The best government is the one closest to the people?

The socialist programs in Pleasanton are as much front and center as in Berkeley.
Pleasanton has rent control, mortgage subsidies, and inclusionary (subsidized) housing. Now the city council is looking into limiting or preventing condominium conversions.

How do these socialist programs measure up against capitalism? Rent control discriminates against landlords by preventing them from collecting market rates for their rental properties. Mortgage subsidies transfer taxes to homebuyers. Inclusionary housing transfers taxes to homebuyers or to renters. Preventing or limiting condominium conversion prevents property owners from realizing potential profits.

Redistribution of wealth is not a very exotic topic for elections especially in a wealthy community whose citizens are uninformed and uninvolved. Why the Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters, who are informed and involved, never ask the candidates their views on wealth redistribution or more importantly, socialism is curious. Even more curious is why the media ignores it. Hem? Could is be a bias? We understand why the press and the League of Women Voters skip the issue in their forums and editorial boards, but we cannot understand why the Chamber of Commerce does not pursue that line of questioning. The Chamber is the least socialist and the most capitalist. The issues of development, traffic, and chickens in residential neighborhoods seem to always trump the academic discussions about the kind of government we have and how we dispose of storm water runoff.

In Pleasanton, a citizen imposed housing ceiling of 29,000 units hamstrings us in all of the housing decisions we are now making and those we make until we reach build out. A good project that will put us at 29,001 will be opposed by socialists who feel that all building is deleterious and that one unit over the cap will be a violation of the ceiling trust--now a worthy goal but at this point artificial.

If we are able to get to 28,999 and a property owner wants to convert his five-unit apartment building to condominiums, this, to most socialists, will be a violation of the cap.

Most property owners are aware that we are reaching the cap and will rush forward with conversion plans to beat others to the open housing slots. It will be a land rush to end all land rushes to get under the cap. At that point, when there are no large parcels to develop, the city council should open up discussions on how the housing cap should be amended to accommodate special cases caused by infill and redevelopment. For instance, the private redevelopment of downtown will likely include higher housing density to meet the goals and objectives of the downtown plan. Will the one or two unit increases be denied because the cap will be exceeded?

News Opinion

You cannot be serious about emergency preparedness without completing our road network, flood control channels

I t is human nature to put off disaster preparedness because it is not a top-of-mind issue. It is also human nature after a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or an earthquake, to rush into the breech. That is exactly where Pleasant is today. However, for Pleasanton, where things happen a little slowly, rushing here simply means that the city will support private enterprise in its efforts to put together a plan.

The city is, however, “rushing” with both hands tied behind the back.

Getting people in and out of Pleasanton in case of a terrorist attack or a natural disaster will be no small matter. Roundabouts, emergency vehicle access (EVA) roads, and timing some of our 75 traffic signals will not solve our emergency problems. If the emergency arrives at midnight we have a better shot of evacuating than if it arrives at commute time. I-680 southbound and I-580 westbound are at gridlock in the morning commute, northbound and eastbound in the afternoon commute. Getting Pleasanton evacuees to the Central Valley between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. will be as nasty as it was getting Houstonians north to Dallas. Getting Livermore residents west toward the bay will be as daunting. And with only Stanley Boulevard and Highway 84 as the surface street routes west out of Livermore look for gridlock on our city streets hampering a Pleasanton evacuation.

Completing the road network in our General Plan will go along way to relieving that problem.

For years council and Zone 7 candidates have called for greater flood control efforts. Those candidates were marginalized by their opponents and the press because flood control is not a hot-button issue—it even puts bureaucrats to sleep. It seems that trails and footpaths along our flood control canals were more to the liking of the candidates and elected officials. Making them safe for the 100-year flood, the baseline for flood preparedness, was never seriously considered. More alarming, however, is that the dam at Lake Del Valle could break and provide the water for the 100-year flood. The Chain of Lakes is years away the ponding and berming on the Bernal property will not turn things around.

