News

Good Day Everyone, Summer may be drawing to a close, but it’s a great time to check in on a number of items of importance to Emeryville community stakeholders with an update. In this edition, we’ll discuss community safety, affordable housing, transportation, and environmental policies and projects updates. Community Safety This past weekend, the city was the site of a fight between a small group of individuals amongst a much larger group o...

Welcome to the 2022 Wrap-Up in Emeryville. Every year I provide this annual update on the five top priorities I identified as a candidate when I campaigned to be a council member. This annual post contains links to articles, reports, and other data that shows the city’s progress on these top priorities. Below is the the 2022 wrap-up report. As a reminder, you can review the wrap-up reports for each prior year here: 2021 Wrap-Up: Progress on...

Hi E’villains! I hope you have had a wonderful summer and are ready for an exciting fall season full of fun! This post is full of exciting updates and information on the progress of important city projects, updates on recent and upcoming events, and details on a very important city ballot measure on the November 8th ballot. EMERYVILLE MEASURE O There is a local ballot measure for Emeryville voters to consider this year. Emeryville Measure O...

Dear Emeryville Neighbor: This Monday, May 9th at 7:00pm, I will be hosting a virtual Town Hall to discuss city services, local needs, resident priorities, and a new revenue opportunity the city is considering to support these important programs and services. The city is continuously engaged in the process of listening to residents, assessing city service levels, and examining opportunities to improve the quality of life for our residents. I...

Happy Spring, Neighbors! I hope that all of you have had a great start to the spring season. The city has been busy at work readying many livability and infrastructure projects for work this year. There are a number of private development projects being proposed as well. Please read below to get updates on a number of items of interest to the community. Resident Advisory Committees One of the best ways for residents to get involved is throu...

Welcome to the 2021 Wrap-Up. The pandemic continued for a second full year, but the emergency actions the council took in 2020 to protect residents and small businesses proved successful lifelines for many community members through the very tough, early days of the pandemic. The city continues to face fiscal challenges as hotel tax receipts remain way below pre-pandemic levels. Challenges remain, but we will work with the community as we alway...

Hello Emeryville Neighbors and Friends. It’s been a while since we’ve had a community update, so I intend to put 2-4 posts out between now and the end of January, capturing important updates on housing, development, transportation and other infrastructure projects around the city and the East Bay, among other things. As always, if you have questions about local happenings, or a subject/topic you would like to suggest for inclusion in a future ...

Welcome to the 2020 Wrap-Up. 2020 was an unusual year and one that I’m sure many of us would rather soon forget. Although we continue to struggle through a global pandemic wrought with ongoing public health and economic challenges, it’s more important than ever for public officials and agencies to remain transparent, accessible, and accountable to their communities. Since being first elected in 2016, I have published this annual wrap-up as m...

Dear Neighbor, Over the past two months, a lot has changed about daily life. This post is dedicated to providing you with important information about a number of actions the city and county have taken to provide assistance to our residents. I want to begin by thanking you, the Emeryville community. Your compliance with Alameda County Health Officer Order 20-10 has been evidenced by the fact that Emeryville continues to have the lowest number o...

2019 Emeryville City Council Happy New Year! This post is my third annual edition of reporting on the progress the city made on the issues I identified as priorities when I was a candidate. If you'd like to check out the posts from the past two years, you can view them here: 2018 Wrap-Up: Priorities on Progress 2017 Wrap-Up: Priorities on Progress As we kick off 2020, here's a look back at what the city did in 2019. The five priorities I iden...

Emeryville's strength has always been its size: we are small but mighty, tiny but nimble, overlooked and underestimated - we are a city that knows how to punch above our weight. Together, we have the ability to make a difference in our community. Climate change is a threat to our community. As Climate Action Week kicks off in the Bay Area this Friday with a Bay Area Youth-Led Climate Strike demanding we protect the planet for their future, I h...

Hello Friends-- It's August. Block Party season. The East Bay's tiniest town is looking to host one of the biggest block parties of the summer, right here in Emeryville - and you are invited! In Emeryville, we don't throw your ordinary block party. We're known for being completely rotten, after all. Mayor Medina is throwing one helluva rotten party this Saturday, August 24th on Park Avenue from 11:30 - 4:30. But it's not your average block par...

This past week saw record heat across the Bay Area and Northern California. Exposure to extreme heat is very dangerous to people, especially seniors, children and people without access to shelter. Similarly, heat can be deadly for animals. The air temperature inside a car rises quickly compared to outside ambient air temperature on a hot day. The belief that a 5-10 minute stop inside a local grocery store or bank is harmless to pets and childr...

What: Emeryville DOUBLE Pride Flag Raising Where: Emeryville City Hall, 1333 Park Avenue, Emeryville, CA 94608 When: Saturday, June 8, 2019, from Noon to 1:30pm Why: Recent events revealed that hate and ignorance toward the LGBTQ community still exist here in the Bay Area. In an effort to display solidarity with the LGBTQ community and show that Emeryville is a place where all are welcome, the Emeryville City Council voted unanimously on Tuesd...

Greetings and Happy Spring to everyone, I hope this finds you well. This edition of my blog is dedicated to some major updates on a variety of transportation issues here in Emeryville, including a very important community meeting taking place this week. In this post I will cover: San Pablo Corridor Community Meeting: Discussion of various redesign proposals Caltrans Proposed MacArthur Maze Redesign Update South Bayfront Bridge Project Update ...

