tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83947119268538018112024-03-16T02:21:17.612-07:00The Emeryville TattlerThe Emeryville commons, from the residents' perspectiveUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1453125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-561259484808410332024-03-14T23:13:00.000-07:002024-03-14T23:13:02.165-07:00Emery Sued For School Campus Rapist<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Emery School District Sued For Negligence in Campus Rape Case</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span> San Jose based law firm announced yesterday they are representing a 16 year old Emery High School girl who alleges she was forcibly raped on campus by a school district employee last November. The complaint for childhood sexual damages, filed with the Superior Court of California at Alameda County today, seeks damages for sexual assault of a minor, negligent hiring by District employees and negligent supervision by the District. The perpetrator, Daniel Parham, a 2020 graduate of Emery High School who took employment at the school as a security guard, was arrested and charged with statutory rape according to a press release issued by the law firm Cerri, Boskovich & Allard. He posted bail and currently awaits trial. </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4lDVsmNHkp_rNmpyM4gN-qUECXnnaULoldS_sLOHrIhjkA9tRMQRrkcnblxftyl20ajSEPPN2ihTMwJ3gBgKNB1z8y4QKem18iCv3CXxwWjW0qr-so3Xp1uxRoG3INUcfUeVpD2fakURNg91eCQ1_npe8nYobViZhPyrh7ZAKZM0ghe4XArrsl7sFExQ/s4032/IMG_4252.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4lDVsmNHkp_rNmpyM4gN-qUECXnnaULoldS_sLOHrIhjkA9tRMQRrkcnblxftyl20ajSEPPN2ihTMwJ3gBgKNB1z8y4QKem18iCv3CXxwWjW0qr-so3Xp1uxRoG3INUcfUeVpD2fakURNg91eCQ1_npe8nYobViZhPyrh7ZAKZM0ghe4XArrsl7sFExQ/s320/IMG_4252.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Lax Security at Emery School Campus</b><br />This unattended self closing gate was left propped<br />open Tuesday, something that happens "all the time" <br />according to a City employee.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>The complaint alleges Emery employees breached their duty to protect the safety of the students in their care by “permitting the plaintiff to be isolated [with the perpetrator] in the senior center and/or the science room and/or the gym office behind closed/locked doors and/or failing to detect and deter such isolation.” Also alleged, Mr Parham “groomed” the girl, discussing intimate topics with her over one-on-one electronic communications. After gaining the Plaintiff’s trust, he went on to sexually assault her (including intercourse) on school grounds on at least three different occasions from late October 2023 through early November 2023.<br /><p></p><p>The security guard had been frequently groping other students and allegedly further sexually assaulted at least one other minor female on “multiple” occasions on campus. </p><p>Emery has been negligent when students have been sexually assaulted on campus before. In 2017, a previous <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2017/08/alameda-county-district-attorney-brings.html">Superintendent failed to report to the police</a> an incident as is required by California law.</p><p>A spokesperson for Emery’s Superintendent, Quiauna Scott, told the Tattler the District would issue a statement “next week”. </p><p><br /></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-16124280065506234512024-03-10T15:51:00.000-07:002024-03-10T16:02:56.224-07:00City Manager Will Not Re-Start Regularly Scheduled Meetings With Citizens<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Formerly Popular 'Coffee With the City Manger' Program Cancelled Indefinitely</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">E</span>meryville’s City Manager, Paul Buddenhagen, has decided to not re-start the popular ‘Coffee With the City Manager’ public events conducted once a month at City Hall before the pandemic, at least for the time being. The one hour, open-to-the-public sessions were conducted monthly in the City Manager’s office until 2020, allowing citizens to freely interact with and ask questions at the seat of government power in Emeryville. The program was <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2014/10/coffee-with-city-manager-events.html">started in 2014 </a>and continued on for about six years, initiated by then City Manager Sabrina Landreth in response to a Tattler challenge. Mr Buddenhagen has refused to say if he will bring the program back someday.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-4tnhyphenhyphen-IfwPu5Mfbd_3xF_MqnaefGex4WfILOLNUSFFEUj-V5S2R9CaGJAtCQoZe_YqhXiHrzYfg0zqqTO2TS9F6i3fP7ik2jVlCj8qvy-dYH_5EoU0FUPPGBdOSKyErHwRBFgm_hKdMcRB15LJ8jvCqX5OjOeBMzJrqIJPjnik8L_68K3BuPA3GCt8/s363/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-10%20at%2011.47.39%20AM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="278" data-original-width="363" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-4tnhyphenhyphen-IfwPu5Mfbd_3xF_MqnaefGex4WfILOLNUSFFEUj-V5S2R9CaGJAtCQoZe_YqhXiHrzYfg0zqqTO2TS9F6i3fP7ik2jVlCj8qvy-dYH_5EoU0FUPPGBdOSKyErHwRBFgm_hKdMcRB15LJ8jvCqX5OjOeBMzJrqIJPjnik8L_68K3BuPA3GCt8/s320/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-10%20at%2011.47.39%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Emeryville City Manager Paul Buddenhagen</b><br />Democracy can be messy and uncomfortable.<br />He has not said if he will ever re-start the <br />once popular coffee events.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>Before Ms Landreth, Emeryville’s City Manager John Flores, for years, regularly scheduled meetings with Emeryville private citizen, the power broker and Chamber of Commerce Board member, John Gooding every Monday morning at 9:00 for one hour to discuss anything on Mr Gooding’s mind. The content of those years of meetings were off record and kept strictly private. Uncomfortable with the lack of transparency of that, the Tattler suggested that perhaps regular people, ALL people should also have a time to interface one-on-one with their government. The secretive Mr Flores was not fond of that idea and he refused it but the democratically inclined Sabrina Landreth agreed and she began the program that ultimately became very popular with Emeryville citizens. </p><p>Every City Manager from Sabrina Landreth up until the pandemic either liked the idea of the Coffee With the City Manager or they felt it would be too costly politically to stop the popular program. The pandemic appears to have provided the perfect, if quiet reset to secrecy at City Hall for Mr Buddenhagen. </p><p>Mr Buddenhagen has shown himself to be prone to secrecy in his job. He closed off most of City Hall to the people following a <a href="moral panic because of a man with a camera in 2023.">moral panic because of a man with a camera in 2023.</a> He has refused to say if the people's hall will ever be open to the people again.</p><p>The Police Department re-started their ‘Coffee With a Cop’ program after also ending it during the pandemic. The police coffee program was also started up in 2014, inspired by the ‘Coffee With the City Manager’. </p><p>Ms Landreth, arguably the most progressive City Manager in Emeryville history, famously exalted “A transparent government is an accountable government” as she welcomed people into her office at the opening of her first meeting with the citizens. </p><p><br /></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-78860896895892075952024-03-07T22:34:00.000-08:002024-03-07T23:27:32.485-08:00Hate Speech at Emeryville City Council Meeting<div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Neo-Nazi Hate Fest in Emeryville Council Chambers</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I</span>t was bound to happen here eventually. Trump’s America came bursting into the Emeryville City Council chambers in a co-ordinated attack Tuesday, out-of-town neo-Nazis phoning in racist public comments; calling out Jewish, gay, transgender, and Black people. The group responsible, the ‘Goyim Defense League’ is identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a Florida based hate group. All manner of hateful epithets including the ’N word’ were used by the speakers in our Council Chambers.</p><p>Five people identified themselves with fake names and four were shut down by Mayor Courtney Welch for violating Emeryville’s prohibition for public commenters using “threatening, profane or abusive language which disrupts the orderly conduct of meetings”. </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrwEYYSQttVhnSHUVMYcOTjL9EkF9gQufPwMo7_fCkxFDLLpz9Oihi07nmVCYEKGBjYQAcF5nw2XhRPte3CzmKvOkq4g66hNWMocJN6wUeWmvHHWUqQSKipQA6ekDcVlxlc9r5_5BLlaI3ZJswO8G7g9Jjwj4_21aXbfzi5_6S7nCx8gBfeuFdnG3IUcs/s398/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-07%20at%208.46.27%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="398" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrwEYYSQttVhnSHUVMYcOTjL9EkF9gQufPwMo7_fCkxFDLLpz9Oihi07nmVCYEKGBjYQAcF5nw2XhRPte3CzmKvOkq4g66hNWMocJN6wUeWmvHHWUqQSKipQA6ekDcVlxlc9r5_5BLlaI3ZJswO8G7g9Jjwj4_21aXbfzi5_6S7nCx8gBfeuFdnG3IUcs/s320/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-07%20at%208.46.27%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mug shot of former Petaluma resident<br />neo-Nazi leader Jon Minadeo.<br />Mayor Welch cut his mic.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <p></p><p>The same five people (sometimes using different names), have been calling in for public comment at city council meetings in Blue States across America including but not limited to San Francisco, Petaluma, Sonoma, Sacramento, El Cerrito, San Jose, Walnut Creek, Laguna Beach, Monterey, Saratoga, Walla Walla WA, Snoqualmie WA, Framingham MA and Norwalk CT. At the January 24th council meeting in Walla Walla, one of the speakers identifying himself as ‘Andy Zemite’ but in Emeryville went by ‘Rex Yuden’, yelled “Heil Hitler” just before his mic was cut. That speaker may have been the group’s leader, former Petaluma resident Jon Minadeo. </p><p>Goyim Defense League (GDL) is a small network of virulently antisemitic provocateurs led by Minadeo who moved from Petaluma to Florida in December 2022. GDL is a parody of the anti-hate Anti-Defamation League’s name by replacing “Anti-Defamation” with “Goyim Defense” -- “Goyim” being a disparaging Yiddish and Hebrew word for non-Jews.</p><p>Minadeo was arrested in 2023 and jailed 30 days for illegally distributing racist literature in Florida.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Former Emeryville resident Marc Albert reports on the group disrupting the Petaluma council meeting:</i> <a href="https://krcb.org/2023110793047/news-feed/petaluma-to-weigh-resuming-public-comment-following-racist-disruptions">https://krcb.org/2023110793047/news-feed/petaluma-to-weigh-resuming-public-comment-following-racist-disruptions</a></p></div><div>The Walnut Creek attack can be seen here: <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/neo-nazi-walnut-creek-city-council-white-supremacist-antisemitic/">https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/neo-nazi-walnut-creek-city-council-white-supremacist-antisemitic/</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Watch at your own risk. Contains extreme hate speech. City Council Meeting March 5th, 2024 Hate speech starts 1:25:10 and extends to 1:34:50:</div><div><br /></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/aNTerfSGfDc?si=jjHWaBShascDU3MU" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-8821220965349884292024-03-05T21:27:00.000-08:002024-03-06T07:18:01.466-08:00Bauters Comes in 2nd, Will Face Nikki Fortunado Bas in November<p> <span style="font-size: large;">Breaking News</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Bauters to Face Run Off Election in November</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>onight, with 74 of 74 precincts reporting, Emeryville City Council member John Bauters will be heading to a November run off in his Alameda County Board of Supervisor’s race, having failed to secure enough votes to win the election outright. Mr Bauters needed to win more than 50% of the vote in northern Alameda County to become the next District 5 Supervisor but he only was able to garner about 20% according to the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office. Oakland City Council member Nikki Fortunato Bas will also be in the run off election with Mr Bauters, having secured approximately 27% of the vote today.</p><p>The November run off election will now become a do or die for Mr Bauters’ political career as a loss today to secure a greater than 50% victory means he will not be allowed to run for re-election to the Emeryville City Council in November , a race he had announced he planned on making back before Keith Carson, the current District 5 Supervisor suddenly announced last December he would retire upon completion of his current term in November 2024.</p><p>The failure to win tonight highlights a real gamble Mr Bauters took when he threw his hat into the ring last December. If he loses in November, he loses everything and he will go back to just being citizen John Bauters, stripped of all his official political power. At least until the next election.</p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-54221840467935705652024-02-25T13:39:00.000-08:002024-02-25T14:11:18.564-08:00Councilman Priforce Attempts Rent Control Debate at Council, Bauters Disallows It<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Rent Control Fight in Council Chambers</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Priforce Says New Ideas Should Be Looked At For Emeryville</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bauters Says NO</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">C</span>iting constituent concerns about the lack of tenants' rights against rapacious landlords in Emeryville, Council member Kalimah Priforce Tuesday night attempted but failed to get his colleagues on the Council to agree to a future discussion about what the Councilman says are new laws some cities are bringing forward to help their citizens with rent stabilization. Ultimately, the Council majority let the issue of rent control/stabilization die for lack of a second Tuesday but they did vote to drive it over to a future Budget and Governance Committee meeting (4-1, Bauters dissenting). Historically, the Budget and Governance Committee has been a place the Council puts things they don’t want to deal with but nonetheless, Council member John Bauters told the Council rent control is not in the scope of the Committee and he said he preferred to let the whole rent control/stabilization topic just die.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbuezR5Py4mYAqP55JdRAqxJSnfEsVBLeF1GpIFnPkvr8OJjWaz4rYUOJ7x5LF9eFE8e9tdfWDCJksgioRz2KQmrqdZrkZBrizgquC8Xxim0Qdt0gC1E_6-KpmI0EU6hzo6eHB213c-uIgjTtZaVpsOsyIJx4w1OnHHS4Fsar-lD4suunuS6OGxMHHdQ/s501/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-25%20at%2012.58.11%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="501" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSbuezR5Py4mYAqP55JdRAqxJSnfEsVBLeF1GpIFnPkvr8OJjWaz4rYUOJ7x5LF9eFE8e9tdfWDCJksgioRz2KQmrqdZrkZBrizgquC8Xxim0Qdt0gC1E_6-KpmI0EU6hzo6eHB213c-uIgjTtZaVpsOsyIJx4w1OnHHS4Fsar-lD4suunuS6OGxMHHdQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-25%20at%2012.58.11%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Council Member John Bauters</b><br />He says NO, the Council will not even discuss<br />rent control or rent stabilization. It was<br />looked into in 2017 and he won't hear <br />any more about it.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>Over the last decade plus, Emeryville has been transformed from a city of owners into a city of renters, regardless that the City’s own General Plan says that is not permissible. Compounding the normal civic dysfunction deriving from landlords with too much power, is a new wrinkle in the landlord/tenant equation; namely, the large number of corporate Real Estate Investment Trusts that have become the new landlords in Emeryville. In the past, landlords in Emeryville were commonly somebody living nearby, many on property. Thus the established arguments in favor of home ownership as presented by the General Plan are further bolstered by the injection of nameless/faceless corporations, now with undue control over our communities.</p><br /><p></p><p>Council member Bauters was adamant Tuesday night that nothing can be done to protect Emeryville renters, citing the 1995 California Costa-Hawkins Housing Act which is meant to place limits on municipal rent control ordinances. But Mr Priforce was equally conclusive that he was aware of and ready to report to the Council how some [California] cities have been establishing new and effective rent stabilization laws of late, despite Costa-Hawkins. </p><p>Council member Bauters’s election campaign recently received $5000 from the California YIMBY Victory Fund, a developer sponsored lobbying entity based in Sacramento, it should be noted. YIMBY works to overthrow municipalities autonomous planning departments in favor of a one-size-fits-all, laissez-faire, pro-developer polity. Some cities could be chastised for not building enough market rate housing but Emeryville is not one. Our city has built market rate apartments at a prodigious rate, shattering the numbers recommended by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), a regional planning agency and local government service provider that works to deliver a region wide housing jobs balance. Emeryville builds more market rate housing than any Bay Area city and does not need to add more, ABAG has shown. At this point, the increasing housing density in Emeryville is causing more problems than it is solving according to ABAG.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsX0Jj9rgAs5uNr3RJtVOQgV9J5iMJUUdDH85osu5cgSGhijDxrgT3npjuRDg5Wm-z7SQ1iAURXjkrAVei4gE88adT3RePStcTZsgpmgvTBNcgleS2he1cpCDfY4SDss0AdE8qaH581JpyMQ9TEJhaH96xg_zZJxv77HYolOn3CTY_mEI0ZKLEt8Ug6g0/s1051/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-24%20at%205.44.11%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="1051" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsX0Jj9rgAs5uNr3RJtVOQgV9J5iMJUUdDH85osu5cgSGhijDxrgT3npjuRDg5Wm-z7SQ1iAURXjkrAVei4gE88adT3RePStcTZsgpmgvTBNcgleS2he1cpCDfY4SDss0AdE8qaH581JpyMQ9TEJhaH96xg_zZJxv77HYolOn3CTY_mEI0ZKLEt8Ug6g0/w400-h119/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-24%20at%205.44.11%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>The Emeryville City Council in Their Element</b><br />Kalimah Priforce asked, "What can we do to help keep<br />renters in their homes?"<br />(Priforce is standing on left, reciting the<br />Pledge of Allegiance, Bauters, next to him,<br />his hand moving to his head) </i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>Mr Bauters bristled at the idea that the City Council would discuss ways to help Emeryville renters stay in their homes, swatting down Mr Priforce’s ‘new laws’ presentation, <i>“I’m not aware of what the new laws are”</i> he said, adding, “<i>In 2017 we did an exhaustive study about this. You’ve just asked for a bunch of things we’ve already done</i>”. Council member Priforce offered a retort, “<i>2017? A lot has happened since then.</i>” </p><p><br /></p><p>The video may be viewed by clicking the link below. The action begins at 38:26 and extends to 44:28:</p><p><a href="https://emeryville.granicus.com/player/clip/2443">https://emeryville.granicus.com/player/clip/2443<br /></a></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-33386214150321527172024-02-11T13:40:00.000-08:002024-02-11T22:48:15.616-08:00Alameda County Supe Candidate John Bauters Presents a 'Tough on Crime' Platform<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/koSjMryTCMA?si=1WpM5uZ1KxqeqHKX" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">"Appropriate Punishments" Are Needed to Discourage Criminals Says Bauters</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Bauters Broadens His Base in Supervisor Race</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">By Appealing to the Right Wing </span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">F</span>lush with cash from corporate donors to his election campaign, candidate for Alameda County Supervisor district 5 and Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters says he wants to increase penalties for criminals as part of his plan to reduce crime in the county. Mr Bauters said crime is up in general but an area of particular concern for him is the so called 'smash and grab' crime and getting tough on crime is part of his solution, he recently told the League of Woman Voters.