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Buffy Wicks & Jovanka Beckles for Fall AD 15 race, Measure C Housing Bond Passes

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Voters came to the polls yesterday for a variety of primary races, state & local measures. On the ballot for Emeryville voters was a crowded State Assembly seat race and a $50 million Housing Bond.

Voter turnout in the county was estimated to be less than 20% with absentee ballots still to be counted. The results from other county measures can be viewed on the ac.gov website.


15th District Assembly Seat Race

Buffy Wicks will likely face off with Dan Kalb this fall for the 15th district Assembly Seat being vacated by Tony Thurmond. Some reports have Jovanka Beckles still in the race as absentee ballots continue to be counted. Kalb leads Beckles by 182 votes according to the current Secretary of State website totals.

Kalb received the endorsement of the Sierra Club and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. Wicks received endorsements from U.S. Senator Kamala Harris and Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom.

The crowded field of 12 will be whittled down to two on the “midterm” election this fall.

Both Wicks and Kalb are residents of North Oakland’s Rockridge neighborhood.

Read more insight about the race on The East Bay Times →


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6/14 update: Absentee ballots totals have, Richmond Councilmember Jovanka Beckles has eclipsed Dan Kalb for the second spot on the November ballot. Kalb has reportedly conceded to Beckles.

Read more on Berkeleyside.com.


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Local Measure C Housing Bond Passes

Measure C appears to have easily surpassed the 2/3 “yes” votes needed to pass amid low voter turnout. The measure holds a comfortable 71.5% lead. Measure C required a 2/3 “Yes” vote to be approved.

With absentee ballots still to be counted, only 1,358 cast their vote for the measure or roughly 20% of registered voters in our city. By comparison, 5,533 registered voters or nearly 79% participated in the 2016 presidential election. Because of our small population and low turnout, the threshold between the bond passing and failing stands at a mere 67 votes.

Emeryville’s population was last noted as 11,721 with 7,020 registered voters or roughly 60% according to the 2016 Statement of Vote provided by our Secretary of State.

City consultants EMC Research indicated a surprisingly accurate 74% favorability of a housing bond measure from the community when a feasibility survey was conducted earlier this year.

Mayor John Bauters, who spearheaded the Yes campaign, proclaimed victory via Twitter and proclaimed that “We will make a lot more housing affordable with Measure C.”

6/11 update: As absentee ballots continue to be counted, the current tally is as follows:

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Rob Arias

is a third generation Californian and East Bay native who lived in Emeryville from 2003 to 2021. Rob founded The E'ville Eye in 2011 after being robbed at gunpoint and lamenting the lack of local news coverage. Rob's "day job" is as a creative professional.

13 Comments

  1. I was one of the 900 for measure C. Proud of Emeryville for making it happen, disappointed with voter turnout still

    • I’m also proud to be a part of an increasingly low-income high crime trash ridden sprawling homeless camp too, Rose. Maybe we can get ballots out to the home depot camp for November since we’re taking such good care of those “residents”. There’s a lot of trash over there, maybe you would like to take your civic pride over to where the explosions were last night and clean up the stolen bikes and mangled shopping carts.

      • I would love if they had housing! I would love if they had resources! I would hate to make their life more frustrating so they leave and become someone else’s problem, but your entitlement for your community and what it deserves is really something. Glad most of Emeryville disagrees with you 🙂
        And I clean around here all the time, don’t you clean up garbage when you pass it, Sarah? It’s a shared community, and the homeless population are not the only mess creators. We have an opportunity to answer a need with empathy and compassion (many, like myself, realize they aren’t that far from being homeless). Clearing out the homeless camps with force isn’t working. These people have no where else to go. Let’s keep trying to work with them. We can do this.
        And I love Emeryville, I wish you weren’t feeling so MAGA about it.

      • “Sarah” is consistently the most toxic commenter on every article on this blog. Never surprising or illuminating. Always railing against the homeless and never with anything productive to say about solving any problems. It’s too bad but reassuring after this election to see she is in a toxic and vocal minority of trolls.

      • I am not MAGA, but I am perpetually irritated by he shortsighted “feel good” liberalism that has nothing to do with actually solving pertinent issues and is increasingly turning this city into a cesspool. Increasingly, it does seem that wanting a clean safe place to live-for the entire community- and a responsive city council that represents citizens and businesses is “entitled” and unwelcome. You both must be much richer than I am because I don’t have so much money to replace all the broken car windows, trips to the vet from trash and broken glass, stolen bikes, and time to take off work when I am a victim of the increasingly common violent crime or maybe the next encampment explosion or arson. I don’t like looking at abandoned businesses and hearing that it is too dangerous and expensive to do business in the city. I don’t like that as a woman, it frally is too dangerous for me to walk alone at night. While I care about the people in need and suffering, I also am aware that there are many tools and resources that could be utilized that aren’t and am skeptical that writing a giant blank check to developers is the only answer. The MAGA people are corect that “liberals” are intolerant, self righteous and totally out of touch with what is going on in the world. Go talk to one of Emeryville’s police Dan and tell me how optomistic they feel about where things are going. Being in the “minority” may make me unpopular but it doesn’t make me wrong.

  2. I think Dan nailed it, because as much as you write, Sarah, you don’t have any reasonable suggestions. Should we arrest all the homeless people and leave them in jail? Should we take them in a truck to the next county over? You have no suggestions, just anger at a population that needs support.
    Maybe you can go clean up sometime too 🙂 we can find real ways to improve our community if you don’t think they current plan is working.

