The STROAD: 40th Street to Become a 'Super Stroad'

The '40th Street Multi Modal Project' Shows Emeryville Continues to Aspire to Be a Place to Travel Through On the Way to Somewhere Else

People Who Want to Travel to a Better Place Than Emeryville Will Be Helped by the $33 Million Infrastructure Project

"A stroad is a thoroughfare that combines the features of streets and roads.  Stroads attempt to be both a high speed traffic connector (a road) and a place for business and people (a street) but fails at both.  They are wide arterials (roads for through traffic) that also provide access to strip malls, drive-throughs, and other automobile-oriented businesses (as shopping streets do).  They are the most dangerous type of urbanized thoroughfare and have come under near universal criticism among city planning professionals.” WIKI

 

News Analysis

A street

Emeryville has cleared the way to make traffic on 40th Street move more efficiently through a proposed $33 million infrastructure project known as the ‘40th Street Multi Modal Project, a project that will exacerbate current problems associated with a lack of habitability and the alienating civic space created by the street.  Effectively, Emeryville is preparing to turn a ‘stroad’ into a super-stroad and any improvements for bus travel or bike travel touted by proponents are threatened to be overtaken by a greatly diminished livable space for Emeryville by the pyrrhic effects of the 'improvements'.

The project, seven years in the planning and slated to begin construction in the new year, will cost $33 million, $5.5 million of that paid by the City of Emeryville and will likely result in higher speed traffic and more people moved per hour; part of the touted efficiency.  But in so doing, it will create a reduced access ‘super-block’ grid out of existing small blocks, cutting neighborhoods off from each other with more traffic noise and more air pollution for people living nearby.  The built out project promises to reduce desirability for neighborhoods close by, as these kinds of high efficiency arterials have been shown to do.  People who don’t live in Emeryville but who travel through or commute to our town or who travel here to go to the auto-centric shopping malls Emeryville has built will benefit however.

A road

City officials insist the 40th Street project will not just help regional shoppers and people cutting through our town headed to other (more desirable) destinations, but it will also help people traveling to the planned $1 billion Sutter Health Hospital planned for Emeryville.

Proponents of the project which includes four out of five City Council members (Priforce dissenting), tell us bikes, bus users and drivers will be helped because of, rather than in spite of, the closing of 40th Street side streets.  The closing of the streets will create several 'super-blocks' of the sort that the late Canadian city planner Jane Jacobs warned us against.  She has shown how this consolidation of small blocks into super-blocks in the street grid devalues the neighborhood.   Discounting the Jacobs inspired city planning ethos (begun as a 1960's scrappy rebellion, now turned into orthodoxy), the proponents of the project have shown how traffic will move more efficiently, including bus traffic and bike traffic, with fewer (side street) conflicts.  Between Adeline Street and Halleck Street, there are currently nine small blocks that intersect 40th Street.  After the $33 million project is complete, that number will be reduced to six large super blocks.

Traffic engineers have long worked to increase flow rate efficiencies without concern for livability downgrades for people living nearby.  The real estate market has long shown how major arterials, including stroads and freeways, reduce value for home prices and there is nothing about the 40th Street Multi Modal Project that would suggest the improvement for traffic efficiencies it will bring will be any different.  Indeed, the market has shown people like their communities to be quiet as far as traffic goes, with the low speeds and volumes that low efficiency streets bring.  

A stroad
40th Street in Emeryville

Emeryville has three existing stroads: Powell Street, San Pablo Avenue and 40th Street.  These corridors exhibit all the negative effects of stroads: induced demand traffic congestion, high volume, high noise and pollution, danger, and other intangibles that equal a high ‘ick’ factor.  Improving the carrying efficiency of 40th Street, a street that already embodies these bad qualities, will only worsen the civic space.  It threatens to turn a stroad into a super-stroad.