</div><div><br /></div><div>The corporate sector likes the kind of politics that generates tough-on-crime public policy so much they have given generously to Mr Bauters' campaign (a future Tattler story will reveal who is giving how much). The resulting mutual benefit, rich donors giving to politicians who get them elected to deliver policy the donors want, is revealed by the expensive and now ubiquitous Bauters campaign ads on the internet, especially on YouTube. People with local IP addresses need only to start watching a YouTube video and there will be a short wait to see a diaphanous and schmaltzy Bauters pop up video. Stay online longer and it becomes an assault. Low on content while proliferating in mawkish election campaign clichés, these Bauters video ads join with the mailers everyone's been getting to help spread the message that Mr Bauters wants us to understand: he doesn't like crime. </div><div><br /></div><div>But his performance at the League of Woman Voters election forum on February 8th proved more revealing than what can be had on YouTube. There, Mr Bauters' let slip an informative nugget perhaps meant to be buried from progressives amongst all the progressive verbiage. Careful listeners however, will note the newsworthy point within a long winded monologue. Mr Bauters told the viewers at the forum, "We need to assure the legal system has appropriate punishments in place to discourage people from engaging in future criminal behavior." The set up is that he says there is too much crime in Alameda County and then he gives us the solution: appropriate punishment, more commonly referred to as more jail time for criminals. This is quite unusual politics for a self described progressive candidate in Alameda County it should be noted. </div><div><br /></div><div>The more jail time argument would generally not be a winning argument to make to voters and usually only abashedly Republican candidates present that as a solution to crime. Knowing that and because the Tattler is not interested in 'gottcha' journalism, we thought perhaps Mr Bauters might have misspoken so we gave him a chance to correct himself but he has waived off all our attempts to correct the record. So all voters have to go on with this subject are the words from candidate Bauters himself.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's hard to imagine candidate Bauters wants to run on a 'tough on crime, build more jails' platform but here we are. We will assume he has made some kind of political calculation that he thinks will work to get him elected. </div><div><br /></div><div>The election is on March 5th and out of the nine candidates for district 5 County Supervisor, Mr Bauters pits himself against two other candidates who have also presented tough on crime campaigns - Chris Moore from Piedmont and Trump supporter Gerald Pechenuk.</div><div><br /></div><div>Below is the entire candidate forum hosted by the League of Woman Voters for the Alameda County Board of Supervisor district 5 race. Mr Bauters' section on crime is found between 22:30 - 24:04.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bXV6lOayocs" width="320" youtube-src-id="bXV6lOayocs"></iframe></div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5_ofVDt8yKmxsW3m9Y2yAaHoOTFMl6hdXLBo988oiYOEWwFmSSRufX2E8tomcywWDK7kjAwHumNqrPnf-LLo5A8UqSeNkKHKpBDjJ0PxuSwTvncYOU889LLt7b__4gJDTxxXiLFsBhdct_HF3X_OIQT2v3nP3DeT8uqJ0-BvBuBW07Q-7UKwBv62kPCU/s625/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-11%20at%2010.14.56%20PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="625" height="623" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5_ofVDt8yKmxsW3m9Y2yAaHoOTFMl6hdXLBo988oiYOEWwFmSSRufX2E8tomcywWDK7kjAwHumNqrPnf-LLo5A8UqSeNkKHKpBDjJ0PxuSwTvncYOU889LLt7b__4gJDTxxXiLFsBhdct_HF3X_OIQT2v3nP3DeT8uqJ0-BvBuBW07Q-7UKwBv62kPCU/w605-h623/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-11%20at%2010.14.56%20PM.png" width="605" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div></div><br />Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-761763453715057692024-02-04T20:02:00.000-08:002024-02-04T23:44:01.473-08:00Undemocratically Minded School Board Member Seeks Position in Local Democratic Party<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Emery School Board Member Chagolla Running For Delegate to Democratic Party Committee</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Accountability and Transparency Should be First & Foremost</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Chagolla Doesn't Deliver on Either</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p>Opinion</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">B</span>y March 5th, Democratic Party members in Emeryville, Oakland and Alameda have a chance to weigh in on Emeryville resident / Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla's bid to be an assembly district 18 voting member of the local Democratic party known as the Democratic Central Committee. One of a slate of eight candidates for the Central Committee, Ms Chagolla has been endorsed by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta and Emeryville Mayor Courtney Welch. </p><p>But despite the high level endorsements, believers in good government would be wise to not vote for Ms Chagolla. </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMIbGTnYGXtoevjIm9fqzh60uSYvBircZWt7yKFFyB88sQQv3ahHDiV4uCISUNdeLbjEubeT1tfml8xKBhKSOH2n1ZHo1bYaf-P31prUdSMo9lMmGqaLstxMCVdD_aEQHcVl5GxqwRxzXLkgy93PFizJMLVgGn2DVc2VPLAOw2zqir5zRlq9zkKsphBE/s417/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-03%20at%207.09.44%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMIbGTnYGXtoevjIm9fqzh60uSYvBircZWt7yKFFyB88sQQv3ahHDiV4uCISUNdeLbjEubeT1tfml8xKBhKSOH2n1ZHo1bYaf-P31prUdSMo9lMmGqaLstxMCVdD_aEQHcVl5GxqwRxzXLkgy93PFizJMLVgGn2DVc2VPLAOw2zqir5zRlq9zkKsphBE/s320/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-03%20at%207.09.44%20PM.png" width="304" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Emery School Board member Regina Chagolla</b><br />Anti-Democratic<br />Not accountable to parents with <br />children enrolled at Emery, she has<br />a patrician's view of democracy.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>The Democratic Central Committee delegates represent their specific district serving the people and their State Assembly member. As such, the Central Committee (DCC) delegates help promote the Democratic Party agenda, endorse candidates for statewide, legislative and congressional office, and vote to endorse resolutions and ballot measures among other things. The last election in 2023, saw <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/02/kalimah-priforce-wins-democratic-party.html">Council member Kalimah Priforce elected to the District 18 DCC delegation </a>over objections from Assemblywoman Bonta who had selected a slate of candidates that included Ms Welch. <div><br /></div><div>Ms Bonta, recognized by many East Bay progressives as a 'corporate Democrat' owing to her campaign donor list of gazillionaires and mega-corporations, had the misfortune of having her entire slate, save one, defeated by the voters last time. Now Ms Chagolla has joined a new slate of DCC Bonta candidates for another bite at the apple. <br /><p></p><p>Looking at Regina Chagolla’s impressive resume, one might be tempted to vote for her, regardless of her being part of the corporatist <a href="https://unifieddems.org/">United Voices For Democracy slate</a> as they call themselves. Besides sitting on the Emery School Board, Ms Chagolla has been a 3rd grade teacher at Berkeley Unified School District for the last six years and she’s lived in Emeryville for 10 years. But Democratic voters should be advised, Ms Chagolla’s tenure on the Emery School Board has been marked by a wholesale failure to govern from even the most basic of democratic norms.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinbi1Z0ngjvh1Amri_3dX-12_fh6iYllzNcSwKwSDFH6FwWYRGUkI9C_Ip_V1XoyT-MpbEJ6h8q7e4w2fal5GbJfvbvbsDrt-noy1Cf05I4uwvOOiCSe2_K4jIMS0201j8HzvnKXv9MV4Mu4Lw4t0FSsL4zIfCy0AXwh60TICoyMWg5SvpXqOblPoJpb4/s513/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-03%20at%207.20.58%20PM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="233" data-original-width="513" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinbi1Z0ngjvh1Amri_3dX-12_fh6iYllzNcSwKwSDFH6FwWYRGUkI9C_Ip_V1XoyT-MpbEJ6h8q7e4w2fal5GbJfvbvbsDrt-noy1Cf05I4uwvOOiCSe2_K4jIMS0201j8HzvnKXv9MV4Mu4Lw4t0FSsL4zIfCy0AXwh60TICoyMWg5SvpXqOblPoJpb4/w400-h181/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-03%20at%207.20.58%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>Ms Chagolla is not available to the public. Following in the footsteps of Council member John Bauters, School Board member Chagolla has adopted a hyper-partisan philosophy on governing to such an extent, certain members of the Emeryville public, the press and even parents with children enrolled at Emery, are not afforded the courtesy of having a single question answered. Ms Chagolla will not entertain constituent’s questions at School Board meetings nor will she set up times for answering questions off campus, not in person, via email, text or not via the phone. This is an extremely undemocratic vision of governance from a public servant who calls herself a Democrat. <p></p><p>While running for re-election to the Emery School Board in 2022, Board member Chagolla joined with her two colleagues also seeking re-election, telling voters about what a great job they had done for the children at Emery. "Keep Emery on track” is what they said, presumably because <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/02/new-emery-school-district-test-scores.html">they were doing such a fantastic job</a>. What Ms Chagolla and her slate mates didn’t tell voters is that, academically, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2022/10/should-school-board-members-run-for-re.html">Emery slid to last place among all school districts in Alameda County</a> on her watch. This kind of incompetence and lack of transparency should not be rewarded with a Democrat’s vote.<br /></p><p>You know a politician is pulling a scam when they transform themselves from lovers of democracy and accountability before they’re elected into haters as soon as they are elected. Such is the case with Regina Chagolla. Before she was elected to the Emery School Board, she told the community she loved the Emeryville Tattler. In 2015, then an Emery teacher, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2015/06/letter-to-tattler-regina-chagolla.html">she even wrote a letter to the editor praising how informative and democratic the Tattler is.</a> In her letter, Ms Chagolla thanked the Tattler, “for informing the public about the big discussions that are being made in this small city” and for informing her specifically as a teacher about what is going on at the school district. She said the Tattler inspired her enough to start her attending School Board meetings. </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBtSwR1Qy20dC9Rl3GEMM6_mP5edrgZLdAKlSJZdIlZEPPAiHyg3EogMv5krH4GYXZ2YASmVKDvs8SAgpKL8IxXY66j-V01vWvtquyzRtqh9aIm4qEEgRw6ekOIyHPiVqEAo9ATWmvd3xVPFo7Hd1HoMwYkZ589Finx-dnF9LLlrGY6FvI-k4v4eYZ4u4/s1240/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-03%20at%207.46.09%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1240" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBtSwR1Qy20dC9Rl3GEMM6_mP5edrgZLdAKlSJZdIlZEPPAiHyg3EogMv5krH4GYXZ2YASmVKDvs8SAgpKL8IxXY66j-V01vWvtquyzRtqh9aIm4qEEgRw6ekOIyHPiVqEAo9ATWmvd3xVPFo7Hd1HoMwYkZ589Finx-dnF9LLlrGY6FvI-k4v4eYZ4u4/w400-h220/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-03%20at%207.46.09%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Assemblywoman Mia Bonta's Delegate Slate<br /></b>The 'United Voices for Democracy' Slate<br />The corporate business community and their <br />sycophants wants you to vote for these people.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>That was then. Now as an elected official in power and under the critical eye of the Emeryville Tattler, now Board member Chagolla wants nothing to do whatsoever with the Tattler, the same news site that inspired her as a mere teacher. Now the disdain for accountability from Board member Chagolla is so pervasive, she steadfastly refuses to answer our questions and she even joined with her Board colleagues running for re-election to freeze out the the public from accountability by <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2022/10/election-2022-school-board-candidates.html">refusing the Tattler’s election questionnaire</a> (given to all Emeryville candidates for public office). As elected officials in Emeryville, Ms Chagolla and her Board colleagues boycotted public accountability for the first time in the Tattler’s 14 year history. Her reason? She does not believe the public has a right to know about her governing philosophy. She still wants their votes however. </p><p>For these reasons, Democrats, even the corporate ones, should not use their votes to reward a person who cavalierly subverts the Party’s values with such aplomb. We don’t know what kinds of political calculations Assembly member Mia Bonta has made endorsing Regina Chagolla as delegate for the Democratic Central Committee but we don’t think it’s in the interest of the people of the 18th District.</p><div><br /></div></div>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-5086369264483580752024-01-27T15:58:00.000-08:002024-02-01T21:26:35.595-08:00Bauters' Gaffe Means No Endorsement From Alameda County Dems<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">John Bauters' Gaffe Causes Loss of Critical Alameda County Democratic Party Endorsement</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>Seeking Alameda County Supervisor Position, </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span>He Now Waffles on </span>Gaza Issue</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A</span>fter a very public gaffe about the war in Gaza, Emeryville City Council member John Bauters and his surging campaign for Alameda County Board of Supervisors failed to secure a critical endorsement from the Alameda County Democratic Party, a major misfire on his path to secure what he has characterized as the next big step in his political ascendancy. </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5H9Fu0gYQlYUHVjKzRJCniVoAbCUxAfdFFXXD8NsC0OiFWK0aZOfN602Q3lNEGPZcTvljkvvfkMnbobPw25uCBQr_QQP4mOuAM_HgCTHY2UY2Pb0NLiZPITZPMjNF7FLDiheH-dBQ_PmkO94vUlxeJNFG0wlTaBsWAIY0s_FabmobJ0cKAxBCM7nQ7Y/s316/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-27%20at%203.33.53%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="181" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh5H9Fu0gYQlYUHVjKzRJCniVoAbCUxAfdFFXXD8NsC0OiFWK0aZOfN602Q3lNEGPZcTvljkvvfkMnbobPw25uCBQr_QQP4mOuAM_HgCTHY2UY2Pb0NLiZPITZPMjNF7FLDiheH-dBQ_PmkO94vUlxeJNFG0wlTaBsWAIY0s_FabmobJ0cKAxBCM7nQ7Y/s1600/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-27%20at%203.33.53%20PM.png" width="181" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>John Bauters</b><br />Not a fan of a <br />ceasefire in Gaza and<br />snubbed by the Alameda <br />County Democratic <br />Party endorsement committee.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Hemmed into a corner by a question at the Alameda County Democratic Party endorsement committee meeting this month, Mr Bauters said, if elected, he would not consider voting for any resolution or proclamation calling for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza. All the other candidates, save one, answered in the affirmative. <br /><p></p><p>Mr Bauters’ answer seemed to surprise the other candidates, one of whom, wishing anonymity, later told the Tattler, “I think that cost him [Bauters] the endorsement”. Perhaps not as surprising was Mr Bauters later change of mind about this issue at a Democratic endorsement meeting hosted by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club where he attempted to put the genie back in the bottle.</p><p>After the surprising answer from Mr Bauters, “[…calling for a ceasefire in Gaza] is too divisive”, the County Dems threw their support to Oakland City Council President <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/12/councilman-priforces-gaza-ceasefire.html">Nikki Fortuado Bas</a> in a 22-11 vote. However, the Alameda County Democratic Party requires a 60% vote to affirm an endorsement of any candidate and the smattering of votes for other candidates, diluting the majority, meant they would have to defer any endorsement for the Supervisor race this election, a rarity for the Dems.</p><p>Americans, by large majorities, are in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza, with some polls showing 66% support nation-wide. Among California Democrats, the number surpasses 80%. Among Alameda County Democrats, in what’s been called the bluest county in the bluest state in the nation, the support for a Gaza ceasefire is considerably larger than 80%. These kinds of numbers suggest Mr Bauters might have a problem with one or more anti-Palestinian donors. For his part, Councilman Bauters has not responded to any questions about this issue. </p><p>Bauters has garnered more than $100,000 for the race so far, considerably more than anyone else seeking the Supervisor seat. </p><p>The Alameda County Democratic Party announced its official support for a ceasefire in Gaza on October 10th. Many so called ‘corporate Democrats’ have resisted discussing the growing ceasefire movement. A connection between corporate Democrats and donors who don’t like the idea of a ceasefire has been shown by many politicos. </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQ2x_RAM9Eo8vZqwpSU20GNyK-jbss8NoCxY1yJx4nxnK5Gau8VzjYMXTn_AAcAfRj610BOh2M-OSWExIRZvXqUE6UQ9K-SFguvvtv0rnUPBnMCVwouyaItPxB5dpU2G4EYTvwmOFt-l8IPOEwIMPAuxBXJaa_pYxixvOQd4YQAU22Qxak6Ab3IRMJyY/s256/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-27%20at%203.40.28%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="249" data-original-width="256" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQ2x_RAM9Eo8vZqwpSU20GNyK-jbss8NoCxY1yJx4nxnK5Gau8VzjYMXTn_AAcAfRj610BOh2M-OSWExIRZvXqUE6UQ9K-SFguvvtv0rnUPBnMCVwouyaItPxB5dpU2G4EYTvwmOFt-l8IPOEwIMPAuxBXJaa_pYxixvOQd4YQAU22Qxak6Ab3IRMJyY/s1600/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-27%20at%203.40.28%20PM.png" width="256" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Nikki Fortunado Bas</b><br />Running for County Supervisor <br />and supportive of a ceasefire in Gaza,<br />she beat John Bauters 22-11 in the <br />Alameda County Democratic Party <br />endorsement count. </i></td></tr></tbody></table>An endorsement from the Alameda County Democratic Party has proved to be the magic elixir for those seeking political office in the county over the years. The majority of candidates with the coveted nod from the County Dems ultimately wins the election, a testament to the power of that party. Indeed, any candidate on track to obtain an endorsement from the County Dems that loses it over a gaffe, is seen by election watchers as having committed a major blunder. <br /> <p></p><p>After the rebuke from the County Dems, Mr Bauters tried to regroup and put the issue to rest at Friday’s endorsement meeting of the progressive Paul Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club. The same question about supporting a ceasefire in Gaza was asked of the candidates and this time, Mr Bauters changed his answer about a Gaza ceasefire to "YES, with the appropriate language". This answer was in direct contradiction to his admission at the earlier county party meeting and at a City Council meeting in December where he refused to even allow discussion of the issue. At the City Council meeting, Bauters’ colleague Council member <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/12/councilman-priforces-gaza-ceasefire.html">Kalimah Priforce attempted to introduce the Gaza issue </a>using the same “appropriate language” qualifier as Mr Bauters is now using. </p><p>The Wellstone Club has not yet announced its endorsement.