Hard to feel sorry for the rich folks on this street…hat tip daytrip!
Thanks to a little-noticed auction sale, a South Bay couple are the proud owners of one of the most exclusive streets in San Francisco — and they’re looking for ways to make their purchase pay.
Tina Lam and Michael Cheng snatched up Presidio Terrace — the block-long, private oval street lined by 35 megamillion-dollar mansions — for $90,000 and change in a city-run auction stemming from an unpaid tax bill. They outlasted several other bidders.
Now they’re looking to cash in — maybe by charging the residents of those mansions to park on their own private street.
Those residents value their privacy — and their exclusivity. Past homeowners have included Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her financier husband, Richard Blum; House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi; and the late Mayor Joseph Alioto. A guard is stationed round the clock at the stone-gate entrance to the street to keep the curious away.
So imagine the residents’ surprise when San Jose residents Cheng and Lam wound up with the street, its sidewalks and every other bit of “common ground” in the private development that has been managed by the homeowners since at least 1905. That includes a string of well-coiffed garden islands, palm trees and other greenery that enhance the gated and guarded community at the end of Washington Street, just off Arguello Boulevard and down the hill from the Presidio.
“We just got lucky,”said Cheng, a real estate investor.
The homeowners, however, are crying foul and want the Board of Supervisors to negate the sale.
The couple’s purchase appears to be the culmination of a comedy of errors involving a $14-a-year property tax bill that the homeowners association failed to pay for three decades. It’s something that the owners of all 181 private streets in San Francisco are obliged to do.
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Pelosi and her crooked neighbors will make these people vanish they better watch out.
I would suspect that they intend to charge HOA fees, which in that area means they purchased a real live money tree that will never ever die, for 90K.
Tax sale was in April 2015, it seems the HOA could bill the couple for landscaping maintenance and any utility (water, electric) bills spent for the last two years and the future on their property. This street has four landscaped ‘islands’ at four intersections as the road winds through the development.
Should have known daytrip would beat me to it, Jim. I just sent a MarketWatch article about this. Seriously, I’ve never heard of such a thing. Will be interesting to see how this unfolds.
If I were a homeowner in that hootenanny, I’d develop good relationships with local news reporters. The only leverage they’ll have going forward, that’s not expensive, is public shaming.
Overruling a legitimate government property auction because it’s not fair, it’s just not fair, come on, it’s not fair! Wahh!!… isn’t a good legal argument, imo.
A wise attorney once told me you argue the facts, then the law and finally “it just ain’t fair”. I don’t know if it will work for the monied folks.
“A wise attorney once told me you argue the facts, then the law and finally “it just ain’t fair”. I don’t know if it will work for the monied folks.”
Agreed on both. Monied folks have social access to judges. All courthouses are a little community. Like a bratty high school sometimes. Local tiffs are the hardest. Everybody with money or position knows somebody. Those kids probably don’t know anybody who counts. Legally they’re fine. Politically, they are not fine.
They should start a kickstart account for legal fees. They’re gonna need it. They need to hire the best local wonks they can afford.