Stroads are part of a rationally based modernist vision for cities.  Traffic engineers are taught the rationality of efficiency in graduate schools.  Towns that throw their transportation plans over to traffic engineers as Emeryville has done, tend to get less than desirable places.  Robert Moses, the formerly great urban planning expert knew about moving people with the greatest efficiency; he's the godfather of the top-down urban renewal ethos of the 1950s and '60s that bulldozed entire neighborhoods to build massive freeways cut through all across America.  His star however has been dimmed in recent years by people demanding more democratic control of their cities.  In this milieu, stroads seem to be a part of the last vestiges of this heavy handed vision of how not to create livable urban spaces.  The YIMBY movement too is part of the anti-democratic top-down Robert Moses vision but is not a vestige, rather it is a new iteration of the Moses vision.  YIMBYists' propose stroads to be used to connect their apartment towers to freeways for 'easy in, easy out' commuting to help developers maximize profits.    

The 40th Street Multi Modal Project calls into question what Emeryville is for.  Is it a place for people to come to, get stuff and leave?  Is it a place for people to travel through on their way to someplace else (more desirable)?  Is it a place where the politics have tried (and failed) to create a nice place to live or to be?  Stroads are built by municipalities that have no pride.  They are built by towns that pay deference to corporations seeking to make a profit.  After a couple of decades of Emeryville granting developers approvals to build auto centric sprawling shopping malls with big box retail surrounded by acres of parking lots, after another couple of decades building massive auto centric all-rental housing projects that are linked to the shopping malls and the freeway by stroads, after making Emeryville a place to get through in order to get to a place people desire to be, perhaps we should be turning stroads into streets as opposed to super-stroads.  

After spending $33 million on this project, it would seem Emeryville's future is already decided for the next 40 years, the useful life of this expensive infrastructure.  Desirability is out and moving people more efficiently by use of rational traffic management is in.  Regardless, people don't like being near stroads, living or lingering and Emeryville residents will be able to use the 40th Street Multi Modal Project for decades to come to travel from the place they live to places they want to be....places not run by developers and traffic engineers.

The 40th Street Multi Modal Project is HERE.

Robert Moses is HERE.

YIMBY is HERE.

Jane Jacobs is HERE.

Councilman Priforce Returns to Duties: YIMBY, Haters Upset

 

Priforce on the Mend But Haters & His Detractors at YIMBY Still Hurting

Kalimah Priforce returned to his City Council duties Tuesday after being struck by a car and injured last week while riding his bike.  The accident occurred on San Pablo Avenue in front of Emeryville Citizens Action Program (ECAP) in Oakland where Mr Priforce was volunteering his time to hand out food to needy community members in the wake of the federal government’s partial suspension of SNAP food benefits.  

Even though Council member Priforce broke his shoulder in two places and may require up to a year to recover full use of his left arm, he attended Tuesday’s Council meeting, his arm in a sling and helped distribute food to needy families enrolled at Emery schools at the Center of Community Life on Monday.  Said Mr Priforce about the quick bounce back, “Volunteering with families, being present in council chambers, staying connected to the work is what gives me strength.”

Family Food Donation Drive at ECCL
Council member Priforce (on left)
helped give out food Monday with his
right hand.

Despite being in considerable pain, the Councilman put on a happy face, “Healing has been slow, painful, and humbling, but the people of Emeryville keep me moving. Even with limited mobility, even on the days when it takes twice as long just to get dressed or make it across town without my bike, I show up because our community shows up for each other” he told the Tattler.

Unsurprisingly in today’s Emeryville where it seems much is made to service a procrustean binary narrative, YIMBY and YIMBY adjacent members of the community have used the progressive Councilman’s injury to forward a political aim.  On Emeryville specific social media, anonymous sources have impugned Mr Priforce’s injury stating he is faking it (presumably to take away community sympathy from the sole progressive on the Council) or to malign the Councilman’s ideas about the 40th Street Multi-Modal Project, a project idea promoted by YIMBY.  Mr Priforce, for the record, has expressed concerns that the 40th Street proposed project does not increase bike safety as much as it takes away from resident livability and small businesses ability to continue doing business.  Others have also called out the lack of resident desirability of the fast tracked public works project (see future Tattler story) but the YIMBY organization has sought to question the legitimacy of views that don’t exactly meet their desires for the project. 