*</p><p>With a large campaign war chest, Mr Bauters is being cast as the frontrunner in the race to replace longtime progressive County Supervisor Keith Carson. As such, the failure of Mr Bauters to unequivocally tell the Democratic Party his position on a proposed ceasefire in Gaza, an issue very much in Democrats' minds, is causing doubts among some in the party about his inevitability as the new County Supervisor. The endorsement of the Alameda County Democratic Party was arguably Bauters' to loose. But as the candidate (wishing anonymity) at the county endorsement meeting told the Tattler after hearing Bauters’ gaffe, “I don’t see how they can endorse him after that”. </p><p>*<u>Update to story 2/1/24</u>: The Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club has since endorsed Nikki Fortunado Bas for the District 5 Alameda County Supervisor seat.</p><div><br /></div>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-49891480762411620392024-01-20T14:44:00.000-08:002024-01-21T09:37:34.865-08:00Police Militarization Protest/Vigil Held at Home Depot<p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Church Group Remembers Yuvette Henderson, Calls For End to Police Militarization</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">A</span>n interfaith protest and vigil was held today in the parking lot of Emeryville's Home Depot in response to the building of a militarized police facility known as ‘Cop City’ in Atlanta Georgia and in memory of Yuvette Henderson, an African-American grandmother who was killed by Emeryville police with an assault rifle at the site in 2015. About 40 gathered for the peaceful event where speeches were given and candles were held.<br /><br /></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyo_b1sE-5sJ66sBiOZ6qWMzC0WuTXe0AcGQkW32PGD_aF2M_k6U0EXcbzWC54Tj4PAx1ta9zq1B-byNWEHLZkuiCaRI5VjQP8GI46mwOfp4Unk7ZzvcS9BOe_RQ4YmSlYC6vMvLinNX39RICyTDthnMG9ehgnYtKZ7-rHjDLBIGTQ_x5t8V7R-QIMHqk/s4032/IMG_4050.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyo_b1sE-5sJ66sBiOZ6qWMzC0WuTXe0AcGQkW32PGD_aF2M_k6U0EXcbzWC54Tj4PAx1ta9zq1B-byNWEHLZkuiCaRI5VjQP8GI46mwOfp4Unk7ZzvcS9BOe_RQ4YmSlYC6vMvLinNX39RICyTDthnMG9ehgnYtKZ7-rHjDLBIGTQ_x5t8V7R-QIMHqk/w400-h300/IMG_4050.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Candles and petitions were handed out.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>The city of Atlanta wants to build the <a href="https://afsc.org/news/5-things-you-need-know-about-cop-city">$90 million Cop City police training facility</a> against intense local and national public backlash. If completed, it will be the largest militarized police training center of its kind in the country. Home Depot has donated more than $360,000 to the Atlanta Police Foundation to assist in the building of the controversial training facility.<p></p><p>The event included a vigil for Yuvette Henderson who was killed by EPD after she was accused of shoplifting at the Home Depot. <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2017/02/city-of-emeryville-attempts-to-derail.html">According to forensic court testimony,</a> Emeryville police officers followed the grandmother to a site just outside Emeryville’s border where they ordered her to drop a handgun she had. Despite the fact that Ms Henderson never pointed the gun at the officers, they first turned off their body worn cameras and then began firing. One of the shots shattered Ms Henderson’s right arm, sending the gun flying back about 6 feet behind her as she fell forward facing the police. The police fired the kill shot to the head with an AR-15 after she lifted her head, attempting to get up. After an investigation by EPD that cleared the police, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2017/03/emeryville-loses-summary-judgment-in.html">Federal Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu ruled</a> "Henderson did not pose an immediate threat to [the police officers] and because she was unarmed and wounded and because although she carried a gun, she had not previously fired or aimed at [the officers]." The case was eventually settled with a $210,000 payment to the Henderson family by the City of Emeryville.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdR5zTxsTUQrD2AJqMWvDtqEcQiMUlrJ8P63-rdt81xDB3UF43BzavFe6I_dQJ7vVRdI0VvIhCnhahFfPNXLiZxbxx63zfASWuSZ-IHiQeYjTtk79fGFCu_huvkqeqIEtjqA4LmHm_2rK61UoZXfiz6LH5RWZIrxuJCUyNU-ZvtVHR6oZDLG6BdXkoTos/s4032/IMG_4054.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdR5zTxsTUQrD2AJqMWvDtqEcQiMUlrJ8P63-rdt81xDB3UF43BzavFe6I_dQJ7vVRdI0VvIhCnhahFfPNXLiZxbxx63zfASWuSZ-IHiQeYjTtk79fGFCu_huvkqeqIEtjqA4LmHm_2rK61UoZXfiz6LH5RWZIrxuJCUyNU-ZvtVHR6oZDLG6BdXkoTos/w400-h300/IMG_4054.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>The assistant manager at the Home Depot blocked the entrance to the store as the group attempted to deliver to the store manager more than 600 signed petitions about the corporation’s involvement with Cop City. The assistant manager told the leaders of the group he would forward the petitions to the manager.<p></p><p>The protest/vigil was led by the <a href="https://afsc.org/">American Friends Service Committee,</a> a community interface arm of the Quaker Church. The AFSC works with people of all faiths and backgrounds to challenge unjust systems and promote peace. “We oppose the continued militarization and expansion of a policing strategy that harms our communities, as well as the continued destruction of protected forests” the group’s website said of the Cop City proposal.</p><p>After delivery of the petitions, the group dispersed.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGQs4E6oysryB-TZ6yvJki-sWxOtnum2KXtyM5bjRHv15XyC8Jg6UnYo6T65DfQryTKqjcWzK55vFL8tgCIHeSBJORZuW7WtWLkKdNLUmUJwXhmeXrhYt8pQzikKEGBzBSvEiobobzwO2sM17VwCRomqu7_1BLX8YReY-Ww_6xrakL-oZpyq1pGUI10w/s4032/IMG_4056.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGQs4E6oysryB-TZ6yvJki-sWxOtnum2KXtyM5bjRHv15XyC8Jg6UnYo6T65DfQryTKqjcWzK55vFL8tgCIHeSBJORZuW7WtWLkKdNLUmUJwXhmeXrhYt8pQzikKEGBzBSvEiobobzwO2sM17VwCRomqu7_1BLX8YReY-Ww_6xrakL-oZpyq1pGUI10w/w300-h400/IMG_4056.jpeg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>John Lindsay-Poland, a representative from <br />AFSC, spoke in memory of Yuvette Henderson.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><br /></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-6278548125359303422023-12-31T19:49:00.000-08:002023-12-31T21:48:16.884-08:00Too Conservative for Alameda County Voters: Councilman Bauters Tries To Hide From His Record<p style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><i>Supe Board Election Quandary:</i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Alameda County Voters Are More Progressive Than Councilman Bauters</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">His Anti-Labor, Pro-Corporate Record Vexes</span></p><p></p><span><div><span><br /></span></div>News Analysis</span><div><span style="font-size: large;">F</span>our days after announcing his re-election campaign for November’s Emeryville City Council election, John Bauters now says he will run for District Five of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, a position that would disallow him to serve on the City Council. It was <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/12/breaking-news-council-member-john.html">not something planned</a>. The Supervisor seat was suddenly made available in a surprise announcement from the veteran politician Keith Carson, who after 32 years, says he will retire from the post. <p></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVCtEW0eR8uhifgJdyAkYNyu8PvzMlrW3fXLZSvyhKQIkU7LnuyfVYcbmwdxuQoVh9xnPrlBKxwiKIguyiG5yyCBWO3o_B_8IO9p6Rw6oqcZ5oDjyamFTLx-d57lAvgG89M8eF83ftyiSP3My8D0Npsg1qbprBoTMelMKaHly_Z9-oZLanqUQo43fw1nQ/s484/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-31%20at%204.42.55%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="478" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVCtEW0eR8uhifgJdyAkYNyu8PvzMlrW3fXLZSvyhKQIkU7LnuyfVYcbmwdxuQoVh9xnPrlBKxwiKIguyiG5yyCBWO3o_B_8IO9p6Rw6oqcZ5oDjyamFTLx-d57lAvgG89M8eF83ftyiSP3My8D0Npsg1qbprBoTMelMKaHly_Z9-oZLanqUQo43fw1nQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-31%20at%204.42.55%20PM.png" width="316" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>City Councilman John Bauters</b><br />He is hoping Alameda County progressive voters<br />don't check out his record in Emeryville.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>The swift pivot away from Emeryville by Bauters reveals where his priorities and loyalty lies. Although the bigger-than-Emeryville ambitions of our current City Councilman may not be surprising to all, what is baffling is how Mr Bauters, a centrist corporate Democrat by most measures, sees himself fitting in at the seat of power in arguably the most progressive county in California.<br /><p></p><p>The seat Mr Bauters seeks is taken by Mr Carson, a progressive Black man and Berkeley resident who has long time and loyal support from the progressive community in Oakland and Berkeley. If they knew of his record in Emeryville, it’s unlikely Alameda County progressives would vote for John Bauters. Indeed, it will be up to Mr Bauters to keep his corporatist, anti-labor record quiet as he accentuates his positives in his soon to be ubiquitous campaign literature. </p><p><b>Outside of little Emeryville, few know his record:</b></p><p>— Council member Bauters led a drive to roll back the wages of the poorest workers by rewriting City Hall’s landmark minimum wage ordinance. </p><p>— More recently, Mayor Bauters disallowed even a council discussion of a <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/12/councilman-priforces-gaza-ceasefire.html">resolution in support of a ceasefire in Gaza </a>brought by Councilman Kalimah Priforce. </p><p>— On the housing front, Bauters has been such a steadfast supporter of the developer lobbying group YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard), it earned him the title of the <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-most-yimby-mayor-vice-mayor-in-most.html">most YIMBY mayor in the most YIMBY city in California</a> by the San Francisco Chronicle. YIMBY California, headquartered in Sacramento, lauded Mayor Bauters with their highest praise when they presented him with the coveted “Developer Shill” award. </p><p>— Even in his self congratulatory category of bicycling, Mr Bauters, doing the work of the business community, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/09/city-decides-behind-closed-doors-to.html">refused to implement our Bike Boulevard network</a>, putting bikers at risk and disallowing the idea that Emeryville could have quiet streets for bikes (and pedestrians). Not one of Emeryville’s five bike boulevards has been implemented during his time here on the Council. His Emeryville record on bikes is pushed down hard enough that when speaking to outsiders, he feels comfortable enough to cast himself as “America’s Bike Mayor” in the Supervisor race. </p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span> </span><span> <span> </span></span>.<span> <span> </span></span><span> </span></span></b><span><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> .<span> </span><span> <span> </span> </span><span> .</span></span></b></span></p><p>In 2019, working on behalf of the Emeryville business community, Mr Bauters assembled a <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/05/breaking-news-city-council-cuts-wages.html">last minute majority coalition on the City Council to stop the impending implementation of Emeryville’s landmark minimum wage ordinance</a>, depriving the working poor in town of a living wage. Only by direct action <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/06/labor-group-starts-petition-drive-to.html">leafleting and a door-to-door petition drive was the Alameda County Labor Council able to mobilize to stop Bauters’ wage roll back legislation.</a> Raising the <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/08/for-shame-emeryvilles-minimum-wage-roll.html">minimum wage has proven to be very popular with Emeryville voters</a> despite their pro-business Councilman.</p><p>Mr Bauters has also assembled an activist pro-housing developer majority on the Council that has closed off the things Emeryville citizens want, as expressed in their General Plan. Things that developers could help pay for....like parks. All must be set aside in order to enable developers to build more market rate rental housing as Mr Bauters himself says. He states rents will eventually lower, they will trickle down, when we give developers dominion over our housing policy. In this way, City Hall must never be allowed to constrain corporations that want to maximize profits by building more rental apartment towers he says. We must sacrifice all to the “housing emergency”, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2022/11/parks-get-in-way-of-housing-says.html">even the building of parks </a>and other things essential to livability, must be sacrificed, he announced. </p><p>What Councilman Bauters fails to mention is that Emeryville has built more market rate housing than any other city in the East Bay. In fact, every year, for more than twenty years, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2015/09/emeryville-can-demand-more-from.html">Emeryville has exceeded its housing requirements as delineated by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG)</a>. Mr Bauters lets the actual housing shortage outside of Emeryville’s borders and a little legerdemain serve as rational for not asking developers anything in trade for permission to continue the building boom, done at the citizen’s expense.</p><p>But perhaps the most disturbing quality of <i>Bautersian </i>politics is the undue attention he gives forwarding his political narrative, a level of control that he demands and he gets as a result of never being accountable to the people. Mr Bauters will not answer questions from the public if the questions are tough or tend to put his Council work in a bad light. He has brought to the Emeryville City Council a new hermetically sealed culture where the public is seen as undeserving of answers to their questions about public policy. In this regard, Councilman Bauters will not talk to the local press, not by email, phone, text or in person. He has never held a press conference and public meetings are structured by California’s Brown Act in such a way that questions can never be answered there. </p><p>Unfortunately, this lack of accountability has been infectious: other City Council members are now also following the Bauters directive on silence in the face of public questions; namely members Courtney Welch and Sukhdeep Kaur. But outside of Emeryville, citizens will likely take umbrage at the prospects of their pols being so cloistered. Alameda County voters, famous for their insistance on government accountability, will not likely take to a lack answerability at their Board of Supervisors siting down, setting up a possible season of discontent at the Board were Bauters to win. The idea that a corporatist, anti-labor Democrat taking the seat of Keith Carson may also rub Alameda County voters the wrong way.</p><p>The election is March 5th with a runoff election in November if no candidates get more than 50% in the March vote. If Mr Bauters were to win a seat on the Board of Supervisors, he would have to vacate his Emeryville City Council seat.</p><p>The Board of Supervisors District Five consists of Berkeley, large parts of Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville and parts of Albany.</p><p>Council member Bauters did not return calls for this story.</p></div>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-12066620539425071152023-12-12T12:46:00.000-08:002023-12-12T12:46:15.407-08:00Breaking News: Council Member John Bauters Announces He Will Seek Alameda County Supe Seat<p> Breaking</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">F</span>our days after announcing his re-election campaign for Emeryville City Council, Council member John Bauters now says he will run for Alameda County District Five Board of Supervisors, a seat currently taken by Keith Carson who announced December 8th, he will vacate. District Five encompasses Emeryville, Berkeley, Piedmont, as well as part of Albany and a large part of Oakland. Mr Bauters did not say if he will suspend his campaign for Emeryville City Council to seek the bigger prize of Alameda County Supe. He could not be reached for comment. </p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-42371236327075679772023-12-10T18:28:00.000-08:002023-12-10T18:47:52.319-08:00Councilman Priforce's Gaza Ceasefire Resolution Idea Fails For Lack of a Second<p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Emeryville City Council Majority Says YES to Ukrainian Children but NO to Palestinian Children</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">A</span>fter passing a City Council resolution in support of the people of Ukraine some months ago, Emeryville’s City Council majority said a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in support of ending the mass killing of innocent civilians, was not something they would be willing to consider. The vote (4-1 Priforce dissenting), came in the form of a refusal to even discuss the merits of the resolution that had been brought to the table by Council member Kalimah Priforce Tuesday night. The action by John Bauters, who as mayor, led off the opposition by refusing to provide a second to Mr Priforce’s motion, was notable for being his last official act in his two year mayoralty. </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuHiL6sjGLJbe3U2HZKxcU2l1WZIrc53iX4GQozNbutvPHQBVsGPlVvzKEBZGEwshBmzLwcOPsg0fH7cihUPTXwEU2qVDP7IxigQduZ7ToD6X0tixP22kxHM32_Ly5-KhqAEIcbw5b5Gif4FbopWreA6d1Q21bN6Zq5ycZf1mdtvpwMHRSXhpYThg17EM/s597/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-10%20at%205.46.06%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="404" data-original-width="597" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuHiL6sjGLJbe3U2HZKxcU2l1WZIrc53iX4GQozNbutvPHQBVsGPlVvzKEBZGEwshBmzLwcOPsg0fH7cihUPTXwEU2qVDP7IxigQduZ7ToD6X0tixP22kxHM32_Ly5-KhqAEIcbw5b5Gif4FbopWreA6d1Q21bN6Zq5ycZf1mdtvpwMHRSXhpYThg17EM/w400-h271/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-10%20at%205.46.06%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>These dead children are not Ukrainian and so the <br />Emeryville City Council majority cannot see them.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Council member Priforce’s idea of a ceasefire in Gaza is not a radical idea as it has been taken up by centrists and progressives all across America. Since Israel’s attack on Gaza after October 7th, over 18,000 Palestinian civilians have perished by many estimates, including some 10,000 children. The slaughter has brought millions of Americans, over 66%, to demand Israel stop the bombing and for both sides to recognize a ceasefire. Indeed, most Americans outside of the Emeryville City Council majority can see the humanity of Palestinian children. The words of current presidential hopeful Dr Cornel West, “A Palestinian baby has the same value as an Israeli baby” has been taken up by large majorities of Americans. By their vote however, the Emeryville City Council (minus Mr Priforce), can only see the suffering of the Ukrainians at the hands of Russia. <p></p><p>Hinting he may yet bring the idea back for a future vote before his Council colleagues, Mr Priforce put the resolution idea in moral terms, "<i>To draft a resolution that acknowledges that a ceasefire would save the lives of children in Gaza and Israel reflects the character of our city and our strive towards inclusivity and equity. My proposal is simply that we join our regional neighbors in being pro-active rather than burying our heads in the sand - just as we did when we drafted a resolution over the war in Ukraine</i>”, he said.