Emeryville Issues
Links on this page will generally point to evidence for my claims or background on why I hold my views.
Summary
- Public Safety: Reduce surveillance of public spaces, stop enabling ICE, protect our neighbors from scams, focus on crime prevention over retributive justice. Read More »
- Affordability: Push for results on affordable housing projects, force big corporations to pay their fair share, support local non-profits, protect and strengthen city services. Read More »
- Support for Small Local Business: Enable city services to do more to help small local businesses start, grow, and compete with the big chains. Read More »
- Public Health: Clear local barriers to healthcare, improve accessibility, continue to grow our city’s walkability, bike-ability, and public transportation options. Read More »
- Council Productivity: Bring organizational, communication, and management skills to the council. Enable a collaborative work environment with less drama. Read More »
Protecting Our Neighbors
Watching federal forces smash car windows, kick in doors, and drag innocent people off the street into unmarked vehicles is terrifying. Emeryville is, thankfully, a sanctuary city, and I aim to keep it that way. There are other ways I’d like to explore protecting our neighbors from unjust persecution, no matter who’s currently in charge.
I believe our citizens have the right to protest and protect their neighbors from tyrannical occupation and unjust deportations. I will work however I can to prevent our city’s resources being used against its residents.
Public Safety
As an abolitionist, I know that more police, more prisons, and harsher punishments aren’t how we prevent crime. While Emeryville police are among the best in The Bay Area, they’re no more effective than others at preventing crime. They show up after crimes are committed and help us file paperwork, but your catalytic converter is already gone.
I believe we need to provide our citizens with services beyond policing to help improve public safety. Mental health counseling and funding for local afterschool programs. Upgrading parks into active hubs for young people to gather and peacefully enjoy themselves without needing to spend a dime. Legal and bureaucratic assistance for those who find navigating the paperwork needed to get anything done especially difficult.
And finally, I want to encourage our community to get to know their neighbors. Emeryville is a lively up-and-coming city full of interesting people. Getting to know our neighbors is an excellent way to help us build safer communities. Showing up for each other when someone’s in trouble or noticing when something isn’t right can help save our local services.
Surveillance Doesn’t Keep Us Safe
On the topic of safety, I want to point out one issue that I keep seeing all over the country. Surveillance is ramping up everywhere. Speeding cameras, license plate readers, and CCTV have paved the way for bad actors to know every move we make. And we’ve paid for it with our tax dollars.
Maybe you’re not as skeptical as I am about this. Maybe you think “If I don’t do anything wrong, I should have nothing to hide.” But think about who gets to use this data. It’s not just our friendly EPD cops we run into at Rudy’s Can’t Fail. It also gets into the hands of I.C.E. and other federal agencies we may not want in there. It’s also in the hands of the third-party services who enable the technology. They can sell it to whoever they want, including stalkers, identity thieves, and pretty much anyone else who wants it. Even if they tell us they won’t do it, their databases can be breached.
Our country doesn’t properly regulate data collection and distribution. Even in California, where we have more protection than others, it’s still sparse compared to other countries. We shouldn’t let these corporate and fascist interests make us afraid of our neighbors. We need to stop handing them the keys to our private data.
Fearmongering About Public Safety
Despite all the fearmongering clickbait headlines attempting to waste our time recalling DAs and installing corporate-friendly replacements, crime is trending down and has been for decades.
Worst of all, they’re not even effective. If we look at the other cities who’ve implemented these expensive solutions, none of them have actually dropped crime significantly.
Affordable Housing
The best way to improve housing is to build more of it.
The next way to improve housing is to regulate large corporate landlords. They manipulate “market value” for rent to people paying over $2,000 a month for a studio apartment in slumlord conditions. We need to end all the ways landlords nickel-and-dime renters on top of the already exorbitant rent.
Vacancy taxes can pressure landlords to compete fairly. Or they can sell to the many folks who’d love the opportunity to own their home.
Commercial Real Estate & Small Businesses
Whenever one of my favorite small local businesses close, it’s almost always because their lease was up and the rent got too damn high. Running a small business has thousands of factors to manage, but the reason Bay Area storefronts remain empty is rent.
Most new businesses to come into our city have been national or regional brands who can afford the risk. I want small businesses to thrive here. More bodegas, family restaurants, boutiques, farmers markets, and — if I can selfishly dream for a minute — a decent video arcade.