Mr Priforce remains undaunted in the face of his injury or the subsequent anonymous internet attacks, “Public service doesn’t pause when life gets hard” he said as he handed out food to hungry neighbors.

The 40th Street Multi-Modal Project is a proposal to eliminate side streets, making large ‘super blocks’ to facilitate more and higher speed traffic for 40th Street.  YIMBY California is a corporate backed Sacramento lobbying firm, active in Emeryville, that seeks to increase the profits of Real Estate Investment Trust Corporations by taking away local democratic control of public housing policy.

The Councilman was injured but let me take this opportunity to trash him for disagreeing with YIMBY.

What I mean to say is the lone progressive on the Emeryville City Council faked this bike accident.

Priforce 'Severe' Shoulder Breaks, Released From Hospital

 Council Member Priforce Hit By Car: Recovering at Home, Shoulder broken in two places

Emeryville City Council member Kalimah Priforce was released from Highland Hospital Wednesday after having spent the night in the emergency department as a result of being struck by a car Tuesday.  The Councilman sustained a broken shoulder in two locations and other minor injuries after the car struck him while he was riding his bike to volunteer at ECAP to help distribute food to needy community members.

The shoulder injury is very painful the Councilman reports and he may still have to undergo surgery according to his surgeon.  The shoulder break is severe and he may take up to a year for a full recovery he indicated.  

It is unknown at this time if Mr Priforce will miss the next Council meeting scheduled for November 18th.  He is currently on pain medication and waiting for a call to return to the hospital for further treatment.  

Breaking: Council Member Priforce Hospitalized, Struck By a Car

 Council Member Priforce, On Bike, Hit By Car

Breaking News

Emeryville City Council member Kalimah Priforce was struck by an automobile and injured at the site of the Emeryville Citizens Assistance Program (ECAP) at 2628 San Pablo Avenue in Oakland this afternoon.  The extent of Mr Priforce’s injuries are unknown but are not life threatening it is being reported.  

Reportedly, Council member Priforce was traveling to ECAP to help with the volunteer food drive initiated last week as a result of the curtailment of the federal food assistance SNAP program.  It is reported the driver did not attempt to flee the scene.   Mr Priforce is currently being attended to at Highland Hospital’s emergency department.

The Tattler will report when more info is obtained.

Introducing the Tattler Free Food (and book) Table

Food Insecurity in the Community Is Growing

Can You Pitch in a Little?

The Tattler Asks Our More Fortunate Neighbors To Help Out

The Tattler has installed a free food table at the corner of Horton Street and Sherwin Street and we invite anyone who is struggling to feed themselves to stop by and take what you need for you and your family whenever you need it.  Conversely, to our neighbors who may be more fortunate, you are invited to leave food at the table whenever you are able.  Even small donations are helpful. The table will not be staffed.    It is just designed for unrewarded and unrecognized human kindness to push back against this toxic government in Washington (and to help a hungry neighbor eat). 

It is a trifling thing for neighbors to pitch in when they’re walking their dog and such. Non-perishables are best but if the table starts to become a high turn over thing, fruits and vegetables will be able to be left.  We ask that donations start out with non-perishables, please.  The Tattler will report on the goings on at the food table from time to time.

The Bay Area, including Emeryville and the environs, have long been a locus of food insecurity for the working poor owing to inherent problems with American style capitalism with its high rents in places where relatively high paying jobs are located.  This has been made even more manifest with the rise of Trump 2.0 of course and we feel we must act now to ameliorate some of the suffering of our less fortunate neighbors.  There’s quite a lot of disposable income among our neighbors in the Park Avenue neighborhood and all around us is suffering.  We hope our Emeryville neighbors agree and give what and when they can.

Please keep in mind donating, even just one can of food, is an act of kindness of course, but it is also a highly radical act of resistance against the forces of darkness that seem to be closing in all around us.  Take a can of food with you on your nightly dog walk and include a stop at the Tattler Free Food Table and you can help your dog as well as help your own connection to the community. 