</p><p>After Mr Bauters led his drive to kill the resolution in support of Palestinian children from lethal violence and perhaps as an unintentional counter factual, former Councilwomen and current Planning Commissioner Dianne Martinez approached the podium, calling John Bauters, “The best mayor in the United States of America”.</p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-27474414613209821432023-12-05T20:53:00.000-08:002023-12-08T12:11:44.981-08:00Breaking News: Vice Mayor Vote Shocker - Priforce Skipped<p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Council Member Priforce Skipped Over in Favor of Mourra</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Council Majority Disregards Priforce Despite Status as the People's Clear Favorite</span></p><p>BREAKING</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>onight, in a four to one vote (Priforce abstaining), the City Council elevated David Mourra to Vice Mayor, skipping the people's choice Kalimah Priforce, presaging a move to deny Mr Priforce his turn at the mayoralty. Former Vice Mayor Courtney Welch, a favorite of vacating mayor John Bauters, was selected to be Emeryville’s newest mayor, a move not surprising to anyone. </p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjTnLVtmT17LXTj6GLLMKH9VOlVyb8NP5u6eZqPn0oLG_AaZursLoHRB-EOj3hxywnEl-BiA1B20S1XHJhytoWOrHaC6ekQl3qmwgKNR17VQpc0X_Jerq0l0erOxXuXZSC2CsIZO7Yc4_N26BxzKeql-mYppJ7R1MxbwQljrcEUpGEC0O5xZIq8nANFxo/s401/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-03%20at%2011.47.30%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="301" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjTnLVtmT17LXTj6GLLMKH9VOlVyb8NP5u6eZqPn0oLG_AaZursLoHRB-EOj3hxywnEl-BiA1B20S1XHJhytoWOrHaC6ekQl3qmwgKNR17VQpc0X_Jerq0l0erOxXuXZSC2CsIZO7Yc4_N26BxzKeql-mYppJ7R1MxbwQljrcEUpGEC0O5xZIq8nANFxo/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-03%20at%2011.47.30%20PM.png" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>New Vice Mayor David Mourra</b><br />The people's second choice but <br />the Council majority's first choice.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Mr Priforce, a progressive who has been repeatedly attacked by Mayor Bauters at the Council meetings, separated himself from the Bauters led conservative majority. This has been evident especially over the issue of housing, Mr Priforce taking the side of anti-gentrification and placing the interests of the people of Emeryville over that of real estate developers. Mr Bauters, a stanch YIMBY supporter who effectively runs the City Council, has sought to reel in the independent voice of Council member Priforce. <div>YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) is a corporate real estate developer lobbying group based in Sacramento. They have targeted many Bay Area cities, overturning their formerly independent planning commissions to hand over decision making powers to out-of-state development corporations. The other four Emeryville City Council members have shown their <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/07/emeryville-housing-autonomy-confounded.html">loyalty to YIMBY</a> in action and words over the last two years.<br /><p></p><p>Emeryville’s mayor is selected by a vote of the City Council and each council member is supposed to get a turn at being mayor. The idea is that the people’s choice for council comes with an expectation they will be mayor. The Vice Mayor almost always ascends to the mayoralty after one year. There is no force of law to this however. It has generally worked over the years with some exceptions but the skipping of some members has been happening with greater frequently recently.</p><p>Over the years, lone progressives on the Council have been forbidden to be mayor by conservative majorities controlled by former Councilwoman Nora Davis (and now John Bauters). In this way Council members Greg Harper, John Fricke were skipped over. More recently, Council member Ken Bukowski was skipped over for mayor after he told the New York Times he was a methamphetamine user and <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2021/12/vice-mayor-donahue-skipped-over-for.html">Scott Donahue was skipped</a> after Mr Bauters called his competence into question. Bauters used that vote to personally take another year being mayor. </p><p>Vice Mayor David Mourra, Emeryville voters’ second choice, having received only 1223 votes, or 21% will become mayor next year while Council member Kalimah Priforce, the overwhelming choice of the people, who won with 1583 votes or 28%, will likely never be allowed to be our mayor (with this conservative Council majority in power). </p><p>We reached out to Council member Mourra over the last week concerning the impending vice mayor vote but he didn't return our calls.</p></div>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-76944198215178360552023-11-26T18:19:00.000-08:002023-11-28T09:09:12.639-08:00Military Culture Permeates Emeryville Police Department<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Emeryville's Militarized Police Force:</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">A Modest Proposal</span></p><p>Opinion</p><p>by Brian Donahue</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoNLbVlvTdgCGviXKcNglR-Pz51tnzkp0OSMeQHXV-0hVUkDtGsfM_5TjGDgwftxcoZPrB4wZVRxOJug_XQP-y8wcALjueIExpGwufOaI2icFtBRd-fWZBDFYBstvf3pTj_NJLVgXI9VcKE2OSytrmnlcByTAlseNrJS-FoQBCZTnWaMOrdjzgwaeTZLU/s553/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-26%20at%201.59.42%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="547" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoNLbVlvTdgCGviXKcNglR-Pz51tnzkp0OSMeQHXV-0hVUkDtGsfM_5TjGDgwftxcoZPrB4wZVRxOJug_XQP-y8wcALjueIExpGwufOaI2icFtBRd-fWZBDFYBstvf3pTj_NJLVgXI9VcKE2OSytrmnlcByTAlseNrJS-FoQBCZTnWaMOrdjzgwaeTZLU/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-26%20at%201.59.42%20PM.png" width="317" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Grand Poobah / Il Duce<br /></span></b></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">F</span>or a hot minute, after officers from the Minneapolis Police Department murdered George Floyd, the nation cried enough is enough and police reform seemed to be on everyone’s lips. Even here in Emeryville, the City <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2022/04/breaking-news-emeryville-police-attempt.html">Council passed a proclamation</a> supporting State legislation proscribing police militarization. All the heated talk ended quickly however and the police went back to being the police. Here at the Tattler, we didn’t see police reform as a bandwagon to hop on and hop off. We still think reform is the goal. For instance, we see no cogent reason why our police should routinely carry military weapons of war on Emeryville's streets as they do. The police here are adamant: they need more firepower, they need to always be armed with assault rifles with enough power to blast through three house walls and still kill a civilian.<br /><p></p><p>Against that backdrop, we introduced a new, largely symbolic effort to bring our police back into our community, to reflect community values. We suggested the Emeryville Police Department throw off their military personnel ranking system they use and replace it with a civilian ranking model. In this way, the Chief would become EPD#1, the Captains would become EPD#2, the Lieutenants EPD#3 and so on. Current Lieutenant Fred Dauer for instance, would become EPD#3 Fred Dauer or just #3 Dauer.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTSEnFe3LiVVBJ9gXtpi_RgDNmIqgx6GSXE7oJAr2XnGlY9_6unF8jT9v042B3rsaWDdrlNgbCVFHIBSKbPUqvg1FXqx3dkkt-XxQNdz2WnaB10HyR1EIKzfPaeGgyRkV_Tuu0ir4cCcbWi_ikHIYOOgXimTzFOaytrzmLlE89xO7LmuEo_BiRrNq2fwE/s319/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-26%20at%201.52.23%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="319" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTSEnFe3LiVVBJ9gXtpi_RgDNmIqgx6GSXE7oJAr2XnGlY9_6unF8jT9v042B3rsaWDdrlNgbCVFHIBSKbPUqvg1FXqx3dkkt-XxQNdz2WnaB10HyR1EIKzfPaeGgyRkV_Tuu0ir4cCcbWi_ikHIYOOgXimTzFOaytrzmLlE89xO7LmuEo_BiRrNq2fwE/w319-h320/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-26%20at%201.52.23%20PM.png" width="319" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">Field Marshal Dauer</span></b></i></td></tr></tbody></table>Alas, the police took to this proposal like a cat takes to water: they responded with a full throated NO. They will keep their military modus operandi including all the trappings, they insisted. But the United States military, as everyone knows, are liars. They always lie to get us into wars. And then they lie again when we inquire as to how well they are prosecuting the war. The Emeryville Police Department is in the thrall of and wants to be associated with this government agency that can be counted on to lie to the people; right down to their military ranking. Our police love governmental lying.<br /> <br /><p></p><p>So after years trying to get a less militaristic, more community friendly police department, we’re ready to throw in the towel. Let’s give them what they want. Let’s hyper-militarize the Emeryville Police Department. If EPD Captain Oliver Collins is feared by the people with the military epithet 'captain', imagine how much better it would be if he were known as Generalissimo Oliver Collins. Lieutenant Fred Dauer too will be even more fearsome as Field Marshall Fred Dauer. That a militarized police department is cast as a good thing, why then equivocate Emeryville? Let's start thanking them for their service, why not? Let's wallow in military grandeur and idolatry.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here’s our modest proposal:</p><p><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNZzxHFVlN4bLmMeG8mk-gq-YZLJHf1EFGsGriRbgAj5L0o1XGjSYC9hfwEoMT38p-8vJ5BIjrbQAuVmEdzeGf1SlZHl3LfkJb9fK0KDorm3CLviVHMNJTpmQ7WzvIxTSrK8XL0IRrIEW9RUrKPVDFN_Ytot0HTio0tLsNFK7pkzrSHa8uWfjURzTnY8/s241/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-26%20at%201.27.39%20PM.png"><img border="0" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="241" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNZzxHFVlN4bLmMeG8mk-gq-YZLJHf1EFGsGriRbgAj5L0o1XGjSYC9hfwEoMT38p-8vJ5BIjrbQAuVmEdzeGf1SlZHl3LfkJb9fK0KDorm3CLviVHMNJTpmQ7WzvIxTSrK8XL0IRrIEW9RUrKPVDFN_Ytot0HTio0tLsNFK7pkzrSHa8uWfjURzTnY8/w400-h354/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-26%20at%201.27.39%20PM.png" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-65707762044258259182023-11-12T17:31:00.000-08:002023-11-12T17:31:02.024-08:00Letter to the Tattler: Emeryville Needs an Ethics Commission<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Emeryville Should Have an Independent Ethics Commission Like Other Bay Area Cities </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Open Letter </span></p><p>by Elisabeth Montgomery</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he City of Emeryville recently devoted time and energy to establishing a Code of Ethics, which I applaud since small communities must stay engaged and diligent about upholding government standards in our democracy. The City Council was asked to begin this process based on behaviors exhibited by our councilpersons during the July hiring hearings in 2021 when several applicants were for the open City Planning Commission. One councilperson spoke in hostile words towards one or more applicants. Disclaimer - one of the applicants happened to be my husband Eugene Tssui. When researching how to send a complaint about a City Council member’s conduct, I discovered that Emeryville had no ethics code. “Who handles complaints against council members?” The reply from the legal department was, “City Council will decide if the complaint is valid.”</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdQuae-YNSJbKR85k0yfAdvkHpuruoJFHHfMP6CUd1SoZAVfkcIuOVpkcL0ru7f62N9TzzFhF2ltW3-N0J5zHcJhVLKOEQJy7fXoQpxZIfquzQ20ZYv9op2Ux69me2MWTLE06XKaomxfwwG2fsReHOj-yQ94Vh5IlHyWLXVnhxiYbVLHCXLh5ow6dinE/s523/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-11%20at%202.21.50%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="351" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHdQuae-YNSJbKR85k0yfAdvkHpuruoJFHHfMP6CUd1SoZAVfkcIuOVpkcL0ru7f62N9TzzFhF2ltW3-N0J5zHcJhVLKOEQJy7fXoQpxZIfquzQ20ZYv9op2Ux69me2MWTLE06XKaomxfwwG2fsReHOj-yQ94Vh5IlHyWLXVnhxiYbVLHCXLh5ow6dinE/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-11%20at%202.21.50%20PM.png" width="215" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Emmy Award winning <br />Emeryville resident<br />Elisabeth Montgomery</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Thus, I began a journey to understand how a Code of Ethics can inform our city leaders about running our local government. I wrote letters to then-mayor John Bauters and spoke to city lawyers and clerks. I reviewed city council transcripts and spoke with regional organizations that assist cities in setting up a Code of Ethics. Like our US Constitution, I learned that developing a great Code of Ethics is a “living document” that is always “in progress” and needs annual reviews. <p></p><p>One hallmark of a great Code of Ethics is not just writing up a legal template for the city staff and saying it is done. Instead, it requires gathering input from the residents and community. According to legal experts at the Institute for Local Government, the other explicit guarantee to be embedded in the Ethics Code is that the clear objective - when confronted by constituents with challenges to city staff conduct - the City Council should not be the only decision-makers on the issue. Instead, an independent governance body should help decide the case. This will assure elected officials avoid perceptions that their values are based on their views rather than the everyday ethics that determine our laws. </p><p>The current Emeryville Mayor must take the next step to inform residents, gather input, set up an oversight committee, and update the Code of Ethics in 2024. </p><p><br /></p><p><i>Elisabeth P. Montgomery, Ph.D., GCDF is an i</i><i>nternational career development educator and an </i><i><a href="https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/639908408/ruth-weiss-the-beat-goddess-wins-regional-emmy-award-for-best-cultural-historical-documentary">Emmy Award winning documentary film producer</a>. She has lived for 34 years in Emeryville with her husband Eugene Tssui, himself an international architect and author. Mr Tssui's work is <a href="https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5609">currently being shown at </a></i><i><a href="https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5609">the New York Museum of Modern Art</a>. The couple have been advocating for an ethics commission for Emeryville for the last two years. The current Mayor of Emeryville, John Bauters, has <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/10/mayor-bauters-to-step-down-give-reins.html">recently said NO to the question of an ethics commission for Emeryville.</a></i></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-82039704884397224422023-11-06T12:39:00.000-08:002023-11-06T12:39:04.740-08:00New Bike "Improvements" on Adeline Street Puts Cyclists in Harm's Way<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Emeryville City Engineer to Adeline Street Bikes: “Prepare to Get Doored!”</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>By John Fricke</p><p><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>wenty years ago, Adeline Street (Oakland’s sections north and south of Emeryville, and Emeryville’s short section in the middle) included four travel lanes, in addition to parked cars on each side of the street. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjh1hITCJUh7fDFzVYB3vjsezSUEKTbiqbzZigK_ldLrXy8m-bN6Z_j9VPRnieImI7YHxeXMWtsWWND96mUp6xgoYhZcR5lhov9gu5MpAcRabbQiTxJqEor0b9xt_VRt-TEUXESWpdFF8e8T1nLKliFR8-Dy-1JLcceknrip-6gHKGdfGz0ftfkCaN33fA" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="618" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjh1hITCJUh7fDFzVYB3vjsezSUEKTbiqbzZigK_ldLrXy8m-bN6Z_j9VPRnieImI7YHxeXMWtsWWND96mUp6xgoYhZcR5lhov9gu5MpAcRabbQiTxJqEor0b9xt_VRt-TEUXESWpdFF8e8T1nLKliFR8-Dy-1JLcceknrip-6gHKGdfGz0ftfkCaN33fA=w400-h240" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Adeline Street 20 years ago.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>When I joined the city council, I pushed to convert the right travel lanes into bike lanes. A vocal minority living in the Andante apartment building (Adeline and 40th Streets) sought to kill the project because diagonal parking spaces in front of their building would be converted to parallel parking. They asserted that the whole exercise was meaningless given how short the Emeryville section of Adeline Street is. </p><p>Thankfully, the pro-car voices did not prevail and the project was completed. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1FKWVJUVbGqAIrJhf-xuzlPGJpFGeNlCApTySmsi6GNG93umiBG87YcqG6eNe6IQZ2cxmX63rtgXOd3xfbmAUPoC92Bg75uIF6mnXzFVosEWzykMVIPtFXPpSrYZlrhyD5CcgZ_EA8mjf8uLohnzaEj-3iVIleh9D56ZEwJB8S-QR-lGoEV2YQJ91RlU" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="618" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1FKWVJUVbGqAIrJhf-xuzlPGJpFGeNlCApTySmsi6GNG93umiBG87YcqG6eNe6IQZ2cxmX63rtgXOd3xfbmAUPoC92Bg75uIF6mnXzFVosEWzykMVIPtFXPpSrYZlrhyD5CcgZ_EA8mjf8uLohnzaEj-3iVIleh9D56ZEwJB8S-QR-lGoEV2YQJ91RlU=w400-h297" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Adeline Street up until two years ago.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>(Several years after completion, the City of Oakland repaved its two sections of Adeline Street. The City of Oakland striped its sections of Adeline Street nearly the same as in Emeryville. The tail wagged the dog.)</p><p>For over fifteen years, Adeline Street was a relatively sound design for bikes; until Emeryville’s current city engineer (annual salary: $168,000) took a look at Adeline Street. </p><p>The city engineer (duly licensed as both a civil engineer and a traffic engineer) recommended a plan which included, in one section near 45th Street, curving the bike lane up against the parked cars. </p><p>Before:</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgfJ74WCuXOoap5A0eC3ZiXEtpgcCDstyCGukCbJEg3NuIZb-xDVOhW0s5c_QAUMiWnPQX40YdRGxvbAMuqyDjSFO3j7FZ04IPVi6EdktXXWBEMTl7J0QQoKpBfdNvD6CwDgP8lTKw4nNlf_eHqIf0p8zV48c7GsVZyagqWtxeWCaL9j0paD1wYhii0JY" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="578" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgfJ74WCuXOoap5A0eC3ZiXEtpgcCDstyCGukCbJEg3NuIZb-xDVOhW0s5c_QAUMiWnPQX40YdRGxvbAMuqyDjSFO3j7FZ04IPVi6EdktXXWBEMTl7J0QQoKpBfdNvD6CwDgP8lTKw4nNlf_eHqIf0p8zV48c7GsVZyagqWtxeWCaL9j0paD1wYhii0JY=w400-h289" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Two years ago, before bungling: Note the ample space <br />for car doors.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><br /></p><p>After:</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCp7RFIQVp0shDqzZ3XK0HQ9RzKOLvJN9iUuyU_wiO2ekCD7Wej_H6bg9ZQtSrtx1f_7Vy7_KNiDIl0IpdvfMGEU5FdA3sIE-5Z1yJHEdvBGICHgEwSkbq_iDJ84BaGLdYBZae5DA2rgoTqhfW_jESjugWhfUpQZyudg2nzggJSCuxWusDGAsuAjsapio" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="580" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCp7RFIQVp0shDqzZ3XK0HQ9RzKOLvJN9iUuyU_wiO2ekCD7Wej_H6bg9ZQtSrtx1f_7Vy7_KNiDIl0IpdvfMGEU5FdA3sIE-5Z1yJHEdvBGICHgEwSkbq_iDJ84BaGLdYBZae5DA2rgoTqhfW_jESjugWhfUpQZyudg2nzggJSCuxWusDGAsuAjsapio=w400-h233" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Adeline today: Prepare to get doored. </i></td></tr></tbody></table>Bike riders are now sitting ducks for a passenger car door that abruptly opens in front of the bike. So close is the newly-striped bike lane that a bike farthest to the left in the bike lane is still in harm’s way.