We need to support local entrepreneurs more aggressively than the way we court these huge chains. I love that we have IKEA, Best Buy, AMC, and Uniqlo. I’m psyched about the Tokyo Central Market. (As a queer person, I could do without the Chik-Fil-A…) I want more local alternatives to these national chains that charge us more to supplement their profit in rural states.
Unhoused People & Homelessness in Emeryville
I’m appalled at encampment sweeps. I know I’d be punching well above my weight to try and take on the U.S. Supreme Court, Gavin Newsom, and other heartless representatives who salivate at the idea of ripping apart the only safety, community, and consistency many of these poor folks have in the world. But I’d damn sure try.
Supporting Emeryville Small Businesses
Beyond commercial property costs, many of our beloved small local businesses are barely scraping by right now. In the shadows of large corporate chains, they’re stuck having to compete for customers, marketing space, crime prevention resources, and assistance dealing with hundreds of confusing regulations from all levels of government above our city level.
We should continue to move forward with our big city projects, but we can’t just expect our small businesses to suck it up and endure the fallout. We need to support them quickly and directly, perhaps even financially in some cases. When we consider new regulations, we need to make sure to design them progressively so the impact on our small local businesses is minimized while big chains like Target pay their fair share.
Update: Luckily, Choc’late Mama may have found a new home, but sadly it’s no longer in Emeryville.
Public Health
Environmental justice is close to my heart. We’re an industrial city who benefits from our commercial space, but let’s make sure we continue to regulate these businesses. We must account for all kinds of pollution (including noise) before welcoming them. The planning commission is doing a great job of this recently, and I’d want to continue down that path.
Cities don’t tend to have a ton of power over making sure citizens have access to healthcare they need. I’d seek out ways to make sure everyone can find vaccines, testing kits, masks, or trustworthy health information has help finding them. Not just in times of crisis, but always — because we can’t forget about our disabled and aging population among other important issues.
Public Transit, Bike and Pedestrian Safety
A big part of public health is our ability to move around the city safely. The more we make sure our neighbors — regardless of age and ability — can access everywhere as pedestrians, joggers, and bikers, the healthier we’ll be.
One of the main reasons I chose to put roots down in Emeryville is how walkable our city is. I love that I can get almost anywhere in The Bay by hopping on the Emery-Go-Round and transferring wherever we need. All the bikes we see around our city are a sign of vibrance. Don’t even get me raving about The Greenway!
Let’s keep moving in that direction. I want to slow down cars that speed through our residential neighborhoods for a shortcut into other cities. Let’s focus less on private cars and more on pedestrian, bike, and transit safety. I want to do it in ways that benefit our local businesses with more foot traffic and fewer parking woes.
Council Productivity
Most members of our city council do their jobs in good faith and focus on solving problems effectively. A few seem to be there for self-promotion or to waste taxpayers’ time and money with delays and obfuscation.
I come to the city council with over a decade of management experience finding common ground between passionate, opinionated factions. I plan to listen, learn, and foster a cooperative atmosphere for our council. Let’s save all the time we waste bickering about petty squabbles and egos.
City Workers
Part of being a good manager is utilizing staff well. This means listening to them when they advise us on topics they have knowledge and experience in. It means treating them with respect and dignity. It means unblocking them by answering questions in a timely manner, not burdening them with tedious irrelevant side quests.
Many of our city staff have worked for us in public service longer than any council member, and will likely continue after our terms have ended. They know how things work — and don’t work — better than anyone. Let’s keep them busy, resourced, heard, and then stay the hell out of their way once they’re on task.
Sustainability
Sustainability is often described as an environmental discussion. I care deeply about that, but it’s also about setting our future selves up to succeed. I don’t believe in borrowing from our future to make politically expedient choices today. Let’s invest and reinvest in Emeryville’s future, and I think any city growing the way ours is should pay special attention to the way we grow.
We must also follow through on our commitments, even when it’s hard to balance the spreadsheets to do so. I’m disheartened by the ways other cities betray their most vulnerable citizens by pulling back on commitments to affordable housing. I don’t believe those are the types of sacrifices we should make. We could all benefit from more creativity and generosity from the haves before we ever consider taking from the have-nots.
Join Me
You can contribute, even without spending money.