Books will also be left on the table.  To start, are titles by JG Ballard, Carl Jung, Gore Vidal, Al Franken, John Powers and Glen Greenwald.  If it is going to rain, we ask the books be left in sealable plastic bags.

The first food offerings for the table include mostly nutrition dense foods such as packaged granola, pickled lupini beans, almonds, trail mix and honey packets. 

 

Emeryville City Hall Celebrates 'Peace in the Park' While Supporting the War in Gaza

 'Peace in the Park' : Government Propaganda

City Council Likes War Depending on Who is Being Killed

“Government propaganda is the systematic dissemination of information and ideas by a government to influence public opinion and behavior in order to promote a particular agenda. It often uses emotional appeals, selective facts, or misleading information to shape how people perceive political realities.“ -Wiki

Despite the City Council’s refusal to support a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, the City of Emeryville held a city wide celebration of world peace in October, seemingly oblivious to that two year war that has killed some 70,000 Palestinians including 20,000 children.  The City is instead focused on celebrating world peace by hosting an event in Christie Avenue Park filled with fun and frivolity, 7500 miles away from the war.  To people not paying close attention, the message received would be that Emeryville likes peace.  That was probably the idea.

Emeryville’s counter factual anti-war propaganda campaign has recently taken the form of the City sanctioned event October 18th called “Peace in the Park”, an event that represents the antithesis of an earlier Council majority vote to not allow council discussion of peace in Gaza.  This Council majority is so pro-war, they will not even allow discussion amongst themselves of a proposal to resolve they are against the killing of Palestinian children.  The five Council members made it be known they are against  Ukrainian children being killed however.

The City Council voted to not allow any discussion of a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza (4-1 Priforce dissenting),  December 5th 2023, after they earlier voted unanimously for a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine.  Responding to Tattler questions about that double standard, Mayor David Mourra said the City of Emeryville “should not get involved in international politics, including foreign wars” despite the fact that he himself voted for the ceasefire in Ukraine on the Council.  Follow up questions about the Council double standard went unanswered by Mr Mourra and by the rest of the Ukraine supporting Council majority.

The sparsely attended Peace in the Park event at Christie Avenue Park featured booths and tents calling for world peace with some not for profit organizations, church groups and private companies taking part as well as tents for the Emeryville Police Department and Emery Unified School District. 
 

On a side note, the editor of the Tattler distributed flyers at the event, alerting celebrants of the City’s double standard for resolutions concerning foreign wars.  Taking umbrage with the open leaflet distributing, an Emeryville police officer physically battered the Tattler editor.  An investigation of the incident is currently underway by the police department's internal affairs division. 

Emeryville's 'Peace in the Park' celebration was
sparsely attended despite the City's wall to wall
advertising for the event.

Because no one at City Hall would speak about the Council majority’s support for a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine while refusing a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Palestinians in Gaza, it is taken as a self-evident fact that this Council majority dislikes some wars but they like some other wars.  Some would question: is it a matter of the ethnicity of the people that are being killed in the war that determines the Council's support or rejection? Are Palestinian children more expendable than Ukrainian children?   None on the City Council majority that voted against the ceasefire in Gaza would answer that question.  But the whole City Council and City Hall want us to know they are in favor of world peace (at least in the park).

Here's how the votes on the two proposed war resolutions went:

Russia/Ukraine War Resolution (is Emeryville against the war?)

(former) Mayor John Bauters:           YES

Council member David Mourra:        YES

Council member Sukhdeep Kaur:    YES

Council member Courtney Welch:    YES

Council member Kalimah Priforce:    YES

Israel/Gaza War Resolution (is Emeryville against the war?)

