SUBMITTED: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
POSTED: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
I know all of the people mentioned in this report, and am quite certain I've met the person who filed this complaint (though I cannot be 100% certain):
This comment will be partially in rebuttal and partially in agreement.
Mr. Brennan is, in no way, a "slumlord", by its actual definition. At the time of this complaint he owned two properties - his own home, and this building-in-question, an older building bordering Golden Gate Park at 8th avenue, a pretty nice part of town, though heavy traffic does occur outside this building on Lincoln Boulevard.
This building was originally a flat with an attic. It had been converted, at some point, into a 5-unit building, the two flats being split in two, and the attic into a building-length apartment. Mr. Brennan had used the basement of this building for years as an illegal location for his glass business, until the city made him move. He continued to use it as storage for this business, keeping the basement unsuitable for parking.
He, eventually, had his eldest daughter living in one of the units, and his married second-eldest daughter into one of the others. This created a problem with the the tenant below the married daughter, as the family was pretty dysfunctional, with noisy children and a not-too-bright husband who was loud and inconsiderate of other tenants, who also kept pit bulls as pets. He played radio and other music in the basement with total disregard for the tenants above, who also dwelled below his unit.
These sorts of things are very rarely allowed in apartment buildings, but, since it was the owner's family, renting an apartment here meant you'd have to tolerate problems and disturbances you wouldn't ordinarily encounter in San Francisco apartments in such a decent part of town.
Maureen Fabish was somewhat simpleminded and none-too-bright. She, and this family, gained a great deal of notoriety in the mid-2000s.
She is the mother who was tried for felony child endangerment for the death of her 12-year-old son, Nicholas, who was mauled to death by the male pitbull that they owned. http://hammeroftheblogs.blogspot.com/2005/06/pit-bullshit.html
All of this notwithstanding, this was a family that belonged in a house of their own, not an apartment building.
The apartments themselves, though old, were not that bad, and relatively affordable to live in, mainly because all of the above, family-connected, shortcomings were creating a less-than-ideal apartment living experience.