Alameda School Funding Issue Debrief

Well tonight I attended my first town hall meeting about the proposed school closures in Alameda due to school budget issues. Here are my initial two take-aways:

1) Holy crap
2) Alamedans are a brave, eloquent and inclusive bunch.

I went to the meeting thinking "Wait, wait, wait, let me get this straight. You want to close Bay Farm? Wha? I bought a house across the street from it at the height of the market 3 years so my wee-ones could that school that scored 10 on greatschools.org! Bring on mama bear."

Some pissed off Washington parents spoke (and I was very impressed with their extremely valid points), then a presentation was given with several options of the different (but same) crazy scenarios with impending MEGA-elementary schools and potential 7th grade High School freshmen who aren't even wearing training bras (OMG, I just did the math, my daughter would be 11!!! double holy crap).

Then the floor was given to the community to sound off. First, I was half expecting people with picket signs and marauding manic moms to just have a go at the board. Was that disappointment I felt when lo and behold, people ever so patiently waited politely in line to state their opinions? Wow, this ain't no Jersey Shores.

Almost every person had a question or comment that made sense, effectively made their point, and was considerate of other people's opinions. Pat yourself on the back Alamedans, nice job.

The part I was less impressed with was when the floor was given back to the Board. Many Board members (nice to meet you Board, this apathetic mom hadn't even known who you were until tonight, sorry about that) also had eloquent responses.

But I wasn't really wanting to hear what they thought at this point because I know they've been thinking about it for way longer than me (thank you by the way).

However, I would have rather seen this meeting being actually facilitated by someone (maybe from Switzerland), who wrote down specific questions the community had asked then gave the board the ability to respond directly to those questions. We would understand if they didn't have all the facts at that time but some questions were probably already easy to answer. Some questions were answered but it was somewhat confusing.

The way it was done, I'm not sure what happens to those comments and questions that the community voiced. Will there be a website that lists them with the answers below? That would be nice. I would have also preferred that they put the options back up on the screen because it seemed the Board was saying they prefer option 1 & 4. Um, I couldn't remember either option, can you repeat?

I also don't get the time line. If today was a public hearing and most community comments/questions asked that the Board go back and present a plan that had less "close this, save that" and more enlightened alternatives that takes the essence of Alameda into consideration first, I don't get when they would have time to do that. So why have a public meeting? They have to present their plan by law by December 14th. I'm thinking they are not going to go back and take a retreat in some secluded island to come up with a totally innovative and completely out of the box alternatives to what they've already spent most of their time on.

So I heard basically (sorry, I was busy searching Trulia on my iPhone by that point) "something, something, present our school closure options by December 14th, something, something, Parcel Tax is the only way to cover us for SOME of the money, something, something, Parcel Tax option needs to be presented in November so it can be in the March ballot." Oh, and I also heard most board members stating they also agreed mega-elementary is not the way to go, whew...for now....oh.

So I came back home, looked up Option 1 and that looks like to me that proposed scenario saves Bay Farm for next year but closes Lincoln & Wood and brings class sizes up to 32. And again, that's for now. What was that name of that Realtor again? Kidding...kind of...

So for concerned Alamedans that don't have insomnia (again) or time to digest this, here is my suggested action plan. Rest up because it will be a busy Fall...

1) Attend Monday's (Oct 4th) Alameda Mayoral Candidate Debate (I don't know how all of this works but something tells me we need a Mayor that's going to start kicking some ass around here).

2) Research why Measure E didn't pass, from what I've seen, the opposition had tons of valid points. Turns out they are eloquent like-minded Alamedans too.

3) Decide your educated stance on this whole thing and then tell a neighbor. I don't like Measures either or the words "only way" but it sounds like unless Bill Gates decides to take Alameda under his wing, we need a Parcel Tax to avoid immediate doomsday scenarios and frankly, we don't have enough good Realtors for that option.

4) Attend the next Parcel Tax public hearing (October 14th) - there are only two public meetings on this, then you can't whine that it's a terrible tax plan.

5) Pay attention and vote in November 2nd election and please don't write in Mickey Mouse, doesn't help any of us.

6) Attend November 23rd Parcel Tax Public Hearing meeting. Wait a minute, that's the day before Thanksgiving (and my lovely daughter's birthday). Seriously? Come on people. This is the last one before it goes to vote. Happy Birthday honey, we're off for a fun evening in your first civic lesson. Mama doesn't want you dating burly seniors at age 12.

7) Join AlamedaSOS.org so you can help spread the word. They are not coming up with the Parcel Tax plan. They are just smart enough to think ahead and organize so they can help communicate the Measure so doomsday doesn't happen immediately.

