Diary of a Spreadsheet | Chelsea Kirk
Landlords raise rents, evict, harass, all without hesitation.
房东涨租、驱逐、骚扰，毫不犹豫。
Were they finally feeling a consequence for their actions?
他们终于感受到了自己行为的后果吗？
I’ve been on Zillow a lot since January 7, the day the fires started in Los Angeles.
自 1 月 7 日（洛杉矶火灾发生的那一天）以来，我经常使用 Zillow。
I’m not looking for an apartment, or summoning a future dream home.
我不是在寻找一套公寓，也不是在召唤一个未来的梦想之家。
I’m looking at numbers, watching how quickly the private housing market exploits disaster.
我正在研究数字，观察私人房地产市场利用灾难的速度有多快。
The rents have surged—30 percent, 50 percent, even 700 percent in some cases—and it has happened fast.
租金飙升——30%、50%，在某些情况下甚至达到 700%——而且发生得很快。
The last eight months in Southern California were dry and arid, and by early 2025, when the Santa Ana winds blew west from the Great Basin, Los Angeles was set for a climate disaster.
南加州过去八个月气候干燥，到 2025 年初，当圣安娜风从大盆地向西吹时，洛杉矶将面临一场气候灾难。
The Eaton and Palisades fires burned through canyons, through homes, through whole neighborhoods and multi-generational histories.
伊顿和帕利塞德大火烧毁了峡谷、房屋、整个社区和多代人的历史。
Thirty people were killed.
三十人被杀。
California declared a state of emergency.
加州宣布进入紧急状态。
And before the embers cooled, landlords had named their price.
在余烬冷却之前，房东已经定价了。
By the third day of the fires, five thousand homes had been lost, tens of thousands of people were displaced, and a hundred fifty thousand were under evacuation orders.
到火灾第三天，已有 5000 所房屋被毁，数万人流离失所，还有 15 万人接到疏散令。
Sheltering in place in my apartment in Echo Park, caught somewhere between despair, anxiety, and the restless need to act, I found myself looking at housing listings.
我躲在回声公园的公寓里，陷入绝望、焦虑和焦躁不安的行动之中，我发现自己正在查看房屋清单。
Within minutes, I found multiple listings with rents that had increased by more than 10 percent since January 7, when Governor Newsom declared a state of emergency and triggered an anti-price gouging law that renders increases of more than 10 percent illegal.
几分钟之内，我发现多处房源的租金自 1 月 7 日以来上涨了 10% 以上，当时纽瑟姆州长宣布进入紧急状态，并触发了一项反哄抬物价法，该法规定租金上涨超过 10% 为非法。
On Zillow, I was half-expecting to find landlords testing the limits of the law.
在 Zillow 上，我有一半期待看到房东在测试法律的极限。
What I found was worse: a frenzied, almost immediate escalation of rents that defied both ethics and emergency protections.
我发现更糟糕的是：租金几乎立即疯狂上涨，这既违反了道德规范，也违反了紧急保护措施。
I’ve spent nearly a decade organizing alongside tenants in Los Angeles, fighting against eviction threats, buyout offers, and uninhabitable homes.
近十年来，我一直与洛杉矶的租户一起组织起来，对抗驱逐威胁、买断提议和不适宜居住的房屋。
But this was something else entirely.
但这完全是另一回事。
Not the familiar grind of speculative displacement, but a rapid-fire monetization of disaster—one that fed on urgency, disorientation, and loss.
这不是人们熟悉的投机性流离失所的苦差事，而是灾难的快速货币化——一种以紧迫感、迷失方向和损失为基础的灾难。
In the chaos that followed, I created an open-access Google spreadsheet, titled Tracking Rental Price Gouging in LA , to document the exploitation, with the intention of eventually submitting it to the authorities.
在随后的混乱中，我创建了一个开放获取的谷歌电子表格，名为“跟踪洛杉矶的租金价格欺诈行为”，以记录这一利用情况，并打算最终将其提交给当局。
I posted it on my Instagram story, where mutual aid efforts and real-time information sharing were unfolding by the minute.
我把它发布在我的 Instagram 故事上，互助努力和实时信息共享每时每刻都在展开。
Within hours, dozens of submissions had poured in.
几个小时之内，就有数十份意见书涌入。
A two-bedroom apartment on Montana Avenue was listed for $3,595 on January 7.
1 月 7 日，蒙大拿大道上一套两居室公寓的挂牌价为 3,595 美元。
By the next day, the price had jumped 25 percent to $4,495.
到第二天，价格上涨了 25%，达到 4,495 美元。
By January 9, it climbed another 33 percent, reaching $5,995.
到 1 月 9 日，它又上涨了 33%，达到 5,995 美元。
In Santa Monica, a house that had been $12,750 surged to $28,000 overnight—a 119.6 percent increase.
在圣莫尼卡，一套售价 12,750 美元的房子一夜之间飙升至 28,000 美元，涨幅达 119.6%。
Another, in Mid-City, doubled in price from $6,600 to $15,000.
另一家位于市中心，价格翻了一番，从 6,600 美元涨到 15,000 美元。
The numbers were grotesque.
这些数字很奇怪。
By the end of the week, the spreadsheet contained over 500 cases.
截至本周末，电子表格包含 500 多个案例。
Within three weeks, that number would triple to 1,500.
三周内，这个数字将增加两倍，达到 1,500。
Behind each of these skyrocketing numbers was a landlord who’d found a crass opportunity in the devastation.
