[Sosfbay-discuss] Sacramento Bee on Angelides

[tnharter at aol.com]

>
>In 1984, Tsakopoulos hired Angelides as president of his AKT
>Development Corp., which built projects from Folsom to Elk Grove. Over
>time, Tsakopoulos would become a mentor and a key political 
contributor
>to Angelides.
>
>Tsakopoulos said Angelides had no problem transitioning to his new
>career. "Within 90 days he knew every deal that we were working on and
>every problem that we were facing," he said.
>
>Though he continued to partner with Tsakopoulos, Angelides eventually
>formed his own development company, River West.
>
>As a developer, Angelides at times found himself on the other side of
>local activism.
>
>He angered neighbors in Folsom's Lexington Hills, where residents said
>they had to scrounge for a park site after the federal Environmental
>Protection Agency found that the park and school site that Angelides
>had designated was a protected wetland.
>
>Longtime local environmental activist Vicki Lee said some of the
>stumbles and developments have achieved just the opposite of the 
"smart
>growth" that Angelides had embraced.
>
>"He has definitely contributed to the sprawl problem in this 
community,
>using his wiles and his connections to just wedge little projects and
>big projects in places that were premature and simply bad judgment,"
>Lee said. "I live in this town, there's sprawl everywhere and that's
>Phil's legacy from before he was treasurer."
>
>Angelides bristles at the criticism but does not deny it. He said he
>learned and improved with each development and preaches the importance
>of building high-density housing to preserve natural resources.
>
The developers really are a major force in Sacramento Politics. So much 
so
that when I put my name on the ballot running for City Council people 
told me
"You can't get elected without the support of the developers." It was 
true. Lots
of people gave me $25 and $50 donations. Meanwhile, candidates the
developers were interested in were getting lots of thousand dollar 
donations.
That kind of money buys so much air time people will vote for them on 
name
recognition.

I had an epiphany. The media wouldn't support me for Congress because
I hadn't sat on the City Council. I couldn't sit on the City Council 
because the
developers didn't like my message. I got the message the only thing the 
system
liked was whatever made the rich richer. The only way I was going to 
get ahead
was to start singing that tune. Being who I am, I decided I would 
rather exercise
my right to remain silent.

Here and now, Mountain View is in a situation where the developers have
moved on to greener pastures. The big money is in turning farm land 
(earns
a few dollars an acre in perpetuity) into suburbs (sells that land with 
new
buildings for many thousands of dollars an acre once). We are buiding 
the
suburb that now sits where fruit orchards used to into a real 
community, but
it is slow going. I am proud of the progress though.

What troubles me is going to a place like the Eastern Shore of 
Virginia, where
I went last fall for my step sisters wedding.It's an old farming and 
fishing
community where things have been fairly constant for hundreds of years.
Lots of the talk at the reception centered around how the developers 
were
raising property values so fast and so far that nobody with an honest 
job
could pay the property taxes. One by one people were selling out. The 
father
of the groom (a real estate salesman) was obviously doing well in that, 
but
a lot of other people were hurting. I imagine the same kind of thing 
had
been going on here in the 1950s or 1960s.

Tian Harter
tianharter.org