The final list people, these are you candidates for 2022:
There was a late addition on Tuesday (which we didn’t get to see until Wednesday) which would have made the list more…interesting:
August 18, 2022
August 17, 2022
To the pain
Lest you guys think that I’m only picking on Paul B, I’ve got plenty of critique for other candidates as well. Next up, Bill Pai, who I almost always now want to type as “Bill Pain” because of this:
I was hoping, given Bill Pai’s business-y bent he would understand how things get funded, but alas, his bit on housing and sea level rise shows that he does not. However it is interesting that the two Bay Farm candidates are so concerned about sea level rise and yet reluctant to take truly meaningful attempts to combat climate change and sea level rise, instead using it as an excuse of why we can’t build in Alameda.
(more…)August 16, 2022
Balancing act
Folks this is my new favorite twitter thread in light of the upcoming election and the Housing Element discussion. Outgoing City Council member John Knox White tweeted the Cool Climate project and connected it to discussions around the Housing Element:
This could have applied to any number of the potential candidates. It is, in fact, one of my annoyances with Alameda progressives who make all the right noises about climate change but then bar building housing closer to job center forcing people to drive from Fairfield to get to their jobs because they can’t afford to live where people who use metal straws and drive electric vehicles have control over land use.
But, it drew the comments of one City Council candidate:
(more…)August 15, 2022
Seriously
Someone over the weekend reminded me as to the existence of this “resolution” from the Harbor Bay HOA and as I scrolled I remembered that City Council Candidate Bill Pai had signed the resolution, what I was surprised to see was that City Council candidate Paul Beusterien also signed the resolution.
If you remember this was the Harbor Bay HOA’s collective attempt to get the City to, essentially, exempt Bay Farm from doing anything at all regarding the Housing Element. It’s an interesting document to review in light of both these gentleman running to be elected to the City Council to represent ALL of Alameda considering that they signed on to a document which wanted their own neighborhood to abdicate all responsibility to help to meet the RHNA which was allocated for all of Alameda and not just the main island portion.
(more…)August 12, 2022
Running up that hill
That’s it folks, we have our roster of candidates for the office of Mayor as the filing period closed yesterday:
Yes it will be a head to head, I mean I know there’s Barack D. Obama Shaw right there but my guess is that he won’t play nearly as much of role as Frank Matarrese did when he ran for Mayor, of Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft vs Trish Spencer once again. I’ll probably sound like a broken record by the end of this election but, at this point, anyone who still votes for Trish Spencer for anything is voting for obstruction and stagnation. If you’re a conservative and that’s what you’re looking for then she’s your candidate. But if you’re a purported Democrat and appalled by the obstruction and stagnation (and really, the backsliding of progress) that we’re seeing on a national level and you’re STILL supporting Trish Spencer and will happily vote for her then maybe you need to do some deep soul searching as to how “progressive” you truly are. While Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft hasn’t been great on all issues all the time in the end she’s still not Trish “when will homeless encampments not exist” Spencer.
The City Council race is extended because Councilmember John Knox White is not running for re-election. A quick look at the folks who have already qualified for the City Council portion should greatly concern Tony “I only want to house homeless unwed teen moms” Daysog:
(more…)August 11, 2022
IOU
The latest drop of who is thinking of running for City Council has a familiar name of a perennial candidate and no I’m not talking about Trish Spencer, Tony Daysog, or Jim Oddie. No it’s Amos “actually Italian citizens had it just as bad as Japanese Americans during WWII” White.
There’s a bit of an outstanding issue with Amos White and his 2020 campaign though which I was tipped off to based on someone’s PRA that was posted on Twitter. According to the emails between Amos White, his campaign treasurer, and the City Clerk’s office it appears that Amos White still owed a fair bit of money to the City of Alameda for his candidate statement. I’ve pared down the email document because it’s pretty repetitive and hard to find the full thread. This is the most complete bit I could find with the most recent correspondence between the parties:
(more…)August 10, 2022
Ground and aground
Not much to see or listen to other than some real normal public comment from opponents of the Wellness Center likening the process of determining whether or a historic nomination to “priests abusing young boys.”
Because some folks couldn’t wait until the end of the meeting they decided to hijack the consent calendar public comment period:
I mean, that was the absolute highlight but, of course there was more special comments in the open comment section which was referenced in the comments section beginning with the nominating party herself who spoke to her disappointment with not being able to present their nomination and even though acknowledged that they were the only person who wrote the nomination proceeded to use “we” statements intermittently throughout the comment. Oh and they also gave a shout out to William Burg on the SHPO staff.
August 9, 2022
Unprecedented
I was going to write about some of the public comment at the SHRC meeting on Friday but this seems bigger:
August 8, 2022
Integrity
Every one who sent a letter to the State Historic Resources Commission opposing the Maritime School nomination should take a victory lap right now. It was the collective action of folks who refused to allow this historic nomination process to be weaponized against the voiceless and vulnerable which has (hopefully) ended the reign of terror against the Wellness Center. I mean, we all thought that the kitchen sink had already been thrown at the Wellness Center but it wasn’t until this nomination marched its way through 15 months of humoring (and helping) by the staff at SHPO that we all realized how far opponents would go to stop the project. And it seems like all it really took was the SHPO herself visiting the site and realizing there was no there, there.
August 5, 2022
Ends justify the means
Looks like I’m not going to make it to the first two bibliography pages folks but you can see links for the first two pages here. Today is the SHRC meeting to about the McKay site but I’m not 100% sure that the appeal process that is being followed is 100% correct here, nonetheless, it’s on still on the agenda.
To be honest seeing the SHRC and their support staff in action at the last meeting I didn’t have a lot of hope that anyone was going to stop this nomination train from plowing through. It’s clear that SHPO/SHRC are working with a playbook that is heavily skewed toward getting these nominations approved no matter what and it doesn’t matter rules they bend on the way to getting there. After seeing the emails between the nominating party at SHPO/SHRC staff it feels like it was going to get there eventually given the amount of effort being put in by SHPO/SHRC staff themselves to get it done.
Take for example the designation of St Francis Wood as historic, the SHRC absolved itself of any of the impacts that would happen as a result of this designation because they believe that their decisions should happen in a vacuum and unconnected to what happens after that designation. It’s also disappointing to see this article not even mention the lack of meaningful discussion and the, possibly, incorrect reading of whether AFFH affects how SHRC should make decisions. From the article:
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