Liz Boewer-Ambra: the spiritual populist Liz Boewer-Ambra: the spiritual populist (October 18, 2002)

By Bill D'Agostino

Liz Boewer-Ambra is asking voters to treat her as a different person from her husband, former Mayor Mario Ambra. But she's running on a populist platform similar to the one that got Mario elected to two consecutive council terms.

"I felt that citizens needed to have somebody that they could communicate with in city hall. They gave up," she said. "A lot of citizens said, 'I have nobody to go to, no one answers the phone.' That was the first reason I thought I'd be good: I am accessible. They can call me and I am non-threatening."

Most candidates speak about the need for affordable housing in the community, but it's a concept that Boewer-Ambra, 45, has ambiguity about.

"A lot of people want affordable housing but they don't know where it's going to go," she said. "I agree with them, I don't know where it's going to go. Affordable housing brings in more traffic and more issues."

She said Hewlett Packard's Mayfield site is a possibility place -- but she warned that neighbors must be included in that decision.

Boewer-Ambra would also like to look at the California Street neighborhood, some of which consists of low-cost apartments inhabited by Mexican immigrants. She said some apartments in the area could possibly be converted to condos, to give greater opportunity for home ownership.

She wants to address downtown merchants' discontent with the city's signage restrictions.

"They've been here a long time, when times were good and when times were tough and they've stuck with us and they're still there. I respect that. I'd like to ease up on some of those restrictions downtown. I think it's a little extreme."

In addition, Boewer-Ambra said she would like to look at the housing impact fee, a new levy the city passed last year for developers of commercial properties, to pay for affordable housing. "When I get elected, and I believe I will, I'm going to be looking at a lot of things," she said.

Boewer-Ambra, 45, was raised in the Corralitos Mountains. "I grew up horseback riding and in 4-H, all of those community-type of things. I learned to ride a motorcycle and shoot BB guns. It was a really wonderful upbringing," she said. "At the time I didn't think so, because it was so rural. I was a country girl." She has lived in Mountain View for 17 years.

Today, she works as a program manager for the Older Adult Education Program in the Fremont-Union High School District.

Despite the city's financial shortfall, Boewer-Ambra would like to beef up the police force to prevent crime. "I used to ride my bike and horse all over and tell my parents I'd be back in four hours and they'd never worry," she said. "Now, if I were a mother, I'd wouldn't let my children out. I'd watch them every second. It's a terrible way to feel."

More police would also help slow traffic. But she has an additional idea for that: "I like that sign, 'Be an angel. Drive 25.' That visually catches me and makes me stop and think, 'I shouldn't be driving this fast.' I'd like to see if that could work."

Boewer-Ambra decided to run for council after a friend and community member encouraged her to be a leader. "I am a spiritual person. I took it as a spiritual call."
Favorite book: "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. "It's humanity. It's really the best and worst of humanity."