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Oh dear oh dear, here we go the mud is getting thicker in the campaign races for Santa Clara city council. Most of the mud flinging seems to be at Ms Jamie McLeod for her supposed record on city council. Wow freedom of speech really can take a twist at election time. I think we could call it freedom of verbal abuse. If some of the written ’shouting’ were to be done in the streets of Santa Clara we could expect residence to call the police and complain about it. But here in this fine country we can only be told it’s our first amendment right to freedom of speech.
Never mind, it will all end soon and we can get back to ‘normality’. But before we do that I have to write about the latest laugh I saw. One of my neighbors shared the republicans voters guide as per the California Voter guide printed in Torrance. It gives the following notice to voters:
“This document was prepared by California Voter guide, not an official political party organization. APPEARANCE in this mail does not necessarily imply endorsement of other candidates or ballot measures in this mailer. Appearance is a PAID FOR and AUTHORIZED by EACH CANDIDATE and ballot measure which is designated by an * (astrix).”
So guess who paid to be on this guide? Mr Chuck Blair – paid for and supported by the firefighters & police officers. This means that firefighters paid for it – I thought Mr Blair was a registered Democrat – what will his party think of this – oh maybe it doesn’t matter after all it’s non-partisan running for local government. Or is it????
In any case this flier certainly a little nicer than the ‘hate’ campaign that has been going on out their against Jamie. Mr Blair has sent a few fliers criticizing Jamie but still we don’t really know what his qualifications are for being our Representative on council are? All we know is that he “hates” her more than he cares to tell us about why he would make a good council person? Oh and we know that he is pro the stadium because it would be a good thing for Santa Clara but not why it would be a good thing. Attacking and misconstruing someones record is not the nicest thing to do.
I love the piece that the San Jose Mercury News did yesterday “ignore sleazy hit pieces, vote for Independent McLeod” page 14a. Even the editorial piece says that normally they don’t come out and speak on how to vote on local candidates – they felt that there was a need to say something about Jamie McLeod and the fact that she is not part of the Santa Clara political in crowd.
©Letters From Silicon Valley 2008
The front of the San Jose Mercury News brings us an article today about the down turn in the construction industry.
So this brings up questions for the residents of Santa Clara – as we go towards more building in Santa Clara what happens when construction companies start to realize that they won’t be able to either sell off or lease the properties that they are so hell bent on building? Will construction companies stop building, like people who have left their homes because they cannot afford their mortgage any more, will they leave sites half built? Will they leave their ‘keys’ on the kitchen counter and walk out the house and leave their worries to someone else? Will they start a job but not complete it?
It’s certainly a concern and something that people are not talking about or unwilling to address publicly.
I believe that Fairfield Residential will not do such a thing and that they will see their commitments to the end but there is a part of that site that has to be built by another company and that has not bee clarified yet. So that section will sit maybe for years, maybe not, but nevertheless this has not been addressed by Fairfield or the city.
I can remember a building site in Sydney that sat for years, the base was dug out, the pylons poured and then it just sat and sat … the rain water gathered and sat creating a mosquito heaven, the tramps found places to sleep, the graffiti increased, you get the picture. Unfortunately, the builder couldn’t even afford to maintain security, his money was gone. I left Sydney and years later I returned to see that same hole in the ground sitting there a big eye saw in the heart of that gorgeous city. I’m sure by now it’s a building, well I hope so.
Yes we have reason to be concerned about what some of these developers will or will not carry out. We have the right to understand their plans for a recession. The boom seems to be over, Sun Microsystems is no longer the Santa Clara hero, Yahoo has plans to come but what if they get acquired by Microsoft? will they still come? Envidia has plans to expand and so far no talk of cutting back, well at least not publicly, a good thing I think.
I think it’s worth asking the city council do they have a plan if builders walk away from sites mid term? or is it really none of their business? Just a question, nothing more, nothing less.
©Letters From Silicon Valley 2008
So in reading the Santa Clara, the Mission City blog I caught up on the lies being spread on Jamie McLeod. Please read these stories being spread by one of Jamie’s opponents. It’s a shame because if its true that person seems like such a nice guy, I think he probably has a heart of gold. I bet he’d be the first to help out a family member in strife or be willing to pitch in at a school event.
On his free 5 minute comcast interview he said he had no endorsements from large organizations but only local people. What that means is he didn’t go to the parties to ask for endorsements like Jamie McLeod or Mary Emerson did. Why not? Well as I understand it having talked to Mary Emerson about how this works, you have a questionnaire you fill in that the party sends you and they ask for your feed back on how you stand on issues. I’m wondering if that person couldn’t align himself with a party because he just didn’t want to be held more accountable? Food for thought, or perhaps he’s just not a very politically minded person and doesn’t quite understand the whole depth of what’s really going on here.
Though I’m not one for endorsements and I’m certainly not swayed by them – I couldn’t give a rats tail if Mayor Mahan called me up and told me to vote for him. Which she actually did. It made me think why isn’t Ms Mahan more hands off when it comes to endorsing?? I’ve learnt that in politics and in any committee you run it’s always good to have some opposition. You might actually gain a new perspective to what it is you are trying to accomplish. It’s kind of boring have a committee of completely like minded people. I think that there is a name for that. It’s called stacking the odds. Sure the odds are in your favor, but what if your favor is biased. It certainly seems at times that the city council in Santa Clara is biased to one point of view on certain issues. They certainly haven’t heard the residents when it comes to high density, traffic concerns, clean up El Camino.
