Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
William Shakespeare: Othello Act 3, scene 3, 155–161
And when the person that ruins your reputation is YOURSELF you are realllly in trouble. Here’s an example From Sundays Gazette, reprinted with permission from the author, Ken King:
If it’s “good to be king”, as Mel Brooks once quipped, it must really be good to be the king maker. You want it, you got it. You don’t got to esplian. Those of the well buttered bread in city hall know just what to do. Dunivan’s new $500,000.00 wall is but the latest example of some good ol’ boys and girls gettin’ ‘er done MTZ style. Never mind the conventional rules and procedures, the Brown act is for sissies. Open government, pfffft! Never mind that the situation creating the “emergency” had been languishing for years, or that there were a number of solutions available all along the way. No, that’s not how we operate here. In Martinez all roads lead to a redevelopment agency, or so the king makers would have it.
The prevailing idea here, since 1962, when the first Benecia bridge was completed and ferry service ended, seems to be, to let your, now devalued property, fall into disrepair in hopes of a bailout. While it is fair to argue that the property in question had been overlooked in a previous creek restoration project, there were rules to it. Now the same city council that failed to correct the situation for years suddenly decides, under threat from one of their main benefactors, that there is an “emergency”! As the Church Lady used to say, “How convenient”. No time for any of those darn reports, or stupid studies that might show pushing the structure over three feet into the channel may cause more of a risk to flood control than a beaver could ever dream of. If stabilizing the bank against floods and beavers were the only issue, there were too many cheaper and more aesthetically pleasing solutions. No, the idea was to drive the beavers off pure and simple.
And why is it RDA vs the beavers? There are those who feel that the future of downtown is in developing the very special assets we already have. Our historical architecture, the theaters, the marina, the Joltin’ Joe the opera and yes, our world famous beavers! And there are those who would carve our town into ever smaller pieces in the name of affordable housing Putting a RDA into the hands of a group who already shun accountability and making them completely and forever unaccountable is like putting a sledgehammer into the hands of a petulant child in a china shop! Bad idea!
Ken King
