Thank you for your support and encouraging your friends and neighbors in the Manor to support me.

Stephen

I write to you as a 10 year resident of San Leandro, previous business owner here and am married to a 4th generation San Leandrian. After 50+ years her parents and siblings and grand children still reside in the city and my decade here, I’ve seen many elements of the city deteriorate. My wife’s experience can add triple to those amounts. I often hear her make comments while traveling around tell me, “it’s never been like that” or “that’s not the way it use to be”. Then she develops a sad face and often gets emotional resulting from her once held pride of what was and is her home town.

We both look at San Leandro with commonalities. I personally am perplexed and confused at the body politic which decides San Leandro’s direction. I’ve witnessed city leaders literally prevent businesses from coming in as well as push businesses out, who exhaust their patience with city hall and finally relocate and take their employees with them. Knowing this degrades the city primary revenue as well as the loss of local sales from consumer spending does nothing except provide confusion to common sense.

What does city hall do in response? Raise taxes and city fees to residence and remaining businesses to make up the short fall.

One of the crown jewels that ‘any’ city would be excited to have and doesn’t is a marina. I come from a boating and marina community. To hear over the years that members of the city council would rather turn into a floating tube park and give up the marina as an entity serves nothing more than validation that the city leaders are over their heads in the general financial health of the town.

I’ve been told that a yacht broker was at one time willing to spend a few million to re-develop some of the area and move a yacht broker’s inventory in a part of the marina to set up shop and was denied by someone at city hall.

The entire marina area since the loss of the Blue Dolphin restaurant has been a project worthy of any city wishing it had, while this city is clueless what to do with it.

My wife encouraged me as she thinks I possess some sort of oratory skill to attend a city hall meeting where Tony Santos spoke that “San Leandro has no real crime problem”. They had to move this meeting to the main room at the library as the residents came by the bus loads to hear this.

I said my view when it was time, the audience applauded, Mayor Santos offered no reply to me which angered the attendees, the ANG newspaper caught me outside after the meeting and interviewed me which later made the Daily Review. My only reason to share this with you is to demonstrate that it frustrates me, my now five generations of family and friends ( some are local business owners ) how any elected official can attempt to sway a public by rendering himself intentionally ignorant to facts.

I wish you and your team much luck and after reviewing your web sight, I strongly agree with your approaches. I would donate what I could but since the closure of my San Leandro business, times are difficult to say the least right now. Please contact me if I could aid your campaign or lend any support you need.

Respectfully,
George Bond
Aurora Drive

In terms of solutions, I have set forth a plan. It’s on this website at http://www.cassidyforsanleandro.com/plan.html One measure I have advocated, as explained in my plan, is that city employees should start contributing to the cost of their pensions. That would substantially reduce the budget deficit.

When the city council voted on the financing of the project, I spoke at the meeting. I stated a much better approach would have been for the city to purchase foreclosed homes in San Leandro and then rented them to families who qualified for affordable housing. That would have provided not only better accommodations for the renters but also helped all homeowners in town by taking a large number of foreclosed properties off the market, thereby improving everyone’s property values.

I can’t believe the fiscal irresponsibility exhibited by the mayor.