在这些飙升的数字背后，都有一位房东在灾难中发现了一个愚蠢的机会。
Meanwhile, people who’d lost everything were in search of answers.
与此同时，失去一切的人们正在寻找答案。
Were there shelters?
有避难所吗？
Vouchers?
优惠券？
Was there anyone on the ground to help?
现场有人提供帮助吗？
How and who can apply for FEMA?
如何以及谁可以申请 FEMA？
And insurance?
还有保险？
The Red Cross, it was rumored, was on the ground handing out vouchers—but where?
有传言称，红十字会正在现场发放代金券，但在哪里呢？
Some people’s homes were still standing but damaged—what did that mean?
有些人的房屋还没有倒塌，但已被破坏，这意味着什么？
Did they still have to pay rent?
他们还需要付房租吗？
Others lived in buildings so old that even without direct damage, they could not stay—their defective windows were unable to keep out the thick ashen air.
其他人则住在太旧的建筑物里，即使没有直接损坏，他们也无法留下来——有缺陷的窗户无法阻挡浓重的灰暗空气。
People needed housing first to stabilize, then to begin rebuilding their lives.
人们首先需要住房来稳定生活，然后才能开始重建生活。
But the spreadsheet made painfully clear that any promise of affordability was a cruel fiction.
但电子表格痛苦地表明，任何负担能力的承诺都是残酷的谎言。
I’d be lying if I said all this had come as a surprise.
如果我说这一切都是出乎意料的话，那我就是在撒谎。
Eight years of organizing with tenants has made one thing clear: profit is the only language landlords speak.
八年来与租户的组织已经明确了一件事：利润是房东所说的唯一语言。
Housing is a necessity, but in Los Angeles, it is first and foremost a commodity, and those two realities are at odds.
住房是必需品，但在洛杉矶，它首先是一种商品，而这两个现实是不一致的。
Once you see landlord greed, you can’t unsee it.
一旦你看到房东的贪婪，你就无法忽视它。
I was 22 when I joined the Los Angeles Tenants Union in 2016, invited to City Hall by someone I met door-knocking for Bernie Sanders, a campaign that promised things that now seem impossibly naive.
2016 年，我 22 岁，加入了洛杉矶租户联盟，我遇到的一个人邀请我来到市政厅，为伯尼·桑德斯 (Bernie Sanders) 上门推销，当时我承诺的事情现在看来天真得难以置信。
What brought us to City Hall that day was a vote on 1850 North Cherokee Avenue—eighteen rent-stabilized apartments built in 1939, tucked into the northern edge of Hollywood—and whether to approve their conversion into a boutique hotel.
那天我们来到市政厅的是对北切罗基大道 1850 号（1939 年建造的 18 套租金稳定公寓，位于好莱坞北部边缘）的投票，以及是否批准将其改建为精品酒店的投票。
By then, even a non-expert like me had heard of the “housing crisis.” It had become a constant hum on local radio and a regular headline in the LA Times .
那时，连我这样的非专业人士都听说过“住房危机”。它已成为当地电台的持续嗡嗡声和《洛杉矶时报》的常规头条新闻。
A recent report showed that chronic homelessness in Los Angeles had risen 55 percent in just two years—more than anywhere else in the country.
最近的一份报告显示，洛杉矶的长期无家可归者人数在短短两年内增加了 55%，超过美国其他任何地方。
And then there was Airbnb—new at the time but already enabling what the media called “rogue hotels.” At the same time, plans to revitalize the LA River were taking shape, and the 6th Street Bridge was being demolished.
然后是 Airbnb——当时是新事物，但已经实现了媒体所说的“流氓酒店”。与此同时，振兴洛杉矶河的计划正在形成，第六街大桥正在被拆除。
Everywhere I turned, people were talking about how the city was changing, and rents were reaching new heights as a result.
无论我走到哪里，人们都在谈论这座城市正在发生的变化，租金也因此达到了新的高度。
My one-bedroom apartment was $1,100 a month back then.
那时我的一居室公寓每月 1,100 美元。
Today, it might rent for over $2,500.
如今，它的租金可能超过 2,500 美元。
“When you are called up to speak, make sure that you say your name and that you live in Council District 13 and that you are addressing Councilmember O’Farrell and the full council regarding 1850 Cherokee,” wrote an organizer in an email titled “Talking points for public comment at city council today.”
一位组织者在一封题为“今天在市议会征求公众意见的谈话要点”的电子邮件中写道：“当你被叫去发言时，请确保你说出你的名字，并且你住在议会第 13 区，并且你正在向议员奥法雷尔和全体议会成员就 1850 切罗基事件发表讲话。”
By the time I arrived at City Hall, the fight was already over.
当我到达市政厅时，战斗已经结束了。
The tenants, many who had lived on Cherokee Avenue for decades, had been evicted, given only three months to move out under a law called the Ellis Act, which allows landlords to withdraw units from the rental market to pursue other uses.
这些租户中的许多人已经在切罗基大道居住了数十年，他们被驱逐了，根据一项名为《埃利斯法案》的法律，只有三个月的时间可以搬出，该法案允许房东从租赁市场撤回单元以寻求其他用途。
Two became unhoused and one moved more than ninety miles away to Victorville.
其中两人无家可归，其中一人搬到了九十多英里外的维克多维尔。
At the lectern, with less than a minute to speak, I argued that preventing eviction should be the councilmember’s only priority.
