Taking up space
So it looks like Alameda Point as an issue in Alameda is beginning to heat up. What is unfortunate, and completely predictable, is the way in which things are beginning.
The same old naysayers, using the same old distortions, incorrect facts, and fear mongering, that of marked conversations in Alameda for years, have started the new year in full form. Apparently aware that their group, Action Alameda, has absolutely no credibility, they have launched an entirely new “organization”. Kind of. I mean really who are they fooling?
“Save Our City! Alameda,”is nothing more than Action Alameda with a more ridiculous name. Seriously, what kind of acronym is SOC!A, but I digress. Given the wanton disregard for reality and facts both organizations have shown in the past weeks, it be interesting to see how many media outlets, both local and regional, continue to fall for their tactics.
What the discussion of Alameda Point needs this time is not small groups of disingenuous people, but instead proactive, thoughtful individuals and groups providing ideas for how to move ahead. The conceit of SOC!A is that they are providing a counter idea to the years of planning and public input that is currently moving forward in the development process. They are not.
As SOC!A founder Gretchen Lipow recently told The Island Blog, SOC!A does not have a proposal for even a consensus vision. They have come together around a concept vague that is completely meaningless. What is surprising is the founders willingness to admit that. The “platform” is simply a “do nothing, stop everythihg” platform. But talk to signers and that’s not what they think they’ve signed up for.
Lost, or more likely ignored or even hidden, in their discussion is the fact that the city has a binding legal agreement with SunCal to develop a plan for Alameda Point. In order for the city to reconsider some form of a land trust, a concept that people well versed in these issues say is extremely unlikely for Alameda Point, the city would need to break this contract resulting in tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits. An ironic point lost on a group using existing lawsuits against the city as their rallying cry.
Beyond their lack of a proposal, SOC!A ignores the fact that a land trust of any sort would require tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to start up as well as to maintain. And while SOC!A spokesperson, David Howard, has floated the possibility of the half-cent sales tax for the city and the county of Alameda is a way to pay for this project, this fact has remained glaringly absent from their media campaign.
The community of Alameda, by which I mean hundreds upon hundreds of individual voices, has already laid out visions, policies, goals for Alameda Point. At this point, groups with alternative visions need to start spelling them out and making their case. In fact, I strongly encourage that.
What is not useful is the presentation of empty vessel ideas, proposals that say nothing while purporting to do so. It should be becoming clearer to the signers of the SOC!A proposal that there’s no “there” there. This group is making up their own facts, pretending to present a vision, while admitting they do not have one, and attending public meetings with the sole intent to vilify people at the meetings. My question is, given that merely 50 people have signed onto this platform, at what point do former mayoral candidates, and actually respected members of our community start to remove their names from the list?
It can’t be long now.
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