Monday, May 27, 2024

Pixar's Broken Promises Affect Schools, Affordable Housing

 Pixar Said it Would Fund Our Schools...

Where is the Money?

Tattler Protest Causes Pixar, Schools, City to 

Unite in Resistance 

City Hall, Schools Don't Seem to Want the Promised Money

Emeryville’s schools and affordable housing problems are worse today because two decades of broken promises by a local successful and beloved company that’s become one of the biggest corporations in the world.  In a deal made two decades ago for a corporate campus expansion that failed to deliver for local residents, Pixar, now a division of Disney Corporation told Emeryville voters they would fund Emeryville’s schools and give $700,000 yearly to help pay for affordable housing, neither of which has materialized. 

An election, held on November 2nd 2004, concerned whether Pixar, who wanted a major campus expansion, should be subject to a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) that would bring improvements to the Emeryville community.  Pixar, who didn't want to be beholden to a CBA said its promises to fund the schools and provide money for affordable housing were enough.  To help assure victory, Pixar told the City and residents, they would pack up and leave Emeryville if the two ballot measures allowing for the expansion didn't pass.  

The promises were not a part of the development agreement but Pixar spent more than $200,000 and went around the City of Emeryville, making their promises directly to the Emeryville voters in their 'Yes on T&U' campaign mailers sent to every household.  The majority of voters said yes, handing Pixar a victory and as a consequence, there was no CBA but the promises to fund the schools and to fund affordable housing are still in effect.    

The Tattler will continue the protest against Pixar's 
broken promises over the next few months despite the 
threats from the City of Emeryville.
The campus expansion agreement gave Pixar a very large parcel of land that was previously earmarked in the General Plan for housing and also an entire public street, the former Emery Street between Park Avenue and 45th Street.  The land consolidation made in the agreement created Emeryville’s largest ‘super block’, stretching all the way from Hollis Street to nearly San Pablo Avenue.  Super blocks are antithetical to pedestrian activity and other goals of mixed use zoning.   They are generally seen in planning circles as a hallmark of broken public policy. 


Since 2004, Pixar has failed to fund the school district at all and it has failed to pay the City for affordable housing at a rate any higher than it did before the campus expansion.  The promises were made in campaign literature mailed to every voter by the ‘Yes on T&U’ campaign committee registered with the State of California.

As the 20 year anniversary of Measures T&U approaches, the Tattler has stepped up the pressure on Pixar with a 12 foot protest banner placed at the main gate on Park Avenue.  The protest will continue on occasionally and unannounced through the summer and into November.

Pixar spent $200,000 to convince Emeryville voters, threatening
to leave if they didn't get everything they wanted.

Noteworthy in the protest, nobody from the City of Emeryville or the School District has shown any interest in getting Pixar to honor their promises.  Odd because those two agencies stand to benefit from Pixar paying the money they said they would.  In fact, the City has ‘sided’ with Pixar in the imbroglio.  In a January 19th letter obtained in a public records request, City Manager Paul Buddenhagen told Pixar Facilities Manager Patty Bonfilio, the impending protest banner would be considered a “threat to property” and he added, “we will be on alert to him”, referring to the Tattler editor.

We reached out to the School Board and the Superintendent of the District for this story but our letters and calls were not answered.  Also, Paul Buddenhagen was contacted but he did not return calls or emails.  Rounding out blanket refusals to comment was Pixar’s Director of Public Relations, Eric Zerton.  

We tried to hand out literature explaining about the broken promises to employees driving in
in the morning but none would take a flyer.  One employee expressed fear of reprisals from Pixar,
"There are cameras out here", they said.
One interesting thing we learned: Virtually EVERY Pixar employee
 drives to work.  We saw zero bikes and only one pedestrian in the hour and a half we were there.


Emeryville’s then City Manager John Flores sells the Pixar expansion to the Planning Commission (above).  
He said the suburban style development “will better meet the City’s vision for providing a more dense, vibrant urban city”.   In fact Pixar has not provided community vibrancy at all, locked away as they are in their sealed campus, with no community interaction whatsoever.  But he saved the biggest canard for last; “Pixar has been and will continue to be a major benefactor to the community, supporting the schools”, he told the decision makers.  No City Manager since then has explained the broken promise and what should be done about it.

14 comments:

  1. I think the reason city hall and the Emery schools don't seem to care is because this obviously wasn't ever legally required. They know Pixar will never give money unless they have to.

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    1. Commonly, large corporations, especially very visible ones like Pixar, donate money to local causes like public schools. They do it as a tax write off and to build up community support and good will. One would think Pixar, who makes movies for and commonly about children, would have an interest in supporting Emeryville’s public schools. So this is a bit of a mystery to us. The fact that virtually no other large corporations in Emeryville give anything to our schools tells me it may have something to do with the school district. Maybe it’s seen as too dysfunctional and a lost cause? But then again, that could make them want to help turn the district around. For the last 20 years there’s been almost no corporate giving to our district.

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  2. Didn't you oppose the parcel tax a few years back? Selective proselitism

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    1. I did come out against the third re-upping of Emery’s school parcel tax on property owners. I was in favor of the first two but the district had shown us they aren’t being responsible with the public’s money at that point. Something about spending the most money per student in Alameda County and having the lowest academic achievement in the county rubbed me the wrong way. This isn’t that though. This isn’t property taxation by force. This is corporate donation. In fact there was a quid pro quo; in return for a YES vote by the citizens, Pixar promised to fund the schools (and affordable housing). A promise is a promise, don’t you agree?

