Delinquent Filing By Affordable Housing Beneficiary Threw Off Emeryville Investigators

Missed Arias Filing Deadlines With State 

Threw Emeryville Investigators Off Trail 

Proper Filings Would Have Shown Emeryville Housing Investigators "Hyper Local" Rob Arias Actually Lives in Far Off Pleasant Hill 

Opinion/News Analysis

Rob Arias
Defrauded Emeryville's
Affordable Housing Program. 
His Pleasant Hill address was not
filed until after he was caught.

Rob Arias, the editor of the Emeryville centric news blog the E’Ville Eye, received a notice of delinquency from the California Secretary of State warning if he didn’t file his required biannual Statement of Information for his business, after fining him, the State would shut down his company and seize the name.  Mr Arias had become delinquent in 2019, the same time he and his wife bought a home in the Contra Costa County village of Pleasant Hill according to publicly accessible documents at the Secretary of State’s office and the Contra Costa County Assesor’s office.  This information reveals a fast and loose handling of required filings by Mr Arias that could have been part of an attempt to hide damning evidence from investigators for the City of Emeryville’s Below Market Rate affordable housing program Mr Arias was later found to have defrauded.  Beneficiaries of the BMR program as Mr Arias was, are required to live in their units.
 

The documents Mr Arias filed with California's Secretary of State showed his last place of business was on Park Avenue in Emeryville in 2017.  But then he failed to file for his business in 2019, as was required.  Instead Mr Arias waited until after City investigators discovered he had defrauded Emeryville’s BMR housing program in June 2021 (because didn’t live in Emeryville anymore). Then in September of 2021, after the City moved in on him, effectuating a forced sale of his unit, and two years overdue with the State, Rob finally brought his business filings into good standing with Sacramento, his address now shown as Pleasant Hill California.  

Mr Arias was able to stall and ride out threats from Sacramento for more than two years until he finally sold his Emeryville BMR unit, thereby keeping his Pleasant Hill address hidden from Emeryville housing investigators.  Thus, Rob never had to lie to the California Secretary of State, an organization with an impressive legal department and a potent police force, the state Board of Equalization, that is feared by cheats up and down the state. 

E'Ville Eye Address is Now Pleasant Hill
P'Hill Eye?
Rob's Pleasant Hill business statement filed  
with the State of California.  Before this
he was delinquent with the state for two years
while the City of Emeryville investigated him.
Seeking to prove Arias lived in Pleasant Hill,
the City was thrown off because there was no business
document linking him to his Pleasant Hill address.
Rob still keeps an Emeryville PO box,
probably to continue some scam.

Of note is the fact that these Secretary of State public documents record the applicant’s place of business and so the two years Mr Arias was in violation with the State are the same two years that he now claims he was still living and doing business in Emeryville.  Apparent to everyone now, Rob was living in Pleasant Hill in 2019 and if this business filing gap was indeed an attempt to hide from the City of Emeryville’s BMR program, it is pretty glaring.  The City took ownership of Rob’s unit after he finally admitted he was not living in Emeryville and they have since sold the unit to a needy party as the BMR program dictates.

Rob went missing from Emeryville in 2019 when he didn’t tell his former neighbors on Park Avenue he and his wife had bought their new $630,000 (now valued at $974,000) home in Pleasant Hill.  Several Park Avenue neighbors report in May of 2019, they suddenly stopped seeing Rob on his daily dog walking rounds or at any local businesses he formally had frequented or indeed anywhere in town.  Rob, for what it is worth, is still telling his E’Ville Eye readers he moved out of Emeryville in 2021 for some reason known only to Rob.  He left our city, but he didn't want to leave a bunch of money on the table here.  He had built up a pretty good business here with its corporate paymasters made up of appreciative businesses in Emeryville.

He Likes to Tell Us How To Vote In Our Elections

So what are we to make of the far flung suburban dwelling Rob Arias who in addition to lying about his place of residence, is fond of telling us how to vote in our town?  Rob quit Emeryville, yes, but he hasn’t quit our body politic or the money he draws from his heavily monetized, corporate underwritten “hyper local” news blog.  He vacated Emeryville without telling anyone, moving 30 miles east, to the other side of the hills, to a cul-de-sac adjacent to a golf course in a leafy suburban village teeming with Republicans while defrauding the City by continuing to hold his government subsidized affordable condo unit in Emeryville, over time netting impressive real estate value gains.

Another Scam
Rob's Next Door Emeryville Page
He's still a 'Lead' (moderator) at the site where 
Emeryville residency is required.

Rob dropped hints about his plans back in 2019.  He penned a diatribe addressed to the City Council on May 6th 2019 wherein he told them “This city is not worthy of my efforts”.  Two days later, he and his wife closed escrow on their home on the shady cul-de-sac with the Kentucky bluegrass front lawn adjacent to the Contra Costa Country Club.  But he’s still going to tell us how to vote in our elections here in Emeryville because he knows what’s best for us presumably.

