I’m not typically a fan of negative mailers, but they’re effective. However if anyone deserves a negative mailer in this particular City Council race: it’s Tony Daysog. Some folks are getting undergarments in bunches over the negative mailer, probably because it comes directly from a labor backed independent expenditure group. You can see a copy of the mailer here.
The address side has excerpts from the great op-ed by Planning Board member David Burton, the other side has a side-by-side of how Tony Daysog failed to support Alameda’s seniors as compared to Malia Vella’s work with seniors. The IE is not just supporting Malia Vella but a whole host of candidates.
The narrative though is not undeserved. While I’m typically skeptical of Facebook pages with zero information, this one has a video that compares Tony Daysog’s vote on the hotel issue months ago and his vote on the senior facility. Essentially it shows Tony Daysog’s lack of consistency when voting. Tony Daysog may frame himself as not being beholden to special interests but instead it simply shows that either (1) his allegiances can be had for a kindly pat on the head by folks in the community that he desperately wants validation from or (2) he makes decisions arbitrarily and inconsistently. I’m not sure which is worse.
Folks that have been circling the wagons around Jennifer Roloff urging bullet votes for her and her alone are realizing that without a guaranteed third vote her partnership with Trish Spencer will be largely stymied. So, out of expediency they find themselves defending Tony Daysog.
Hopefully voters will, in the immortal words of Beyonce, “tell him boy, bye” this time around.
Blogging Bayport Alameda 
Although in the past I always voted for Tony, I already decided not to this time and I although I don’t know much about Vella, I tend to want to vote for Ashcraft and Tam. I always liked both of them. Do any of them live in the West End besides Tony?
Comment by joelsf — October 17, 2016 @ 7:02 am
Vella lives near Mastick Senior Center.
Comment by BMac — October 17, 2016 @ 8:11 am
I just spent an half hour on the phone this week-end with a very dear friend of mine who happens to be 90 years old. She has outlived two of her children, just recently losing a daughter to a serious illness. They shared a house together (mother and daughter) for the last 5 years while she cared for her 55 year old sick daughter. You’ve got to love her!
She is now looking for a senior home to move to and is on two wait lists — her hope is to stay in the Bay Area so she can be close to her remaining family including several grand children and one great grandchild.
We desperately need more senior care facilities so seniors like my dear friend can live out their remaining years with dignity and joy, and be close to their loved ones!
Comment by Karen Bey — October 17, 2016 @ 7:11 am
Ignoring the actual content, can we just take a moment to admire the catastrophe of a design that is the Tony Daysog side of this mailer? What the hell? This looks like something a child would make at school in MSPaint to put on their fridge at home. Awful stock photography? Check. Poor use of space? Check. Terrifyingly painful font and color choices? Yep. This is really amateur level “Alamedans United” — pony up the $100 or so it would cost to have this pointless mailer re-designed on fiverr and show some professionalism, really.
Comment by Rodney — October 17, 2016 @ 7:17 am
In 2010, Tony Daysog promised Alamedans that he was a “new man” who would make better, wiser, and bolder decisions. I regret that many voters drank that kool-aid,
because Daysog ha snot provided leadership on the City Council this time, either. (“Second verse, same as the first…”)
We got the same long-winded, indecisive, and self-serving Tony Daysog this time around that we had back in 1998. He reads endless prepackaged explanations of his votes straight off of his laptop screen that reveal little about the issues and his votes lack foresight or courage. Except this time he has consistently sided with corporate landlords and given renters an extra couple of stabs in the back.
I think it is time for someone with more backbone, more compassion, and more vision than Tony Daysog. We need someone who is less self-serving, more decisive, and less hot air than the incumbent.
At least renters know that Malia Vella will not ignore their concerns or stab them in the back…
Comment by Jon Spangler — October 17, 2016 @ 7:19 am
…Daysog has not provided leadership…
Comment by Jon Spangler — October 17, 2016 @ 7:29 am
At last night’s Peeps town hall it was clear to me that Ashcraft and Vella are the team we need for a more visionary, collaborative and inclusive city council.
Comment by Angela — October 17, 2016 @ 7:52 am
Interesting, Alameda county Green Party endorses Ms. Rolof, however they disagree with her on Alameda’s most controversial issue Rent control. They are in favor of M1 and agaisnt L1. makes me wonder WTF.
