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
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| Rob Arias Defrauded Emeryville's Affordable Housing Program. His Pleasant Hill address was not filed until after he was caught. |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The Contra Costa County Country Club Typical fairway scene located next to Rob's Pleasant Hill home. |
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.
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| Rob Arias Country |
Sure Rob has done some things that aren't so transparent but you are acting like continuing on with the EVille Eye after he left is suspect. Nobody that's making bank would walk away from it. This only proves he's like everybody else.
ReplyDeleteBrian didn't say Rob continuing on with the EVille Eye is suspect. He said the late filing with the state is suspect. Because it IS. Rob Arias has always taken the sleazy route in our town and he has never had the support of the vast majority of Emeryville people
DeleteThis could have been coherent and a tenth as long.
ReplyDeleteSeems that Mr. Arias plays fast and loose with legal matters, but it is up to the people of Emeryville whether they trust him for local news and information.
ReplyDeleteRob Arias should be ashamed.
ReplyDeleteJust because Rob doesn’t live in Emeryville doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about us. He provides an excellent news service for us and all you do is whine and complain. He is NOT trying to hide that he no longer lives here. His election analysis is very valuable and all you do is promote fake progressive values.
ReplyDeleteRob doesn't care about Emeryville. He moved out to the suburbs. Anybody that gave up on Emeryville is somebody that gave up on Emeryville. We need to keep that in mind. Rob Arias doesn't care about us. His address is proof of that.
ReplyDeleteDid the housing authority ever recover the rent for the period he fraudulently held the BMR unit?
ReplyDeleteEmeryville has two kinds of BMR housing units available for low income people, rental and ownership condo. Rob Arias had an ownership condo. Because Mr Arias qualified in 2003, he was able to save more than $100,000 off the market price and he was able to sell the unit back to the City at a substantial increase in price as the BMR rules dictate. Essentially, Rob had free housing for all the years he lived in Emeryville, thanks to the taxpayers and he was able to get money back on top of that when he sold his unit. It's a pretty nice set up, these BMR ownership units. But to answer your question, no, the City did not attempt to recover any money after they discovered the fraud. The cut their losses and resold the unit to another party, this time an actual needy party as the BMR program mandates.
Delete