In addition to the water damage that a flood would bring to the low-lying neighborhoods, the fragile banks of some of the arroyos could be destroyed—especially those around the green bridge on Bernal between I-680 and Foothill Road and around the bridge on Hopyard Road/St. Mary Street between Fair Street and Del Valle Boulevard. With bank erosion, the bridges become vulnerable.

Getting emergency patients to Valley Care hospital is a challenge today. In an emergency it will only be worse. With the gridlock we have today, it makes sense to have a heliport at Valley Care. In an emergency it is mandatory.

A heliport could also connect Valley Care to the Livermore Airport to transport patients as well as ferrying emergency medical supplies. Of course, the airport should be at total readiness to accommodate air evacuations and the shuttling of supplies.
BART should be prepared to run as many trains in and out of Pleasanton as can be accommodated so that westward bound evacuees will have alternatives to I-580 and Dublin Canyon Road.

The Local Emergency Action Program (LEAP) is a good idea. Having business involved in emergency preparedness is comforting since business is more qualified than government to step up to the plate. At the City Council meeting of September 20, 2005 where Pamela Ott, Economic Development Manager, introduced the LEAP program we have a perfect illustration of why it was important to involve business. Only Vice Mayor Steve Brozosky had any questions of Ms. Ott, which leads us to believe that we need to determine who heads up emergency preparedness in Pleasanton--Field Marshall Nelson Fiahlo or Generalissimo Jennifer Hosterman? We are doomed if it is the latter because she’ll be more concerned about a mosquito fish release in the arroyos, sustainability, and environmental justice after the emergency is over. In any event, we need to know who the business leaders must contact at City Hall to coordinate emergency efforts.

Staples Ranch proposal reasonable so council will probably scuttle it

It will not be easy, but the Pleasanton City Council will find a way to send the Hendrick’s Automotive Group and their millions in sales tax revenue to Dublin or Livermore. The park-happy, no growthers embraced the idea of a ballpark—ballparks are green and seldom used. So until another green idea is put forth, Staples Ranch, as the 125 acres is called, will remain the field of schemes.

Here is a sampling of ways the council can run Hendrick and the Continuing Life Communities’ senior housing project out of town. The council lead by ex-mayor Tom Pico showed IKEA, the Swedish furniture retailer, the door by studying the needed road network to death. IKEA lost patience and interest and went over the freeway to Dublin. (The first thing they proposed to Dublin was Martinelli Drive to get into their project.) This council, led by leftist Mayor Jennifer Hosterman, could do the same thing only the two applicants for this development do not need roads. So to use the same play from the obstructionist extremist’s playbook they will have to study the emergency vehicle roads to death. (A few concerned citizens from the Stoneridge Drive neighborhood thought the emergency roads could meet to form a Stoneridge Drive extension. So with that in mind the council can give their wink and nod to the city staff to study how to make sure the roads never meet.)

The next best way to make sure we send our million dollar sales tax revenue to neighboring Livermore or Dublin is to make sure that a Red-Legged Frog, a California Tiger Salamander, a Pleasanton Whipsnake, or a Callippe Butterfly shows up on the property. A lengthy study of the endangered species could be enough. However, if it is not, the cost to “mitigate” the endangered species “found” there or suspected of once being there, or once planned to be there could do the trick.

Home Depot watch out they do not like towers any longer

The artist rendering for Home Depot’s proposed Gateway Commons development is pretty sharp. The stores blend with the area, the corner of Bernal Avenue and Stanley Boulevard. There are provisions for public fountains and decorations. There are more than enough parking spaces for the suggested uses.

But not so fast. There are too many towers in the area. During rush hour there is already a line-up of cars. So, be prepared. There will be gobs of traffic studies, just ask McDonalds. So, of course, there will be the “mandatory” voluntary improvements to Stanley—probably all the way to Livermore.

Many folks would like to see Home Depot here sooner rather than later but things move slowly here in Pleasanton. So the million dollars in sales tax revenue will not begin to flow until 2007 at the soonest.