(former) Mayor John Bauters:        NO

Council member David Mourra:    NO

Council member Sukdeep Kaur:     NO

Council member Courtney Welch:    NO

Council Member Kalimah Priforce:     YES

Democratic Citizen Accountability Program Suspended at City Hall: No Explanation Given

Once Popular 'Coffee With the City Manager' Program Suspended 

Emeryville Citizens Used to Be Able to Speak Directly With Their City Manager Under the Program

No Longer

Emeryville’s new City Manager, La Tanya Bellow announced she would not be re-starting the former citizen engaging ‘Coffee With the City Manager’ program after having pondering over it during the first 100 days of her job as city manager.  The democratically minded program was discontinued in 2020 because of Covid but before that, the popular program enabled normal citizens to engage face to face with the most powerful government official at their City Hall.  Ms Bellow told the Tattler that while she has shuttered the Coffee Program indefinitely, she is not necessarily averse to someday re-starting it.  She did not say why she would not meet with citizens through the program.

Emeryville City Manager
La Tanya Bellow
Not a fan of transparency or 
citizen engagement. 

The government in Emeryville has long made proclamations regarding the inclusionary and democratic existential nature of City Hall and they proved it in 2014 when the popular program was initiated under former City Manager Sabrina Landreth.  Under the program, citizens could just drop by without making an appointment and speak freely with the city manager in the city manager’s office during the three hour period once a month.  

Despite ending the once a month citizen engagement, Ms Bellow, who makes $315,0000 per year, has made statements touting her approachability for regular people.  Before her hiring in January, she told the City Council she was a “committed public servant” who could be counted on to lead Emeryville’s government “with transparency, with integrity and with collaboration…with the members of this community”.  That may have been what she was thinking at the time but after settling in at her Park Avenue corner office, apparently she seems to have had a re-think.




Lack of accountability has a long tradition at Emeryville City Hall.  Before the democratically minded City Manager Landreth, Emeryville’s City Manager John Flores, for years, regularly scheduled closed-to-the-public meetings in the city manager's office with the Chamber of Commerce board president, every Monday morning at 9:00 to discuss anything that the Chamber, a private corporation, wanted to discuss.  The Chamber of Commerce, who received large amounts of money and favors from City Hall, likely discussed that and more at these regularly scheduled private meetings in the City Manager’s office.   

Former City Manager 
Sabrina Landreth
She had a democratic view
of government.  She liked to 
hear from regular citizens.

Uncomfortable with the lack of accountability and transparency, the Tattler suggested that perhaps regular people should also have a regularly scheduled time to interface one-on-one with their government.  The idea was forwarded that every month, regular citizens could freely express their ideas, suggestions or complaints directly to the city manager at their seat of government.

Although the secretive John Flores was not fond of that idea and he refused it, the democratically inclined Sabrina Landreth agreed with the Tattler and she began the program that ultimately became very popular with Emeryville citizens.  Notably, the Emeryville Police Department initiated its own "Coffee With a Cop' program patterned after the success of the city manager program, building it into their 'community policing' policy.  EPD still continues on the popular program.


The Coffee With the City Manager Program continued until Covid and the manager at the time, the former Paul Buddenhagen, did not restart it after Covid had passed, regardless of citizen requests.  Ms Bellow continues on with the refusal, despite all her highfalutin citizen engagement rhetoric.  

After she was hired, the Tattler inquired about Coffee With the City Manager and Ms Bellow indicated she would decide and make an announcement about it in the “first 100 days” of her administration. Announcing her refusal to re-start the program, she assured the Tattler she is “focused on meeting the community where they are to foster a more inclusive and responsive dialogue” after noting that her contact with the Tattler was a violation of the City Attorney’s order that no government officials may communicate with the Tattler in any way.  “I am making this one time exception” she said. 

Council Decision: Committee Selection at City Hall Will No Longer be Subject to Public Scrutiny

“Efficiency” Touted as Reason Why What Formerly Was Public Must Now Be Behind Closed Doors

“That is Not Democracy, That is a Closed Loop”

City Council member Kalimah Priforce reports how public accountability is being taken away by a recent Council majority decision to cut citizens out of longstanding City Hall committee selection process.  At the September 9th City Council meeting, the Council changed the status of Emeryville committees from 'standing' to 'ad hoc' in order to get around California law meant to keep processes publicly accessible.

 

By Kalimah Priforce

What this Council was asked to do on September 9th is not just a matter of “efficiency.”  Let’s call it what it is: a quiet consolidation of power.