Next Door Scam

Meanwhile, Mr Arias is continuing on with another fraud here in our town.  He is a moderator at the website Next Door Emeryville, where he recently blasted Mayor John Bauters for not being a member there, presumably because this pet site of his would benefit from the gravitas of Emeryville’s mayor being a member among other reasons.  Rob wants to engage Emeryville voters in the negative and often hate-filled space on Next Door where as moderator, he can manipulate the conversation.  He has been publicly critical of Mayor Bauters’ Twitter account where Mr Bauters has more than 23,000 followers and where the conversation about Emeryville is informative and elevated and where Rob can’t direct the narrative.

The Contra Costa County Country Club
Typical fairway scene located next to Rob's Pleasant Hill home.

Over at Next Door Emeryville Rob likes to advertise the E’Ville Eye and (to leverage his moderator status) to remove people he doesn’t like who actually do live in Emeryville. The corporate policy at Next Door incidentally states moderators and members are required to live in the cities where the site operates.  Members of Next Door Emeryville MUST live in Emeryville.  Rob has gotten past that, presumably, by lying to Next Door corporate about his place of residence.

Out-of-Towners Want to Make Money Off Emeryville

Rob Arias continues to crow about Emeryville but we shouldn’t listen to somebody that lives in suburbia about how to fashion our city.  We should make our city the way WE want, not according to the dictates of out-of-town interlopers, be they wealthy developers with an eye towards pulling profits out of our city or Rob Arias for the same reasons.  We have a suggestion for Rob: start an actual hyper-local news blog in the town you really live in; you can call it The Pleasant Hill Town Crier or the P'Hill Eye. 

As election season approaches this summer with two City Council seats to be decided by the people of Emeryville, we should tune out this guy that has tuned us out.  He has no interest in how our city evolves except for how he can bump up his personal bank account.  He doesn’t care about Emeryville and we shouldn’t care about him or the didactic political prognostications he has for us.

Rob Arias Country

"Hyper-Local" Emeryville Blogger Rob Arias Purchased Home in Pleasant Hill in 2019, May Be Forced to Sell His Home Here

 Emeryville Booster/Blog Editor Reportedly Moved Out of Town in 2019

Possible Violations Against City's Affordable Housing Program

Editor Rob Arias Tells His Readers He Still Lives in Emeryville

The self styled 'voice of the community' hasn't
been seen in the community for quite some time.

Emeryville blogger, local booster and political pundit Robert Arias, apparently moved to Pleasant Hill nearly two years ago.  A move would tend to undermine Mr Arias' public positioning as the voice of the Emeryville community, if he's sleeping each night in another county.  The move would also have real consequences.  Mr Arias may have violated stipulations in an Emeryville affordable housing program by apparently retaining possession of one of City Hall's few subsidized units, if the Park Avenue unit in question is no longer his primary residence.

The Tattler learned Mr Arias apparently jumped ship in 2019, closing escrow on an 1,163 square foot, two story home with two bedrooms and two baths, in May, according to public records, in the Contra Costa County community.  At the same time, he has apparently retained his Emeryville unit, purchased (in 2003) through the City's Below-Market-Rate affordable housing program, rather than selling it to a qualifying buyer or obtaining a waiver as the housing program requires. 

Having built a fairly successful, heavily monetized web presence in Emeryville, offering generally positive coverage- the digital equivalent of an old time small town newspaper’s proud, if boosterish coverage, Mr Arias hasn't volunteered anything publicly on his E'Ville Eye about any move 30 miles to the east.

The E'Ville Eye editor purchased this
Pleasant Hill home in May 2019.  

According to Emeryville’s low income housing assistance regulations, BMR owners must live in their units as a ‘primary residence’ for at least 10 months per year.  Living elsewhere represents a breach of contract.  Renting out a BMR unit is also a violation, though it is unclear that this has occurred. The program requires the sale of units to applicants meeting the city's income guidelines, (just as Mr Arias had in 2003) after the owner relocates.  The goal being having a supply, albeit a small one, of affordable housing for purchase in Emeryville. 

BMR unit owners, even though they receive assistance in the initial purchase, are allowed to realize property value gains over the tenure of their occupancy.  By law, Mr Arias would be allowed to keep 20% of the sale price above his initial investment.  Being across the street from the long-planned ten-acre, 500-unit, Sherwin-Williams development and new public park now under construction, Mr Arias’ unit has likely increased in value in recent months, a windfall he will be able to realize the longer he holds the unit.

This story will continue to evolve as new facts are revealed and we will report as our investigation continues.

Mr Arias declined to comment for this story.  

Rob continues to tell his readers he lives in Emeryville.  If the City's housing assistance director finds he has defrauded City Hall's BMR program, Mr Arias will be forced to sell his unit.  Bio pulled from his E'Ville Eye this week.