City Council candidate profile: Joana Weber

Joana D’Arc Weber is running for City Council.   She did not submit a Candidate Statement and there isn’t a lot of information out there about her.  She doesn’t have an official website or even a Facebook page about her candidacy yet, which always makes me a little wary and bit nervous about the candidate.   While I get that running for a local office really shouldn’t be a huge expensive endeavor, the very least a person can do is to place a candidate statement about themselves in the voter guide so that there is some information about the candidate.

She did provide some information to The Alamedan for a larger City Council candidate post:

Blame it on the alcohol

At the City Council meeting tonight the City Council will hear an appeal from the owner of the 76 station on Webster Street who received the green light from the Planning Board to redesign the site, but was denied the ability to sell beer and wine at the convenience store.   Now I’ll just point out that the decision to deny the permit was unanimous and I happen to disagree with the decision.

I’m not really a fan of micromanaging things like liquor licenses.  I get the argument that the Planning Board felt as though the area was oversaturated with places selling beer and wine and didn’t want yet another place to contribute to the dissolution of the West End, but it just seems like it’s rather unfair to not allow this place to do what it can to make sure that the place can stay in business.

Staff is recommending denying the appeal which would uphold the Planning Board’s decision to deny the liquor sale.

Almost final City Council questionnaire

So a couple of weeks ago I asked folks to help crowdsource a questionnaire for City Council candidate. Ooh, speaking of City Council candidates, yesterday I received some info that one of the City Council candidates might be out of the running:

Word is that Beverly Johnson may be dropping out of #Alameda City Council race

— Lauren Do (@laurendo) August 27, 2012

That’s right, it’s not official official yet (aka there have been no press releases out of the campaign yet) but it appears that — from the rumors around town — that Beverly Johnson is dropping out of the race.   So, if true, it could be that she simply realized that she was done with the City Council.   Early rumors had reported that she was no longer interested in serving.   But now with the wrench thrown in with her appointment to the Office of Administrative Law, perhaps it has something to do with that.  I mean, the commute would be pretty hellacious.

Anyway, back to the crowdsourced questions.