A short, vitriolic article by Thomas Sowell that gives Diane Feinstein the disembowling she deserves.

Senator Feinstein has said that it is "simply untrue" that property rights have been sacrificed in San Francisco. According to Senator Feinstein, private property "is alive and well" in San Francisco, "with property values making it one of the highest cost-of-living cities in the United States."

...One of the main reasons for the outrageous housing prices in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay area is precisely the over-riding of property rights. Endless restrictions, obstructions, and bureaucratic delays facing anyone who is building anything on their own property in this area have forced housing costs to astronomical levels.

...The main victims of the politicians and courts over-riding property rights are people who own no property. The main proponents of these violations of property rights are often people who do.

Hell ya!    As someone who's contemplating purchasing property out here, I can't tell you how near and dear this issue is to my heart.   Loony Liberals like Feinstein care for the things they can see (their own houses) to the detriment of systems they can't (the process that brings in new & recycles old property on the market for new homeowners).  

All's fine when her multimillion dollar Pac Heights pad appreciates by 10-20% a year.   Her actions actively burden the middle class family that's pulling itself up by its own bootstraps but can't buy property when 2400 sqft goes for $850K.   Her heart weeps far more for the "deep poor" than the "near poor".    And how does she want to help the homeless?   Not by making housing easier to build - oh no!  that would let an evil home builder actually profit.   The real way is by more government controlled, public-financed housing -- that way she gets bragging rights.

Sowell has written extensively about rent control my fine city -- here, here, and here.