Comments on: Albany City Council members reconciled after a dramatic fight over mayorship

By: Albany Today » Blog Archive » Quarrels over Albany’s waterfront planning begin to subside

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:28:32 +0000

[...] vehement opposition from a significant number of Albany residents. Two of the leading opponents, Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile, were elected into the City Council that [...]

By: luke37

luke37 — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:06:00 +0000

Lieber is a true commie, just look at 1248 Solano ave for proof, he supports Code Pink and their eyesore house smack dab in the middle opf the stroll, throw the punk outa office

By: Bill Dann

Bill Dann — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:10:10 +0000

Times have changed. Used to be Albany could get by with a clubby city council with a ceremonial mayor. Didn’t much matter who was mayor because they all shared the same rather conservative philosophy.
Perhaps this “weak mayor” in Albany was in part a reaction to the alleged corruption from the Mayor Red Call era associated with land sales in anticipation of building Gateview on Albany Hill. Who today would believe that the radical rightwing John Birch Society not so long ago had an active presence in locations at the intersection of San Pablo and Solano Avenues? Or that Albany would allow a big for-profit dump to stretch out into the Bay? Or that Albany police would pick up homeless and drop them off in Berkeley/Oakland, or follow minority drivers around town? And, not so long ago a couple of young liberals from the Village were elected to the Albany City Council only to be recalled a few short months later in a nasty recall election?
Fortunately, times are changing. But not soon enough for Albany to miss out on several opportunities. We got screwed on the Bart system. No station. Trains above ground. No sound barriers. Berkeley demanded that the trains go underground first at the Oakland border, and then at the Albany border. Where the trains are above ground, see the sound barriers in Berkeley. (Turns out it was cheaper in the end to build underground than above.) Or, when CalTrans reinforced the freeways in Albany, they kept the plot of land where we lost the Pierce Street exit. In all cases, we lacked a progressive council to see a deal through.
When Robert Lieber was first elected to the city council three years ago, he was an “outsider” and often the lone progressive voice, especially on waterfront development issues. The majority then tried to muzzle Robert by not allowing him even to place matters on the agenda. That city council wanted the mall on the waterfront, and did everything they could to shut up the progressive community.
Two years ago two more progressives joined Robert on the city council: Marge Atkinson and Joanne Wile. The tide has turned. Still we face new challenges. Among them waterfront development (planning process ongoing despite the opposition), Pierce Street greenfield (Mayor Lieber’s been working on it with CalTrans), development of San Pablo Ave at the University Village. (Note that Mayor Lieber was forced to recuse himself on the mortuary development on San Pablo, and in part through his absence that development avoided delivering on many promises.)
The City Council is in good hands. We don’t need unanimous votes on every issue–consider the damage done when the Republicans in WDC had both a rubberstamp Legislature to go along with the Executive (and increasingly the Judiciary).
Go Albany!

By: Robert Lieber reelected as Albany Mayor after bitter debate « Albany Today

Robert Lieber reelected as Albany Mayor after bitter debate « Albany Today — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:52:49 +0000

[...] Farid Javandel, who walked out of a previous council meeting in a fight with Lieber, said that he had a list of things that he didn’t like about Lieber’s job as [...]

By: Linda Fan

Linda Fan — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:04:12 +0000

Thanks for your correction!

By: Marc Joffe

Marc Joffe — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:07:36 +0000

My goodness. I thought that violating longstanding procedures to strengthen and extend executive power happened in places like Caracas, Venezuela and Washington, D.C. I hope this type of behavior isn’t migrating to Albany, California!

By: Tanya Phillips

Tanya Phillips — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:09:45 +0000

Though they have a majority on the council (and remember how very close the election was), I am disappointed that the 3 members, Lieber, Atkinson, and Wile frequently seem to be unwilling to behave in a constructive and cooperative manner with the other 2 members of our council. I am most unhappy that they decided to skip over the lineage of Mr. Javandel, who was/is next-in-line to the mayorship. I hope that they will keep in mind that we all want the best for Albany and its residents, and that they will be thoughtful and civil in their interactions with those who have different opinions.

By: Farid Javandel

Farid Javandel — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:21:58 +0000

I appreciate the fair and complete reporting of this difficult discussion. However, I do want to offer the following correction to the quote that was attributed to me in the fourth paragraph of this article:
“If you want to act on this, I would simply not participate in the vote because I would consider it to be illegal.”
I had a cold last week so my speaking may not have been as clear as usual.