to be

horrible for the entire county of Santa Barbara, but just California in general. I mean, you have to think of 240 plus units, 50, whatever. We don't even know how many units. There's so many units here. It's like, it's insane. This is going to be so bad. Where are these people going to go? If Santa Barbara has a, um, from what I've heard, a one to 2% vacancy rate, these, these, these people have, including me as a person living here, have nowhere to go. I'm, I will be entirely forced out of the County, me and my partner who holds a job here. He works as a delivery driver. He likes his job. It doesn't pay great, doesn't have good benefits, but he enjoys it. And he's an important part of the community.

And if all of these human beings are forced out of here, what is that going to do to Santa Barbara? You know, who's going to, who are going to be the teachers, the healthcare professionals, everything. I will say in addition to that, this is why we formed Core Spaces Tenants Association with the help of SBTU so that we can not only stay together and work together as a union to fight this but also what core spaces will likely do in the future so we actually learned from the santa barbara independent um they interviewed um one of the i think was one of the core spaces representatives who said this was they have done this 46 times and this is the first time they ever got this level of community outreach which i i was like excuse me what what we we know that their their executives are um they've previously

worked for goldman sachs and blackstone and to to find out they've done this at least 46 other times and just gotten away with it. No, we're not. We're not going to keep letting that happen. And so whatever happens here at CBC in the sweeps, our four buildings, however it turns out, and hopefully it turns out in our favor, we're not going to stop. Because they are further, they're just going to keep continuing this and it's we it's disgusting we can't keep letting this shit happen like it someone needs to stop it it needs to be stopped and if i hope that we can get legislation to stop it but if not we're going to be a fighting force and, and we're not, yeah,

we're not stopping. Hell yeah. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, the running interview show where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about.

It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run

and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me as the fire and dare enter? Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonorum. An anthology of modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters, to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures.

I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season

digging into how Tex Elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field. And I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse, and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge, and want them to get back to building things that actually do things

to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough, so join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry, and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Oh, and then I guess like, yeah, I don't think you really said this, but like if any other tenants that are, you know, core spaces tenants wanted to join Sam and her neighbors, right? Like that was, like you were saying, Sam,

like the point was to create something, like they could have named it as more of a local thing, like their tenant association, but they chose Core Spaces as the company name, right? So like, and if you're in Arizona, if you're in Tennessee, if you're in Seattle or whatever, and you are people getting rent evicted by these people, or I don't know, you're just students renting by the bed and they won't fix stuff or whatever, you can join the Core Spaces Tend Association.

This very well could be a national level organization. Right now it's local, but it's been set up to be something that could be potentially national or international if Core Spaces wants to go. Capital knows no borders, so if you want to go fuck people up in other countries then um you know we can pay more interpreters i guess yeah and i guess this is the thing i wanted to close on is like you know tenants unions are not composed of like some kind of like like special group of people right they're just people right like i i did it back when i was doing stuff right and like it's just it it's just composed of random people and like that random person could very easily be you yeah and you know yeah you're

saying like someone someone has to stop these people and if it's not going to be the it's not going to be you the tenants fighting them like no one no one is ever going to and they're just going to keep running people over forever and politicians just aren't going to do this i mean no acted really quickly because of the like show of force from right so they get like a cover from the constituency like oh we're allowed to do this like we can do this and or we're terrified of what will happen like will this be like another police station burnt down if we piss them off or something, right? Like you actually have to sort of like

make the politicians afraid of you. I mean, you want to like be their friends and stuff too. I'm not very good at that. I'm good at like scaring them, I guess. But like you have to like kind of scare them into acting. You have to like discipline the politicians into acting. So anybody that's like, we just need more policies. It's like policies don't just happen.

Like you need massive organization. Like the Santa Barbara people, that's like we just need more policies it's like policies don't just happen like yeah like the the like the the santa barbara people it's like yeah they acted quickly when they were forced to but you know they could have literally at any time in the entire history of santa barbara they could have just passed this and they didn't until until you came for them right exactly yeah yeah yeah and i i think you're right about like the tenants association the tenants association being just we're random tenants i'm not some politician i'm not some leader i'm a student i you know i usually just spend my nights making dinner with my cats watching jeopardy like i'm i i don't do this um but the point being is when you come together as a group, you have power in numbers. We've left a huge mark and we've helped so many residents of Santa Barbara County for maybe landlords that were planning to change the stove out and not get permits. Well, now they have to find a reason to get a permit. a lot more that we will do and can do, especially against core spaces and their future endeavors,

their properties they decide that they want to overpay for. Yeah. I will throw out like one other resource that is like a group that's called the Autonomous Tenants Union Network, which is a network that SBTU is a part of. If you're in a tenants union or you're interested in tenant organizing from anything you've heard, it's like a network. The word autonomous again, it's people who are independent of various non-profits, foundations, and governments to just be sort of responsive just to tenants themselves. So I'm not like a representative of the group,

but it's a really strong network of really experienced organizers that are really intent on these kinds of things, right? Like forming, like there's a crisis, form a tenant association, like organize your whole block, like get the politician to do a thing, go on rent strike, like whatever, right? This more sort of militant like we desperately crisis requires us to you know to meet the crisis where it's at and act that way right so and there's other resources and i'm sure you can have

like you know show notes and stuff we can have links but yeah other places specifically people can go if they want to help uh this specifically? Yeah. So for Core Spaces Tenant Association, the social media handle is all Core Spaces TA. That would be for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. We have a GoFundMe going as well just to pay for things like, you know, food for events or um i don't know printing paper flyering stuff like that um we also have an email that anyone can reach us at at coursebasesta at gmail.com yeah and we will put all of that in the show notes sounds good uh thank you two so much for coming on. And yeah, go beat these sons of bitches. Yeah, thanks for letting us swear. We're definitely making their lives a lot harder than they expected, which is kind of cool. But yeah.

Yeah, so let's make it happen here. And yeah, you too can go make your landlord's days worse and your days better. And yeah, you too can go make your landlord's days worse and your days better. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here updated monthly at coolzonemedia.com slash sources. Thanks for listening. An anthology podcast of modern day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America.

Listen to Nocturno on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The 2025 iHeart Podcast Awards are coming. This is the chance to nominate your podcast for the industry's biggest award. Submit your podcast for nomination now at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. But hurry, submissions close on December 8th. Hey, you've been doing all that talking. It's time to get rewarded for it. Submit your podcast today at iHeart.com slash podcast awards. That's iHeart.com slash podcast awards. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires.

From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from.