在讲台上，在不到一分钟的发言时间里，我认为防止驱逐应该是议员的唯一优先事项。
He didn’t hear me.
他没有听到我说话。
Instead, he voted to turn the eighteen homes into the Prospect Hotel, where today a room costs up to $681 a night.
相反，他投票决定将 18 栋房屋改建为展望酒店 (Prospect Hotel)，如今该酒店的一间客房每晚价格高达 681 美元。
People like to talk about the housing crisis in abstraction.
人们喜欢抽象地谈论住房危机。
Supply and demand.
供需。
Markets finding equilibrium.
市场找到平衡。
But the forces driving high rents and displacement are not just economic theories.
但推动高租金和流离失所的因素不仅仅是经济理论。
They have names.
他们有名字。
They issue eviction notices.
他们发出驱逐通知。
They raise rents.
他们提高租金。
They hold fundraisers and shake hands and speak about property values and development.
他们举行筹款活动，握手并谈论房地产价值和发展。
They give donations.
他们捐款。
They make deals.
他们做交易。
Landlords take as much as they can get away with—legally or not.
房东可以拿走尽可能多的东西，无论合法与否。
Even if their mortgage is long paid off.
即使他们的抵押贷款早已还清。
Even if they inherited the building, put nothing into it, let the plumbing rot and the roof leak for years.
即使他们继承了这座建筑，却没有投入任何东西，多年以来任由管道腐烂、屋顶漏水。
Even if raising the rents means evicting seniors and veterans on fixed incomes––like the tenants at 1850 N Cherokee.
即使提高租金意味着驱逐靠固定收入的老年人和退伍军人——就像切罗基北 1850 号的租户一样。
None of it matters.
这些都不重要。
“Had a great conversation about capitalism with a realtor who was trying to defend her actions.
“与一位试图为自己的行为辩护的房地产经纪人就资本主义进行了一次精彩的对话。
She keeps asking me ‘How do I get off this list?
她一直问我‘我怎样才能摆脱这个名单？
I don’t want to be on any lists,’” Rick, an Angeleno whom I met via Instagram, told me.
我不想出现在任何名单上。”我通过 Instagram 认识的洛杉矶人里克 (Rick) 告诉我。
“I told her to lower the price.”
“我告诉她要降价。”
The wildfires had been raging for several days.
山火已经肆虐好几天了。
Rick and others who contributed to the spreadsheet were picking up the phones, calling the names on the list—owners and real estate agents—to tell them to stop rent gouging.
里克和其他为电子表格做出贡献的人拿起电话，呼叫名单上的名字——业主和房地产经纪人——告诉他们停止哄抬租金。
Callers were met with various excuses.
来电者收到各种借口。
The owners blamed the agents.
业主指责代理商。
The agents said the owner insisted.
代理人称，业主坚持要求。
Both parties blamed Zillow, alleging an algorithm sets the rents.
双方都指责 Zillow，称租金是由算法设定的。
Some refused to talk unless the caller is an insurance broker, the legality of which remains an open question.
有些人拒绝交谈，除非打电话的人是保险经纪人，而保险经纪人的合法性仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。
Emails from landlords and real estate agents started to pour in, too.
来自房东和房地产经纪人的电子邮件也开始涌入。
A lot began with an acknowledgment of the work as “commendable” and “needed” before pivoting to “however.” There were some cease and desists, some apologies, some claims there’s been a terrible misunderstanding.
很多事情都是从承认这项工作“值得赞扬”和“需要”开始的，然后才转向“但是”。有一些停止和停止，一些道歉，一些声称这是一个可怕的误会。
Others plainly don’t know the law, or don’t care to.
其他人显然不了解法律，或者不在乎。
A man emailed me insisting he wasn’t price gouging—he had simply furnished the home “to help the displaced,” which, in his mind, justified the 47.8 percent rent increase.
一名男子给我发电子邮件坚称他并非哄抬物价，他只是“为了帮助流离失所者”而装修了房屋，在他看来，这证明了 47.8% 的租金上涨是合理的。
Legally, it does not.
从法律上讲，事实并非如此。
Everyone wanted to get off the spreadsheet.
每个人都想摆脱电子表格。
Landlords raise rents, evict, harass, all without hesitation.
房东涨租、驱逐、骚扰，毫不犹豫。
Were they finally feeling a consequence for their actions?
他们终于感受到了自己行为的后果吗？
Over the 101 freeway in Echo Park, near the Alvarado exit, someone’s hung a banner that says Protect Renters.
在 Echo Park 的 101 号高速公路上，靠近阿尔瓦拉多出口的地方，有人挂了一条横幅，上面写着“保护租房者”。
Stop Price Gouging!
停止哄抬物价！
The first time I saw it, ten days after the fires started, I wondered who hung it there.
火灾发生十天后，我第一次看到它，我想知道是谁把它挂在那里的。
Now, I imagine it may have been one of the hundreds of people contributing to the spreadsheet.
现在，我想它可能是为电子表格做出贡献的数百人之一。
The spreadsheet went viral, though I couldn’t tell you exactly how.
该电子表格迅速传播开来，但我无法确切地告诉你是如何传播的。
It started on Instagram—people were sharing it in their stories, posting it to their grids, even making reels about it.
它始于 Instagram——人们在他们的故事中分享它，将其发布到他们的网格上，甚至制作有关它的视频。
It quickly racked up thousands of shares.
它很快就积累了数千股。
Soon, it spread to Reddit, where one thread read: “One thing is for sure—LA now has Google Sheets for everything.