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Comment by John P. — October 17, 2016 @ 1:12 pm
Here is the biggest WTF of the day. Not calling out that negative smear mailer on Daysog as just flat out being totally lame and classless. Anyone that thinks that crap is ok really needs to go F themselves. And since Ashcraft and Vella are supported and promoted by that classless bunch that paid for that crap they should me mortified – and if they had any class whatsoever they would apploigize for being associated with it and immediately disassociate with that group. Oh, but that’s right, Vella says she doesn’t have any control over those IE’s. Wtf, really, we’re all stupid I guess. And she goes door to door saying to people’s faces that she doesn’t take money from public safety? Wow, that is so funny and grossly false it’s concerning – does she really not know who Alamedans United is? No different than her being “netural” on M1 I suppose. Well, from all those that I spoke to about that negitive Daysog mailer this weekend the overwhelming consensus is that they will now either vote for Mr. Daysog and/or AGAINST anyone that those jerk offs known as Alamedans United are for.
Comment by Loser Patrol — October 17, 2016 @ 2:16 pm
post # 7, so If we disagree with you we are totally lame and can go “F” our self’s.
Comment by John P. — October 17, 2016 @ 8:19 pm
Yes, but only in an unlame and classy way, natch.
Comment by Jim Meyer — October 18, 2016 @ 2:40 am
There may be perfectly good reasons to be against Daysog, but it is misleading to cast him as “anti-senior”. There are a lot of reasons to oppose a facility for dementia care on Bay Farm Island by a noisy airport and water. I oppose it and I am a senior, so obviously I am not “anti-senior”. I had a mother with dementia. I do not think the proposed site would have worked well for people requiring assisted living, let alone dementia care. Let’s be done with mudslinging and just argue the issues. Katie Cameron
Comment by Katie Cameron — October 17, 2016 @ 3:50 pm
O.K. Katie, I’m against him and I am a senior also, he has been on the council for fourteen years and I can’t think of much he has done other than make council meetings much longer by his long winded rambling always trying to keep both sides in his sights. He is not a leader. I disagree with most things Ms. Roloff has to say but at least I know where she stands unlike Mr Daysog. The issue here is that he voted for a hotel very close to where he voted against the senior care facility. Mainly because of the support of people who live on Bay Farm Island and who would not support him during this election if he voted in favor of the senior care facility. No mud sling just the issue.
Comment by John P. — October 17, 2016 @ 8:32 pm
My FIL had dementia and the number one thing he loved to do was walk around Bay Farm Island, especially shoreline, planes be damned. It’s a shame that folks used dementia care as an excuse not to build much needed senior housing to preserve their precious views -during a housing crisis no less. You can’t tell me that the builders could not have used sound proofing to lessen the potential effects of passing planes, which many dementia patients who live on Bay Farm deal with every day. Now these same patients have lost the opportunity to have dementia care in a sound-protected facility.
That Daysog fell under the sway of that argument shows how much more he cares about preserving people’s view than he is at ensuring more seniors get a chance to get top quality senior care in the communities where they live.
Comment by Angela — October 17, 2016 @ 4:21 pm
Angela, why do you want to strand frail seniors so far away from the nearest hospital? I hope you are never on the Planning Board.
Comment by vigi — October 17, 2016 @ 7:43 pm
Bay Farm fire station 3 min. away, Alameda hospital 3.7 miles away. Seniors who live on Bay Farm Island are all in the same boat. Angela, Tony “fell under the sway” of voters who live in that area and did not want that project there, he needs their votes this year as he has run out of votes on the Island.
Comment by John P. — October 17, 2016 @ 8:43 pm
The planning board approved the project. Just in case you forgot, so if I was on the planning board, I would be in good company.
Comment by Angela — October 17, 2016 @ 10:23 pm
The Planning Board was wrong to approve it, Angela. That’s why many people are questioning the intelligence of some of the current Planning Board members. That spot is zoned Administrative Professional. Residential use is not supposed to be allowed in that zone without a variance. Period. If there are members of the Planning Board, who don’t know that, what are they doing on the PB?
JP, don’t mix apples and oranges. Compare minutes to minutes, not minutes to miles. The travel time from Harbor Bay Ferry [approximate location of project] to Alameda Hospital is 13 min. So total travel time for ambulance = 16 min. Add in a few minutes to load the patient and you’re up to 20 minutes already. That may be too long to save a life.
I already am a senior. I would not want to live that far from the nearest hospital once I needed others to help care for me.
Comment by vigi — October 18, 2016 @ 9:26 am
Vigi, if Advanced Life Support is required of anyone in Alameda, Paramedics would begin treatment immediately upon arrival on the scene. “Life saving” measures are taken well before arrival at the hospital.
I’m sure you know this.