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbjKeMPmUCb1dLw1ZT_1Pj2M0dqy0CF8Z3TJeqBLGH3dvKfMuiGLeSQ4MnerW58qAyn3zDfRnnlzxABEBXMZDsQbBoNvG7uSR0Bb80ePgfsxG1_eVHH7A9XPu1nG2UkVCimmYw85Oo7S-5wNJWQ7bz_yn9j5Bu4vTCwUuabrYL6liag4mKY2_Lx0S5Sb4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="609" data-original-width="459" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhbjKeMPmUCb1dLw1ZT_1Pj2M0dqy0CF8Z3TJeqBLGH3dvKfMuiGLeSQ4MnerW58qAyn3zDfRnnlzxABEBXMZDsQbBoNvG7uSR0Bb80ePgfsxG1_eVHH7A9XPu1nG2UkVCimmYw85Oo7S-5wNJWQ7bz_yn9j5Bu4vTCwUuabrYL6liag4mKY2_Lx0S5Sb4=w302-h400" width="302" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiATiK9sHiJCqrQ9TWOZUuf7Q7SmMUI_GRsWWf0oKNrdziM5Pqce0Hs3hv3xoZNCs04Zf8yD6BnIscO0r2JV7iySG7Z1bYCqQvYip2_70Gu5fheaCEdzkVvxJn9JDA27wDIy4IuJ0cc7QunXijCFu8aMKVxCEj48_ubTNmRallORKLkYpQqCM7L_KYumhI" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="479" data-original-width="616" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiATiK9sHiJCqrQ9TWOZUuf7Q7SmMUI_GRsWWf0oKNrdziM5Pqce0Hs3hv3xoZNCs04Zf8yD6BnIscO0r2JV7iySG7Z1bYCqQvYip2_70Gu5fheaCEdzkVvxJn9JDA27wDIy4IuJ0cc7QunXijCFu8aMKVxCEj48_ubTNmRallORKLkYpQqCM7L_KYumhI=w400-h311" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bam!</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Are traffic engineers allowed to arbitrarily shift a bike lane into harm’s way? Not according to the California Highway Design Manual. At over one thousand pages, the Highway Design Manual dictates exactly how all the public streets in California are to be laid out, including precise details regarding bicycle lanes. “All city, county, regional and other local agencies responsible for bikeways or roads . . . shall follow the bikeway design criteria established in this manual and the California [Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices], as authorized in the Streets and Highways Code Sections 890.6 and 891(a).” Section 115.1. <p></p><p>According to the California Highway Design Manual, a bike lane shall be at least five feet wide and shall be at least eight feet from the vertical face of the curb. The city engineer's new serpentine bike lane maintains the legally-required minimum width of 5 feet, but is only seven feet from the curb at its closest point. This represents a swerve of four feet into the door zone. The curving of the new bike lane is also in violation of the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices which states, “[b]icycle lane markings on Class II Bikeways (Bike Lane) should be placed a constant distance from the marked lane line or centerline . . ..” Section 9C.04. </p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiafOnp1GxKAywleQWNO3FqLP59ZwDOmEwHRi4KUHEhqmLuHT_w-DwmbWhFL_ZLs1I_LZhIE532Qz9zvfvox1cPtk427Qjcv-2AZ2i6s1HmKCUDaWZxg8UjFHphTxFudiOhulTpUyV5Hp2zxkO0-HkQlyMtEVTzDoHgi-AmuYt0uq-tgkJQ56HiG1KolMo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="598" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiafOnp1GxKAywleQWNO3FqLP59ZwDOmEwHRi4KUHEhqmLuHT_w-DwmbWhFL_ZLs1I_LZhIE532Qz9zvfvox1cPtk427Qjcv-2AZ2i6s1HmKCUDaWZxg8UjFHphTxFudiOhulTpUyV5Hp2zxkO0-HkQlyMtEVTzDoHgi-AmuYt0uq-tgkJQ56HiG1KolMo=w400-h231" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Not only did the city engineer curve the bike lane into the door zone, he reconfigured most of the intersections to force bikes to make sharp turns. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9CDrjeiDDTE0zgHaP1pug2aXtfb_UCRM-jr7-7yXPjzFS2-Ug1krBYsijHKw0oKEx6wwg6RUNSiqKu1QJImrcj1gFBItfZ9lZ-Zr8AteHo7TuTD2nYLQh3LCq438Akiy42_t16xzIwhp5H5Zr4S6krOktbWHvbPDE3qt1xuqlShUc8zFBEIbeBia-VeI" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="685" data-original-width="934" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh9CDrjeiDDTE0zgHaP1pug2aXtfb_UCRM-jr7-7yXPjzFS2-Ug1krBYsijHKw0oKEx6wwg6RUNSiqKu1QJImrcj1gFBItfZ9lZ-Zr8AteHo7TuTD2nYLQh3LCq438Akiy42_t16xzIwhp5H5Zr4S6krOktbWHvbPDE3qt1xuqlShUc8zFBEIbeBia-VeI=w400-h294" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Street sign reads as follows- Bikes: now swerve right, then<br />swerve left. Prepare to repeat until you reach the <br />Oakland border.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p><p>These new intersection configurations violate the standards dictated by the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices: </p><p>1: the bike lane is to maintain a constant distance from the centerline (cited above). Section 9C.04. </p><p>2: “Raised barriers (e.g., raised traffic bars and asphalt concrete dikes) or raised pavement markers shall not be used to delineate bike lanes on Class II Bikeways (Bike Lane).” Section 9C.04.</p><p>Here is the required intersection configuration:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtlsxpAoWZNYPdnl8Ojen2PAH-I80eVBOUctQa7Ri6ZsZzeTRSO7vejAclmf_eWAFX8QuwfoYJcoQz_M_u4rYMy7N6WtFdWeUghOF5r_gPRRPzRyZ3Tq6i3YXi5Jlp2piCXSdqGmSNRUqXl0-efWfLHmlMZI-3bVl3QMryJRCeaRsaU3NZEFXJtHqSRjQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="524" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtlsxpAoWZNYPdnl8Ojen2PAH-I80eVBOUctQa7Ri6ZsZzeTRSO7vejAclmf_eWAFX8QuwfoYJcoQz_M_u4rYMy7N6WtFdWeUghOF5r_gPRRPzRyZ3Tq6i3YXi5Jlp2piCXSdqGmSNRUqXl0-efWfLHmlMZI-3bVl3QMryJRCeaRsaU3NZEFXJtHqSRjQ=w303-h400" width="303" /></a></div><p></p><p>Normally, traffic engineers slavishly follow the state law requirements so that the city doesn’t get sued when someone is injured. Not so in Emeryville. How did this bungling design get approved by the city engineer, city attorney, city manager, and city council? The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Dunning-Kruger-effect">Dunning-Kruger effect</a> is alive and well in City Hall.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>John Fricke is a longtime Emeryville resident, father of three, husband, lawyer, and former member of the Emeryville City Council.</i></p><p><br /></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-3096740534892428532023-10-22T13:35:00.009-07:002023-10-23T12:41:29.140-07:00Mayor Bauters To Step Down, Give Reins to Vice Mayor: Two Years of Subterfuge Revealed<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Our Mayor is Loudly a Progressive</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">A Closer Look Reveals a More Complicated Politics</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>Opinion</p><p>As our consecutive back-to-back termed mayor, John Bauters, prepares to step down to allow our vice mayor Courtney Welch assume the Emeryville mayoralty, now seems a good time to take stock of the politics of this loquacious, globe trotting, camera smitten leader of ours. The two year mayor of Emeryville as it turns out, is well known outside our little town. Notably, not since the fall of the corrupt chief of police John LaCoste back in the 1980s, has Emeryville had a political leader so well known around the nation until the rise of Council member cum mayor John Bauters. The vehicle for this has been Mr Bauters’ energetic penchant for self promotion.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJApH7OCh-pfnpSWs-LSbsYE35WFuoE9ptZ7iK-u2ckGX-hqSmyW9t8XDJd_w4HI2rPFE_IT4pcHBkiDR0coF2aowfEG_p22rAKuyixRR6MZ5CRaX1AWdixwDaHVrk_zjvkRVe7BcABpIQHX1conAXoT-ziFzSdC2mlrqYT2lalS9doQ0nJv9_4K4Jw6c/s608/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-21%20at%2011.08.36%20AM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="358" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJApH7OCh-pfnpSWs-LSbsYE35WFuoE9ptZ7iK-u2ckGX-hqSmyW9t8XDJd_w4HI2rPFE_IT4pcHBkiDR0coF2aowfEG_p22rAKuyixRR6MZ5CRaX1AWdixwDaHVrk_zjvkRVe7BcABpIQHX1conAXoT-ziFzSdC2mlrqYT2lalS9doQ0nJv9_4K4Jw6c/w235-h400/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-21%20at%2011.08.36%20AM.png" width="235" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Emeryville Mayor John Bauters</b><br />He recently told a throng of striking Oakland <br />workers he supports labor over corporations. <br />Conveniently, he didn't tell them <br />his actual record on that.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>A perfunctory gaze at the politics of the quixotic mayoralty of Mr Bauters, could lead one to believe he would be placed solidly on the left wing side of the political spectrum. Indeed, he has often directly stated as much. He is starring in more than 20 YouTube videos <a href="https://youtu.be/FlVWv9O0qQ4?si=ji1rtW13s_LxMJsN">proudly wearing his progressivism on his sleeve</a>. But a more critical look reveals a more complicated reality. <p></p><p>Mayor Bauters <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2022/11/parks-get-in-way-of-housing-says.html">came out publicly against building more parks for Emeryville</a> but many might be surprised to learn that our liberal mayor has quietly foreclosed on the idea of establishing an ethics commission for City Hall. Amid a growing culture of nastiness on the Council and under increasing pressure from the public, Mr Bauters relented recently and joined his Council colleagues in a vote to allow a ceremonial albeit toothless ‘code of ethics’ for City Council members and City Staff. But he vigorously opposed a more constraining citizen’s ethics commission as other neighboring cities have done. </p><p>Mayor Bauters seems to be saying the government can be trusted to investigate itself and the citizens should simply trust them. When the Tattler recently inquired about the establishment of an ethics commission, Mayor Bauters was unequivocal: “No” he said tersely. This is an authoritarian, illiberal view of governance.<br /></p><p>On the housing front, Mayor Bauters (and Vice Mayor Welch) has led the Council majority in fierce support of a corporate vision of 100% rental units for Emeryville, in direct defiance of our General Plan. Emeryville has for more than a decade, exceeded the market rate housing recommendations of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), making cries about not enough market rate housing from the housing developer lobbying group YIMBY, ring hollow. Nonetheless, the <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-most-yimby-mayor-vice-mayor-in-most.html">Mayor and Vice Mayor have both followed the straight and narrow pro-corporate developer YIMBY path</a> although Mr Bauters HAS pushed for more affordable housing. Notably, he led a drive to pass Measure C, a voter backed, taxpayer funded $50 million affordable housing bond in 2018 without objection from developers.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg85sntK3qG0hqvekE4msyW9PDdo24XtExDKfXWuZHBqXKIfTQOgTUUihlEx2U6wKwyG_Dg638UhiSJAbu0i_knQtjkhyNd2_uV36BsaV51xKVtmLLA8Nf9b6Ok6DcbguozeOPV7tNkUhsYcAbAsEJvCdFr-tBF0sERV1VHFsU3T8zAnwfxyI3s2mQ6dvI/s449/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-22%20at%201.07.32%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="372" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg85sntK3qG0hqvekE4msyW9PDdo24XtExDKfXWuZHBqXKIfTQOgTUUihlEx2U6wKwyG_Dg638UhiSJAbu0i_knQtjkhyNd2_uV36BsaV51xKVtmLLA8Nf9b6Ok6DcbguozeOPV7tNkUhsYcAbAsEJvCdFr-tBF0sERV1VHFsU3T8zAnwfxyI3s2mQ6dvI/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-22%20at%201.07.32%20PM.png" width="265" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bike boulevards in Emeryville were never<br />supposed to have more than 3000 vehicle<br />trips per day, until Mayor Bauters said <br />a resounding NO to that. </i></td></tr></tbody></table>Mayor Bauters spins a yarn about his progressive worldview but what’s telling is on two conspicuous issues, biking and labor issues, he is the polar opposite of what he tells the world. That has a Trumpian ethos about it. On bicycling, Mr Bauters has used his entire term on the City Council subverting our bike boulevard system, putting bikers in harm's way. Bike boulevards are supposed to be corridors where cars are allowed but bikes are preferred. Emeryville pledged to do that in 2012 (before Mr Bauters got on our Council), by limiting the number of vehicles sharing the boulvards with bicyclists to less than 3000 per day. The City of Emeryville officially does not recommend more than 3000 vehicle trips per day because it is too dangerous for bikers and this has been in our Bike Plan. But the business community pushes back against limiting the number of cars and that’s who Mayor Bauters has been listening to. Because Mr Bauters has been so effective in lobbying in favor of the business community, Emeryville has not limited the number of cars to less than 3000. In fact, the City has tremendously INCREASED the number of cars using our bike boulvards since Bauters moved to overturn our Bike Plan.<br /><p></p><p>Being narcissistic, Mayor Bauters doesn’t take a principled stance on just about anything, the evanescent and shifting opinions of the fickle public being his conspicuous go to place. Recently, as public opinion about labor unions has shifted to a more pro-union stance, Mr Bauters has been all over that. So whereas before, he was vehemently anti-labor, now Mayor Bauters has used a bullhorn to support labor….literally he’s taken up a bullhorn. Back in 2015 when Emeryville businesses cried over our new Minimum Wage Ordinance, a law written before he got on the Council, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/05/council-insurgency-uses-unpresidented.html">John Bauters led a 2018 drive to roll back wages delineated by the ordinance</a>, leaving the working poor the working poor. A <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/06/labor-group-starts-petition-drive-to.html">labor petition drive</a> of Emeryville <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/07/breaking-news-city-council-fully.html">voters ultimately stopped Mr Bauters' anti-worker move</a>. </p><p>But that was then, now he says he LOVES labor. Last week our Mayor, during a workers' strike at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, gave a full throated, bullhorn assisted trashing of corporate greed and pledged his fealty to labor. That’s just the way he rolls he told the crowd of striking workers, always in support of the little guy. Later, he proudly told his 38,000 Twitter followers (X) all about it on his ‘Mayor John’ site. He told them, “<i>It is wholly unacceptable for a greedy corporation like Kaiser to rely on frontline healthcare workers to lead us through a pandemic and then turn its back on fair wages and basic dignity</i>”. He failed to mention he did the same thing as Kaiser did to workers when he tried to overturn Emeryville’s Minimum Wage Ordinance. Did it slip his mind? Maybe. It’s hard to know the mind of a narcissist.</p><p>So now Mayor Bauters will become just regular old Councilman Bauters (unless he goes for a third term as mayor....warning Emeryville citizens, it could happen). Next up, the corporate Democrat Courtney Welch and her illiberal, anti-democratic drama train. Her constituents that disagree with her or try to hold her to account, all “fuck boys” in her estimation, likely will have some fireworks to look forward to. Maybe the new Code of Ethics will constrain the pugilistic Mayor Welch. Don’t bet on it.</p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-17679752388260481462023-09-04T16:21:00.002-07:002023-09-04T16:40:36.471-07:00City Decides Behind Closed Doors to Stop Conducting Traffic Counts Meant For Bike Safety<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Bi-Annual Traffic Count for Bike Safety Quietly Ended</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Done Without Public Input</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">City Won't Say Why </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">(But Councilman Priforce Knows Why)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">S</span>ometime between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2021, government officials at the City of Emeryville secretly met behind closed doors to stop and retract long standing bike safety public policy spelled out in the City’s Bike Plan that counts the number of vehicles using the bike boulevards in town, the Tattler has learned. City Manager Paul Buddenhagen revealed in a recent email to the Tattler, there was a private meeting or series of meetings between undisclosed City employees at City Hall that took place where the decision to overturn the City’s Bike Plan and stop the bi-annual vehicle counts was made. The meeting(s) were conducted before Mr Buddenhagen was hired he noted and he said he had no knowledge of of it until recently, regardless that the Tattler inquiry request for information started a year ago. Mr Buddenhagen did not offer anything more about the meeting(s) but he did say he thinks the traffic counts are unhelpful because bike boulevards are not very good and that he prefers protected bike lanes. </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqRuBc2_shFlVNz-ELTo_AaMLatNaxMbhrmkGgSBNrxMDrRT30HDVwjdPdPX6UuelkzT-xrGh28AEC9XbJtRajyLjZTo5GD_PDJnckruddMOsGlhKkdavTgVIOU0_pxcd0fZLLFyeqd_lvMtZzJBRVUR0-FlP4Syymm5q7hTa7pcTwq_EdVgotNgHCgz4/s587/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-04%20at%2011.01.09%20AM.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="587" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqRuBc2_shFlVNz-ELTo_AaMLatNaxMbhrmkGgSBNrxMDrRT30HDVwjdPdPX6UuelkzT-xrGh28AEC9XbJtRajyLjZTo5GD_PDJnckruddMOsGlhKkdavTgVIOU0_pxcd0fZLLFyeqd_lvMtZzJBRVUR0-FlP4Syymm5q7hTa7pcTwq_EdVgotNgHCgz4/w576-h186/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-04%20at%2011.01.09%20AM.png" width="576" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>From Emeryville's Last Official Traffic Count, 2019</b><br />Every bike boulevard was unsafe because of too many cars. It's gotten a<br />lot worse since then.</i> <i>The City can't be held to account if it doesn't take account. <br />Business owners' concerns take precedence over bike safety.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><p></p><p>The counting of vehicles on the bike boulvards is meant to provide a Bike Plan backstop over which a regimen of traffic calming provisions are to be implemented for bike safety, often seen as an inconvenience for vehicle drivers and anathema to businesses. </p><p>The Bike Plan was certified by the City Council in 2012 at a cost of $200,000. However bike boulevards have been ignored by the City since the beginning, as the bi-annual traffic counts show.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisnr3W3C5B5AzCHdKxoUcOFNPjHzIzT__EhUtVtA7uhbtMTG6iqQ84unn3OGHQACNlufk4FcK8bbSDB-0rwhqDx2S5iuW7G8yN3-_TPuNQLiFXJkeux37YKz-i198fTnr4PBpf8MF4w61BP3rI8-Pzb0DZoDMWOTYZ17oGQO0DzwAAZwy-Y8yNhpDxEEg/s658/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-04%20at%202.50.50%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="658" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisnr3W3C5B5AzCHdKxoUcOFNPjHzIzT__EhUtVtA7uhbtMTG6iqQ84unn3OGHQACNlufk4FcK8bbSDB-0rwhqDx2S5iuW7G8yN3-_TPuNQLiFXJkeux37YKz-i198fTnr4PBpf8MF4w61BP3rI8-Pzb0DZoDMWOTYZ17oGQO0DzwAAZwy-Y8yNhpDxEEg/w320-h242/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-04%20at%202.50.50%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Council Member Kalimah Priforce</b><br />Traffic data is no longer being collected<br />because it shows too many cars on the <br />bike boulevards is "bad data" and is<br /> "embarrassing" for Emeryville.<br /></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Bike boulevards are described as streets where cars are allowed but bikes are preferred.<p></p><p>The surprising email from the City Manager came after a protracted year long Tattler fight to learn why the City’s bike boulevard bi-annual traffic count policy was not being followed anymore. During that time, nobody at City Hall could or would answer our questions about it. The <a href="http://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/12/new-traffic-count-report-emeryvilles.html">last time the bi-annual traffic count was conducted </a>(2019), it showed an excess of traffic on all five Emeryville bike boulevards and consequently, the City is on the hook for providing more traffic calming infrastructure. Increased traffic calming measures on the bike boulevards have been strenuously objected to by several businesses in town, especially Wareham Development who have offices on the Horton Street Bike Boulevard. Rich Robbins, CEO of Wareham, has been a contributor to many City Council members' re-election campaigns over the years.