Candidate for
Member, City Council; City of Antioch

TRANSPORTATION -

Unlike the current City Councilmembers, I will not wait until reelection time to discover that Highway 4 needs to be widened or that BART should come to Antioch before it goes to San Jose.

It will be my highest priority from day one to lobby our State and Federal elected officials to expedite the environmental studies and provide the needed funding to widen Highway 4 from Railroad Avenue in Pittsburg to Hillcrest Avenue in Antioch.

Antioch needs the leadership to galvanize our citizens to telephone, fax, write and email our elected officials on a weekly, if not daily, basis to get the necessary funding.

The Association of Bay Area Governments has been dictating the need to build more houses in Eastern Contra Costa; but those same members sit on the Metropolitan Transporation Commission and have failed to fund the widening of Highway 4, build the Buchannan Bypass and Highway 4 Bypass to accomodate the homes that have been built. I will work to change that!

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT -

I was a charter member of the Antioch Economic Development Steering Committee which spent over 2 years developing Antioch's Economic Master Plan.

The current City Council has failed to implement that Plan. If elected, I will work with my fellow Councilmembers to implement that Master Plan and foster a pro-business environment in Antioch.

I will work to eliminate the anti-business policies of the current City Council and propose that the existing Business License Fees be used exclusively to:

1) Promote existing Antioch businesses,
2) Help existing Antioch businesses expand and,
3) Develop an aggressive Economic Development Plan to attract new businesses to Antioch.

METERING GROWTH -

Compared to the rest of the Bay Area, Antioch does have affordable new homes. It has, however, come at the expense of our neglected infrastructure.

We do need affordable homes for our grown children to purchase. Likewise, we need upscale homes to attract the business owners and executives of the type of new companies that we want to relocate to Antioch. Finding that balance is the difficult part.

The City Council must work with the Antioch Unified School District Board of Trustees to ensure that as our student population grows, we will have the neighborhood schools and staffing to return to a tradition school year without overcrowding.

I propose to "meter" new growth to the following:

1) Quantifiable improvements the widening of Highway 4.
2) Completion of the Highway 4 Bypass.
3) Completion of the Buchannan Bypass.
4) BART to Antioch.
5) The opening of new schools.
6) Quantifiable improvement in our "jobs to housing" ratio.
7) Development of alternative modes of transportation.