NO On Measure J

Demographics Are The Coup De Grace

NO On Measure J

A Litany Of Bad Public Policy

Opinion

As Emeryville voters go to the polls on Tuesday to decide on Measure J and the nearly $400 million school rebuild project it provides for, they should maintain a healthy dose of scepticism about the contrivances of the $50,000 campaign directed at them.   Anytime public money is spent like this, we the public should insist not only on an ethical campaign based on transparency but also on rational public policy based in reason, not politics.  Unfortunately, Measure J has not supplied any of this.

The Tattler has exposed a litany of bad public policy over the last few months but perhaps the most damning reason voters should reject Measure J is the unabashed hubris coming from the backers of this ill conceived measure as it pertains to demographics.  The Tattler exposes this in a companion article entitled Measure J False Demographics Revealed, immediately below this piece.

But first the litany (with Tattler article dates):

• The lack of citizen oversight  (October 3)
• The anti-grassroots nature  (October 3)
• The reckless financing  (September 13, 19 & October 4)
• The unintended negative consequences for resident's livability  (October 17)
• The phony seismic scare tactics  (October 21)
• The lack of transparency and the unethical campaign  (September 19, 20, & October 9, 13, 15, 25)
• The false demographic findings (today)

It is the failure of the School Board and the School District along with the City Council to show how the demographics will support the school rebuild that is the most egregious failure.  They have shown that the new school will need almost 1200 Emeryville students for this thing to work; up from less than 500 we now have.   But they have either displayed a shocking lack of intellectual curiosity about how we are going to get families to move here or they have waged a campaign of disinformation about it.   

This is not the way we should be offered to support our schools and it raises the question of what's really driving this thing.  We feel the driver is simple inertia predicated on certain aging council members having launched a large construction project to glorify their legacy.  Again, the people of Emeryville should have been offered a way to support our schools without naked political ambition and irrational public policy.