Taking Control of Our City

Dear Friends & Neighbors,

I hope you and your families enjoyed the Thanksgiving break and your holiday season is going well.

It's been several months since I last wrote, but wanted to continue where I left off, or more specifically, create a dialogue over how we, as a community, can begin to hold our public officials truly responsible for their actions (or inactions). From now on, I am writing these blogs as an individual, and my thoughts and opinions do not reflect the views of the neighborhood organizations I am or have been apart of.

On Monday evening, we had the pleasure of speaking with Board of Supervisors (BOS) President Aaron Peskin at the West of Twin Peaks Central Council (WTPCC) monthly meeting. We discussed several areas of concern with Mr. Peskin, including public safety, police officer recruitment and retention, property taxes, and homeless encampments, but what I would like to address in this blog is the insidious way our politicians are passing laws and changing policy without disclosing their true intent or ulterior motive. As with most laws and legislation, they are usually enacted and passed with the intended benefit of a few wealthy individuals or groups in mind, while at the same time, pretending to benefit the larger population. This has been a consistent theme in my blogs and something I am passionate about bringing to light.

One example is the city's new housing codes or elements that are being championed by our planning commission, BOS, and our mayor. It was not clear from our discussion with Mr. Peskin whether he was for or against these new elements, which are a direct threat to single family homes on the West Side and an end to the lay of the land in our neighborhoods as we know it. What was clear, however, was Mr. Peskin's reluctance to push back against the "powers that be" who are not only putting these codes into effect, but doing so largely against the will of the people. 

Unlike our city officials, who refuse to take a stand, Our Neighborhood Voices, a coalition of neighborhood leaders, whom we learned about, ironically enough, from Mr. Peskin, is speaking out. I am only sharing what I have read from their web site, but it seems this group is opposing the money-driven developers who have been approved by Sacramento, through a series of state laws, to start replacing single family homes with multi-unit buildings and high rises. According to the web site, these "damaging laws essentially tell us to 'sit down and shut up' about what is happening right next door to our homes." This is reminiscent of the treatment residents and business owners in my West Portal neighborhood experienced at the hands of our planning commissioners and most of our supervisors during our opposition to the Gold Mirror dispensary. My neighbors and I have written extensively about our experience on this web site, but in a nutshell, we were essentially labelled "liars, racists, and misinformed" by Ms. Rachel Tanner, President of the Planning Commission, in an attempt to discredit our claims, suppress our voices, and ultimately justify the city's decision to approve a conditional use cannabis permit for the Gold Mirror restaurant, despite overwhelming opposition from neighbors and residents.

Well, we have had enough. There is obviously a slow and steady drift in our city from a democratic state to an authoritarian one, and residents know it. No longer are our elected officials interested in representing the will and voice of the people they represent -- their constituents -- instead they are loyal to their own private and professional goals and agendas, such as securing votes or amassing campaign funds, and so they have been bought. What I am saying is not new, but my personal and intimate experience of it surely is: our politicians are choosing to represent the will and voice of those with enough money and power to help them achieve their goals. They are no longer interested in what you or I have to say. 

Having said that, we can start making better choices during elections by educating ourselves on these matters, and voting for candidates who are also cognizant of the dangers authoritarianism poses for our city, and who want to help us steer clear of it. 

Thank you for reading. Please feel free to leave your comments or suggestions below.

Your neighbor,

Lefteris Eleftheriou

fopswp@gmail.com