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With three seats up for grabs on the Mountain View City Council, three incumbents and two political newcomers are vying for a chance to represent the people of Mountain View for the next four years. Incumbents Lucas Ramirez, Alison Hicks and Ellen Kamei are each seeking a second term, while challengers Li Zhang and Justin Cohen are hoping to snag a seat on the dais for the first time.
The three candidates who collect the most votes will be tasked with addressing issues that existed long before the pandemic forced them onto the backburner: expensive residential redevelopments that displace longtime residents; bridging the gap on affordable housing; finding long-term solutions for homeless residents, and more.
Here’s what you need to know about each of the candidates seeking a term on the City Council, and where they stand on the major issues facing the city. Click the links below to read individual candidate profiles about each of the council hopefuls.
Infographics by Kevin Legnon, Linda Taaffe, Zoe Morgan and Malea Martin.
Justin Cohen has not even shown up for some of the candidate forums. Had he abdicated already??? Personally I think it’s time for a new point of view on the council, Li Zhang has my vote. Have had it with our council bowing down to Simitian and developers.
1. Pls. give consideration to the new people running for office
2. I don’t trust the incumbents (I’ll give Kamei a break, I think she is more trustworthy and practical)
a) Incumbents are owned by Activist Agendas and ideology, not normal working people who just want to go to work, take care of their families, and hope their interests are represented and *their* money not wasted.
b) The way they handled the RVs was fishy *and* had no practical planning behind it ( No plan to handle garbage, sewer, water requirements while bypassing a reasonable Safe Parking plan)
c) How certain community meetings were handled were fishy also. It looks like the local residents were disadvantaged and the Activists were given the inside track. I’m the technical person who gives content to PR, and can sniff out a railroad job.
3. Housing Density in the neighborhoods is backwards. Density should be near the Transit Center, not distributed all over the neighborhoods. Every other city in the Bay Area has figured this out, but not MV.
4. Cohen should be given a chance, despite the unorthodox approach. With modern survey techniques he may be able to do a good job assessing citizen requirements. I bet he is really good at statistics and developing insights. Instead of being driven by Activist Agendas.
5. Li should be given consideration. I think she is sincere in representing the neighborhoods. Her finance/accounting background should help bring some competence to the allocation of funds, and improve decision making (e.g.ratio analysis for example) I suspect she will be practical rather being driven by Activist Agendas.
6. As a parting shot at the Activists, I have observed them being very dismissive, rude, exclusionary, to regular working people who don’t spend all day doing Activist stuff.
Hi Working Stiff,
I am not sure what you mean by an activist. Sure, these people listen to the kind of people who show up at city council meetings to advocate for housing or RV bans or parks or schools or whatever the issue is. I think I am with you: I wish I had time to advocate, but I am too busy working to do more than write an occasional letter to the Voice.
I think I can summarize what I am looking for from the city as “improved walk scores” (www.walkscore.com; essentially, having a city that is an attractive place to walk and where services are within walking distance). It seems to me that all the incumbents are on board with that, especially Ms. Hicks.
Zhang does point out some issues (why focus housing growth in areas zoned R3 already?), but it is not clear what solutions she has (running computer simulations?).
It is tough to take Cohen’s campaign seriously. City council members spend many hours researching topics and listening to testimony from the public and staff. It is hard for me to imagine that the results of Survey Monkey polls are going to produce better results.
Just An Observation,
What I find amazing is that so many think that a City Council has any power over PRIVATE REAL ESTATE development. THEY DON’T.
Look at Meta leaving Mountain View San Antonio, and if you think WeWork is going to fill those offices, fat chance. THey are propbably going to have to file bankruptcy in 2023.
And the same goes for other SERVICES. As I demonstrated in an appeal with the RHC, the City Building Permits are NOT records of safety, they are fiction. The City Inspector does not require VERIFICATION of materials used are NOT DEFECTIVE, they do NO document the Methods Used are proven SAFE or the QUALITY of them, and finally they cannot properly establish a certificate of occupancy that cannot be challenged in court.
I am a Risk Assessment and Auditing Expert and thus one thing all Risk Experts must do is due diligence and proper record keeping. This is NOT done in the city of Mountain View.
In fact when repairs were done on a balcony, not only was the materials not examined for defects, but the City did not even provide the permit with the required components, it was a single page sketch, and a form filled out, no records of testing materials, no assessment of the methods used, and worse, no attempt to determine the problem with the balcony. RESULTS, new work has cracked and shown evidence of failure in only 1 year.
I just think unfortunately the City of Mountain View will become a ghost town , it has already started. So many homes for sale, so many apartments vacant, and so many projects not yet completed are going to come short, and many may be terminate in the middle of them.