<br /></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHjvr2ISGgeGc1u85qAYtm9mR3TXsLZqNpMbFpMg7NYS4L5LcTmnsuwCu8ENO_XSNeVgiw78yFEmDIhxUYmT6EYPdGz-4fTVVNQpsrY2Gd78JMEJa2j2nBfVrUfObR84d4opGVPrx5FdIsfbLNSpQM2mTFQImFvzlkk7_SdFBW0nrRWy_1eHwdZhRG9KU/s355/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-04%20at%203.01.27%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHjvr2ISGgeGc1u85qAYtm9mR3TXsLZqNpMbFpMg7NYS4L5LcTmnsuwCu8ENO_XSNeVgiw78yFEmDIhxUYmT6EYPdGz-4fTVVNQpsrY2Gd78JMEJa2j2nBfVrUfObR84d4opGVPrx5FdIsfbLNSpQM2mTFQImFvzlkk7_SdFBW0nrRWy_1eHwdZhRG9KU/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-04%20at%203.01.27%20PM.png" width="298" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Mayor John Bauters</b><br />Our bike boulevard network is not a priority,<br />"I've been doing a lot of other things" he said.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Use of the California Public Records Act has not brought any documents to light, bolstering Mr Buddenhagen’s suggestion that the non public meeting(s) conducted were meant to be secret.<p></p><p>Bike Safety is the stated reason why no bike boulevards should exceed 3000 vehicle trips per day according to Emeryville’s $200,000 Bike Plan. The City says the 3000 number was incorporated by recommendations from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities. The Horton Street Bike Boulevard had 4127 vehicle trips per day on it in 2019. With the Sherwin Williams housing project now nearing completion and over 1000 new renters using Horton Street, that number has likely gone up considerably and bike safety has commensurately suffered. But because the City has stopped the traffic counting, it remains an unknown quotient. </p><p>Emeryville’s Bike Plan makes it clear that bike safety goes down on bike boulevards as the volume of car traffic goes up. From the Bike Plan: </p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><i>Volumes of motor vehicles determine the frequency of passing events; at 1,000 vehicles per day, cars pass a bicyclist approximately every two minutes, while at 3,000 vehicles per day, cars pass a bicyclist every 46 seconds. The rate of automobiles passing a bicyclist indicates the number of potential conflicts and affects the comfort of the bicycling environment. Bicycle boulevards with volumes higher than 3,000 vehicles per day are not recommended.</i></blockquote><p></p><p>The Bike Plan continues,</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><i>Counts should be conducted every two years. If a bicycle boulevard goal is not met, the City should consider treatments that will allow the bicycle boulevard to meet goals. If additional treatments are not possible, or if treatments are unlikely to result in conditions that meet the above goals, the City should consider a different type of bicycle facility.</i></blockquote><p></p><p><br />Mayor John Bauters, who regularly likes to display how much he likes bicycling on his X (Twitter) feed, told the Tattler he doesn’t take our bike boulvards very seriously. After he was informed at a recent public bicycling event, bicyclists are unsafe because of too many cars, he indicated he had other priorities, “I’ve been doing a lot of other things” he said. He said he didn’t know why the bi-annual traffic counts had been stopped and didn’t express any interest in finding out. Council member Kalimah Priforce on the other hand was quite forthcoming. He said the traffic data is embarrassing for the City and that’s why the traffic counting has been stopped. “Showing too many cars on bike boulevards is bad data for the City” he said. He added, “It would be embarrassing if we’re telling a narrative that’s different than what the data reveals.”</p><p>Mr Buddenhagen for his part refused to say if the City would go back to following the City’s Bike Plan and resume the traffic counting. </p><div><br /></div>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-86713777880738527962023-08-30T17:22:00.005-07:002023-08-30T18:21:48.241-07:00Street Trees on San Pablo Avenue: Berkeley is Leafy Green, Emeryville is Sun Blasted and Bleak<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Emeryville's San Pablo Avenue Failure: </b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Optimizing For Cars Means Fewer Trees </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Means Diminished Public Space </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Means Less Pedestrians </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Means Less Citizen Engagement</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Means Less Local Economic Activity</span><span style="font-size: xx-large;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Means Civic Failure</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94VmOb05MIE2JEdwLraBR8y7RiG1V5jPc7m9KQlo5W7HOx_l47bue1HZRxT5tdz_W4-eTo5SvQxki9cigxDmmVC_R_MtCdyStOx-WN400IiNxXprFt6Ixn4sUn2WhIG08QSQNMrrpZI-18hEePBqU3p5aZn-xvA8V5n_NNJuFMiHMzTp5SbV5LkPtZQU/s4032/IMG_3623.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh94VmOb05MIE2JEdwLraBR8y7RiG1V5jPc7m9KQlo5W7HOx_l47bue1HZRxT5tdz_W4-eTo5SvQxki9cigxDmmVC_R_MtCdyStOx-WN400IiNxXprFt6Ixn4sUn2WhIG08QSQNMrrpZI-18hEePBqU3p5aZn-xvA8V5n_NNJuFMiHMzTp5SbV5LkPtZQU/w400-h300/IMG_3623.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Infrastructure of the 1995 San Pablo Avenue Beautification Project:<br />Street lights, bricks & ample left hand turn lanes.<br />Trees are allowed but not encouraged.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>News Analysis</p><p>Twenty eight years ago, the City of Emeryville embarked on a visionary $4.1 million <i>San Pablo Avenue Beautification Project</i>, to create a pleasant pedestrian-centered boulevard out of a grimy and drab busy thoroughfare. Up the street in Berkeley, there was no big initiative, though it has always been a tree-lined road with a landscaped median; standard Berkeley stuff. Here in Emeryville, all of San Pablo was reconfigured with the 1995 beautification project; a new raised median was added and many trees were planted. Emeryville seemed to catch up with Berkeley, and then some; the project also included brick pavers on the sidewalks and pedestrian oriented street lamps.</p><p>Twenty eight years later, the trees (what’s left of them) have matured. Taking stock of our $1.4M infrastructure project--how have we done? We've failed– because, baked into the revitalization project was a guiding philosophy that beautification and pedestrian improvements shouldn't in any way impede traffic or commerce. The median is mostly the province of motor vehicles---long left turn pockets at each cross street. Some take up the entire block, in both directions, leaving no trees at all. Other left turn pockets stretch half a block, leaving a two foot wide median, enough for a shrub or two, but not trees. </p><p>The city also specifically chose species that remain small, so as not to hide billboards and signs on businesses, at the request of short-sighted local and national merchants. </p><p>In Berkeley, sylvan, mature trees arch over San Pablo, forming a canopy in places. It's helped Berkeley attract locally serving retail shops to a place pedestrians linger, as if it were a destination in and of itself, not a corridor to a more pleasant place elsewhere---completing a virtuous cycle of good urban design. Emeryville can’t seem to attract any locally serving retail on San Pablo Avenue without city subsidies, such as Arizmendi’s Bakery. Here, we must provide financial assistance or risk our commercial spaces falling vacant or being gobbled up by fast food and national chain stores </p><p>Compounding the lack of median trees in Emeryville, most of the trees planted in 1995 have since been replaced by saplings. Whenever developers remodel or replace a building, out come the chainsaws. City Hall allows this as despite our Urban Tree Ordinance, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2018/04/legacy-of-emeryvilles-urban-forestry.html">street trees aren't valued here.</a></p><p>So there you have it, clear to see. Travel the length of San Pablo Avenue from University Avenue in Berkeley to 39th Street in Emeryville. But be sure to have your sunglasses handy when you reach Emeryville. Here the street is sun blasted and hot in the summer while in Berkeley it's cool and shaded. The divergent values can be easily seen with one transit. One city prioritizes public space for pedestrians, the other for a swift vehicular pass through.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnYRmdM4Mb8jegd_BCVE8y4HU9q-TiWDHbC58k3ckMq_6btXjeJYtrQpjcgdTfgpwnlQIKe6CEwb-EszT0PbH1FRTGZN_7x-tea-tJiIlKnTAA82qeT-sHLf2veMFuYE3pTgK3Pan5Fn7YImL10nwuPgguN6QeKlZ53E_OwKlnWhQbggtyw_GXUXMdkzw/s4032/IMG_3628%202.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnYRmdM4Mb8jegd_BCVE8y4HU9q-TiWDHbC58k3ckMq_6btXjeJYtrQpjcgdTfgpwnlQIKe6CEwb-EszT0PbH1FRTGZN_7x-tea-tJiIlKnTAA82qeT-sHLf2veMFuYE3pTgK3Pan5Fn7YImL10nwuPgguN6QeKlZ53E_OwKlnWhQbggtyw_GXUXMdkzw/w640-h480/IMG_3628%202.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Street Optimized For Cars</b><br />Typical road diet in Emeryville: long left hand turn lanes, no room for trees.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><i><br /></i><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3E17Vhin6GZvZeJXoUa_uQWvO5FGLRO2RThGZ_2rD3EfNl3xwlCYGX4Yw6i6DMVbgW1eKYNF-QV7jejKszzXJiWXBksuWIlbdctUsZLYpLPJEFs3X-eqhMXQSg97POOELhH8zlzZKSwVTmy6Osf_5FTwUsHn4sUUdu37yMMqLGTCZqnPq3UROHLN-Zt0/s4032/IMG_3618.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3E17Vhin6GZvZeJXoUa_uQWvO5FGLRO2RThGZ_2rD3EfNl3xwlCYGX4Yw6i6DMVbgW1eKYNF-QV7jejKszzXJiWXBksuWIlbdctUsZLYpLPJEFs3X-eqhMXQSg97POOELhH8zlzZKSwVTmy6Osf_5FTwUsHn4sUUdu37yMMqLGTCZqnPq3UROHLN-Zt0/w640-h480/IMG_3618.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Street Optimized For Pedestrians</b><br />Typical street scene on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley. Large trees on both sides reach over to<br />large trees in the median to make tree tunnels. Not possible with long left hand turn lanes.<br /></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9hB8iqqfxv4vXi2q4xhPpu3stwFQHmaSXcM-irgm1K9bx6wq4fE7PCzS8PZUI2LZIDuevhuxl4VGsmLqHd8Ct9cX1R6yed2zAURCILXtUo7aiOmPiF5A0y0I1L7AUND-jeqyXt6ZjkvpqG1C9U1EbM7te96-61FZ0br8JECyfC8AuuZBrgVLr60lVLOo/s4032/IMG_3634.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9hB8iqqfxv4vXi2q4xhPpu3stwFQHmaSXcM-irgm1K9bx6wq4fE7PCzS8PZUI2LZIDuevhuxl4VGsmLqHd8Ct9cX1R6yed2zAURCILXtUo7aiOmPiF5A0y0I1L7AUND-jeqyXt6ZjkvpqG1C9U1EbM7te96-61FZ0br8JECyfC8AuuZBrgVLr60lVLOo/w640-h480/IMG_3634.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley: Dappled Sunlight, Pedestrian Friendly</b><br />It's much cooler than Emeryville and much more inviting for small locally serving retail shops.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-47200466448410436722023-08-19T15:28:00.002-07:002023-08-19T17:33:44.740-07:00The Biggest Fight Emeryville Residents Are Ignorant of But Should Know About<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> 'YIMBY California' and 'Our Neighborhood Voices' Battle It Out For Control Over Emeryville</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The Battle is Unheard For Most Emeryville Residents</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">It Should Be Loud</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">No Coincidence The Fight Is Quiet</span></p><p>News Analysis</p><p>The most fateful and far reaching story in Emeryville not currently being told is the quiet but tenacious battle for Emeryville’s housing policy fought between two outside organizations: YIMBY California and Our Neighborhood Voices. The internecine battle between two disparate visions of the public’s role in public policy has been taken up by our City Council members serving as proxies. Council member Kalimah Priforce serves as the dissenting voice representing the democratically focused grassroots push for a ballot initiative supportive of local housing policy advanced by the group <a href="https://ourneighborhoodvoices.com/">Our Neighborhood Voices</a> (ONV) versus the other Council members who are more or less represented by the corporate dark money funded lobbying Goliath, YIMBY California. Notably, the YIMBY side (Yes In My Backyard) is trying to forward anti-democratic government housing deregulation and also to stop the ONV ballot initiative slated for November 2024.</p><p>YIMBY, flush with billionaire money and fronted by the authoritative lobbying giant YIMBY California, has been working to derail local democracy for housing policy using several strategically placed California legislators in its orbit, notably <a href="https://knock-la.com/scott-wiener-takes-more-real-estate-money-than-any-other-politician-in-the-california-legislature-713bd9556efc/">State Senator Scott Weiner</a>. Here in Emeryville, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-most-yimby-mayor-vice-mayor-in-most.html">YIMBY California has two agents on our City Council</a>, Mayor John Bauters and Vice Mayor Courtney Welch, both of whom receive support from the organization. A public records search revealed Vice Mayor Welch received $2000 cash outright from YIMBY California, drawn from its ‘victory fund’. </p><p>In a controversial action and illustrative of the clout YIMBY California now has in our City Council chambers, Mayor Bauters and Vice Mayor Welch led a drive to appoint Sacramento’s YIMBY California Policy Director and new Emeryville resident <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/07/emeryville-housing-autonomy-confounded.html">Ned Resnikoff to our Housing Committee</a>. Perhaps no single action surpasses that in terms of showing how our City Hall has been rolled by an outside business lobbying organization. </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBD-zbVRR4RqMAdzuLE8RZT2YihPkbsUDYL6RyN-hEKboJ_fYUCAQNx-0N-LmawUdFnFGlv8RheZNUsFcK0p3zbW5IeIytfU1-ki0vFQw2gCjTtM5tN4CnDOBmChDscaOWiCkKbTxLcf2KGB7jKY-ficbz12xZEII6spAScwMHMoVGIDHanLMSL5CcRcQ/s248/Screen%20Shot%202023-08-19%20at%201.51.27%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="244" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBD-zbVRR4RqMAdzuLE8RZT2YihPkbsUDYL6RyN-hEKboJ_fYUCAQNx-0N-LmawUdFnFGlv8RheZNUsFcK0p3zbW5IeIytfU1-ki0vFQw2gCjTtM5tN4CnDOBmChDscaOWiCkKbTxLcf2KGB7jKY-ficbz12xZEII6spAScwMHMoVGIDHanLMSL5CcRcQ/s1600/Screen%20Shot%202023-08-19%20at%201.51.27%20PM.png" width="244" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Housing Committee Appointee<br />Ned Resnikoff<br />YIMBY California's Policy Director</b><br />With the Council majority's help<br />he leapfrogged onto our Housing<br />Committee after moving to Emeryville<br />only two months earlier.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>The YIMBY organization seeks to take away our own democratically crafted housing policy and override our General Plan. Specifically, we are supposed to be getting parks in trade for all the new housing developers are building. But because that would cut into the profit margin of developers, Mayor Bauters, Vice Mayor Welch and YIMBY California want to make it so developers will be off the hook and the people left without a green respite from all the massive density coming Emeryville's way. Oblivious to hubris, Mayor Bauters felt so strongly that we should override our General Plan and let developers off the hook for providing park space, he <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2022/11/parks-get-in-way-of-housing-says.html">came right out and said it at a City Council meeting</a>.</p><p>Our General Plan protects us against an onslaught of rental only housing, the most profitable kind of housing development to build. The General Plan provides that Emeryville build ownership housing over rental housing. And so YIMBY and their City Council sycophants want to override our General Plan to help the developers maximize their profits by building <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/02/emeryville-home-ownership-dropping.html">nothing but rental housing towers</a>. Families build wealth when they own their own homes, especially people of color and working class families. This fact has been shown to be not impressive to the City Council majority despite our General Plan's recognition of this basic principle.</p><p>Also left unsaid by the YIMBY supporters on the City Council is the inconvenient truth that Emeryville doesn't need more housing (affordable housing excepted). Whereas the greater Bay Area region does in fact need more housing, here in Emeryville, we have been using defacto YIMBY policy here for more than a decade, even before YIMBY was born. The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), of which Emeryville is a dues paying member, conducts jobs/housing needs assessments every few years and every time, unlike our neighboring cities, Emeryville is shown to supply more than 100% of ABAG recommended housing.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8v7RCNHkiogn1SnQ0gE95oVWqy_LhBmmNSDqlySelLNz3Wrf0DdGUFTdZRpingS3QwaDnQtH_CTVI3b2oOAVmFR5UoGNfHl9S2z288gyQXEjCyQqLmlxh8kbV1T2Nj_GCrfRr0z-f1oPNB-fzeWs_zlpiF8sR64AAnZktzZ_SEygDirhfE79fAb7mNhg/s343/Screen%20Shot%202023-08-19%20at%202.22.08%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8v7RCNHkiogn1SnQ0gE95oVWqy_LhBmmNSDqlySelLNz3Wrf0DdGUFTdZRpingS3QwaDnQtH_CTVI3b2oOAVmFR5UoGNfHl9S2z288gyQXEjCyQqLmlxh8kbV1T2Nj_GCrfRr0z-f1oPNB-fzeWs_zlpiF8sR64AAnZktzZ_SEygDirhfE79fAb7mNhg/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-08-19%20at%202.22.08%20PM.png" width="261" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Brentwood City Council member<br />Jovita Mendoza</b><br />She helped form Our Neighborhood Voices.<br />Ms Mendoza is concerned for Emeryville<br />and its YIMBY driven trajectory.<br /></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>For its part, YIMBY supporters, fearing popular pushback over the lopsided billionaire corporate funded bully image, have begun to steal progressive language to try to confuse voters. Some have expressed a ‘supply and demand’ argument to claim housing will become more affordable if we just give in to developer’s demands to take over municipal housing policy. But Our Neighborhood Voices backer Jovita Mendoza cautions against buying all the YIMBY talk of trickle down hosing affordability, “Housing affordability has become a sound bite that Sacramento pretends to care about. Since 2016 there have been over 100 bills that have made housing more expensive and gentrified our POC and low income families she told the Tattler. Ms Mendoza, a Brentwood City Council member, says she has been following what YIMBY California has been doing in Emeryville with interest. She said Emeryville residents should be aware of what is happening [here] and they should “take back control over land use and let democracy come first” adding, “That is exactly what the Our Neighborhood Voices initiative will do”.<br /><p></p><p>The local democracy movement, a popular grassroots presence in California, seeks to protect local housing policy by allowing cities to continue to decide for themselves what’s best. The movement is using Our Neighborhood Voices to forward the ballot initiative process to stop the YIMBY California money juggernaut; people power versus corporate power. A supporter of local democracy, City Councilman Priforce told the Tattler, "<i>YIMBYism and their real estate lobby-backed gentrification strips away people-powered efforts to create real affordable housing rather than trickle-down luxury market-rate rentals. Restoring that power back into the hands of neighborhoods that can hold their local officials accountable is Local Democracy - taxation with authentic representation</i>”. Councilwoman Mendoza concurred, “There should be no more giveaways to campaign donors at the expense of the people, she said. “Let’s stop the gentrification that is occurring as we speak in areas like where I grew up in Oakland and Emeryville and let people build the types of cities they want to live in, she added.