If you are opposed to Parcel Tax or thought it was poorly written, now is your chance to get a smart option in place. Don't just oppose it later because you're freaking Goldilocks and need the perfect option either. I don't want a stupid Measure that I pay into either but it's probably still cheaper than private school and if it comes to this, I'll just start shopping at the next town I move to which won't be yours. I'm starting to swear, that's a cue I need to go to bed.

Good night whoever cares out there.

Alameda SOS Proposed Lawn Sign

Wee, found my old blog site. Still seem to be completely apathetic. Life is too busy. But found a couple of new causes that is "stirring" me. So using my old platform for it.

We live in Alameda (great, now my identity theft score is probably rising). Anyway, schools have no money and they are proposing shutting some down in a couple of years. The Measure that was meant to keep things alive did not pass over the summer and others are expiring. Not that I think those are the right answers but for what it's worth - it's really, really bad now. Did I mention we moved here because of the school? Did I mention we bought at the height of the market? Niiiice. It's a perfect town storm brewing.

I'll post some content on this topic here later but image here is a tongue-in-cheek proposal of what our next lawn sign should be. Have to give credit to husband for funny idea. But his idea is to actually have most of Alameda put their houses up for sale for real to drive media attention. Hmmm....

Read more about AlamedaSOS here.

Yup, another year, no posts

Yup, another year has past..no post...same ol' same ol..
Family growing up, life taking on new demands. Health care, Haiti, but for me, life is great... I'll find the time at least once this year to post a politubing blog. Or maybe in my 50's...

Inauguration weekend

OK, so I hadn't blogged for over a year... no excuses - just life. But the down-lo for what it's worth... I voted for Obama both in the primaries and in the election. The world is just horrible right now and I'm looking forward to next week. Let Obama be the answer to our prayers...(but I still like Mitt Romney.).

Here's to 2009!

Citizentube You Choose '08 - Politubing dream come true

MAN, I feel so out of touch. This has been around a while (a few weeks) but real-life duties were keeping me from highlighting this which is probably the quintessential politubing activity out there today.

YouTube's Citizentube has launched a process by which they will highlight a presidential candidate for a week and you get to virtually townhall with the candidate. This just makes me giddy. Who knows, I may bust out of my shyness and make my own YouTube video finally. Check it out:

Hillary Clinton - a mom's perspective

For those reading this politubing blog, you may have noticed that I had not yet blogged about a pretty obvious candidate - Hillary Clinton. I mean, she's a woman, I'm a woman; she's a mom, I'm a mom; she's a wife, I'm a wife; she's an ex-first lady and a senator, I'm, ummm, not. Anyway, you would think I would relate enormously to her right? Well not so fast...

Let me start off by saying that the reason I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks was due to kids with stomach flus, spring breaks, work-related deadlines, and things like piles of laundry. Now I can imagine Senator Clinton is EXTREMELY intelligent, motivated and WAY more organized that I'll ever dream to be. But it's hard for me to relate to someone that can do so much and supposedly be on par with me. Now it may be that I have a 4 and a 1 yr old, a job, and a super motivated husband who can start his own company while still finish up his full-time UC Berkeley MBA (read "way too busy"). Maybe a few years from now when the kids are grown I'll have more time for grown-up type stuff. But right now my big plan for that time period is to sleep.

Basically we’re not at the same level. Just because she is a woman, that’s not enough to win me over. I think all of the candidates are intellectually capable of understanding where I stand regardless of gender. Of course I would love to see a woman running things and would fully support that. But other than say childbirth (which in my opinion should not be a political issue), most of the political issues that are important to me I would say should be gender neutral. In my opinion, the focus of finding the best presidential candidate needs to be on figuring out who is the most competent, well-intentioned, common-sense type candidate.

So wiping that slate clean, what is my take on Senator Clinton? My first reaction I would have to say is that she's a bit staged. Is that a problem or important? Maybe not, we can't all be Bill. Doing politubing due diligence I’ve checked out many of her YouTube videos. She has the Hillcast videos. Normally I think this is a good approach, but frankly, I tuned out many of her Hillcast videos as they somehow seemed insincere. Maybe because the setting looks like a Phillips soft-light commercial. This notion of “keeping the conversation going”, c’mon- you’re in a mansion with a camera crew and speech writer. Now meet me at Starbucks and we then you can talk to me about keeping the conversation going. Just don’t call it what it’s not. This isn’t some kind of video conference thing. Jab aside, I am glad she’s in the Senate. She is truly a very smart woman with conviction and the means to get things done. That’s a good thing. My favorite Hillcast video is her video on getting troops out of Iraq (apparently others think so too, it’s her most viewed). So I don’t fully agree with all of her plans and actions, for example, I don’t think she should polarize the issue and say “All Democrats should ban together to force the president to change course…” (what about the Republicans). But in this video she’s not playing the female card and is discussing plans for a topic on which she has strong opinions. But in general, the Hillcast keep the conversation going videos, zzzzz. Take a look yourself.

