At Wednesday’s ARRA meeting, something miraculous happened. A councilmember decided to take a real leadership role in the Alameda Point project. After years of moving the Alameda Point project forward while trying to keep a respectful distance from it, someone on the council stepped up to the plate and took a full-fledged position.
Some will argue, as I have, that the council has clearly shown their support by negotiating and renegotiating their agreements with SunCal and keeping their comments to generalities about the plan, but never speaking against it. However it was nice to hear someone actively speak FOR the plan. There’s a lot of detail work to be done, supporting the concept does not mean giving approval to the final design, so the couched support on this important project has always seemed overly cautious.
Speaking to a crowd that was evenly divided (16 speakers for the project, 17 against and 7 non-commital (including the ever-present Bill Smith)). Councilmember Lena Tam respectfully and clearly acknowledged the comments of the evening and then talked openly and honestly about the project and how it’s come to be, that while there are many details to be worked out (it’s a master plan, it’s not about specifics by definition) this plan represents the best way to meet the community goals developed over 15 years of public process (a speech that had former councilmember Lil Arnerich muttering “I can’t believe this” and then shaking his head and sighing….here’s Councilmember Tam in her own words:
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I’ve seen Lena Tam on two different occasions in the last 6 months having lunch with Don Perata. So for her to suggest she isn’t tainted is a joke!
So what? If I happened to have seen her having lunch with you within the last few months would it be appropriate to “assume” that she was also tainted?
John – you have a profoundly different way of interpreting reality.
Dave Kirwin, profoundly different from what? Earthships?
So Councilmember Tam has a couple of lunches with a big name on the local political scene, and now she’s “tainted”? By lunch?
I can only assume that this works something like cooties. Now that Lena Tam is tainted, anybody who has lunch with her will be tainted, too!
[...] Leadership rears its head at the ARRA Posted by John Knox White January 9, 2009 [...]