Renters Rights from Salinas to New York

In this episode of Talk of the Bay, host Meilin Obinata speaks with two people experiencing different aspects of the rent crisis in the City Salinas: Sam Messenger, a person who received a visit on October 13, 2025 from the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office investigator who was investigating him about his decision to sign a petition in favor of the renter protection ordinances at the Oldtown Farmer’s Market one day, and Councilmember Andrew Sandoval of the Protect Salinas Renters Coalition. Monterey County Now ran a piece “Investigation into petition signatures in Salinas casts suspicion all around” on Wednesday, October 23, with quotes from Messenger and Sandoval, just four days before this conversation, about the visits from the Monterey County DA investigators which residents of Salinas have been reporting, which the DA’s office did not comment upon.

We open the show with a clip from this weekend’s Zohran Mamdani rally at which Anastasia Ocasia Cortez and Bernie Sanders spoke, featuring a few words from Bernie Sanders and Mamdani. Mamdani’s campaign slogans include “Freeze the Rent” referring to the freezing of rent increases for rent-stabilized housing in New York City along with other policies which center affordability for working class New Yorkers.

Obinata gives a brief summary of the tumultuous history of the rental housing crisis which residents face in Salinas, from 2000 to the September 2024 vote by the Salinas City Council to approve of a set of four tenant protection ordinances. In November 2024, three Salinas councilmembers either lost or vacated their seats, changing the political composition of the council and orientations towards these renter protection ordinances. In June 2025, the majority of this council with this new composition then voted to repeal the package of renter protection ordinances which the previous city council had passed unanmimously in September 2024.

Then, the Protect Salinas Renters Coalition collected signatures to put the ordinances back on the table with a voter referendum. The Monterey County Elections Office verified the signatures mid-August. In late September, the Salinas City Council, after multiple councilmembers offered motions regarding the referendum, a majority of four ultimately voted to put the ordinances on the November 2026 ballot against a three member minority for the voters to decide what would happen to the tenant protections.

At the mid-point of the show, you’ll hear a clip from Tony Vasquez, a former mayor of Santa Monica who is running for California Treasurer. He was speaking about the importance of rent control for protecting the diversity of that city at the California Democratic Renters Council reception on Saturday, October 25th, which was part of California Democratic Executive Board Conference, held at the Monterey Hyatt.

Close to the end of the show, Messenger confirms that the investigator who knocked on his door was carrying a firearm. Obinata notes that the California Apartment Association is staying on top of the Salinas renter protections, with an article from late September about the upcoming November 2026 vote.

Note that KSQD attempted to get the District Attorney’s Office of Monterey County to participate in an interview for this show but were told that they were not commenting on election law violations. As of the publishing of this post, KSQD also has not received a call back from the Fair Political Practices Commission. After this show,