San Bruno CA: Irene O'Connell's Rebuttal to "NO on Measure N"

Previously the following “NO on San Bruno Measure N” by Chuck Zelnik was published:

NO on San Bruno Measure N.

“As it is right now, we the people of San Bruno feel over crowded and find it very hard to move around the down town. By adding more people to San Bruno and taller buildings, will only make the matter worse. The real reason the city council wants measure N to pass, is so they can rake in extra money in property taxes and then waste it on their pet projects. We just had our water bill raised 300% because of people conserving too much water. Now our streets will be further impacted and the choke hold will get worse. NO ON MEASURE N, Nay to the money grabbers!

/s/ Chuck Zelnik

o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.

San Bruno Councilwoman Irene O’Connell offers her rebuttal below enclosed in (parentheses, underlined, and in bold).

As it is right now, we the people of San Bruno feel overcrowded and find it very hard to move around town

(where does this information come from? Did he take a poll? Where is it hard to ‘move around’ town? I grant you that occasionally traffic is heavy on San Bruno Ave. and El Camino but the people causing the traffic are, generally, just passing through. And it can be difficult to park in places but those are, for the most part, residential areas that aren’t anywhere near the Transit Corridor Plan.)

By adding more people to San Bruno and taller buildings, will only make the matter worse.

(We don’t want to “make matters worse” which is why the plan is carefully crafted and centered around areas that would promote use of public transportation).

The real reason the city council wants measure N to pass, is so they can rake in extra money and then waste it on their pet projects.

(Now, this is a really interesting statement. I ‘m not sure where to begin. First, while we would be receiving, generally, more property tax, we don’t get to keep that much of it – 17% - since Redevelopment is no longer, so the county, school district, etc. would get a good chunk. The cost for police and fire, schooling, park and recreation, etc. would presumably increase, further lessening any potential increases. As for wasting money on pet projects, I’m not sure what those would be – I want a new library/community center but, one, I don’t think it would be a waste of money and, two, even if everything was developed tomorrow to its fullest, it wouldn’t generate enough money to build one. Other than that, I’m at a loss.)

We just had our water bills raised because of people saving too much water.

(We didn’t raise water rates because people were saving water, we did it to generate money for capital improvements that are crucial for the system to stay viable, among other things.)

Now our streets will be further impacted and the choke hold will get worse. NO ON MEASURE N, Nay to the money grabbers!

(How is wanting to control development and enhance architectural features being ‘money grabbers?)

/s/ Irene O’Connell

Council member, City of San Bruno

o.o.o.o.

Robert Riechel

http://patch.com/users/robert-riechel

Photo Credit: San Bruno Patch Archives

Source Credit: San bruno Councilwoman Irene O’Connell

Read more of my postings by going directly to:

http://patch.com/users/robert-riechel

Learn all of the reasons to VOTE YES on Measure N by going to the following link

http://sanbruno.ca.gov/comdev_election.html

Also see http://www.yesforsanbruno.com/