Now watching the videos where she speaks to a crowd, those I felt myself more engaged. My favorite so far was the Rutgers University video. I think for Hillary these are the types of venues she has a better chance of shinning. Maybe not surprisingly I see a trend that her recent videos are more of this type and less “Hillcastish”. Now, I am always annoyed at watching politicans playing up their specific audience (the Red Hat Ladies video) but I fully understand you don’t win the Presidency by simply stating exactly what you believe, damn be all that don’t follow. So OK, I’ll tolerate. In the Rutgers video, Senator Clinton was her eloquent self and because it was set up to be a presentation in front of a crowd, it didn’t feel as contrived as the Hillcast videos. The part of about “Dare to Compete”, that was good. Unfortunately especially because she is a woman, I think she’s going to have to be very, very careful how she presents herself. But in my humble opinion, she needs to just be herself. Don’t overplay the woman/mom/wife card, just be yourself, pretend your gender doesn’t matter. Take a look at Rutgers…

Election 2008 First Quarter Fundraising Results

OK, so now I know why I was getting email bombarded by the Presidential 2008 hopefulls all last week (Hillary Clinton was on a ROLL!). The first quarter campaign finance deadline was looming and now their TubeMogul viewership peak trend makes sense to me, duh...

Now I can't find a cool politubing video explaining the results. If anyone has one, comment away. But this is my take:

Hillary Clinton (What Hill?): $26 million
Barack Obama (Barack oBAM!a): $25 million
Mitt Romney (Mitt I've-got-tons-of-roMONEY): $23 million
Rudy Giuliani (Rudy apparently-not-enough-jewels-IANI): $15 million
John Edwards (President McDreamy is just too fitting, isn't it?): $14+ million
John McCain (John McCan't): $12.5

The Washington Post has a good article about these campaign fundraising results.

I don't know why they need 20 gagillion dollars but if I were a betting lady (and I'm not, I always lose miserably), my money is on Barack oBAMa or Mitt roMoney. Now I am completely unqualified to pass judgment but out of curiosity I looked up who was essentially running John McCain's campaign versus Mitt Romney. My intuition told me McCain is probably using old school political network methods, and Mitt Romney has whiz-bang kid. I mean, this is the founder of BainCapital. Hello...he knows money, as my husband says "Why was it a surprise he could raise money?"

Please, do not quote me but as I understand according to Chris Cilliza from the Washington Post, John McCain's campaign man is Tom Loeffler.

I don't know if they're the same role but one of Mitt Romney's main men is Alex Castellanos. Oh, and apparently the ivory tower word for these savants is "consigliere". Doesn't that just mean "an advisor", why the heck don't they just call them advisors? They must get to wear special tights or a crown or something.

Funny thing is I see Mr. Loeffler mentioned as a consigliere but Mr. Castellanos as I think a strategist. I also read and probably just juicy unfounded gossip that Romney's campaign wants to shy away from anything France-like as they will play the card that people like Hillary Clinton want us to just become a whiny socialist country like France (ca n'est pas possible) so maybe that's why Havana boy is media-guru and Loeffler is still a consiglieremajig.

So the difference in the two:
Tom Loeffler, an ex-Texas Congressman, a lawyer and lobbyist, and obviously politically tremendously well connected. Maybe he's not anymore after this week, who knows. I read this as “old school”.

Alex Castellanos - Media mogul-type man. Not sure how to read this since he’s been the political go-to guy for many but sounds FLASHY to me.

But way more interesting than Castellanos (for me at least) is Mitt Romney's apparent use of SalesForce.com for his campaign fundraising toolset:

Salesforce.com gets into politics by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- Mitt Romney’s Republican presidential campaign has raised about $20 million so far in 2007 with the help of “com-Mitt” software for interacting (fundraising) with donors. The activity is otherwise known as CRM, customer relationship management, and salesforce.com's on demand platform is the foundation of com-Mitt. Not one to miss a new, and timely, market opportunity, [...]

Now THERE's a businessman for ya!

Anyway, in my peace and love world, I would collect all the money that the candidates who don't stand a chance collected (why on God's green earth did MORE candidates just make a bid for the presidency??? ), plus the extra gazillion these guys collected, and maybe help pay off our national debt, help our little planet with its fever-thing, make sure our kids don't come butt-last in all areas of education, or make a really pretty park somewhere.

I'm probably not going to be anyone's consigliagagaga anytime soon…