很快，这件事就传到了 Reddit，其中有一条帖子写道：“有一件事是肯定的——洛杉矶现在有了 Google Sheets，可以处理所有事情。
Here’s one collecting landlords who are price gouging.” Within two weeks, more than thirty media outlets had linked to or referenced the spreadsheet.
这里收集的是哄抬物价的房东。”两周内，超过 30 家媒体链接或引用了该电子表格。
A day after creating the spreadsheet, I was added to a Signal group called “LA Fire Aid.” In the signal group dozens of people, each managing their own mutual-aid-related spreadsheet, introduced themselves and their projects.
创建电子表格一天后，我被添加到一个名为“洛杉矶消防救援”的信号组中。在信号组中，有数十人介绍了自己和他们的项目，每个人都管理着自己的互助相关电子表格。
The goal was to consolidate into a master list, managed by Mutual Aid LA Network.
目标是整合到一个由洛杉矶互助网络管理的主列表中。
There were spreadsheets called Artist and Creative Workers Mutual Aid , Los Angeles Disaster Support Masterlist , Shelters & Distro Hubs (Inventory Sheet) , California Fire Lawyers and Other Service Providers , LB MA Donation Drop-Off List as of 1/11/2025 , and The Kindness Hub: LA Resource Aid Tracker, January 2025 .
这些电子表格名为“艺术家和创意工作者互助”、“洛杉矶灾难支持总清单”、“避难所和发行中心”（库存表）、“加州消防律师和其他服务提供商”、“截至 2025 年 1 月 11 日的 LB MA 捐款投放清单”以及“善良中心：洛杉矶资源援助追踪器，2025 年 1 月”。
Each attempted to fill the widening gaps left by the state, scrambling to meet urgent needs in a crisis where official responses were slow, fragmented, or absent.
每个国家都试图填补国家留下的不断扩大的空白，在官方反应缓慢、支离破碎或缺乏的危机中争先恐后地满足紧急需求。
As for my own spreadsheet’s contributors, I did not know who they were.
至于我自己的电子表格的贡献者，我不知道他们是谁。
Submissions were anonymous by design.
按照设计，提交内容是匿名的。
People could leave an email if they wanted, but I was so busy I never checked.
人们如果愿意的话可以留下电子邮件，但我太忙了，所以从来没有检查过。
Still, I got a flood of DMs—on Instagram, on X—from people I’d never met.
尽管如此，我还是在 Instagram、X 上收到了大量来自我从未见过的人的私信。
Some wanted to tell their stories, others asked how they could help, or sent leads on listings they found to be exorbitantly priced.
有些人想讲述他们的故事，另一些人则询问他们如何提供帮助，或者发送他们发现价格过高的清单的线索。
There wasn’t one type of person contributing.
没有一种类型的人做出了贡献。
Some were comrades in the tenant movement.
有些是佃农运动的同志。
Some were realtors, attempting to distance themselves from their industry’s worst (natural?) impulses.
有些人是房地产经纪人，试图远离行业中最糟糕的（自然的？）冲动。
Some were homeowners—millionaires even—suddenly confronted with the reality of housing as something that could be taken away.
有些人是房主，甚至是百万富翁，突然面临着住房可能被剥夺的现实。
Most appeared to be ordinary Angelenos, furious at what they saw, people I’d never met.
大多数人似乎都是普通的洛杉矶人，对他们所看到的感到愤怒，而这些人是我从未见过的。
I had promised that every submission would be reported to the appropriate agencies.
我曾承诺，每项提交的内容都会报告给适当的机构。
I hadn’t thought through the scale of that promise—until January 13, three days after the fires began, when the spreadsheet hit 412 listings.
直到 1 月 13 日，即火灾发生三天后，电子表格中的列表达到 412 条时，我才仔细考虑了这一承诺的规模。
That day, I posted a screenshot on my Instagram story and asked, “Who has time today to make calls to 311 and report?” Kendra, someone I knew through mutual friends, replied, “I do.” They said they’d start at the top and make their way down the list.
那天，我在 Instagram 故事上贴了一张截图，并问道：“今天谁有时间拨打 311 进行举报？”我通过共同朋友认识的肯德拉回答说：“我愿意。”他们说他们会从顶部开始，然后按顺序依次进行。
Later, they told me it took the better part of an hour to report ten listings.
后来，他们告诉我，报告十个列表花了大约一个小时。
I posted again, dividing up the spreadsheet’s rows into groups: “Seeking volunteers to report listings via 311 in rows 51–60, 61–70, 71–80 .
我再次发帖，将电子表格的行分组：“寻求志愿者通过第 51-60、61-70、71-80 行中的 311 报告列表。
.
。
.
。
takes approx. 40 mins for 10 listings.” The response was immediate.
大约需要40 分钟即可列出 10 个列表。”立即得到了回应。
I asked Kendra if they’d be willing to coordinate the reporting effort.
我问肯德拉他们是否愿意协调报道工作。
They said yes.
他们说是的。
For the next two days, everyone who DMed me got funneled to Kendra.
在接下来的两天里，所有给我发私信的人都找到了肯德拉。
On January 15, Kendra coordinated thirty-eight people to call 311 all day, doing nothing else.
1 月 15 日，肯德拉协调 38 个人整天拨打 311，没有做其他事情。
At some point the spreadsheet became too cumbersome to report manually, even with all the help.
