[Sosfbay-discuss] Sacramento Bee> Richmond's green mayor

[JamBoi]

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/90303.html

From: "Herbert Sample"
<<mailto:HSample at sacbee.com>HSample at sacbee.com>Date:
December 10, 2006 10:49:07 AM PSTSubject: Richmond mayor story  

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Richmond's green mayor 

Gayle McLaughlin's narrow win in November is a first for her party in
California 

By Herbert A. Sample - Bee San Francisco Bureau
 Published 12:00 am PST Sunday, December 10, 2006 

When Gayle McLaughlin was a young teenager almost 40 years ago, she
watched
on television as peace activists enflamed by the Vietnam War and
Chicago
police battled outside the Democratic National Convention.

The violence formed a lasting impression on McLaughlin, leading her to
years of grass-roots activism in liberal and social justice circles,
and
eventually into the Green Party and onto the Richmond City Council.

But come Jan. 9, that behind-the-scenes work will shift to a higher
profile
when McLaughlin, 54, takes the reins of the Bay Area's 13th largest
city
and one of its most troubled.

McLaughlin's somewhat surprising victory last month was notable not
only
because she defeated an incumbent but also because it will make
Richmond
the largest city in the country to be run by a Green mayor, and make
her
the first Green to be elected mayor in California.

At the same time, her victory signaled a decline in African American
dominance over political affairs in Richmond. 

If McLaughlin's four-year term is successful -- and she concedes that
sparse mayoral powers will make it difficult to push her agenda through
--
she could help make the Green Party a more acceptable alternative for
voters.

"I think people are pretty upset with the way things are," McLaughlin
said
in an interview last week. "It's clear people want something different,
so
the opening is there."

McLaughlin grew up in Chicago, the third of five daughters to a
carpenter
father and a housewife mother. She watched as her mother agonized over
the
street battles outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in
downtown
Chicago.

"She was really outraged that young people were mobilizing for a good
cause
and there was such a harsh response from the Chicago police and the
political structure in Chicago," she said. "It kind of alerted me that
there was a different kind of value system."

As an adult, McLaughlin's political consciousness led her to work with
groups opposed to U.S. policies in Central America during the 1980s,
and
others focused on gender and racial equality.

After marrying and moving to Richmond in 1998, she turned her attention
to
environmental issues and the Green Party. She won a City Council seat
two
years ago.

McLaughlin said city leaders permitted too little debate on important
issues, particularly controversial housing developments and the utility
taxes that Chevron's sprawling refinery pays.

"There's been a strong level of corporate control in city hall," she
said. 

It's that kind of language that has left Richmond business interests
apprehensive. 

"Her votes over the last two years have done nothing to dispel the
notion
that she sees businesses as the enemy instead of the source of most of
the
tax revenue and all of the jobs in the city," said Joshua Genser,
chairman
of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce's political action committee, which
endorsed incumbent Mayor Irma Anderson.

He contended that McLaughlin "assumed Chevron was lying" about the
taxes
the firm said it should pay because Chevron has a poor reputation among
liberal activists, not because there is evidence that it should pay
more.

Chevron once made flat utility tax payments rather than amounts based
on a
percentage of energy use. It recently switched to the percentage
method,
which resulted in a lower payment. However, Chevron refuses to release
energy usage figures so the city can confirm the accuracy of the new
payments.

Business owners may be anxious, but other Richmond residents are elated
about McLaughlin's ascendancy. 

Juan Reardon, who co-founded the Richmond Progressive Alliance in 2004
with
McLaughlin and others, said there has too long been a perception that
nothing would alter "business as usual" in Richmond.

But McLaughlin's victory "represents hope and sends a signal that
change is
possible," he said, adding that McLaughlin's ability to galvanize the
grass
roots will help her prod the City Council to compromise with her.

One of the mayor-elect's goals is to reduce the violence that has
roiled
the city for years. Richmond, a city of almost 97,000, has suffered 40
homicides this year as of Wednesday, compared with 36 at this point
last year.

McLaughlin said she wants a responsive police department but that the
city
also should focus on the roots of crime. She plans to propose a program
to
create 1,000 jobs over the next four years for Richmond youths that
will
include educational components.

She also will be pushing for new parks and wider use of solar power,
and
against Indian casino proposals. 

McLaughlin's victory was one of three in the Bay Area that demonstrates
Greens can win nonpartisan races, said Susan King, a state party
spokeswoman.

"Voters are looking more at issues rather than what political party
they
are registered with," she said. 

Robert Smith, a political scientist at San Francisco State University,
said
it was less McLaughlin's party affiliation and more her views,
Anderson's
liabilities and the presence of a third mayoral candidate that decided
the
election.

McLaughlin's campaign literature said little about her party
registration,
he noted. 

"I don't think it represents a victory for Greens as such," said Smith,
who
lives in Richmond. "But it will be interesting to see whether she tries
to
use it to build the party, to articulate explicitly Green positions on
the
council."

Still, King said it was striking that McLaughlin -- a white female in a
political party that some regard as the province of white liberals --
defeated Anderson, an African American who has been mayor since 2001.

Richmond is 35 percent white, 29 percent African American and 15
percent
Asian American. Latinos, whose demographic may overlap with others,
make up
34 percent of the population.

As in many other Bay Area cities, Richmond's African American
population is
dropping and the number of Latinos is rising. The City Council included
six
African Americans three years ago, but there will be only two next
year,
along with three Latinos.

Ken Nelson, president-elect of the Richmond branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said McLaughlin
enjoyed
some support among African American voters but added that his community
must keep closer tabs on city hall now.

"I'm going to hope she is sensitive to the needs of the black
community,"
Nelson said. 

McLaughlin, though, said her victory demonstrates that voters who share
her
views on social justice and environmental responsibility want
representatives "who are willing to stick their necks out for
communities
of all colors."

Herbert A. Sample 
Sacramento Bee 
San Francisco Bay Area Bureau 
510-382-1978 
<mailto:hsample at sacbee.com>hsample at sacbee.com 
"You can't change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present
worrying about the future."   

___________________

JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cow Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com


 
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