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    2. Wait, didn't they change Superintendents during that time? So more money for the district would have allowed to deploy changes. isn't this how change happens? You're very selective on your criticism which a makes you disingenuous. You also hide on spender per student without mentioning that Emery is the smallest district, so the overhead pushes this number up. You didn't mention that Emery had the lowest parcel tax rate in the county and lowest teacher salary in the county. Imagine how influential you'd be if you were at least consistent and truthful.

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    3. Why do you say ‘they’? Don’t you mean, ‘we’, Ms Anonymous?
      I reported that Emery spent the most money per student of any school district in the nine county Bay Area (by far) and netted the worst test scores in the East Bay; that’s my job. Your job is to come up with reasons for why that is. There are always lots of reasons for failures. I did my job, and now you did yours.



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  3. I don't have to! You can'r make me! --The adventures of Mr. Pix

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  4. I'm really looking forward to Inside Out 2

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  5. Pretty standard procedure for this blog: make a claim, fail to back it up with any information other than “I heard” or “so and so said” and rely on the naivety of his readers. A simple search shows Pixar pays $3M + in property taxes annually and presumably income tax on their 1000 employees that trickles down to Emeryville city services. Maybe you should be asking: where is this money going?

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    1. The sources for this story are the City of Emeryville for the information about funding for affordable housing, the Emery Unified School District for the information about school funding and the Yes on T&U campaign fliers. None of the information I supply for this story is hard to find. You can investigate for yourself. While you do that, if you can find anything that changes the story, please let me know. I will post a retraction and a correction. On top of all the tax money they pay, Pixar promised to provide an extra $700,000 per year for affordable housing and they promised to fund the EUSD every year. They have done neither of those things.

      Regarding Pixar’s normal property and other taxes they pay, there is nothing in the story that adds or subtracts from that. Again, the taxes they pay to do business are not part of this story. This story is about funding they promised above and beyond the taxes that they and every other business pays.


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  6. Did they pinky promise? Do you have a photo of Steve Jobs holding crossed fingers behind his back? Post a link to this agreement! You’re good at searching the city website and request public records.

    Share the evidence or STFU!

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    1. No “pinky” promise, just a ballot initiative campaign promise overseen by the Secretary of State of California, made to the people of Emeryville. If this is not compelling to you, and it sounds like it’s not, I invite you to move along to another Emeryville news site. The Tattler is not meant for you. It’s meant for people who take the public commons seriously and who believe in deep democracy. Move along to somewhere else where pinky promises are made please. Good luck to you.

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  7. Since you won't, I will. Here are links to the smartvoter guide (Endorsed by all 5 council members and opposed by you and your friends) that won with over 70% yes votes.
    Now point out where, as you claimed, Pixar made a commitment to fund schools and “broke a promise" by not doing so (via other means than existing tax generation).

    I'm not trying to defend Pixar, I'm just asking that you back up your claim. Maybe your argument is that the Emeryville city attorney is not litigating something that is owed per the agreement?

    https://smartvoter.org/2004/11/02/ca/alm/meas/T/

    https://smartvoter.org/2004/11/02/ca/alm/meas/U/

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    1. You are correct, I won’t give the percentage of votes Measures T&U passed by in 2004 because it’s not germane to the story. People will vote for all manner of stupid things that run against their own interests. Remember the election of Donald Trump?

      I submit to you that Emeryville voters believed Pixar when they said they would fund the schools in 2004. In part because the corporation HAD funded the schools very generously before the election. Also, they believed it because of a phenomenon I call “Pixar Love”….a condition whereby rationality takes a backseat to love of all things Pixar. Many Emeryville citizens are just giddy there’s a movie star presence in Emeryville and they will vote for that, even if it’s against their own interests. You too have displayed to me you have the affliction. You simply can not imagine a corporation will lie to help serve their bottom line, not a corporation that creates such lovable cartoon characters like Woody as Pixar does. That’s not a rational position to take but nonetheless it’s the road you’re on. Woody can’t be lying, it must be the Tattler and the guy that lives in Emeryville that takes no money for what he does.

      The thing is, I don’t blame Emeryville voters for being hoodwinked by Pixar. And I don’t blame you either. It’s not rational you, it’s you on Pixar Love. Because of that, I will now jump through the hoop you are demanding I do. This is a one time deal. I am going to only do this once. If you are still afflicted by Pixar Love after seeing what I’m going to show you (like Trump’s minions with Trump Love now claiming the jurors and their 34 guilty verdicts are all working for Biden), you can take your readership elsewhere. The Tattler is not made for people under the influence of Pixar Love or Bauters Love or Courtney Welch Love or any other irrational affliction. I don’t produce the Tattler for those kinds of people.

      I produced a video where you will find copies of the 2004 Pixar Yes on T&U campaign fliers. You’ll see the lies and you’ll see the State of California campaign committee FPPC ID # revealed (and the printer’s ‘union bug’ at the bottom). To see all this, go to my MrSophbeau YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/HeFWmOoTAiU?si=BCsZjd7l7LTFm11C


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