A Busy Campaign Week Consists of Learning, Speaking and Hopefully Thinking

When I decided to run, I promised I would blog about the process of running. The reality is the day you decide to run for office, you are out of time. There is more to do than hours in a day. Some weeks so much happens that it is almost impossible to recap everything.

October 6th was a day of learning. I was at the San Mateo County Hospital as part of the Civics 101 course. Presentations for the week included A Health System Overview, Preventing and Responding to Mental Health Crisis, Climate Change and Health, and LEAPing Forward in Healthcare based on LEAN continuous improvement methodologies. All in all, there was a big push to increase quality of life, reduce obesity and increase physical and mental well being.

October 7th was a day of thinking. The Interim City Manager, Mr. Aaron Aknin, wrote a piece on Medium regarding the Inner Harbor Plan that will be forthcoming on October 29th. In particular, my whole community/neighborhood reacted to: “A floating home community along Redwood Creek is examined as an alternative.” An alternative? Was I surprised? I wish I was.

Of course, the Inner Harbor Plan is not just about Docktown, it is also about what to put next to the Police Station and the County Jail. Think again. I first came to Redwood City as a soccer mom driving my kids to practice in Redwood Shores and playing games at Red Morton Park. As one of the presenters put it during the Civics 101 course mentioned above: obesity and health issues are not only a function of diet but also a function of getting out and exercising. I know that during the extensive Inner Harbor community discussions, open space, parks and associated programs were major components of the plan. One of my issues at the time was that they envisioned putting soccer fields across from a jail. As a former soccer mom, I just can’t imagine being asked to drop off my kids for soccer practice across from a jail. Hopefully, that doesn’t turn out to be a part of the proposed plan. We do however need more parks and open space. Although we have recently added dog parks (as brought up at the League of Women Candidate Forum), we haven’t added any residential parks. Here is hoping that appropriately located residential parks are part of the plan.

October 8th was really a day of speaking. The main event of the day was a Candidate Forum and the expected arrival of my ballot. (See above, they saved the best for last!) In the evening, I spoke at the Innovate Public Schools Candidate forum, which was extremely well organized and attended. There were information tables for the different charter school systems as well as tables for voter registration and candidate literature. Since this was a bilingual event, as a native speaker I spoke in both English and Spanish. In my closing statements, I made an appeal for residents to register and vote This is especially crucial for the Latino community as traditionally it has a lower turnout rate. According to Innovate Public Schools: “In 2014, in San Mateo County, only two out of 10 eligible Latino voters voted and only one out of 10 eligible voters between the ages of 18 and 24 years old.” This entire evening was recorded, the link has yet to be posted. When it becomes available, I will update with a link.

The rest of the week was reserved for more speaking and thinking. Phone banking requires that one be willing to learn from constituents, speak to them and think fast. Phone banking like precinct walking can be a lot of fun. You get to speak to the residents and answer any questions they might have. One resident kept asking question after question telling me: “well now that I have you on the line, let me ask you ONE more question.” (smile) One resident made me laugh when after a comment regarding the new development he quipped: “you think!” Another resident wanted to take a yard sign but felt his wife wouldn’t be thrilled. So in the end, as much as he wanted to get one, he couldn’t. The good news was that by Sunday I was even getting a couple of people telling me they had already voted for me! Wow. Thank you so much! Would you like a sign?

We are into the homestretch of the campaign now. But like the proverbial marathon a campaign truly is, we have to make sure to keep on running until the last vote is mailed or handed in on November 3rd. If you still haven’t registered to vote, you have one more week until October 19th to do so.

Register, Vote!

Let’s break the record of participation in a local election!