</p><p>Mayor John Bauters and Emeryville Housing Committeeman Ned Resnikoff were contacted for this story but they both refused to comment.</p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-47321473744451886462023-07-30T23:09:00.001-07:002023-07-30T23:52:17.464-07:00City of Emeryville Retaliates Against Tattler <p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">City Hall Removes Tattler Bulletin Board in an Act of Apparent Retaliation</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Community Services Director Can't Elucidate City's Policy on Removal</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span>cting on a complaint from a single person, the City of Emeryville has removed a bulletin board adjacent to a public sidewalk placed by the Tattler for the dissemination of information in the public interest. Lasting barely two weeks at the corner of Horton and Sherwin street, the <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/05/introducing-horton-street-community.html">Community Bulletin Board</a> was removed despite a plethora of other encroachments into the public easement throughout the city that have received public complaint yet remain standing. </p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQHHhOsIyZuIs80wiqDUlt3OEwDkW2zPRaqpo5gy-PDqLM_TJjq9jmvzaMSPiovq0iJfrzjnItIpLKG6TxD0fXqCDOVaQ2Am3_7I55UBxt3NE98tZFfvA1euPznP8faPi3fqVtPM0tQaEpixYimuxMNXh9Jr1NamhwuQgACGasr4gPHCJdaHXoXDYzJtY/s439/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.23.54%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="345" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQHHhOsIyZuIs80wiqDUlt3OEwDkW2zPRaqpo5gy-PDqLM_TJjq9jmvzaMSPiovq0iJfrzjnItIpLKG6TxD0fXqCDOVaQ2Am3_7I55UBxt3NE98tZFfvA1euPznP8faPi3fqVtPM0tQaEpixYimuxMNXh9Jr1NamhwuQgACGasr4gPHCJdaHXoXDYzJtY/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.23.54%20PM.png" width="251" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Community Services Director<br />Pedro Jimenez</b><br />He is responsible for encroachments <br />on Emeryville property but he<br />can't or won't explain how he decides<br />who is golden and who is an outcast. <br />Who's encroachment gets to stay<br />and who's gets removed.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Pressed for clarity on the law in this matter, the City of Emeryville has so far refused to explain the process for how private encroachments into public space can be removed, leaving the City exposed to credible charges of retaliation against those in disfavor at City Hall.</p><br /><p></p><p><b>Favoritism</b></p><p>Director of Community Services and Assistant City Manager Pedro Jimenez told the Tattler the Community Bulletin Board, that extended seven inches into the public easement, was not placed there with permission and that it had received a citizen complaint. Those two metrics are all it took for the City to remove it, he said and that’s what the Public Works Department promptly did. However Mr Jimenez refused to elaborate on how numerous other privately owned things installed on Emeryville public property without permission, including two so called ‘little libraries’ and at least one other community bulletin board, have been able to remain despite citizen complaints. Notable is the fact that two former City Council members have installed their personal property in the public easement without permission and the City has allowed them to stand. Nonetheless, Mr Jimenez is adamant the law in Emeryville on this is not arbitrary or capricious and there's no culture of favoritism helping popular people nor one of retaliation against unpopular people, including the Tattler, a well known and long standing critic of City Hall.</p><p><b>Retaliation</b></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMa1OfNmWBpcv08bISPRb7nQvL16TdtmBWm-w0sBo83vUvYgptmwTDCnJir6q_PMru7POnsf2pG_3XQHvSw--_n0HsUfjLUtSJ6y0yoR3zCcyyunDimIdz9tiURBM7LIySW8ugwO4lpKO-1KnpYaZr5V2oFjM2IFsgCYSSwKjZMXWtFirYoVOvGL45FvU/s614/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.47.24%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="614" data-original-width="478" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMa1OfNmWBpcv08bISPRb7nQvL16TdtmBWm-w0sBo83vUvYgptmwTDCnJir6q_PMru7POnsf2pG_3XQHvSw--_n0HsUfjLUtSJ6y0yoR3zCcyyunDimIdz9tiURBM7LIySW8ugwO4lpKO-1KnpYaZr5V2oFjM2IFsgCYSSwKjZMXWtFirYoVOvGL45FvU/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.47.24%20PM.png" width="249" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>The Former Community Bulletin Board</b><br />It stood seven inches into the public<br />easement but after it received a citizen <br />complaint from a Tattler hater,<br />it was removed in three days.</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>The City of Emeryville received a complaint against the Tattler's Community Bulletin Board and within three business days the Public Works Department had removed it. That's very quick public service considering how long they take to fill potholes dangerous to bikes. Some could argue that the three day rapid response is indicative of a City Hall that is not appreciative of the Emeryville Tattler and all its stories exposing the dysfunction at City Hall, especially when it is compared with the six weeks the City has so far taken (and still not removed), the public encroachments elsewhere in the City that have received complaints. The asymmetry of response reveals an Emeryville City Hall that feels it is OK to retaliate against critics.<p></p><p>Explaining that the public, including critics of City Hall, “should be treated fairly and equitably”, Pedro Jimenez failed to explain the discrepancies between the Community Bulletin Board encroachment done by the Tattler and the other encroachments done by other people including former City Council members. He said the City only needs two conditions be met to remove a private encroachment on the City’s property: if it was placed without permission and if the City received a complaint about it. But when he was reminded of all the other private encroachments throughout Emeryville that have met those two criteria, Mr Jimenez said the City will “look into them”. That was six weeks ago. Questioned repeatedly, he refused to say what other metrics would be considered as the City ‘looks into it’. This is a violation of the government’s requirement to treat everyone equally under the law and the City of Emeryville is thus found lacking.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6QR2ST5w5kxBo0mdE4jYpJKRXihqO3MogCMg2X1diOS9LfXfjrkZHvgjmk5zNx4LkKRfqmZD49tyaqC68NoSniPRpFdrJAzLlCK79i8WHC1_KQ3jbyk9BsK260vRXe97pc--lO2R45AYMvdHdMdbNjylkaPcU6S5weILWHGYlrHskZ7lE5_wkBaYb4-g/s375/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.44.34%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="297" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6QR2ST5w5kxBo0mdE4jYpJKRXihqO3MogCMg2X1diOS9LfXfjrkZHvgjmk5zNx4LkKRfqmZD49tyaqC68NoSniPRpFdrJAzLlCK79i8WHC1_KQ3jbyk9BsK260vRXe97pc--lO2R45AYMvdHdMdbNjylkaPcU6S5weILWHGYlrHskZ7lE5_wkBaYb4-g/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.44.34%20PM.png" width="253" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>A Different Community <br />Bulletin Board</b><br />In the Triangle neighborhood, it stands <br />11 inches into the public easement but <br />despite citizen complaint, it gets<br />to stay. The City won't say why.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>The City of Emeryville made a choice to remove the Tattler Community Bulletin Board three days after receiving the citizen complaint. There is no law stating it had to be removed using complaints or whatever metrics the City claims to be powerless against. One only needs to note the other encroachments throughout the city to see proof of that. We’re not sure why the City of Emeryville, who is on record claiming to desire sidewalk vitality and public engagement would be so quick to remove something that brought that to the neighborhood other than the obvious. </p><p>The opposite of people engaging in the public commons is them cocooning in their homes, not using the sidewalks, not being active in their government, not being democratically engaged. Community bulletin boards help make the public commons more vital and active and help engage people into the community; all things Emeryville City Hall and the City Council claim to want. They could have allowed the Community Bulletin Board to stay but other unacknowledged forces were in play. This is obviously simple retaliation against a free press that delivers the truth to the people of Emeryville, thirteen years running….a truth that our local government is sometimes not as good as they say they are. </p><p>The Community Bulletin Board is censored and removed but the Tattler won’t be.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-T6--SK6Txz8D9--h1yc42MPJcEYbY9Y5RwoW7mfOfHDXo-N0xdvebYFJHtgZSdnXai_SPBVhHccBmlPYViwXD8ruhW2GaFkVHzMlqEbpIe2RrwKaE6nmqKD4J605rpgDFG7sw8YuethWMDhoT78IKYRS486vIQqSjFYVX-Bek1h7KItOb0AP1SdHg68/s348/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.43.08%20PM.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="306" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-T6--SK6Txz8D9--h1yc42MPJcEYbY9Y5RwoW7mfOfHDXo-N0xdvebYFJHtgZSdnXai_SPBVhHccBmlPYViwXD8ruhW2GaFkVHzMlqEbpIe2RrwKaE6nmqKD4J605rpgDFG7sw8YuethWMDhoT78IKYRS486vIQqSjFYVX-Bek1h7KItOb0AP1SdHg68/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.43.08%20PM.png" width="281" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Emeryville Planning Director and former City <br />Councilwoman <b>Dianne Martinez, </b>without permission, <br />put this private encroachment on public <br />property and the City has received citizen <br />complaint against it. It gets to stay says Pedro.</i></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><i><br /></i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyF4_U4B756KXzhKP9A36D3LuQ55-27KN9-qp0_P4PxG74yaRS9b_D6AMZbuzmsAh1gUgpAZouqS0WWtyiumFfyNjuVqnfeIQjAg-NFBNTsEL9kwAiptzCS-2zybS3MJ58m3vmyu--C9ONTPHnSEFrpDXwmZqBT-tyQ0Q_KwITVYn8rDSczSk8zkxBCY4/s926/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.42.21%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="926" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyF4_U4B756KXzhKP9A36D3LuQ55-27KN9-qp0_P4PxG74yaRS9b_D6AMZbuzmsAh1gUgpAZouqS0WWtyiumFfyNjuVqnfeIQjAg-NFBNTsEL9kwAiptzCS-2zybS3MJ58m3vmyu--C9ONTPHnSEFrpDXwmZqBT-tyQ0Q_KwITVYn8rDSczSk8zkxBCY4/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-30%20at%205.42.21%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Former City Councilman <b>Scott Donahue </b><br />placed this encroachment into City property without <br />permission. It attracts graffiti, extends 14 inches into <br />the public easement, received citizen complaint against <br />it and it also gets to stay.</i></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p></p><div><br /></div>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-65898149802750287512023-07-23T06:15:00.010-07:002023-08-20T10:20:35.058-07:00After 23 Years, Emeryville's Consequential Community Development Director Retires<p> </p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Retirement Journal:</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Like What You See in Emeryville? Thank Charlie Bryant</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Don't Like What You See? Thank Charlie Bryant </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span>News Analysis</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">L</span>avishing praise on the outgoing Emeryville Community Development Director, Mayor John Bauters Tuesday night presented a plaque of appreciation to the retiring 23 year civil servant, Charlie Bryant, honoring his "service to the people of Emeryville". Invoking the consequential nature of Mr Bryant’s tenure here as “the conductor of the orchestra” at City Hall, Mayor Bauters wished Charlie well on behalf of a grateful city noting he could make a “great history book of the city”. </div><div style="text-align: left;">Mr Bauters' gushing commendation for Mr Bryant was not surprising given his vision of private development and the government's role that has dovetailed so well with that of several iterations of City Council majorities<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW4kIjkUArrUVrI-Yp3dIWgXWMn-jRsOVrzJZeucY2rWI0jZyNB7La6k-5cmz-oa1y39eUCLQ-kSVbKQgajVwlMGI8KYNYFjuIJAQw0RHG2KYMUTl1XnduwHZh1VbjCuVOBeMom3UiezTZZ2Qo1u8R8gTt8IGaMXMtBqtX33rlNZHumicEtSEHmbm1C1M/s364/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-22%20at%203.06.01%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="364" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW4kIjkUArrUVrI-Yp3dIWgXWMn-jRsOVrzJZeucY2rWI0jZyNB7La6k-5cmz-oa1y39eUCLQ-kSVbKQgajVwlMGI8KYNYFjuIJAQw0RHG2KYMUTl1XnduwHZh1VbjCuVOBeMom3UiezTZZ2Qo1u8R8gTt8IGaMXMtBqtX33rlNZHumicEtSEHmbm1C1M/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-22%20at%203.06.01%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Emeryville's Community Development Director<br />Charlie Bryant<br />2000 - 2023</b><br />He brought us what we see in Emeryville,<br />for better or worse.<br />August 31st, he's outta here.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>.<br /></div><p></p><p>Charlie’s vision for Emeryville did represent a change towards accommodating real estate developers using the language of inclusion for residents versus the time before when City Hall operated in a less democratic manner when those kinds of decisions were more commonly made behind closed doors. However it is also interesting to note the change in the tenor and the language emanating out of City Hall has resulted in very little actual change in how the City gets developed beyond the normal market ephemeralities real estate developers follow. Whereas developers were interested in building shopping malls in Emeryville when Charlie came on board in 2000, after 2007 and the Great Recession, they’re now interested in building rental apartment projects. During the intervening 23 years, the private development intensity, encouraged by a City Hall willing to stand aside and let the market run free, remained unchanged as the developers chased their profits as they saw fit. The name of the game at Emeryville’s City Hall, then and now is for the government to get out of the way of private enterprise. This is the culture Charlie Bryant encouraged during his time here. </p><p><b>Developers & City Council Love Charlie Bryant</b></p><p>While Mayor Bauters gladly noted Charlie’s helpful six year involvement in crafting Emeryville’s General Plan update in 2009, he spoke of resident friendly infrastructure it brought such as the much loved Doyle Hollis Park and the Emeryville Greenway. Acknowledging the good it has delivered for Emeryville citizens, Charlie noted how our General Plan received an award from the American Planning Association for how democratically vetted it is. Then reminding the viewers and the Council, he said Emeryville must prepare to conduct another General Plan update after he's gone because the current plan will sunset in a few years. Regardless of all the praising of the General Plan by Charlie and the Mayor, neither one mentioned the many times where refusal to follow our General Plan has failed us on Charlie’s watch.</p><p>Since Charlie Bryant arrived at City Hall and under his unchanging tutelage, Emeryville has seen tremendous growth. He has seen six City Managers come and go while the town has doubled in population. Charlie has been very influential, as the Mayor noted, and his vision for our town has largely come to pass over the last 23 years. So while Mr Bauters talked about bikes during the Charlie Bryant fete Tuesday night, efficiently moving cars to service the shopping malls and apartment towers has been the great project for Emeryville over the last 23 years.</p><p><b>Shopping Malls to Apartment Buildings </b> </p><p>By supporting developers as a modus operandi, Charlie ushered in Emeryville’s status as a <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2013/12/emeryville-closes-out-year-with-lots-of.html">rental apartment building city</a>, moving from a town with a majority of home owners, 55% in 2000, down to 24% homeownership today. During Charlie’s time renters, as a percentage of the total population in Emeryville, have increased from 45% in 2000 to 71% today. The General Plan clearly says NO to this.</p><p>Mayor Bauters also praised Charlie’s work delivering family friendly housing during his time here. But the number of families in Emeryville, the lowest among all East Bay cities, has remained virtually unchanged at 1.76 persons per household (it was 1.71 in 2000). Emeryville, 23 years on, is still by far the <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2022/11/failed-family-friendly-housing-policies.html">worst city for families in the East Bay.</a></p><p><b>Where Are The Parks?</b></p><p>But where our Community Development Director has been the most at odds with our General Plan has undoubtedly been in parks and open space. Emeryville has the fewest acres of park and open space per resident of any city in the East Bay, both before Charlie got here and now. The General Plan calls for three acres of park space for every 1000 new residents. But <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/03/new-development-drives-need-for-new.html">developers don’t want to pay for parks </a>and so every year since 2000, Emeryville gets farther behind the goal. As a result, Emeryville added almost 7000 new residents since 2000 but only about two acres of new park land (or about 3500 people per acre). By the sunset of the General Plan in about 2029, we are supposed to have more than 50 acres of parks, no more than 333 people per acre, as the General Plan delineates. The <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2018/12/city-staff-fails-at-sherwin-williams.html">Sherwin Williams project </a>will bring an additional 3.5 acres of park space but that is little help for such a park starved city. Right now Emeryville has only about 15 acres and for our population, that totals more than 500 residents per acre. This all amounts to a kind of development but it’s hard to call it “Community Development”.</p><p><b>Empty Storefronts</b></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMAuzKU2eZsQAG8jL6W09sMRPV1ST3Y5UipaNMU0AGP5hM4Dzhz9jhUg7HSO3Vz7diijjnXjZqAo9KmIMxC8rzzfXY56kmcpz_GtWBgnEEJVTHFybEYnmHADWApb-GN0bmJv-2oMUhdGZ9p3ozui6YSeWHiUakaCkw6RUbHbyDvEtyhLOfsodp2pXgZQ/s449/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-23%20at%2010.27.14%20AM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="244" data-original-width="449" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIMAuzKU2eZsQAG8jL6W09sMRPV1ST3Y5UipaNMU0AGP5hM4Dzhz9jhUg7HSO3Vz7diijjnXjZqAo9KmIMxC8rzzfXY56kmcpz_GtWBgnEEJVTHFybEYnmHADWApb-GN0bmJv-2oMUhdGZ9p3ozui6YSeWHiUakaCkw6RUbHbyDvEtyhLOfsodp2pXgZQ/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-23%20at%2010.27.14%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Typical Emeryville Empty Storefront Story</b><br />San Pablo Avenue at West MacArthur<br />Since this apartment building was built 15 years ago, <br />the retail space here has never been rented.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Trees too, were never a priority for Charlie. Developers want to cut our street trees but since 2000, Emeryville has drafted a tree protection ordinance. Mr Bryant has fought the ordinance every step of the way, protecting <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2018/04/legacy-of-emeryvilles-urban-forestry.html">an anemic 2.5% of trees </a>developers wanted to cut on his watch. While our public street trees keep getting cut by developers, the square footage of empty storefronts associated with the new apartment buildings keeps increasing since 2000. Mr Bryant pushes the “mixed use” development best practices touted by city planning professionals. But the will to follow through and force developers to rent out the street level retail spaces they are required to build doesn’t exist in the Community Development Department Mr Bryant heads. So instead we keep getting boarded up storefronts and the community crushing climate they bring. <br /><p></p><p><b>'Memorable' City?