在某些时候，即使有所有帮助，电子表格也变得太麻烦而无法手动报告。
I submitted a PDF of the list to the Public Inquiry Unit of the California Department of Justice.
我向加州司法部公共调查部门提交了该清单的 PDF 版本。
But who was supposed to prosecute?
但谁应该起诉呢？
The city?
城市？
The county?
县？
The state?
国家？
The maximum fine for price gouging was $10,000––nothing in comparison to the massive profits these landlords rake in.
哄抬物价的最高罚款为 10,000 美元——与这些房东赚取的巨额利润相比，根本不算什么。
They all said it was being enforced, but no one could answer how.
他们都说正在执行，但没有人能回答如何执行。
On January 16, someone in the City Attorney’s office said to me in an email that they’d accept the spreadsheet.
1 月 16 日，市检察官办公室的某人在一封电子邮件中对我表示，他们会接受该电子表格。
“There is no need for you to send it via 311.”
“你不需要通过311发送。”
On other fronts, help continued to roll in.
在其他方面，帮助不断涌入。
Harper, someone I knew, but not well, through tenant advocacy, texted me: “Trying to see if I can build a Zillow scraper to get price gouging in bulk—would that be useful?
哈珀（Harper）是我认识的人，但不是很熟，通过租户倡导，他发短信给我：“试着看看我是否可以建造一个 Zillow 刮刀来批量哄抬价格——这有用吗？
(No promises if I can actually make it work).” I texted back: “GREAT IDEA.”
（如果我真的能让它发挥作用，我不保证）。”我回复道：“好主意。”
Later that day, I posted a solicitation on X and Instagram: “Folks wanting to help who know how to scrape web data please DM me.” I invited anyone who responded to a Zoom the next evening.
那天晚些时候，我在 X 和 Instagram 上发布了一条征集：“想要帮助知道如何抓取网络数据的人，请私信我。”我邀请了第二天晚上对 Zoom 做出回应的任何人。
Twelve people showed up.
出现了十二个人。
It was a cross-section of tenant organizers, full-stack developers, urban planners, coders, and people who just wanted to help.
这是一个由租户组织者、全栈开发人员、城市规划者、编码人员和只想提供帮助的人组成的跨部门团队。
There was Harper, of course; and Philip, a musical instrument maker and product manager; Max, an artist and web developer; Iris, a corporate landlord researcher at a nonprofit; Ankur, a self-taught data analyst who joined after his girlfriend saw my tweet.
当然还有哈珀。 Philip，乐器制造商兼产品经理； Max，艺术家和网络开发人员； Iris，一家非营利组织的企业房东研究员； Ankur，一位自学成才的数据分析师，在他的女朋友看到我的推文后加入。
Audrey, a land use attorney.
奥黛丽，土地使用律师。
Peishi, a tenant organizer in Austin with experience managing a scraped eviction database and got looped in by a member of the LA Tenants Union.
Peishi 是奥斯汀的一名租户组织者，拥有管理被删除的驱逐数据库的经验，并被洛杉矶租户联盟的一名成员圈套。
John, a hobbyist web developer; Nicole, a QA specialist; Nicholas, a UCLA grad student and UAW member with programming chops; and Lillian, a UCLA urban planning alum with past experience in computer engineering.
John，一位网络开发爱好者； Nicole，质量保证专家； Nicholas，加州大学洛杉矶分校研究生和 UAW 成员，具有编程能力； Lillian 是加州大学洛杉矶分校城市规划专业的校友，拥有计算机工程方面的经验。
Max arrived at the meeting having already built a prototype Zillow scraper.
Max 到达会议时已经制作了一个 Zillow 刮刀原型。
The vibe was scrappy and skill-diverse.
气氛斗志旺盛，技能多样。
Some folks had years of experience in data systems; others were there to observe, learn, or relay information to future collaborators.
有些人在数据系统方面拥有多年的经验；有些人在数据系统方面拥有多年的经验。其他人在那里观察、学习或向未来的合作者传递信息。
By the end of the call, we had the beginnings of a plan—and two Signal groups: a developer team focused on building the tool to extract rent-gouging listings from Zillow, and aresearch team ready to analyze the data once it came in.
电话会议结束时，我们已经开始制定计划，并有两个信号小组：一个开发团队专注于构建从 Zillow 提取欺诈房源的工具，一个研究团队准备在数据到来后对其进行分析。
Three days after the Zoom call, I invited everyone over to my apartment, including those who had helped with 311 reporting.
Zoom 电话会议三天后，我邀请所有人到我的公寓，包括那些帮助进行 311 举报的人。
Harper invited people too.
哈珀也邀请了人们。
That Wednesday night, eighteen people showed up.
那个星期三晚上，有十八个人出现。
Everyone self-organized into different nooks of the apartment based on their skills and interests: the web developers and data researchers from the call, but also Danielle and Mai with backgrounds in design and social media, Jon, a web designer, Laura, a tenant attorney, Jay, an environmental legal fellow, and several others who wanted to help with one-off tasks or think about the bigger direction of the project.
每个人根据自己的技能和兴趣自行组织到公寓的不同角落：电话中的网络开发人员和数据研究人员，还有具有设计和社交媒体背景的丹妮尔和麦、网页设计师乔恩、租户律师劳拉、环境法律研究员杰伊，以及其他几位想要帮助完成一次性任务或思考项目更大方向的人。
By the end of the night, we had formed even more Signal groups.
到了晚上，我们已经组建了更多的信号小组。
We got to work on emerging needs that had piled up.
