RICHMOND – Seven Richmond City Council candidates running to represent three districts shared their views on how they might help town's local business community prosper if elected.
Three races – one open and two with the incumbent participants – are about to finish. Whoever wins will join a council tasked with managing a decent budget and prioritizing a backlog of infrastructure improvements.
With District 5 Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin stepping down at the tip of the yr, nonprofit consultant Sue Wilson and nonprofit director Ahad Anderson are vying for her seat.
Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez may have to face conflict resolution consultant Shawn Dunning to maintain her seat as District 6 representative. And district council member Melvin Willis is running against social employee Dr. Jamelia Brown and retired auto mechanic Mark Wassberg are in search of re-election.
District 6 race
District 6 is home to major business corridors along San Pablo Avenue, twenty third Street and MacDonald Avenue, Jimenez and Dunning indicate. Thanks to the twenty third Street Merchants Association, business is booming on twenty third Street, Dunning said, and each acknowledged the opening of recent businesses in San Pablo, including Tacos El Tucan and El Jardín de los Sueños Café.
Jimenez also pointed to town's creation of a wireless vendor program on MacDonald Avenue as one other clear success story.
The program, still in its infancy, was launched in response to concerns from residents and brick-and-mortar businesses along twenty third Street that vendors were hogging sidewalks and didn't have the right permits. The council adopted regulations to limit providers' footprints while also providing funding to assist wireless corporations obtain the documentation needed to operate.
However, opening a business in Richmond is one challenge, Dunning said, and staying open is one other. Vacant storefronts line MacDonald Avenue and business owners have warned that closure is imminent, he said.
If elected, Dunning would love to handle Richmond's burdensome planning and permitting processes, work with neighborhood councils and business associations, reduce crime and improve cleanliness – all issues that he says deter small businesses from opening in Richmond to remain there, Dunning said.
“If we want to make progress, we have to work together. No matter what the issue is, we need everyone at the table to do this,” Dunning said.
For Jimenez, re-election would mean she will proceed to work on among the “unsexy” areas of city business — balancing the budget and improving infrastructure.
Part of that work will include adding staff to the general public works and economic development departments, developing plans for major corridors and envisioning a future for town's shoreline that would include manufacturing wind farm equipment.
“That’s the work. “It's not sexy work, but it's work that matters so we can then start dreaming about other services we need and having the money to do the things we want to do” said Jimenez.
District 5 race
District 5 stretches across the south side of town, from the Marina to Cutting Boulevard and borders El Cerrito and Albany. Wilson and Anderson, who’re vying to represent the district, have similar views on what is required there, namely a food market.
Both also see the realm as wealthy in opportunity, having once been a part of a vibrant city that struggled for many years following the founding of Hilltop Mall. Local shopping has taken successful because of online offerings, requiring town to focus more on activities, they said.
Righting the ship would require higher outreach and collaboration between residents, business owners, city staff and officials, Wilson said. If elected, she would love to rent a public relations skilled to assist improve Richmond's image.
Wilson said she would also wish to redevelop parts of town block by block, with more housing and ground-level retail spaces for restaurants and other attractions. And like Jimenez, Wilson sees manufacturing wind farm equipment as a meaningful boost to the local economy.
“Whoever is elected to council must make it a high priority to make (Richmond) less of a hidden gem and more of a gem that the region recognizes,” Wilson said. “Richmond is moving in the right direction.”
Anderson, whose campaign focus was economic development, also talked about re-energizing town by restoring the magic to places just like the Presidio in San Francisco, highlighting town's wealthy history, creating an arts and cultural district and include a various range of moms. and pop stores and bigger employers.
But to get there, Anderson said town must first concentrate on cleansing up its streets. This includes modernizing the infrastructure in addition to the correct level of community policing.
He would also concentrate on working with academic institutions to offer educational programs to young residents, while also working with regional organizations akin to the East Bay Economic Development Alliance to rework Richmond right into a “job-ready community.”
“Everyone has their priorities, but it is our role and responsibility to be a beacon and shine light on these areas, address them and keep our people in a safe haven,” Anderson said.
District 1 race
For Wassberg, supporting mom and pop shops shouldn’t be a priority. Instead, he said improving Richmond means welcoming big corporations like Chevron, which recently agreed to pay town $550 million in exchange for repealing a ballot measure that, if approved by voters, would block the corporate annually between would have cost 60 and 90 million US dollars.
Wassberg was a vocal critic of the tax measure and the settlement agreement. Instead of taxing large corporations, he would quite concentrate on giving tax breaks to corporations that he said create vital jobs and reduce crime.
“It’s a big deal that really contributes to the city’s budget. At the moment I’m all for big business,” said Wassberg. “I don’t know why on earth the council is focusing on small businesses.”
Wassberg is thought for his controversial views. He often appears at City Council meetings to insult elected officials and spout what could possibly be viewed as homophobic, transphobic, anti-immigrant and racist slurs.
Most recently, he accused members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community of being “morally wrong” pedophiles and “sick in the mind” while the council heard a proclamation recognizing Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Wassberg doubled down on these views concerning the LGBTQ community in an interview on Tuesday.
He also reiterated views he had shared up to now about Palestinians and Arabs, groups he falsely claimed were all terrorists, and claimed that undocumented immigrants had no right to stay within the United States and never theirs would pay their fair proportion of taxes while receiving government support.
When asked why minority residents in Richmond should vote for him, Wassberg said he doesn't care a technique or one other who solid their vote for him. Instead, he shared the hope that Brown and Willis would “split the black and Latino votes so I can go right in the middle and win.”
“You have the right to vote for whoever you want to vote for, and I will not change my mind to sell my soul so they can vote for me,” Wassberg said. “They can vote for whoever they want, I don’t care.”
Neither Willis nor Brown responded to multiple interview requests.
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