Candidate for
Council Member; City of Alameda

Introduction : I grew up in the City of Alameda, in the part of town called the "West End," in a neighborhood right next to the now closed military base. I attended West End schools, having even served as Senior Class and School President of Encinal High School (http://bit.ly/bpK4md). My late father, Ricardo, was from the Philippines. My Japanese mother is from a hamlet called Kawa-hira in the southern island of Kyushu. I was born in Hawaii in 1966.

City Council (1996-2006): Urged to run for office at the age of 28 by members from Alameda's Filipino-American community, I became the first American of Filipino or Japanese descent to serve on Alameda's City Council, and served with honor and distinction for ten years between 1996 and 2006. Twice I was elected by his peers to serve as Vice Mayor (1998-2000 and 2002-2004).

Prior to serving on Council, I served for two years on the Alameda Re-use and Redevelopment Authority, as alternate for former Vice Mayor Anthony "Lil" Arnerich. I also served for two years on Alameda's Economic Development Commission. Thus, he served for 12 years as a public servant in the City of Alameda.

Between late 2008 and early 2009, I served on the City of Alameda's Fiscal Sustainability Committee, which assisted the City Council in tackling immediate and long-term fiscal challenges. I also recently served on Caltran's District 4 Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee.

Focus on Alameda's Youth: Among the many projects that I implemented, I am most proud of hmy work on behalf of children and youth. While on Council, I created the "Traffic Calming Guidelines", which provides a framework for improving traffic safety around local schools through signage and other measures. I also resurrected the joint School Board - City Council committee meeting after years of dormancy. I also created a mechanism by which residents can donate funds via their electric bills to a technology program of the local school district. This mechanism was a simple matter of allowing rate payers to "round up" their electric bill payment, with the difference going to our local schools: the program collected $7,400 via the "round up", also known as "Power Up for Learning" (http://bit.ly/aZ0vkS). I also created the "small capital improvements project (CIP)" after determining that the bulk of CIP dollars went primarily to large publicworks projects, not local parks whose ball fields and play equipment needed repair.

Social Justice: During my tenure on City Council, I was a tireless advocate on behalf of social justice causes. I passed legislation exempting domestic partners from the real estate transfer tax, many of which comprise of gay, lesbian and transgender couples. For more information on his work on behalf the LGBT community. I was also recognized for my leadership on behalf of environmental causes, including my effort to reform a much penalized incinerator in the Fruitvale District in Oakland (http://bit.ly/da2v4X). I also fought for racial justice, particularly with respect to housing (http://bit.ly/aUYXp8) in Alameda (http://bit.ly/97W0iM).

Mass and Other Forms of Alternative Transit: I worked successfully on a variety of mass transit matters as a City Councilman. Working with bus transit advocates, I got City Hall to re-stripe red curbs throughout Alameda to accommodate AC Transit's modern "low floor" buses. I worked with arts enthusiasts in Alameda to get City Hall to accept and install elegant AC bus shelters free of annoying billboard advertisements. I again worked with transit activists in Alameda to get City Council to pass Alameda's "Transit First Resolution," which laid the policy groundwork that led to the designation of Park and Webster Streets as Alameda's "transit hubs." Today, these hubs have a number of raised platforms with elegant shelters that facilitate bus service. On Webster Street, I made sure that redevelopment dollars were available to match the original grant from the regional transit agency known as MTC. In the formative stages of its existence, I gave advice and guidance to a fledgling organization called Bike Alameda,and soon thereafter worked with this group in having Council adopt the Bike Master Plan.

Professional Background: I am urban planner by profession and education, a full-time Program Manager a community economic development non-profit based in Oakland. He has been in the field of urban planning for over seventeen years.

As a planner, I've distinguished himself in many ways. I authored a path-breaking methodology for analyzing local and regional urban decay impacts stemming from large-format retail stores ("big box"). My methodology was key to a recent court case in Kern County. In this case, my methodology was reviewed and accepted by the judge who presided over an earlier landmark court decision regarding Super Wal-Marts (Bakersfield Citizens for Local Control v. Wal-Mart). I was asked by the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) to facilitate a work-shop on the Best Economic Development Data available at CALED's annual conference in 2009.

I earned his Master's degree from UC Berkeley's Department of City and Regional Planning, having been recognized as the "hardest working student" by my peers. I also earned my Bachelor degree from UC Berkeley in US History.

What I do for fun: I enjoy reading political biographies, particularly the works of Robert Caro. I also enjoys reading biographies of business leaders. I am an active Democrat -- maintains a blog called moderatedemocrats.com. I am co-president of the City of Alameda's Democratic Club. I also served on what is called the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee. I enjoy offering his thoughts to local newspapers on a range of policy issues, such as (click on subjects): Military base conversion (http://bit.ly/9oJ558) and Native American mega-casinos in the Bay Area (http://bit.ly/ckSRiY). I also maintain a West End blog called westalameda.com.