We are being told that committee appointments will now be screened in small rooms, by just a couple of Council members, and then slipped onto the consent calendar for approval.  No debate.  No discussion.  No public scrutiny.


That is not democracy.  That is a closed loop.  And Emeryville knows this story - we lived through it in the John Bauters era.  The back-channeling, the rubber-stamping, the chilling of dissent.  We paid the price for it.


Now we are told this is about “streamlining.”  Well, let me tell you: corruption is always streamlined.  Inequity is always streamlined.  When you cut out public process, when you silence debate, when you bury decisions in the consent calendar - you are greasing the wheels for insider politics and shutting the public out.

The Brown Act is crystal clear.  Ad hoc committees are supposed to be temporary, narrow, and dissolved when the job is done.  If they meet every year, if they take on standing jurisdiction, they must be open to the public.  Period.  Pretending otherwise is playing with fire.

Look at Anaheim.  Look at Bell.  Both cities thought they could cut corners, centralize decisions, and keep the public in the dark.  And what did it lead to?  Scandal.  FBI raids.  Corruption.  Broken trust that took years to rebuild.


And now Emeryville is flirting with the same mistake.


Enough is enough.  If we care about equity, if we care about diversity, if we care about trust in this city, then we cannot funnel power into fewer hands.  Keep appointments at the full Council.  Let the public see who we choose and why.  That’s how you build faith in government.  That’s how you expand democracy.


 

Anything less is a Trojan horse. Anything less is a step backward.

Kalimah Priforce is an Emeryville City Council member.  He was elected to office in 2022.

Emeryville Launched Novel Legal Effort to Silence the Tattler

City's Tattler "Communication Plan" Is Really A Non-Communication Plan 

By Mr X

Emeryville’s administration is attempting to muzzle the city’s independent news service, erecting roadblocks to news-gathering and threatening the publication’s editor with prosecution. 

Oddly echoing events playing out in Washington DC, local leaders have enacted an executive order barring the Tattler’s editor from any vocal or written interaction with any city employee. 

According to a 'communication plan' drafted by City Attorney John Kennedy, Tattler editor Brian Donahue may only communicate with city elected leaders, officials or employees during the ‘public comment’ period of city council meetings. Under state regulations, city officials, elected leaders and employees are all barred from addressing concerns raised during public comment. 

Kennedy, in a memo sent to the Tattler in October, describes the Editor’s news-gathering and reporting as "harassment," “aggression,” “threatening,” “intimidating,” and “hostile,” attempting to conjure a linguistic context for his actions. Exactly the types of terms the Administration in Washington has leveled at news outlets not offering fawning, supplicating coverage. 

A bizarre attempt by Kennedy to add gravitas by citing case law, undermines his own memo, and the constitutionality of his actions potentially resulting in financial liability for the City of Emeryville. One case, Minn. Bd. Commun. for Colleges v. Knight, 465 U.S. 271 (1984) concerns unrepresented groups attending meetings for unionized employees during contract negotiations, the other, L. F. v. Lake Wash. Sch. Dist. concerned an aggrieved parent and communications with the teachers of that parent’s children and school and district officials—not an entire city. Regardless, on-going bi-weekly meetings between the parent and school officials were established. 

While this effort to restrict and eventually destroy an independent voice in Emeryville plays out in court, perhaps the most troubling aspect is how closely local officials are adhering to and advancing President Trump’s effort to silence inconvenient voices. The Emeryville Tattler must be fairly effective.

Mr X, besides working for the Tattler, was a reporter for the Oakland Tribune and several other print
publications, two NPR affiliates in Northern California and received an Edward R Murrow award for his work covering wildfires in Northern California. 

Silencing journalism increases group think, stifles public participation and decreases critical thinking.

John Bauters' Future Is Guided By His Conspicuous Association With Plutocrats

Is John Bauters a Snake?

Well Sure, But Emeryville Residents Don't Need a National Reality TV Show to See It.

