Jim Hutchins, Livermore
Once again, the Livermore City Council has shown their true colors – that they consider themselves, and not the citizens, to be the arbiter of what is good for the city. The Council has refused to listen to the residents regarding what people want their downtown to be, and instead has pushed their own agenda.
They choose to present a distorted interpretation of the 2017 publicly-funded PlaceWorks community outreach report, and ignore the report’s “common themes” (pages 15-17) that include “Maintain the small town, small-scale, historic character,” “Buildings should be low-rise, no more than 2- to 3-stories,” “Housing is not appropriate in the center of downtown,” and “Downtown Livermore should not have high-density housing.” This is also a common practice by ex-mayor Marchand on Nextdoor.
Ignoring the PlaceWorks report is insulting, but to make matters worse, on May 24th, they voted to accelerate when the transfer of title to Eden Housing for the downtown property would occur. By transferring ownership before a new Council is seated in December, they seek to tie the hands of the newly elected representatives and dash the hopes that a new Council can correct the course of the Livermore ship. Once Eden Housing is the owner of the land, almost all hope of a large destination downtown park is gone. The people know what is going on, and a recent city-funded survey found that in the last two years there has been a 10% drop in confidence that the city is headed in the right direction (Livermore Community Survey Results).
Concerned citizens are proposing a referendum to reverse the Council’s May 24th approval that allows the premature transfer of the downtown property title to Eden Housing. This is the only way to force them to stop, listen, and do what the citizens demand – remember, the citizens are their bosses – the tail doesn’t wag the dog. Additionally, the citizens need to elect new representatives in November that work for the people, not against them.