</b></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9tFDOT-4wtf_UraMyMlhYYP8ntXBqk6jhIlvD1bdeVxWugBJ99sBzcbwKmT7K4IYlufrJgHvr9s4cxBmOovIZWt0rF4qxDqORwlOEugl7THoFuJbDrK1YhvXw5UCFWFimcthzX_9mX1HaRXhDWj3ts37yc03J7RuiyKvSEZMdbVDpNIMwE6PWa87WSLk/s625/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-23%20at%2011.15.38%20AM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="625" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9tFDOT-4wtf_UraMyMlhYYP8ntXBqk6jhIlvD1bdeVxWugBJ99sBzcbwKmT7K4IYlufrJgHvr9s4cxBmOovIZWt0rF4qxDqORwlOEugl7THoFuJbDrK1YhvXw5UCFWFimcthzX_9mX1HaRXhDWj3ts37yc03J7RuiyKvSEZMdbVDpNIMwE6PWa87WSLk/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-23%20at%2011.15.38%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>This is the kind of development <br />Charlie Bryant says satisfies the requirement <br />to create a memorable city.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>But perhaps the most surprising delivery brought but ultimately ignored by our Director of Community Development is the General Plan’s provision to ensure Emeryville develops as a <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2012/07/panera-bakery-building-determined-to-be.html">“memorable city”</a>. This integral part of the Plan was quoted by the Mayor Tuesday night. Flying in the face of acres of baking parking lots fronting anonymous shopping malls, anywhere USA apartment buildings and multi-national drive up fast food chains, our General Plan's ‘memorability' clause represents a willful detachment from reality, now 14 years past the General Plan’s inception. Neither Charlie nor the City Council majority ever has taken memorability to heart and <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/03/emeryvilles-general-plan-overturned-to.html">what exists on the ground here serves as a testament to that failure.<br /></a><p></p><p>It is unknown how much Charlie changed his community development ideas to accommodate Emeryville's elite over the years or how much the elite changed to accommodate Charlie. We do know it became a near perfect match. As he prepares now to take his leave, Mr Bryant told the Council Tuesday night his biggest point of pride is the General Plan update he worked so hard on. But it is glaring that the thing he says he likes the most is the thing he has ignored. Indeed, this was the biggest question we had for Mr Bryant for this story but he refused to comment, allowing his injudicious record to serve as his legacy.</p><p><br /></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-41456266785261858752023-07-09T17:06:00.001-07:002023-07-09T17:16:39.097-07:00Emeryville Housing Autonomy Confounded by the Advancement of a Paid Sacramento Lobbyist to Council Committee<p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The City Council Appoints a Paid YIMBY Lobbyist to the Housing Committee</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Corporate Developers Now in Direct Control of the Levers of Power at City Hall</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he Emeryville City Council Wednesday appointed a professional influence peddler for California YIMBY, a Sacramento based corporate real estate developer supported lobbying organization, to the Emeryville Housing Committee. The Council appointee elevated to the Committee, Ned Resnikoff, is employed as the Policy Director for California YIMBY and has lived in Emeryville just two months. The pick is a first for the Emeryville City Council who have so far resisted appointing a paid lobbyist to any Council committees.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-tjjUrrP8L8h0_pXhJAZFqnfJQ-LQ3fJTbK7O7-KSvNEOaBkBEU3UWJff112JQ7kAzrIJz3-FCnybofTHNzMWMwmmGa0OWQh8tfKex4zVRg99JH7z3_lbfqbtqxJopR4kUWe8Xidk2qpEjF7-a9LI8p4F3fJUUxgOMSA83UDcH0PWktZsyZ_w0gjJVY/s365/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-09%20at%201.12.01%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="365" data-original-width="347" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh-tjjUrrP8L8h0_pXhJAZFqnfJQ-LQ3fJTbK7O7-KSvNEOaBkBEU3UWJff112JQ7kAzrIJz3-FCnybofTHNzMWMwmmGa0OWQh8tfKex4zVRg99JH7z3_lbfqbtqxJopR4kUWe8Xidk2qpEjF7-a9LI8p4F3fJUUxgOMSA83UDcH0PWktZsyZ_w0gjJVY/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-09%20at%201.12.01%20PM.png" width="304" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>New Emeryville Housing Committee member<br />Ned Resnikoff</b><br />He says 'best practices' for housing policy is to <br />remove regulation for developers. The implication <br />being that benefit for average people will <br />then trickle down, Ronald Reagan style.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Council member Kalimah Priforce strenuously pushed back against the appointment in what Councilwoman Sukhdeep Kaur pejoratively called an “outburst”. As such, Mr Priforce was the lone dissenting voice among his colleagues against the controversial pick.<p></p><p></p>The vote elevating Mr Resnikoff, 4-1 (Priforce dissenting), raised the specter of a new paradigm in Emeryville of Council committee appointees being actual paid corporate lobbyists in the bailiwick of the business of the committee. <p></p><p>Up until Wednesday, many if not most committee appointees have been local community members shown to be in the thrall of the business community but never in modern Emeryville history has there been such a blatant abdication of the City’s autonomy over to purely corporate interests. </p><p>It was an action that drew rebuke from Mr Priforce, "How does a lobbyist even survive the vetting process through the Housing Committee he said. “Should a member of the NRA [gun lobbying organization] sit on the Public Safety Committee, he further inquired of his colleagues rhetorically. The Councilman castigated the YIMBY employee for his housing policies as working against the interests of Black and Brown people, “You don’t care if [marginalized] people are gentrified out of their communities, he said.</p><p>Relying on a publicly offered argument of 'trickle down' democratic benefit, YIMBY's pro-developer policies have been shown to work in the real world as a gentrifying force against poor people in their communities, all the heated countering rhetoric from YIMBY aside.</p><p>Mayor Bauters dropped the gavel on Council member Priforce calling his speech “out of order” for disrespecting a "constituent" even though Mr Bauters himself is fond of doing precisely that from the dais, it should be noted. </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFs43uZ346SH-0lLNEnMwatWxYe17o78XbwtXxikGy1ddaR3QGo5soUhN6tUQ1JS9jbY1Kk9-Wr1y8KGOpkIgyQrMG2_6M_Wm-iz4vIPiW4JV3CSQvGh3HYhxi0_JYAQLBo6VstW9hog7c_O3yAF3rRvSP4ia2AcL2JFmMCo_UOL_ftvmPV7kqwEb1sWE/s350/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-09%20at%203.34.12%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="299" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFs43uZ346SH-0lLNEnMwatWxYe17o78XbwtXxikGy1ddaR3QGo5soUhN6tUQ1JS9jbY1Kk9-Wr1y8KGOpkIgyQrMG2_6M_Wm-iz4vIPiW4JV3CSQvGh3HYhxi0_JYAQLBo6VstW9hog7c_O3yAF3rRvSP4ia2AcL2JFmMCo_UOL_ftvmPV7kqwEb1sWE/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-07-09%20at%203.34.12%20PM.png" width="273" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Council member Kalimah Priforce </b><br />"Emeryville's reputation of being a rotten city is <br />something we have tried to grow away from. <br />But some of the rotten is still here in <br />how we chose to do things, in who <br />we select for our committees".<br /></i><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The YIMBY organization (Yes In My Back Yard) is a nation wide pro-housing developer lobbying organization and California YIMBY is the largest cell within the organization. Their aim is to protect developer’s profit margins to get them to build more housing and they do so at the expense of local autonomy. YIMBY pushes back against anything that would impinge on corporate profits including the building of more parks as the Emeryville General Plan calls for or even to deliver more ownership housing. Developers can make more profit by building rental only housing and so that’s what YIMBY uses its power in the service of. Emeryville has in recent years morphed from a mostly home ownership city into a<a href="http://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/02/emeryville-home-ownership-dropping.html"> mostly rental city regardless of Emeryville’s General Plan </a>and its direction to increase the ratio of ownership housing.</p><p>The <a href="http://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-most-yimby-mayor-vice-mayor-in-most.html">Mayor and Vice Mayor have forged ahead recently to deliver Emeryville to YIMBY</a>, much to the delight of the Sacramento based lobbying organization. California YIMBY, showing their appreciation, elevated Mr Bauters and Vice Mayor Courtney Welch to their <a href="http://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-most-yimby-mayor-vice-mayor-in-most.html">‘developer shill’ bracket </a> because of the pro-corporate housing deference the two have shown. </p><p>The elevation of the Director of Policy for YIMBY to our Housing Committee sends a signal that the Council now pays total deference to the Sacramento organization, further bolstering the claim from the San Fransisco Chronicle that Emeryville is "the most YIMBY city in the state".</p><p>The Tattler reached out to Mayor John Bauters for this story but he refused to answer any questions.</p><p><i>The applicant's innocuous statement begins at 44:10 (below) but the fireworks start at 50:16.</i></p><p><br /></p><div><br /></div>
<embed allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="360px" src="//emeryville.granicus.com/player/clip/2348?view_id=5&redirect=true&h=455987274035ee512c8dedf09bba8d29&entrytime=3017&stoptime=3604&autostart=0&embed=1" width="480px"></embed>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-27653864912662773312023-06-25T09:06:00.002-07:002023-06-25T09:15:40.984-07:00School Board Employs Catch and Kill Tactic to Quash Transgender Recognition<p> <i>Another Pride Month Passes With No Action:</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Steve Dain Field Turns Into a Field of Dreams For Seekers of Social Justice</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">School Board Says NO to Naming Athletic Field for Fired </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Transgender Teacher</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">T</span>he Emery Unified School District Board of Trustees, desiring to stop a growing community movement to name the athletic field at the Center of Community Life school campus for its deceased transgender teacher, Steve Dain, engaged in a ‘catch and kill’ program to neutralize the community's action the Tattler has learned. The community quest to posthumously honor the teacher the district fired for “immorality” in the 1970s, was siloed by the Board via use of a bogus committee set up ostensibly by the Board to “investigate” naming the field after Mr Dain. The so called Naming Committee has not met even once since its chartering in April 2021 and the Board refuses to say if it will ever meet.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixkiyErReHm_ZaIJdiElAvue7DQN6IO48sabdzLUKNCRzNK6081gGU-aqzzkW5wuJ62AVytApy_aZY5j_NoPV8-5bA1Upnjl_og9m4CkPnGg7YgOP59Q1EWiw5XULk8Q8xCPnAtreqxXGRKV3h18uTM6vVhWKek1lDH1DyuIDlyzsyQjKSgtkx5HtR7Ww/s239/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%205.54.05%20PM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="239" data-original-width="216" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixkiyErReHm_ZaIJdiElAvue7DQN6IO48sabdzLUKNCRzNK6081gGU-aqzzkW5wuJ62AVytApy_aZY5j_NoPV8-5bA1Upnjl_og9m4CkPnGg7YgOP59Q1EWiw5XULk8Q8xCPnAtreqxXGRKV3h18uTM6vVhWKek1lDH1DyuIDlyzsyQjKSgtkx5HtR7Ww/s1600/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%205.54.05%20PM.png" width="216" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Emery School Board Member<br />John Van Geffen</b><br />Not fond of 'Steve Dain Field'<br />or Steve Dain anything for that<br />matter, he says there's no reason <br />for the Naming Committee to meet.<br />His Board colleagues agree.</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Transgender community members and their allies, having been placated by the Board's sanctimoniously claimed interest in naming the field for Steve Dain, have since wound down and dispersed, satisfied with the promise of non-biased decision making by the Board's new committee. The community was unaware but the dispersion and tamping down of their passion was likely the Board's whole idea of the pushing the Steve Dain Field concept into the wilderness.<p></p><p></p><br /><p></p><p>The Board was caught off guard in 2019 amid a rising community groundswell to name the gym at the school campus after Mr Dain who was a popular PE teacher at Emery before he was fired for transitioning to a man in 1976. All but one Board member, the president, were against Steve Dain Gymnasium and countering the groundswell, the Board threw the decision over to parents at Emery who refused to name the gym after a transgender person, naming it instead after a non-trans retired PE teacher. The parents gave the Board cover to anoint the 'Elio Abrami Gym' instead of Steve Dain Gym. </p><p>The cynicism of that Board move may have gotten them out of the publicly uncomfortable position of having to go on record as having voted NO to Steve Dain Gym but it came at a cost. Board president Barbara Inch, the only supporter of Mr Dain on the Board, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2019/06/discord-returns-to-school-district.html">resigned from the Board in protest</a>. Watching from the sidelines and alarmed by the Board's Abrami gambit, the City Council responded by renaming 47th Street, the street address of the School District, <a href="https://emeryvilletattler.blogspot.com/2021/03/emeryville-honors-transgender-community.html">'Steve Dain Drive'</a> in March 2021 by fiat.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWHBpUuJFKOkmz3IKP2kqd6_lMn1rFbjc7PTFR8a7jUHCdOvkHREkZO741UaGxyxUdW0PBcHIwTTtdYQdk8JvywRnZplR-yIn5Ac9QHVVtBpneBMUJ36CU71IVkJ4GjAkuFxHXaTuWlpS3kdrd528ZA2pAJpWSLax_mP7t20eGLFIRhqHPdpHdShLoIQQ/s437/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-25%20at%208.49.48%20AM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="339" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWHBpUuJFKOkmz3IKP2kqd6_lMn1rFbjc7PTFR8a7jUHCdOvkHREkZO741UaGxyxUdW0PBcHIwTTtdYQdk8JvywRnZplR-yIn5Ac9QHVVtBpneBMUJ36CU71IVkJ4GjAkuFxHXaTuWlpS3kdrd528ZA2pAJpWSLax_mP7t20eGLFIRhqHPdpHdShLoIQQ/w310-h400/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-25%20at%208.49.48%20AM.png" width="310" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The result of the first use of catch and kill by the<br />Board (to stop the Steve Dain Gym movement).</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p>‘<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/12/national-enquirer-trump-payments-david-pecker-catch-and-kill">Catch and kill</a>’ is a term used by right wing media to stop stories they don’t like. Readers may remember how David Pecker, the CEO of the National Inquirer, a strong supporter of candidate Donald Trump in 2016, paid Playboy centerfold Karen McDougal $150,000 for exclusive publishing rights to her story about her affair with Trump. After getting her assurance she would not tell her story to any other media before the 2016 election, the National Inquirer then refused to post the story they paid for, thereby killing it to help Trump's election chances. It was a tactic useful to Donald Trump then and to the School Board at Emery now.</p><p>In 2021, the Board said its new Naming Committee would meet on a strictly ad hoc basis, meaning only when there’s a ‘need’ to meet. Not seeing a need to meet after assuring the social justice seeking community the issue would be taken up by the Committee, the community’s Steve Dain Field request has been quietly erased by the Board.</p><p>Board member John Van Geffen, whom the Board appointed as the Naming Committee Chair, was contacted for this story but he refused to comment. </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNQYi5aq5HPfG4FqCfrSZsAX67l2PDAo4oD3l4cZZdYC1s1U4DKnBEnqMXKFe3v_jF29-Llk8Pd0tzDf0oOunEY_1K6suHPFo73TA_F6lyKlF7EdPD_U_KvxxTj-_nxkSuj_XeLfm06yM-W5cweiHwwH285RzmdmY5zdDG9juwtcEUtzQ8PthMSrvGRsk/s870/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%206.04.17%20PM.png" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="514" data-original-width="870" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNQYi5aq5HPfG4FqCfrSZsAX67l2PDAo4oD3l4cZZdYC1s1U4DKnBEnqMXKFe3v_jF29-Llk8Pd0tzDf0oOunEY_1K6suHPFo73TA_F6lyKlF7EdPD_U_KvxxTj-_nxkSuj_XeLfm06yM-W5cweiHwwH285RzmdmY5zdDG9juwtcEUtzQ8PthMSrvGRsk/w607-h359/Screen%20Shot%202023-06-24%20at%206.04.17%20PM.png" width="607" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>Steve Dain Field (except for anti-trans bigotry at Emery)</b><br />Community members who want to see the arc of the moral universe bend toward justice will<br />have to wait longer for the School Board at Emery Unified School District to imagine equality.<br /> </i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394711926853801811.post-89686313313012232322023-05-22T18:29:00.002-07:002023-05-23T08:26:39.529-07:00Introducing the Horton Street Community Bulletin Board<p>The Tattler introduces the Horton Street Community Bulletin Board. Located on the east side of Horton Street at the Sherwin Street intersection, the bulletin board is available for neighbors to leave messages of interest to the community: missing dogs, services available, things for sale, poetry, community news, opinion on local politics and more. The Tattler provided the board and will maintain it including a City News section and a current Tattler story section.</p><p>To contribute, neighbors are asked to tape messages to the plexiglass and if they meet the requirements (no advertising for businesses, no hate speech, etc) they will be added to the board. Please place a date on submissions so we can keep the messages timely.</p><p>The Community Bulletin Board replaces an earlier board in the same location that was stolen several years ago. </p><p>This community resource is similar to several other such boards placed on the public sidewalks over the years in Emeryville, notably a very popular one placed by former community activist Richard Ambro in front of his house on 64th Street. We are hoping the City of Emeryville moves to encourage more community bulletin boards around our town because they encourage community involvement and help disperse valuable information for the community.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguWG-Kf0ssD-qJ1FfnXHJjK8qGmsQWk-ZWfVJgwcPBMp6Y2cnm_F8xGnzopHxi1rCIPhhqtdKtVmBadk4KlvCQVDsUYzIoZlV-QwZoKfX0p4ByOV-0jCkngB8-QfDIVg7gAuNcMuPGG-F1qXIqR4eRRyJ7E2k1niElU0yl57xoIh5or3QAk2ziAc7G/s4032/IMG_3377.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguWG-Kf0ssD-qJ1FfnXHJjK8qGmsQWk-ZWfVJgwcPBMp6Y2cnm_F8xGnzopHxi1rCIPhhqtdKtVmBadk4KlvCQVDsUYzIoZlV-QwZoKfX0p4ByOV-0jCkngB8-QfDIVg7gAuNcMuPGG-F1qXIqR4eRRyJ7E2k1niElU0yl57xoIh5or3QAk2ziAc7G/w480-h640/IMG_3377.jpeg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Horton Street Community Bulletin Board is located at an extra <br />wide part of the public sidewalk, encouraging people to linger and <br />gather with the community there.</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p>Brian Donahuehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12705682112476904502noreply@blogger.com3