    • sorry to disappoint you Rose and Dan, and your fantasy that I am a Trump loving troll that wants to corral the homeless and lock them away in some for profit gitmo, try turning down the volume on your college radio station- I have a professional background in community organizing, urban development and economics and am a composting vegetarian animal rescuing hippie and yes, i pick up the urine bottles and trash regularly— but one that wants the police supported through budgets, staff, and training, laws enforced, sanitation for the people plants and animals, safety for residents and city workers (city hall has been robbed three times), especially the most vulerable aka those in the *blast zone* from last night, or the neighbors of the arson, and a decent shot for businesses and their employees to get to and from work safely. I am thinking about not just the homelss, but everyone in the community. It is more time consuming to reach out to those in the camps and ask them what they need and get their input and involvement on how they got to where they are and what they need- eg they may need medical care, rehab, travel to get to family or work or debt relief or credit rehabilitation more than housing—sorry to blow your mind by not having a house is not the only cause of homelessness— but this has repeatedly been shown to be less expensive and more effective. Emeryville is not the first town to come up with solutions- they just came up with a fairly naive and expensive one and gave no indication that this plan was evidence based or there was any particular reason to believe this was the most efficient solution to Emeryville’s current problems, which are complex and part of a regional issue. I would rather address the actual problems than the one we guess they are having and hope to solve through writing a check and hoping for the best. I think the homeless deserve more and better than some poorly written jargon that doesn’t have any accountability. And for further suggestions- how about some oversight on this? Build in a plan to review if and what positive benefit this afforded anyone. That isn’t written into the plan-even though it is standard procedure for any organization that is trying to be effective, because probably the point wasnt to be effective. I love long term planning and Emeryville should have a comprehensive growth plan (another suggestion since you all think it is somehow my job to point out the obvious) that addresses both immediate, intermediate and long term goals for the city. This doesn’t really fit into any of those-it is spaghetti on the wall. I can’t believe the backwards logic that masquerades as “compassion” here. The conditions on the streets are horrifying and unconsciounable and no one should have to live that way or be subjected to it – which is why I am apoplectic about nothing being done to address it NOW. If the only place for someone that wants efficent solutions to real problems and considers the entire community is in Trump country then I guess we can all understand why so much of the country voted that way because outside of this bubble that is not the “minority” desire.

      • Sarah, what do you want to do right now? I’m so ready for suggestions, what do you want to do tomorrow about it? This was something we could do as an intermediate/long term goal, but there are absolutely other things we can do. I’m not opposed to that. I don’t think anyone is. I’m glad you have ideas for our police department, but ultimately I don’t think homelessness is a problem to place on the EPD. There should be outreach to the homeless community to find what they need from the community so we can support them in that way. Let’s go to the next city council meeting together and ask what they’ve done on that front, yeah? We can hold our elected officials accountable for the recent vote. That seems like the logical next plan of action. Let me know if you think of any better.

      • Rose, I believe they would like our bicycles to occasionally be left unlocked, not to be bothered when they’re shooting up, easy access to means to self-medicate, cars left unattended with valuables in them, and to be allowed to “rent” convenient places around the city where they can deal at no cost and have easy access to the community that supports them.

        And then if people would give them things without their having to work, that would be a real bonus. Having people feel sorry for them rather than telling them they are kind of ruining their lives would be nice too. And if you could arrange it so that the police didn’t enforce any of the city’s rules with respect to their actions or use the law to force them into rehabilitation or mental health facilities, that would be just the best.

        In short, I think Emeryville must have already done outreach to the homeless, determined exactly what they feel they need, and are busy providing it to them.

        Problem solved.

        And it’s much easier than forcing people to follow the rules, make an effort, kick the habit, and take responsibility for their own behavior.

      • Rose, if you really “don’t think homlessness is a problem that should be placed on the police” then please, right now call the EPD non-emergency number, that’s 510-596-3700 and ask them what they are dealing with all day. Tell them you heard about the guy with the open sore on his leg and how ask many calls they have gotten about him this week. Ask them how much of their time is being used to deal with people calling about zombies with gaping wounds and needles hanging out of their arms. Ask them how much of their time is spent chasing down parked cars that neighbors want moved because people are living in them and how much of their time is spent driving people to different facilities in other counties through traffic since we don’t have facilities in the city. Ask them about the new rule that says that they have to collect all their garbage and haul it with them if they need to pick someone up for medical or danger reasons. Ask them what percentage of crimes they are even attempting to enforce. You know, just ask them how their day is going. It is so easy to “have compassion” for people you can comfortably drive by and not have to interact with but it takes an extra step to have compassion for the social workers, police officers, ER staff, and local low wage employees that are also scraping by and subjected to all the blood, puss, urine, and frothing spittle that comes with dealing with them. You want to help the homeless, consider supporting the people who actually help the homeless instead of the for-profit developers.

        John Bauters pulled one over on you Rose, and Emeryville. I’m sorry you can’t see that now and sorry for what it means for the neighborhood. As for what to do right now- first let’s define the problem. The problem is not that there “is nothing that can be done” or that “no one has solutions” or that everyone is waiting for *someone* to come up with a bright idea. Take a read through Jane Jacobs Death and Life of American Cities, in fact, skip that and just google her and trust that there are effective solutions out there that people employeed to work on these issues have access to. The problem is one of political will. John Bauters looks cute and sings a song that sounds good “help the artists and veterans!” and everyone is basically too tired and unmotivated, save the developers and union contract workers, to think it through.

  3. @Rose:

    “There should be outreach to the homeless community to find what they need from the community so we can support them in that way.”

    Really? As they say, why don’t you do so yourself and report back to everyone so we all can be enlightened on this issue.

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