Greg Perry:the rabble-rousing environmentalist Greg Perry:the rabble-rousing environmentalist (October 18, 2002)

By Bill D'Agostino

If you are glad Greg Perry is running for city council -- and many environmentalists are glad he is -- thank air pollution.

"The thing that first made me decide to run was that two years in a row I got taken down to the hospital on Spare the Air Days because I couldn't breathe," Perry said. "I figured either I can do something to try to change it or I can move. Those were my choices."

Since Perry finished sixth out of six candidates in the 2000 council race, he's worked to get more familiar with city policies and be more familiar to voters. He's served on the city's parks and recreation committee, volunteered to teach Spanish to Mexican immigrants and became co-chair of the environmental group Sustainable Mountain View.

"The biggest issues for me are air pollution and housing," Perry said, explaining that the city has zoned for too many jobs and not enough homes.

People are therefore commuting farther, adding to traffic and air quality woes, Perry said.

Earlier this year, he campaigned successfully against Measure N, which would have allowed a Home Depot on El Camino Real. Perry would like to see housing at the proposed site, although most sitting council members want something revenue-producing instead.

"I don't believe Mountain View should auction off its land use policies to the highest bidder," Perry said.

"Other cities with far less money manage to zone for housing," he added. "For us to plead that we're too poor is just not credible."

Perry grew up in Indiana, got a math degree from Harvard in 1993, and a masters in math from UC Berkeley in 1995. He moved to the area to work in tech, but this year became a high school math teacher in San Jose.

Perry wants to cut wasteful city spending. He is critical of the $16 million plan for a new community center since there is already a center that he says is underused.

He also opposed the new $3.7 million centennial plaza. "For a bathroom and a bike locker, $4 million is orders of magnitude too expensive." Instead, public transit money should have been used for better transit systems

An avid bike rider, Perry, 31, wants to create more bike bridges and boulevards around the city.

Perry is also concerned about the role of the city auditor. He said the current system gives too much power to the city finance director, who also serves as auditor and picks the outside auditor.

Perry is critical of current council members, saying they too readily take city staff's recommendations. "As a result, they're shirking their responsibility," he said.

Perry welcomes the image of him as a rabble-rouser. "People should know who I am come election day. If I say nothing but 'I like neighborhoods, I like public safety officers and I'm for fiscal responsibility' people have no idea who I am," Perry said. "Anybody running for office has a responsibility to the citizens of Mountain View to put some strong opinions out there because you don't run unless you have strong positions. You should be honest about what they are."
Favorite book: "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren. "To me it's a cautionary tale about somebody who gets into politics for all the right reasons, makes connections, learns how to the play game and who, by the end of it, is exactly what he hated at the start of the book."