It’s time for a change, as I’ve said before and Jamie has been the forerunner in Santa Clara politics who emulates change. Let’s have Jamie McLeod, Mary Emerson, Brian Lowery and write in Candidate Karen Hardy on our ballots and in local government this year. Bring in the Change that Santa Clara city council needs.
So the word is out the 49ers issue is causing concern for some voters. Finally some people are starting to ask questions about why and how this affects them. They are asking candidates and wondering how the dollars and “sense” of having a stadium in our city works. What’s interesting as the campaign gets closer to election day the knives come out. Well isn’t that to be expected? Aren’t we seeing the same type of dirty tactics in the National news?
Haven’t you been reading the news about the Obama / McCleain election. That campaign is also starting to sling mud. I figured once they started flinging mud, it too, would start at a city level. So apparentlythe heavy hitters are out to sling mud at Jamie McLeod and her stand on ‘let’s know the numbers’ before we decide if it is financially a good idea for our city to have a stadium. My parents always told me ‘don’t spend more than you have’. So the question still remains: do we have the money to even build this stadium? And what do we as a city get out of it? Nothing probably, not that I expect anything from it but I do expect responsible decisions.
If there are sweet heart deals to be had out of this from developers could they please spend some money on cleaning up our part of El Camino – after our part looks like it got stuck in time – the 50’s, maybe the 60’s. Or perhaps we could get the developers to put into funding some of the elementary schools – after all we are gong to start bursting at the seams here. Or perhaps we could get a downtown that resembles a downtown and not a hotsh potch of something slapped together at the last moment. Maybe we could have an arts program for Grafitti artists? Maybe we could have a current 24/7 study of our traffic issues, needs and wants – especially on El Camino, Kiely & Lawrence. Maybe we could have a halt on all new development till we take stock of current developments and where they are in relation to filling the supposed need this city has for housing. Maybe we should reconsider how many people can live in a ‘confined’ space? Maybe we could stop trying to fix it – when we need to actually need to stop and assess ‘it’. Maybe we could consider that there is something not right with the current ‘majority’ run city council.
Make your vote count and think about the real issues: the stadium, the plan for more high density, the lack of a real downtown, the unwillingness of planning to hear residents issues about more housing in this area, the traffic concerns on Lawrence and El Camino. I’d love to tell you how to vote for but I won’t. I’ll suggest you think twice before casting a ballot for the ‘old regime’ and start thinking outside the box and consider voting for people that have been willing to be outside the favored officials. So if you feel you are willing to have a change consider anyone that has either spoken out against the majority stack holders of Santa Clara or is not affiliated with them. There are quite a few of them: Jamie McLeod, Mario Bouza, Mary Emerson, Brian Lowery, Cirian McDonnel, write in candidate Karen Hardy, – each of these candidates are not part of the anointed party. They all have their own twist on their different issues and some are perhaps not as strong as others but at the very least they are running against the ‘family and friends ticket’. It’s about time Santa Clara City Council looked like a real city council and had more Jamie McLeod’s sitting ‘up on stage’ listening to your average Plumber Joe.
©Letters From Silicon Valley 2008
So did you catch the article in the Valley today of the SJ Mercury News? It’s all about Mr Bouza and Mr Moore. Very interesting reading. If you hadn’t heard about this before you do now. I think you can make up your own mind as to who, what or whether it is true. One thing for sure that is disturbing is that there has been a history of this happening before in Santa Clara – which gives you cause to ask the question – is it not time for Change? A change from the majority share holders that have been around the Santa Clara city politics? Time for some fresh blood and thinkers – people who ask questions and listen to residents.
Here is a link to the article in the SJ Mercury News if you didn’t catch it. Rumors are that there were other people that made calls to Bouza not just the ones mentioned in the article. I guess there is nothing wrong in giving your opinion to a candidate where he/she decides to run but you just got to wonder WHY? Why do people care? Why are people so positional about city politics?
©Letters From Silicon Valley 2008
So as a country looks towards change is it not fair to say that cities should look towards change.
CNN (constant negative news) has done a survey of some of the States that were leaning toward the Republicans before the Wall Street Turmoil and found that those voters are now favoring Democrats.
There are certainly enough candidates in this Santa Clara election to give you reason to look towards change – unfortunately some candidates are either more of the same or been here done that type candidates and don’t necessarily give you the Change that you might be looking for.
Without endorsing any of them I would recommend asking them what is the change they see is needed in Santa Clara? Is it in housing, is it in having the 49ers, is it in cleaning up El Camino …
whatever the change does it warrant them representing you? I may not agree with Jamie McLeod on some of her view points but I rather a person like her that asks questions and thinks than someone who blindly votes as the ‘caucus’ recommends. There are other candidates like Jamie McLeod running who I feel will also ask questions, inquire, disagree and think for themselves rather than be the party ‘hack’.
And remember one vote can make a difference.
©Letters From Silicon Valley 2008
You got to hand it to Brian Lowery he’s got a lot of guts standing as an independent in this city – sure he may have his name on a ticket that the group who doesn’t care for the stadium put out but I’m not sure he endorsed that ticket. But he certainly seems to come across as a person who is not into games, endorsements, or campaign financing.
Sure he has endorsements on his web site, they however, seem to be your average bloke endorsing him. He doesn’t have the big ticket endorses like past and current council people, chiefs of this or that Government department just your average Joe or Mary Smith. Good for him taking his endorsements from the grass roots of the community.
His campaign is fully funded by his own dollars. He has run for city council before and lost. At his website you will learn though that he turned that result into a positive and learnt more about how the city worked and got involved more. Kudos to him.
I hope he wins this time around he seems to have his heart in the right place with his concerns for some of the development that is proposed for the city.
©Letters From Silicon Valley 2008
