Rosiland Bivings: a community activist and renters' advocate Rosiland Bivings: a community activist and renters' advocate (October 18, 2002)

By Bill D'Agostino

"As a resident, I don't feel very represented by the council we have," Rosiland Bivings said. "It is time that we have some diversity on this council. I think that I can provide that."

Bivings -- who, as an activist, has worked hard to highlight the needs of African-Americans in the city -- was not just talking about racial diversity. She is also concerned that there is just one renter on the city council.

"That viewpoint and those types of issues that particularly affect renters -- housing and quality of life issues -- I don't think are very well represented," said Bivings, who has lived in the same Mountain View apartment for 17 years. "The type of housing that we've built in this community has not been geared toward first time homebuyers. I would like to see that type of housing stock be available more often than what we're building."

Bivings said she would like to consider converting apartments on California Street -- where many Mexican-American families are living -- into housing units smaller than single family homes. She hopes they would then be purchased rather than simply rented.

Originally from Fresno, Bivings has four brothers: two older and two younger. "I never wanted to be a boy," she said. "What I wanted was the things boys got." She also has one sister, the youngest of her five siblings.

Bivings got a B.A. in economics and business from Westmont College, and now runs a golf promoting business "Fore Women Golfers." After writing an opinion piece for the San Jose Mercury News (in response to a television documentary), Bivings was asked to be on the Community Services Agency board.

The first day she visited one of CSA's program -- Santa Claus Exchange, which gives away toys to low income families -- the woman in charge thought Bivings was there to use the service, not there as a board member. Bivings, 49, ended up working with the program for five years. "I loved that program because I wanted to let people see that black people weren't just utilizing the services, we were volunteering," she said.

In 1992, she ran for city council and ended up losing by 74 votes. The issues in that election -- housing, Moffett Field, traffic and the economy -- are similar to the current ones.

"Public transportation has to be cost-effective and efficient," Bivings said, pointing out that she lived in Denver for three years without having to own a car, something difficult in the Bay Area. Light rail, she said, has not been a good investment because it takes too long to get to San Jose, or any place the average rider would use it for.

As a council member, Bivings would lobby to help get BART extended to Mountain View.

Even prior to running, Bivings had advocated for small business owners downtown. To encourage new businesses on Castro Street, she would like to streamline the city's permitting process, calling the current process "very difficult and very onerous."

Never one to shy away from controversy, Bivings promises to speak her mind, despite the political palatability of what she says. "I expect when I get on the council," she said, "there will be a lot of 6 to 1 votes."
Favorite Book: "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. "When Morrie discovered that he was going to die, he started to live."