Quick Opinion

 

Here she comes again with the living wage gobbledygook

Leftist Mayor Jennifer Hosterman has again broached the subject of a living wage for the employees of companies doing business with the city. The idea was scuttled several years ago because it is a small business killer and would cause already exorbitant city project costs to escalate. Then the minimum wage could have been $4. to $6. more than the current minimum of $6.75.

If nothing else, eco extremists and leftists are patient and you can be sure that Ms. Hosterman will continue to revisit this issue until she catches some of her colleagues napping, she gets more obstructionists on the council, or Vice Mayor Steve Brozosky turns up ill or is caught in the roundabout on Vineyard Avenue. Furthermore, it would only be a matter of time that the leftists would be pushing the living wage idea for all Pleasanton employees. Remember they do not like the pay and benefits paid by Wal-Mart.

Right now, it looks as though Planning Commissioner Brian Arkin will take a second shot at Counselor Jerry Thorne’s seat next November and that would tip the scale left to Ms. Hosterman’s side. If Planning Commissioner Mary Roberts decides to challenge Vineyard Corridor neighbor Brozosky and wins, the living wage is a done deal.

Sustainability, the jargon of the left

It is about time that Mayor Jennifer Hosterman asks for a sustainability element in the General Plan now under review. She surely has concluded that the council opposition would not be that strong. Counselors Jerry Thorne and Cindy McGovern and Vice Mayor Steve Brozosky would do well to read Philip Stott’s Wall Street Journal editorial in the August 27, 2002 edition. Mr. Stott calls sustainability and “empty word: It can be filled by the user with whatever sense provides advantage…for many environmentalists, it is the same old story. It signifies either a complete ecological veto over growth…or development that is approved by an eco-elite…”

Who will run against the mayor, vice mayor, and Jerry Thorne

Odds favor Planning Commissioners Brian Arkin and Mary Roberts to run against Vice Mayor Steve Brozosky and Counselor Jerry Thorne. In the bullpen is Planning Commissioner Anne Fox.

The real question is who will run against Mayor Jennifer Hosterman. Whoever it is will have to raise and spend $50,000 to defeat her unless the candidate is well known—former mayors Ken Mercer, Frank Brandes, former vice mayors Sharell Michelotti, Becky Dennis, and Kay Ayala, and former police chief and former mayoral candidate Bill Eastman are well know enough that $30,000.would do the trick Why would any of those people ever consider coming out of retirement? Quite simply, the city is in wrong hands and is going left while continuing to fake right. It would also take a presence to bring around the city bureaucracy that is also left leaning and quite willing to push along the leftist agenda.

To garner support and the $50,000, a relatively unknown candidate would have to begin organizing right after the holidays and hit the bricks fully organized about the first of April. Ms. Hosterman’s opponent will have to be as energetic as she is and will have to spend time in front of the grocery stores and walking the neighborhoods. Make no mistake, Ms. Hosterman will be at the Farmer’s Market, Safeway, Raley’s, and the corner of St. Mary and Main streets waving to passersby. No one works harder than the eco-extremist when it comes to l

Guest Opinion

 

It was good planning and still is

John Hallahan, in his September 16 letter to the Pleasanton weekly, says that there is nothing to be gained by extending Stoneridge Drive to El Charro Road.

First, traffic engineers say that the extension will alleviate traffic on city streets. Second, past planners and traffic engineers concluded that Stoneridge should be one of Pleasanton’s major boulevards to move substantial cross-town traffic as well as provide necessary emergency connections to Livermore and Dublin.

Finally, it would take a micro cephalic idiot to not see that Stoneridge Drive was meant to be a major thoroughfare only a football field away from a major freeway interchange. Looking down Stoneridge with wide setbacks, wide walkways, and tall sound walls is a tip-off that this was meant to be more than a four-lane dead-end. Caveat emptor applies to this situation. Sorry but oops.

Mr. Hallahan challenges residents to venture over to Stoneridge at its current dead-end to see for themselves what all the hubbub is all about. All we can say is please do.

Extending Stoneridge Drive is in the interest of all Pleasanton citizens.

 

 

 

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