Bloodless Coup in the City of Martinez

It's been a little while since I dusted off this blog and put it to use. However, my hometown newspaper, The Martinez News-Gazette has been knocked offline by hackers in the midst of a highly contentious debate regarding the breaking up of at large elections into by district elections. Here are my most recent thoughts on this process in a letter to the editor printed in today's paper: 

I intend to be at the next meeting but will prepare my comments ahead of time if I can't make it. Of the three, I personally favor the Orange map. It is important to me that my elected officials have an equal stake in and are accountable to the entirety of the city, as they do today. From a geographic and demographic standpoint the Orange map accomplishes this at scale. 

While I haven't been physically in chambers, I do watch the videos after. I take great exception to the characterization of how this process should go, what the process should entail, and I deeply resent outside voices interjecting themselves into our matters of local governance. 

For those who have co-opted this force of law, this action was brought under the pretense of leveling the electoral map to benefit one very specific minority group, Hispanics. I resent attempts at leveraging my heritage and identity by non-Hispanics as they posture about fairness, and equity. The consequence of this action is neither. 

As Councilmen Ross rightly pointed out, my Hispanic voice has not been elevated as a result of this action, rather it has been diminished by 75%. And adding insult to injury, there is a push to steal an even greater percentage of my voice and vote. 

To the provocateurs; you have stolen my votes because you lack the capacity to inspire and are visionless. You are not leaders, you have no fire in your bellies, you are small minded thieves with deception and lust in your hearts. 

Personally I don't like bringing race into a public discussion, however, this discussion began as an indictment over equal access and race. I will not allow those who instigated this action to forget. The audacity of this move to suppress votes by those who wrap themselves in a mantel of progressive ideals is galling. 

Martinez: A Tale of Two Cities, with apologies to Charles Dickens

It's been two months since the abrupt ending to my happily ever after fairy-tale. The pain is still fresh; I expect it will be for a long time. But causes keep me going and here in Martinez, I don't have to look too hard to find them.

If you haven't heard AOL has a hyper-local on-line presence dedicated to providing topical news top tier news outlets tend to ignore. That's an over-simplification but hey, this is my blog. Here in the City of Martinez you can find them at www.martinez.patch.com, my friend Jim Caroompas is the editor.

Ya I know, I work for the hometown print paper, shouldn't I feel threatened? No, each offers something unique but I digress. On January 30th a member of our community, Pat Keeble, posed this question on Patch, "Why don't we have a dog park in Martinez?" I responded by pointing to an op-ed I'd written for the Martinez News-Gazette August 28, 2008 and saved to my blog.  

One of the comments I captured in my dog park post highlighted a disturbing schism, half our residents don't consider themselves part of Martinez. It was local historian, Harriett Burt, who told me our city has tried to overcome the idea of two Martinez's for decades. Another comment touched on political obstacles residents seemingly face.

Everyone reading this blog (all five of you) know I extol the virtues of social media and the Internet. I imagine the idea of unfettered access to the world's information as the inspiration for the Library of Alexandria. Romantic fancy, maybe, but again this is my blog.

Another author/friend I've made as a result of Twitter, Storm Cunningham may have nailed the generational issues Martinez faces. Storm is part of the TED community; "TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading."



Again maybe it's the romantic in me but the notion of the world's thinkers freely sharing their ideas, best practices, experiences, I imagine how it must have been to sit at the feet of philosophers like Plato, Aristotle.

The answers to healing our schisms and revitalizing our community will not be found in the individual silos (historical society, arts association, chamber of commerce, downtown association, merchant groups) we seem so fond of. Nor will they be found in the one-off (white linen eatery, marina, streetscape, low-income senior housing, cannabis dispensary) projects Martinez is famous for.

The answers to revitalizing the City of Martinez will come when people divorce themselves from their preconceptions and egos. The answers are out there, we just have to be willing to look. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Storm's talk but more than that I hope you're inspired to take meaningful action like spearheading the creation of a dog park.