New Year's Resolution - Stay Involved!

Last year, I set a New Year’s resolution to increase accountability at every level (http://patch.com/california/redwoodcity-woodside/did-you-know-my-new-years-pledge-increase-accountability-every-level) In that blog post I described some ways to help avoid ethical blindness:

1. Being frame vigilant

2. Imagining a broader set of options

3. Applying a broader time frame

4. Making sure that we are accountable

In the context of our current situation in Redwood City, these things are even more important than I thought. Just taking the case of housing as an example is illustrative. However this isn’t the only issue we should all care about.

Nonetheless, over and over our city council frames the problem as one that cannot be solved at the local level as it is really a regional problem, when in fact for years Redwood City was an oasis of affordability within the larger regional area. So why can’t we continue to be one.

Some of the reasons are that as noted in the second point we are no longer willing to imagine a broader set of options. Options that could and did include zoning designations, rent stabilization, rent control, floating homes, tiny homes, expansive accessory dwelling unit ordinances and more.

Considering temporary moratoriums on evictions as for example the San Mateo Board of Supervisors has done would allow us as a city to apply the third point which is to take more time to find appropriate socio-economically sensitive solutions to solving the problem. Given the current rental market, the reality is that once an eviction happens the likelihood of that family remaining in the area is very low.

Some of the solutions to our current problems will not be popular with some. They will create a different set of winners and losers. However to prioritize the needs of future residents and completely forget the needs of current residents is not what City Hall should be doing. And just to be clear this doesn’t mean we don’t consider future residents but that we first consider the needs of our current residents.

In a local non-election year and a presidential election year, it will be all to easy to focus elsewhere. Don’t let that happen. Resolve this year to stay involved right here in Redwood City!