我们开始致力于解决已经堆积起来的新需求。
We needed FAQs on rent-gouging––people were getting the definition wrong or wanted to know what to do if a unit was furnished, for example.
我们需要有关哄抬租金的常见问题解答——例如，人们的定义是错误的，或者想知道如果公寓已配备家具该怎么办。
Landlords were sending me cease-and-desist letters—we needed legal disclaimers.
房东向我发送了停止函——我们需要法律免责声明。
We needed a volunteer intake form, an email, a P.O.
我们需要一份志愿者招募表、一封电子邮件、一封邮政信箱。
Box.
盒子。
We needed a policy report to legitimize our findings.
我们需要一份政策报告来使我们的发现合法化。
We needed LA County Assessor data, a website, a web map.
我们需要洛杉矶县评估员数据、网站、网络地图。
We also needed a name.
我们还需要一个名字。
With media requests pouring in and misattributions stacking up, we had to call this whole thing something.
随着媒体请求的涌入和错误归因的堆积，我们不得不称这整件事为某事。
Alissa Walker, in her newsletter Torched, had called us the Spreadsheet Brigade.
艾丽莎·沃克 (Alissa Walker) 在她的时事通讯《火炬》(Torched) 中称我们为“电子表格旅”。
We’re now The Rent Brigade.
我们现在是出租旅。
A week after the fires began, the LA Tenants Union staged a disruption of the Board of Supervisors meeting, demanding a rent freeze and an eviction moratorium.
火灾发生一周后，洛杉矶租户联盟扰乱了监事会会议，要求冻结租金和暂停驱逐。
They bypassed the public comment period and read their demands directly to the room.
他们绕过了公众意见征询期，直接向会议室宣读了他们的要求。
No speaker cards, no polite waiting for their turn.
没有发言卡，没有礼貌地等待轮到他们。
The moment was too urgent for decorum.
这一刻太紧急了，无法礼节。
Tenants were being displaced—some by the immediate destruction of their homes by fire, but others by landlords who had lost their own homes and now wanted to reclaim their rental properties.
租户们纷纷流离失所，有些是因为他们的房屋立即被大火烧毁，另一些则是因为房东失去了自己的房屋，现在想要收回他们的出租房产。
Tenants would be given just 60 to 120 days to move out: no insurance, no FEMA relief, no opportunity to rebuild.
租户只有 60 到 120 天的时间搬出：没有保险，没有 FEMA 救济，没有重建的机会。
Measly relocation funds, if any at all.
微不足道的搬迁资金（如果有的话）。
The Board of Supervisors had emergency powers to act that day.
监事会当天有紧急权力采取行动。
They could have frozen the rent or blocked evictions altogether.
他们本可以冻结租金或完全阻止驱逐。
Instead, they passed a resolution to deregulate Airbnb.
相反，他们通过了一项解除 Airbnb 监管的决议。
Back in 2012, Airbnb had offered landlords a new equation: Why rent to a long-term tenant for $3,000 a month when you could charge a tourist $250 a night and make $7,500 instead?
早在 2012 年，Airbnb 就为房东提供了一个新的方程式：当你可以向游客收取每晚 250 美元的费用并赚取 7,500 美元时，为什么还要以每月 3,000 美元的价格租给长期租户呢？
The platform siphoned thousands of homes off the rental market.
该平台从租赁市场上吸走了数千套房屋。
Now, in the wake of the fires, Airbnb was lobbying the city, the county, and the state to weaken the very few short-term rental regulations that did exist.
现在，火灾发生后，Airbnb 正在游说市、县和州削弱现有的极少数短期租赁法规。
And they succeeded.
他们成功了。
On January 27, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-14-25, declaring that anyone who lost their home to the fires and was now staying in an Airbnb would not be considered a tenant—even if they stayed longer than 30 days.
1 月 27 日，纽瑟姆州长签署了 N-14-25 号行政命令，宣布任何因火灾失去家园且现在住在 Airbnb 中的人都不会被视为租户——即使他们停留的时间超过 30 天。
The fear was that Airbnb hosts were withholding much-needed vacant homes from the market, worried that longer stays might trigger tenant protections.
人们担心的是，Airbnb 房东拒绝向市场提供急需的空置房屋，担心较长时间的停留可能会引发租户保护。
By removing any legal recognition that these guests could be considered tenants, Newsom hoped to reassure landlords and coax more short-term rentals into circulation.
纽瑟姆希望通过取消对这些客人可以被视为租户的任何法律认可，让房东放心，并吸引更多的短期租金进入流通。
But by reclassifying wildfire victims as temporary rather than tenants, Newsom guaranteed they could be displaced when profit demanded—perhaps next year, when the World Cup draws 180,000 visitors to Los Angeles, or in 2028, when the Olympics turns the city into a playground for global tourism.
但通过将山火受害者重新归类为临时而非租户，纽瑟姆保证，当需要利润时，他们可能会流离失所——也许是明年，届时世界杯将吸引 18 万游客前往洛杉矶，或者是 2028 年，届时奥运会将这座城市变成全球旅游的游乐场。
Airbnb hosts wanted assurances they could cash in on disaster without long-term obligations.
Airbnb 的房东希望得到保证，他们可以在没有长期义务的情况下从灾难中获利。
Newsom gave them exactly that.
纽森给了他们答案。
One month after the fires began, on February 7, the Rent Brigade gathered at Bernie’s Cafe in Mid-City—a well-known organizing hub that was doubling as a distribution center by day in the wake of the fires, giving out essentials like toilet paper, diapers, clothing, tampons, and hard-to-find masks.
