I am writing this in response to “Redevelopment through the looking glass,” that was written by Victoria Brandon. Brandon has now become a builder of cities.
Her simplified version of how to solve Clearlake”s problems, which it is on the verge bankruptcy, is to simply take the $7,000,000 in redevelopment funds and pave the dirt streets and they, the businesses, will come. Guess what? The previous administration didn”t even have to do that and the businesses came.
“To no one”s surprise” the major business was welcomed by the Sierra Club with a lawsuit. So why should we spend the $7,000,000 to pave dirt the streets and waste the $7 million for the businesses only to be met by a lawsuit.
Parenthetically, let me add that I had joined the Sierra Club because they do have some good programs related to fisheries, which as a Noyo Harbor Commissioner, I found interesting. In addition, it gave me access to the funding of Lake County”s 400-member group”s financial position. At that time Brandon”s group had a total of $2,600 in the bank.
Now how would she lead her sheep with such limited funds? They, of course chose to file a lawsuit against the Cristallago Project, with the intent to obtain (“extract”) funds from that developer with the intent to file a lawsuit against the Lowe”s project, which they did. Why do it that way? Because Cristallago had three supervisors and the staff supporting the Cristallago project and the Lowe”s project was opposed by three supervisors and staff, along with her entourage in Clearlake.
She is correct in that the purpose of the meeting was to develop a method of funding the Clearlake Police Department, but someone had obtained an e-mail that was sent to me from Mayor Overton, in which she suggested that they leave “no stone unturned” in looking at how to keep the city afloat, which could include at least investigating the cost differential of having the police duties be turned over to the Sheriff”s Department. In addition, she said that she would see that all the officers in the city would be protected if that came about.
Brandon then goes on to say our premise of “reducing crime would increase property values” was fatally flawed. That is when I indicated we had done a study in the City of Oakland, which confirmed our basic premise.
It is not a difficult concept to follow. Just look at Lake County, how much crime occurs in Buckingham vs. Clearlake. What is the property value for a comparable sized home in Lakeport vs. Clearlake? It seems so obvious to me it is crime, but maybe I am overlooking some thing ? please let me know.
Another iteration by Brandon was that the police department is adequately funded because of Measure “P,” which ironically is sales tax-based. I attended the Judge”s breakfast the other day and the police chief was the speaker and he indicated he was short 10 officers. Does that sound like they are adequately funded? How will we ever be able to accept anything a person like that says?
The point I was attempting to make was that since the Sierra Club had filed suit, three board members and three council members were opposed to the project that the project would likely not proceed. Based on that premise some of those funds should be put to use.
My thought was that perhaps $1 million might be used for security purposes, such as buying security cameras, brighter lights, etc. might be very beneficial. These techniques and equipment have proven themselves in the city of Richmond.
Another $1 million could be used on Lakeshore Drive in the form of code enforcement and low-interest loans or grants.
Perhaps this shortfall could be made up by using housing funds if available, because with the drop in housing prices the city should be able to make the case that there is adequate low-mod housing available at this time.
My overall objective was to have the badly split community concentrate on crime, which I thought everyone agreed was a problem and it could bring the community back together.
Apparently I was wrong at least in the eyes of Victoria Brandon and the Sierra Club.
Jim Burns
Lake County