The 2018 Emeryville City Council Happy New Year! This past year I had the distinct privilege of serving as our city's mayor. I hosted more than 50 community meetings and town halls, met more than 200 residents for breakfast or lunch, and attended close to 50 community events. I am grateful to everyone for leaning in this past year to bring our community closer together. Thank you to everyone for supporting and participating in our civic life!...

Election Day is November 6, 2018. This post will provide you with some information about voting and also about the candidates, in their own words. Before the Q&A, here is some important information: The deadline to register to vote is TODAY, October 22nd! You can register to vote by visiting the Alameda County Registry of Voters or California Secretary of State websites. Do you know where your polling location is? There are four polling c...

I hope this note finds you, your friends and family enjoying everything the Bay Area has to offer at this time of year. Its been a few months since my last blog post. This post will cover the following items: State of the City Address Status Updates for some important projects and policies in Emeryville Upcoming Events Headlines for the Next Two Posts The day after this post is published, there will be a new post that provides a snapshot abo...

In this edition of my community blog, I am providing updates (and good news!) on several items we are working on here at the city. RAIL SAFETY/QUIET ZONES Last year the state legislature passed a bill called SB 1, which increased the gas tax effective January 1, 2018. Those new revenues go to fixing/improving a number of major transportation infrastructure pieces around the state, including roads, public transit systems, goods movement/rail, a...

On December 19, 2017, the city council gave staff unanimous direction to pursue and prioritize funding that could bring rail safety improvements to the street-grade crossings at 65th/66th/67th Streets, with the added benefit of creating train horn quiet zones. Currently, federal rail safety law requires that train conductors blow train horns at all crossings that do not meet federal safety requirements. There are a number of requirements in te...

Happy New Year! I hope each of you had a safe, happy and healthy holiday with loved ones. When I began this blog a couple months after taking office, I had three goals in mind: (1) increase resident access to factually accurate and objective information; (2) improve transparency and accountability by inviting community members to participate in upcoming meetings while also reporting back the outcomes; and (3) enhance community engagement by br...

This edition of my community blog begins with an update on the status of cannabis dispensaries in Emeryville. On November 21st the council voted to award operator permits to two of the seven applicants who applied to operate a cannabis dispensary business here in Emeryville. As a reminder, voters approved Proposition 64 in November 2016, legalizing recreational cannabis use and permitting local governments to regulate cannabis sales. The voter...

This edition of my Emeryville community blog is designed to provide some high-level updates around issues important to the Emeryville community. As always, please feel free to contact me on this blog's contact page if you have a topic you would like to see appear as a feature story in a future post. COMMUNITY MEETINGS Over this past year I've had the privilege of meeting with residents (including many of you) to learn about the issues of great...

Next Tuesday, October 3rd at 6:45pm, the Emeryville City Council will hold a study session to review a draft proposal to update the city's Smoking Pollution Control Ordinance. All residents are welcome to attend and encouraged to participate and provide feedback. During this past year, the city's Housing Committee reviewed the results of a citywide survey that sampled smoking prevalence, secondhand smoke impacts and preferences on regulation f...

Since making landfall August 25th, communities across Texas and Louisiana have been grappling with the catastrophic impacts of Hurricane Harvey. They have been assisted by people from across the country who have come to the aid of the millions of residents affected by this disaster. While the primary focus of the volunteer workers helping organize the relief operation is and will remain the human and emotional cost, the work that will be requi...

Tomorrow, beginning at 6:00pm, the City Council will hold a special study session on the city budget. This will be the first of several agenda items on the topic between now and adoption of the budget later this summer. For those who take special interest in the governance and operation of the city, I encourage you to participate in your city's budget-making process. The city is facing some new challenges and will need to make some difficult d...

Welcome to this edition of my community blog. The primary topic for this post is auto burglaries. This blog edition appears longer due to the use of graphics that illustrate data on auto burglaries in Emeryville. After the main piece on auto burglaries I have provided updates on last week's Small Business Forum and California Arts Council delegation visit. All of the small business resources provided to forum attendees are included in this pos...

In December 2016, Reuters published a report on lead poisoning rates nationwide. This report detailed how as many as 3,000 U.S. communities were being adversely impacted by lead, many at rates much higher than the now-infamous situation in Flint, MI. This study found high blood lead levels (BLLs) in children here in Alameda County. Unlike Flint, the cause for higher BLL results in Alameda County is generally due to lead-based paint and soil co...

This post covers recent and upcoming small business initiatives, steps the city is taking to win a special Cultural Arts District designation from the state, and topics for some upcoming posts. Please keep your suggestions and questions coming!   SMALL BUSINESS FORUM May is Small Business month. Small businesses do more than just provide unique shopping or dining experiences for our community: they improve community livability and sustain...

When we discuss the various challenges Bay Area renters have faced in recent years due to the explosion of housing costs, one question that often comes up is: why don't we have rent control? Local policymakers all across the Bay Area are debating this and other questions as they work to create protections for tenants who face displacement and instability in the current rental housing market. Rent control measures in neighboring communities hav...

Welcome to the second installment of my new blog aimed at providing the Emeryville community with information about the work of your local government. In creating this second edition, I decided to provide information on a broader array of topics. I have also introduced my "Coming Soon!" section to let you know which items I am hoping to bring to future blog posts. As always, your suggestions, comments and questions are welcome as we work toget...

Thank you for taking time to visit my blog page. The purpose of this post is to provide the community with information related to the proposed Halleck-Beach dog park. I am grateful to everyone who reached out to Council to share their views with us. As a fellow dog owner who lives in the Park Avenue District, I appreciate your interest and engagement around this issue. The feedback and sincere concern many of you have shown for bringing a dog ...