火灾发生一个月后的 2 月 7 日，Rent Brigade 聚集在市中心的伯尼咖啡馆 (Bernie’s Cafe)，这是一个著名的组织中心，在火灾发生后，这里白天变成了配送中心，分发卫生纸、尿布、衣物、卫生棉条和难以找到的口罩等必需品。
The lights were dim, pizza was passed around, and boxes of supplies were tucked aside to make space for us.
灯光昏暗，披萨被传递，一箱箱的补给品被塞在一边，为我们腾出空间。
Kendra, who now oversees all our volunteers, communicated the plan for the evening.
现在负责监督我们所有志愿者的肯德拉传达了当晚的计划。
Some would make calls to landlords, pressing them on their rent hikes.
有些人会打电话给房东，敦促他们提高租金。
Others would write, fold, seal, and stamp letters to send to tenants we believed had been rent gouged.
其他人会写、折叠、密封和盖章信件，然后寄给我们认为被骗取租金的租户。
A few would paint a banner bearing our unofficial slogan: STOP THE GOUGE .
有些人会画一条横幅，上面写着我们的非官方口号：停止凿凿。
The data and research team would keep troubleshooting issues.
数据和研究团队将不断解决问题。
The design team would brainstorm graphics for a post on Airbnb’s rent gouging.
设计团队会集思广益，为一篇有关 Airbnb 欺诈租金的帖子设计图形。
It was a work night, but also an occasion to meet each other.
这是一个工作之夜，也是一个见面的机会。
Kendra had told me a few nights prior that we needed to make sure everyone feels welcome and like it’s a community.
肯德拉（Kendra）前几天晚上告诉我，我们需要确保每个人都感到受欢迎并且感觉这是一个社区。
Before we fired up the auto-dialers filled with real estate agents and landlord contacts, I shared updates on our progress: The City, County, and State had recognized our spreadsheet as an official submission, and investigations were underway.
在我们启动充满房地产经纪人和房东联系人的自动拨号器之前，我分享了我们的最新进展：市、县和州已将我们的电子表格视为正式提交的文件，调查正在进行中。
No more cumbersome 311 reporting—the work was cutting through.
不再需要繁琐的 311 报告——工作一帆风顺。
The data team had finished their tool, which was now scraping Zillow and integrating it with our crowdsourced spreadsheet.
数据团队已经完成了他们的工具，现在正在抓取 Zillow 并将其与我们的众包电子表格集成。
The findings, so far, were grim: the lowest-priced rentals––what we considered “affordable”––saw an average 46 percent increase, compared to 27 percent for the highest-priced listings.
到目前为止，调查结果很严峻：最低价格的租金（我们认为“负担得起”）平均上涨 46%，而最高价的房源平均上涨 27%。
This meant the rent hikes in luxury listings were having a ripple effect.
这意味着豪华房源的租金上涨正在产生连锁反应。
Landlords in Beverly Hills who pushed rents to new heights were resetting expectations across the market.
比佛利山庄的房东将租金推至新高，正在重新调整整个市场的预期。
Landlords elsewhere followed suit, adjusting their own rents upward.
其他地方的房东也纷纷效仿，上调了自己的租金。
Rent gouging has spread, and everyone is paying the price.
哄抬租金现象已经蔓延，每个人都在付出代价。
The issue was also escalating, not slowing down—as of January 31, cases of rent gouging had jumped to 2,864, a 113 percent increase in just days—but what we’d done, I reminded everyone, was having an impact.
这个问题还在升级，而不是放缓——截至 1 月 31 日，哄抬租金案件已跃升至 2,864 起，短短几天内增加了 113%——但我提醒大家，我们所做的事情正在产生影响。
The spreadsheet had turned unnoticed acts of rent gouging into a collective record.
电子表格将未被注意到的哄抬租金行为变成了集体记录。
LA County just raised the fine for price gouging from $10,000 to $50,000, and LA City added civil penalties for $30,000 per violation.
洛杉矶县刚刚将哄抬物价罚款从 10,000 美元提高到 50,000 美元，洛杉矶市则对每次违规行为增加了 30,000 美元的民事处罚。
But—I paused—the fact remains that four weeks into the crisis, only four individuals have been charged with rent gouging, less than one percent of those named on the spreadsheet.
但是——我停顿了一下——事实仍然是，危机发生四个星期后，只有四人被指控哄抬租金，不到电子表格上名字的百分之一。
What do these new penalties even mean if the law is not enforced?
如果法律不得到执行，这些新的处罚意味着什么？
That’s why we continue the work of taking matters into our own hands, the work of enforcement.
这就是为什么我们继续将事情掌握在自己手中，即执行工作。
We make landlords’ names public.
我们公开房东的名字。
We call them.
我们打电话给他们。
We call them again.
我们再次给他们打电话。
And again and again and again––telling them we won’t stop until they bring the rent down.
一次又一次——告诉他们，在他们降低租金之前我们不会停止。
That night we called over a thousand landlords, mailed 450 letters, and made one big defiant banner.
那天晚上，我们给一千多名房东打电话，寄出了四百五十封信，还制作了一张巨大的挑衅横幅。
The landlord lobby is paying attention.
楼主大堂正在关注。
They’re trying to discredit our work.
