I went to the City Council meeting tonight, just to get a flavor
for it and because I volunteered (belatedly) for the Library Board
and the Port Commission. I've joked for years about running for
City Council, partly as a lark and partly as a way to give back,
and figured I could take an evening to watch the system in
action. As it happens, this was the final approval of an
affordable housing development by Cañada College for their
staff and teachers, right near a wealthy subdivision. This
provided some great drama:
- an objection just this afternoon from the HOA's lawyer,
based on a thin (and invalid, it turned out) technicality,
claiming to represent all 68 homeowners;
- the lead city staffer surprised by this letter, because
everyone had worked closely with the HOA to address their
numerous and persistent concerns, and the HOA had signed off on
the final plans;
- one of the councilmembers offering the HOA counsel a chance
to voice any genuine concerns above and beyond the
technicality;
- one of the subdivision's residents standing up and saying
"No one who lives in Woodland Hills has needed a hand up in a
very long time." And that the residents should support this
project that will help people;
- confusion from staffers because several people have claimed
to represent the residents' opinion, but delivering
contradicting messages.
It's evidently been a long, long process, with 26 meetings in the
past 11 months alone, and a complete redesign, but everyone agreed
that it was a better outcome for having had to work with the
opposition. It was a pretty interesting project between the
community college district, Redwood City, and Woodside, involving
a transfer of the college land from Woodside to Redwood City, some
"horse-trading" (as one of the councilmembers said) involving who
gets how much credit for affordable-housing units, and of course
the not-in-my-backyard xenophobia concerns and
input of the neighbors.
The whole thing generally added some points to my urge to become a
librarian and get involved in government, because even accounting
for the brutally long meetings, it looks fun, and difficult in a
good way, and a tangible way to help the community. The current
Council actually seems to be a bunch of genuinely wonderful
people, and if they're doing half the good job they appear to be
doing, I don't think I really want to replace one of them any time
soon.