Anonymous asks Kimberley White, Meredith Matthews, Brett Watson, Raelina Krikston , Dana Quillman, Jeffrey Scott Sterling…

2 ^

The hard stuff

Candidate statements and answers don’t always ring true and tend to whitewash the issues. Tell me what you don’t like about our community and outline your solution.

— Anonymous

Response

Raelina Krikston

Hey Anon, 

Thank you for your frank question (I don’t think we allow ourselves to be frank enough in life). 

Personally I like and appreciate a lot of things in our community, however I do not like the harsh reality that unless there are changes and protections implemented for renters, myself and a lot of the cool people I know have zero chance of staying in this community due to being low income and for myself, being low income and self-employed. 

One Solution: Mindful growth with codified renter protections, alternate forms of housing (like condos) and diverse income distribution in new buildings.

Let’s talk about Gateway for a second. The Gateway Plan can be a good opportunity for our community to turn largely unused areas into thriving neighborhoods. This is needed to support our current population. However, many of the negative opinions on it are based out of fear, gatekeeping and privilege. We have the opportunity to very specifically state what is necessary for new buildings to be approved under this plan. I advocate for ensuring there are codified balances in any new development in order to ensure our community can grow, but in a way that benefits everyone rather than a select few.

I’m gonna break it down a bit more. The Gateway Plan is an example of form based code. In form based code, we have the opportunity to say: “All new buildings should: x,y,z…” regardless of zoning. So, what I would advocate for is having high standards when it comes to what we should include as requirements for new developments such as:

Rent control based on squarefootage. If your apartment is only 350 sqft. your rent shouldn’t be more than $400/month. (for example)

Greenspace and community gardens for all new residential buildings to ensure food security for our community. 

Mixed-income buildings, 25% of all new construction should be under rent control (like above). 

Electric charging stations & solar power supplementation for building.

(Future goal) Self-contained water treatment / grey water system in new buildings. 

We have the opportunity to move our community into a sustainable future, and we should take it. For anyone that advocates that “if you make it too hard for developers they won’t want to build here.” GOOD. If developers aren’t interested in serving the community or long term investments they shouldn’t be allowed to build here. 

I’ve heard our community described as a “pearl” and I think you’ve heard the saying “don’t cast your pearls before swine.” We live in one of the last bastions of wild beauty in California, unparalleled in the world. We cannot sacrifice that for urban sprawl. There are developers out there that can partner with this community to help build up what we have established: a strong community based on equity, sustainability and conservationism and overall beauty.