News Analysis

The regional Bay Area press corps over the last year has spilled a lot of ink on the public foibles and discernible antics of former Emeryville mayor John Bauters; from his whiplashing but losing bid for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to his dramatic appearance on a nationally syndicated reality TV show where he shocked many when he quipped about himself as a politician who’s good at lying and manipulating people.  Many of these Bauters’ watchers have settled on the TV show as an ‘aha’ moment that reveals his real nefarious motives in the world of politics.  But for all his impolitic and outlandish statements on the TV show, the real revelations about John’s political proclivities come from the job he took as executive director of a billionaire funded right wing political action committee before the TV show even went to air. 

He told Alameda County voters he was a progressive:
and it's true he's gay and he rides a bike.
Plutocrats and Emeryville residents however knew
otherwise.   Others found out about John from the TV show.

 

Regardless of the lavishly funded campaign highlighting his progressive bonafides for the Supervisor’s race last fall, an effort that attempted to conceal his corporate connections and his true heart’s desire, Bauters’ move to bail from politics and accept a job as executive director at the billionaire funded astroturf organization Revitalize East Bay (and Abundant Oakland ©) immediately after he lost his bid for Supervisor, is what informs, not the TV show.  That post election move, directly into the billionaires’ warm embrace, was a shock to many of his political supporters outside of Emeryville that had seen John as a true blue progressive.  For Emeryville residents who know him however, John’s ‘transformation’ from grassroots to astroturf was no transformation at all, it was always just astroturf.

Settling in at Revitalize East Bay, Bauters went to work right away for the investor owned utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric, a major contributor.  Progressive Oakland City Council member Carroll Fife had brought California Senate Bill 332, the Investor-Owned Utilities Accountability Act to a council approval resolution and through the graces of Revitalize East Bay, PG&E used Bauters’ political skills to try to talk Fife down.  He told the Councilwoman PG&E being held accountable as per AB 332s provisions, would drive the utility to pull charitable contributions to Oakland non-profit groups and it would send an anti-business message to Oakland businesses and start ups looking to locate in Oakland.  Bauters told Oaklandside he spoke with Fife to convince her to meet with PG&E and take out of the bill anything offensive to them.  Council member Fife refused and Bauters helped the Oakland resolution go down to defeat per PG&E’s wishes.  Interestingly, the Emeryville City Council voted on a resolution to support AB 332 earlier when the political climate in tiny, inconsequential Emeryville was able to fly under the PG&E radar.  Mr Bauters was still on the Emeryville Council and receiving Revitalize East Bay campaign funding but not directly working for them as he is now.  

What Mr Bauters and his employer finds objectionable about SB 332 is that it would immediately curb PG&E’s corporate abuses that have impaired service reliability, inflated customer rates (now the second highest in the nation), and criminally endangered public safety.  But more importantly, SB 332 lays the groundwork for democratically replacing PG&E and other Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs) with a “not-for-profit” public utility, historically a hair-on-fire no go for the utility giant (as we saw in the 2010 Prop 16 fight).

While many are now opining about John Bauters’ future and the surprise so many East Bay progressives have displayed following the reality TV show, it is unclear what actually lies in the future.  Many of these prognosticators were  Bauters voters in the Alameda County Supervisors race, followers who now likely feel hoodwinked after what he said to the national TV audience.  Some are predicting he will return to politics and like the defeated 1960 presidential hopeful Richard Nixon’s appearance on the Jack Par show in 1961 was transformational to a come back, Bauters will be able to leverage his TV fame and return to rise like a phoenix.  But the trouble for Bauters is his right wing connections that have been made clear through his Revitalize East Bay hiring.  His association with this plutocratic PAC will not be possible to conceal to Bay Area voters.  Revitalize East Bay reveals his true allegiances and it is likely any Bay Area political run is now out of reach for him for the foreseeable future.  What has been revealed is the only reason Mr Bauters was able to get within striking distance of political power in left wing Alameda County last November was his deftness at concealing his right wing nature (despite the tiny Tattler’s reporting before the election).

All this doesn’t preclude a Bauters run at electoral politics in a conservative district outside the left wing Bay Area of course.

The Tattler reached out to John Bauters for this story but inquiries were not returned.