From Changesandiego

[edit] Mission Statement of the Neighborhood Leaders Alliance

Our mission is to serve as the citizens’ voice at City Hall, relating to issues of land use and as land-use decisions affect quality of life. We will serve to counterbalance the influences of big business and organized labor at City Hall, relating to land use and as land-use decisions affect quality of life. We will seek to ferret out and expose corruption in local government, especially as it relates to issues of land use and quality of life.

[edit] October 2009 SDNN Article by Brian Peterson

It’s a well known phenomenon that redevelopment-abuse activists come from all across the political spectrum. As the leader of a group Grantville Action Group of activists dedicated to redevelopment reform, confused outsiders have felt compelled to try to peg me with epithets, including “obstructionist,” “NIMBY,” an “unreformed hippie,” a “small-town undertaker” (whatever that means), a “rightwing property rights nut,” a “pro-union propagandist,” a “free-market ideologue” and “that vet with his socialist agenda.” All the while, the one label that could have stuck was registered Republican.

Recently, however, I rejected this label by going down to the Registrar of Voters and reregistering as non-partisan. A few days later, I received a “grassroots survey” from the Republican National Committee. If you were to read it, you would see why I made the switch. It asked, “What are the top three most pressing issues for you and your family in San Diego County?” Among the choices offered were “Family Values,” “Illegal Immigration,” and “Health Care Reform.” The national Republicans evidently don’t know our city is facing bankruptcy, it is running out of water, and yet it is still intent on increasing population density by pushing infill development throughout. Besides, my number one priority is merely protecting my veterinary practice in this uncertain environment.

Others are beginning to join me in political party dissatisfaction. Last week I spoke with scientist, civic activist and District 2 City Council candidate Ian Trowbridge. He wasn’t too happy with how things are going with the Democrats either. Specifically, he was not pleased with the Democratic Party’s early endorsement of candidates, seemingly based on who would best toe the line of organized labor. Ian complained, “If your concern is good government and corruption, there’s no place to go.”

It is generally accepted that the Democratic candidates take their cues (and collect their donations) from organized labor; the Republicans from the Chamber of Commerce and big business. Ian’s lament is that “if you don’t sell your soul to Labor or the business interests—developers, hospitality and downtown movers & shakers—you have no chance of being elected; and both sides like it that way.”

There are some who would like to create a third way for local politics. These are the true grassroots folks who believe that City Hall should concentrate on doing a better job of serving the neighborhoods and focusing on quality-of-life issues that affect all of us.

Last year about this time, during the last weeks leading up to the general election, leaders of grassroots community organizations from areas as diverse as Point Loma, Uptown, City Heights, Grantville and eastern San Diego came together as the Neighborhood Leaders Alliance (NLA; www.ChangeSanDiego.org ) to promote a neighborhood agenda. They met with the City Council candidates who ran neighborhood-centric campaigns: Marti Emerald, Stephen Whitburn and Sherri Lightner.

One of the people present at these meetings was Ron May of the Neighborhood Historic Preservation Coalition. He described the NLA’s agenda this way: “Top among the platform priorities is to bring a reality check on Redevelopment Agency policies that are threatening the very identity of our older, established neighborhoods. [They] are capriciously declaring small business communities ‘blighted,’ so they can [condemn] places we value with the slash and burn policy of building demolitions…selling off land at a penny on the dollar to their cronies.”

They have been able to pursue these policies, because there is an axis of power at City Hall. (Blogger Pat Flannery has called this the “axis of greed.”) It is big business and organized labor united to promote their joint agenda for their mutual benefit. We witnessed this in July of 2008, when the City Council chambers were packed with construction union members in fluorescent-green shirts. They were there to support plans to redevelop University Town Center. Grantville Action Group members, who were there for a Grantville item, witnessed these laborers signing in with organizers outside the Council chambers. They were disinterested, except for receiving paychecks for being at City Council to support the developer’s project. Ultimately, the presence of a room full of union members won the day for the developer. Ignoring significant environmental impacts—including traffic and water usage, the City Council voted in favor of the project, over the objections of the local residents.

A few months later, even before the new City Council members were elected, word was out that Ben Hueso was labor and business’ selection for the new Council President. At the first two meetings, their representatives lined up to support his election over Donna Frye for the post. Again, the axis of power prevailed.

There needs to be a counterbalance to this City Hall influence of co-joined business and labor. After the meeting with candidate Lightner, Ron and I agreed on the hope that someday the NLA could be it. There needs to be an entity to represent the average San Diegan, rather than just the financial interests of some, while further empowering a few.

The general feeling of our folks active in neighborhood issues is that typical Republican and Democratic platforms don’t transfer well to the San Diego scene. And, trying to cling to these affiliations, for local purposes, is about as meaningful as calling someone a “free-market ideologue with a socialist agenda.”