Speaking as someone fortunate, like Santa Barbara Mayor Randy Rowse, to own a beautiful home here for decades, I can understand that he is out of touch with the skyrocketing rents that 60% of city residents must pay to enjoy our superb climate, great schools and civic institutions, and live-and-let-live vibe.

In a Jan. 5 commentary, “Rent Control Turns a Housing Problem Into a Class War We Don’t Need,” Rowse lamented the lack of understanding on the part of his City Council colleagues and rent-control advocates for “the reality that many housing providers are working families and retirees who worked for decades, saved responsibly, and sacrificed to purchase and maintain their properties.”

No one would dispute this, but it would be more accurate if he were to recognize that renters, too, are responsible working families and retirees who have to sacrifice daily just to be able to pay some of California’s highest rental rates.

Before any of the rest of the fortunate elite of our area repeat the same class-based claims made by Rowse about the evils of proposed rent stabilization/control provisions, I suggest folks do a bit of your own research.

It’s far too easy to talk to one’s well-to-do friends, many of whom, like my husband, own investments in what on the supply-side is known as “the residential real estate industry.”

Much harder, but potentially more revealing, is to do some research on the demand side, talking to renters to learn what are the true facts about escalating rents, and how this affects the daily lives of those forced every year to pay the 10% rent increases permitted under California’s Tenant Protection ACT?

Ask your gardener, your pilates or yoga instructor, the mobile knife-sharpener, your barber, a waiter …

In short, renters are everywhere, and in this market, many are eager to tell you their stories.

My heart bled last week when a regular service provider in my home lamented their just-received 10% rent increase notice — their fourth consecutive 10% increase — the same day they learned of a tripling of health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act.

The landlord is one of those saintly mom-and-pop folks that Rowse seems to believe would never engage in this sort of pricing.

It’s not just middle- and lower middle-class earners who are paying for the Montecito-ization of even Santa Barbara’s most modest neighborhoods.

It’s happening in fancy neighborhoods, too. A friend who pays more than $30,000 a month for a glamorous rental with ocean views is also getting gouged by annual 10% increases.

To be sure, New York-size rents aren’t the only thing making our city all but unlivable for anyone but the rich.

Everyone’s complaining about ticket prices at the Santa Barbara Bowl, a microcosm of escalating prices for concerts everywhere. Just before Christmas, I posted a photo on Facebook of our local Gelson’s price-per-pound for prime filet mignon: $69.99.

Many friends this season have heard me complaining to all and sundry that my favorite French restaurant is now charging $55 for its scallop appetizer. You read it right, an appetizer.

Where some price sticker-shock is concerned, it’s easy to pivot. We switched to tri-tip for Christmas dinner, for example, and I ordered a salad instead of scallops.

But demand for rental property, especially in an era when job creation has slowed and government jobs are being eliminated, is anything but elastic.

Average rental units in Goleta — to which folks formerly were able to move to find reasonable rents — are more than $3,500.

Commercial rents aren’t immune to this. I have long shared with Rowse two things: a concern about the ridiculous rents that are partly to blame for the empty storefronts on State Street, and a wish that city officials would at least try his solution to reopen our city’s main street to automobiles.

I wonder if anyone else has had to have a vacuum cleaner repaired recently. For many years, there was a fine vacuum store on Chapala Street, but I learned that it’s long gone. Last month, I had to drive 13 miles to Goleta to what may be the South Coast’s only vacuum repair business, Bob’s Vacuum.

I welcome the City Council’s attempt to work with community organizations, including the real estate investment industry, to craft a reasonable rent stabilization solution.