他们试图抹黑我们的工作。
A blog post by the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles titled “Debunking the Myth: Los Angeles Wildfires and Rent Gouging Claims Lack Evidence” accuses us of cherry-picking listings, using flawed methodologies, failing to account for justifications like renovations and hot tubs—despite the law making clear that amenities do not excuse gouging.
大洛杉矶公寓协会发表了一篇题为《揭穿神话：洛杉矶野火和哄抬租金索赔缺乏证据》的博客文章，指责我们挑选清单，使用有缺陷的方法，没有考虑翻修和热水浴缸等理由——尽管法律明确规定便利设施不能成为哄抬租金的借口。
They say landlords aren’t criminals, just misinformed, that if only these small-time landlords understood the emergency ordinance, they would have followed the law.
他们说房东不是罪犯，只是被误导了，如果这些小房东了解紧急法令，他们就会遵守法律。
The implication is that this is all an accident.
言下之意就是，这一切都是一场意外。
An innocent misunderstanding.
一场无心的误会。
The same tired excuse they use to illegally raise rents, harass elderly tenants, and evict without cause.
他们用同样令人厌倦的借口非法提高租金、骚扰老年租户、无故驱逐。
It’s not jail time they fear.
他们担心的不是牢狱之灾。
That was never on the table, and they know it, despite what the law claims.
这从来没有被提上台面，而且他们知道这一点，无论法律如何规定。
What scares them is something else: the realization spreading across Los Angeles that the private housing market isn’t just failing wildfire victims—it’s failing by design.
让他们害怕的是另一件事：整个洛杉矶都意识到，私人住房市场不仅让野火受害者失望，而且是有意而为之的。
That the inability to meet this moment isn’t the result of a few bad landlords, it’s a feature of a system built to extract.
无法满足这一时刻并不是少数坏房东的结果，而是为了榨取利益而构建的系统的一个特征。
What landlords fear is that we might imagine something better: a world where housing isn’t a commodity at all, a world without landlords.
房东担心的是，我们可能会想象出更好的东西：一个住房根本不是商品的世界，一个没有房东的世界。
Resistance needs many entry points.
阻力需要很多切入点。
Not everyone is cut out to be a tenant organizer.
并不是每个人都适合成为租户组织者。
It’s relentless work—demanding patience, strategy, and a willingness to keep showing up, week after week, often for years.
这是一项无情的工作——需要耐心、策略，以及周复一周、常常持续数年不断出现的意愿。
It means knocking on doors in working-class neighborhoods, standing in a parking lot on a cold night, turning strangers into a community just moments after they’ve learned they’re losing the homes they’ve lived in for decades.
这意味着敲开工薪阶层社区的门，在寒冷的夜晚站在停车场，在陌生人得知自己即将失去居住了几十年的房屋后不久，就将他们变成了一个社区。
Not everyone can do it.
不是每个人都能做到。
Not everyone will.
不是每个人都会。
The spreadsheet taps into the anger of people who may never set foot in a tenant union meeting, but who still feel the urgency of this crisis.
该电子表格激起了人们的愤怒，他们可能从未参加过租户工会会议，但仍然感受到这场危机的紧迫性。
That night at Bernie’s, most of the people I met had never been active in the tenant movement.
那天晚上在伯尼家，我遇到的大多数人从未积极参与过租户运动。
This crisis is reaching people who haven’t been part of the fight before.
这场危机正在波及那些以前没有参与过这场斗争的人们。
For years, the burden of the housing crisis has fallen squarely on the working class—it still does.
多年来，住房危机的负担完全落在了工人阶级身上——现在仍然如此。
But this moment feels different.
但这一刻感觉不同了。
It’s touching the middle class, even the wealthy.
它触及了中产阶级，甚至是富人。
The movement has spent years exposing landlord greed, only to have its demands dismissed as alarmist and overblown.
该运动多年来一直揭露地主的贪婪，但其要求却被认为是危言耸听、言过其实而被驳回。
Now, suddenly, displaced millionaires, first-time renters—they’re using our language.
现在，突然之间，流离失所的百万富翁、首次租房者——他们正在使用我们的语言。
They’re here, echoing our demands for a total rent freeze.
他们在这里响应了我们全面冻结租金的要求。
The rent gouging crisis continues.
哄抬租金的危机仍在继续。
Every week, hundreds of new listings surface, advertising illegal rents, pushing the total past 6,000.
每周都会有数百个新房源出现，刊登非法租金广告，使总数超过 6,000 个。
The Rent Brigade is tracking every single one in real time.
Rent Brigade 正在实时跟踪每一个人。
Yet enforcement is virtually nonexistent: only fourteen violators have been charged, less than 1 percent of those caught in the act.
然而，执法几乎不存在：只有 14 名违法者受到指控，不到被捕者的 1%。
The officials responsible for holding landlords accountable have done almost nothing, while some of the worst offenders happen to be major donors to their campaigns.
负责追究房东责任的官员几乎没有采取任何行动，而一些最严重的违规者恰好是他们活动的主要捐助者。
As a collective, the Rent Brigade is still figuring out what’s next for us.
作为一个集体，租赁旅仍在弄清楚我们的下一步是什么。
For now, we focus on rent gouging.
目前，我们的重点是欺诈租金。
If the Rent Brigade has a future, it will need to find new leverage, new tactics, something that strengthens the broader tenant movement while still asking the same essential question: What does it take to shift power?
如果租赁旅有未来，它将需要找到新的杠杆、新的策略，加强更广泛的租户运动，同时仍然提出同样的基本问题：如何才能转移权力？