Comment by dc — October 18, 2016 @ 1:52 pm
Vigil, if Advanced Life Support is required of anyone in Alameda, Paramedics would begin treatment on the immediately upon arrival on the scene. “Life saving” measures are taken well before arrival at the hospital.
I’m sure you know this.
Comment by dc — October 18, 2016 @ 9:50 am
dc, as an MD, I have been ACLS certified during most of my career. I am acutely aware of the limitations of “life-saving” paramedic care in the field. Statistics show that even the best paramedic care is highly-time dependent. Beginning treatment is not the same as saving the patient. Time lost is blood lost. Time lost is brain lost. There is simply no substitute for the life-support materials & machines that can only be found at a hospital. Younger healthier patients are the ones most often saved in the field. Frail old ones, not so much.
Paramedics are wonderful, but if they could do it all, there would be no need of doctors & hospitals.
Comment by vigi — October 28, 2016 @ 9:14 am
That was a totally inappropriate location for a loony bin, or a homeless shelter or a drug rehabilitation center. It is a heavily trafficked Shoreline Park trail, and yes, anyone voting in favor of such a stupid idea would most certainly lose the support of Bay Farm Island voters. Tony’s reasons for voting against it made perfect sense to most of us.
Comment by BayFarmer — October 18, 2016 @ 10:31 am
Having been the full-time caregiver to my husband who had Alzheimer disease and managing the care of other relatives who needed full-time assistance, I just have to say that referring to a care facility as a “loony bin” is hurtful.
Comment by MMcG — October 27, 2016 @ 10:51 am
My apologies for hurting your feelings. Being a full-time caregiver to your husband who had Alzheimer disease makes you a Saint. Would you have been happier with the term Mental Asylum? There was a great deal of confusion and misinformation about the Shoreline Park facility. It was called a Senior Care Facility or Assisted Living Facility by its proponents. That was an attempt at misinformation, making it sound like the Mastick Senior Center or an old folks home. That is the problem with euphemisms (a mild expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing). The facility was a private luxury care center ($8K a month) for the mentally ill or insane. Bluntly, it was a loony bin (a home or hospital for people that are mentally ill). Calling it a loony bin does not engender support. Some people use euphemisms to be polite. Too many use them to mislead. A homeless facility is not the same as low income housing in most peoples minds. Folks that use low income housing to describe homeless people, are not trying to be polite. They are attempting to mislead. Everyone is entitled to use phrases they are comfortable with, but unfortunately the cost is usually clarity. Its not pro abortion or anti abortion, but pro life or pro choice. The line between courtesy and misrepresentation is a thin one with euphemisms. Accusing Tony Daysog of opposing a Facility for the Mentally Ill on Shoreline Park does not have the same ring to it as Tony Daysog opposed a Senior Care Facility. So his opponents, especially the dishonest ones, are not choosing to be polite, they are attempting to mislead. Daysog hates Seniors or Bush hates Black People. Consider the source.
Comment by Alameda Landlord — October 27, 2016 @ 10:07 pm
I am very sorry for both ashcraft and vella to lower themselves in the stinky mud of the low tide of shoreline , what did they expect reviving anyone , instead they should have taken the line of Hillary when they go low we go high …..
as far as ashcraft voting record during her tenure is not much different than Tony , Using the retirement home as a decisive factor is wrong since they basically all had the same opinion as tony , taking this in consideration they should all be removed including ashcraft , can ashcraft name 2 meaningful idea she submitted and were implemented for the benefit of the Citizen …….Yes I thought so !
Tony has always supported the School district , always supported the Fire Dept , the Police Dept , the Public Employees , not only for this term but many other …and very much supported Gay and Lesbian {this bother both ashcraft and vella} working peoples , and Minorities .
You as Voter can stop these garbage mailer as they are only that and stick to the facts , real facts , Start locally it will affect it statewide then country wide , everything start in California vote out the people behind them in this case both ascraft and vella , taking the same approach and for humanity decency do not watch these hours of Fox and CNN simply get the summary on Saturday Night Live and vote out that racist , failed business man cannot work in solving his business problem , failed husband cannot work at his marriage , but then what to expect from someone grabbing women where very extremely rare Real Man or Husband do {unless they re into sado masochist relationship ,in short sick} The republican Party needed to be reformed , they have the arson in the house ….
For the time being let’s vote out ashcraft and vella , just like for chen behind the anti mattarese campaign on previous election , We can clean up this , we need the real fact . Not trash
Comment by no on trash — October 21, 2016 @ 1:22 pm