I am not big on political philosophy. Michelle (my wife) and I coined a phrase early in our relationship: “There is no substitute for reality.” All philosophies break down upon an encounter with reality. This is why we are so passionate about science. Humanity had to invent science in order to progress because we are so fallible at discerning fact from myth.

To the extent I have a political philosophy, it is informed by the scientific method. First comes a policy idea, which is akin to a hypothesis. These variously originate from a conversation or my imagination. I particularly enjoy the former, especially when nobody in the conversation can say afterward who was responsible for the idea, but rather it emerged from the interaction of everyone.

Next comes testing the policy idea against reality. This involves researching the literature and, often, data collection and analysis. If these support the policy idea, it advances to the next stage, which is developing it in sufficient detail for implementation and then getting it implemented.

In choosing issues, I am careful to prioritize. More can be achieved by selecting a few ideas that have the combination of the greatest probability of implementation and result in the greatest improvement in the quality of life than by working on a large number of policy advances at once, which can seem counterintuitive.

My work changing sidewalk maintenance provides an example of this approach. Taking my kids back and forth to Cornell School starting in 2003, I noticed the sidewalk was in terrible condition at some locations and remained that way for all the years my kids attended. From this, I hypothesized sidewalk conditions in Albany were poor.

To test this, in 2010 I organized and led a group of volunteers to conduct a census of the worst sidewalk condition on each of Albany’s 600 blocks. A hundred volunteer hours later, the data was collected and analyzed. It validated the hypothesis. One could not travel more than two blocks on average without encountering some substantial obstacle, be it severely damaged sidewalk, overgrown vegetation, or a car parked on the sidewalk by someone. If our roads were in such bad condition, motorists would be in an uproar. However, sidewalk travelers are a calm bunch and so largely just sighed and put up with it.

With these results, I moved to advocating for a better approach to sidewalk maintenance. I held that sidewalks should be treated the same as roads, maintained by the city and the city liable rather than putting all this on the adjacent private property owner. Can you imagine if our roads were maintained by the adjacent private property owner? It would be a disaster.

Because Albany had, and has, a property tax to fund road repair I decided equity required a property tax for sidewalk repair. I worked from 2010 to 2016 making the case by commenting at numerous meetings. The Council eventually saw the light and funded and managed a pilot repair project using a one-time allotment of its general capital funds in 2016. It went well. So well the staff supported putting a property tax measure on the ballot to fund sidewalk repair. The Council did so in 2016.

I then ran the campaign for the measure with Ken McCroskey. The measure (P1) won with almost 80% support and the most votes for any measure in Albany’s history. Multiple rounds of sidewalk repair using the resulting revenue have occurred since. Another round is starting now. When this next round is complete approximately 200 locations will have been repaired in four years. One repair for every four blocks.

I took the same approach to securing fair elections and advancing climate protection while making taxes more fair. Work on each for a decade and more, which included co-founding a community group to press for one of them, has resulted in Albany Measures BB and DD this election.

Based on the above approach, improving the seismic safety of our City by requiring mandatory seismic retrofit of multifamily soft story buildings is my next priority. The need for this has already been proven numerous times over. For instance, the Association of Bay Area Governments came out with a study in spring 2018 that projected one out of four homes in Albany will be destroyed in a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on the Hayward Fault, a bit more than half of these by the shaking and the rest by the subsequent fires.

The building damage will kill tens of people, severely injure hundreds, endanger Albany’s firefighters and police, cause the quality of life of those not directly impacted to plummet, eliminate a massive quantity of housing, and result in throwing away much of our City in an unsustainable manner. Other cities have solved this problem by adopting a mandatory seismic retrofit requirement. Albany can get this done too if it has sufficient leadership. I ask you to put me on the Council so I can get this and more done faster. Thank you for considering.

I grew up in Albany, attending Albany schools until i graduated Albany High in 2014. After studying Philosophy, Politics, & Economics at the University of Warwick I returned to my hometown with the goal of getting involved in my community. Since then i have: 

• Worked as an Affordable Housing Analyst with the Alameda County Department of Housing and Community Developmet. In this role I have had the chance to work on the front of the Housing Crisis funding affordable housing developments (including the one currently under development in Albany), analysing and suggesting county piositons on state and federal policy, and helping to craft protections like the County COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium
• Been appointed to the Albany Economic Development Commitee, where i currently serve as Vice-Chair. This committee considers efforts that effect the economic health of Albany, most recently focusing our efforts on COVID-19 response. 
• Become a lead organizer for Voter Choice Albany, a group of Albany residents committed to making our city's election system more just via the implementation of ranked choice voting. 
• Become invovled with the Diverse Housing Working Group, a community organisation devoted to providing homeless services and advocating for affordable housing development. 
• Become the Secretary of the Albany Democratic Club 
• Worked with Albany Inside Out founders to ensure businesses have the support they need to operate during COVID-19 

Currently, in addition to continuing this work and campaiging, I am a Master's student at the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy. 

Born and raised in the Bay Area, I moved to Albany with my wife Karen and our children Portia and Calder in 2003. While my children were young, I volunteered for school organizations, coached Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League, lead a Scout troop, and baked lots of cookies and cakes for sales and events. My kids graduated from AHS (2017, 2019) and are attending college in Santa Fe, NM and Salem, OR.

I joined the Board of the Albany Chamber of Commerce, the first Green-Certified Chamber in California in 2006. I should share that the Albany Chamber of Commerce reflects the values of our community. Our Chamber has no connection to the National Chamber or any other Chamber of Commerce association. Through the Chamber I grew familiar with Albany’s government, working with the incredible Jewel Okawachi and many others, and have been involved in many projects and working groups.

My education is in Philosophy, with a B.A. from UC Berkeley, and an M.A. from Northwestern University. At Northwestern I was able to study with the prominent feminist philosopher Nancy Frasier. In those studies of systemic misogyny I was first exposed to many of the concepts now at the core of the issue of systemic racism. My primary focus was American Pragmatism — which emphasizes the centrality of evidence and experience. This approach informs virtually all of my decisions.

I was appointed to the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Commission (PROSC) in 2013. During my time on the Commission I have served as chair for two years and have become familiar with how the city works. On the PROSC I helped rewrite policies related to street trees, helped plan the facilities on the greenway under the BART tracks, and, in my most intense involvement, helped establish Albany’s first official dog park balancing park user needs with neighbor concerns after intensive outreach.

I have worked in small businesses nearly all of my career. I put myself through college working at and managing restaurants. I did electrical assembly for a startup technology company for a year before graduate school, and then after graduate school I worked for a few years for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago. That is where I got my start in web design and development. My role at the EPA tapered off and that is when my wife and I decided to begin our web marketing business in 1997.

Since then I have worked at our small business with clients who are mostly other small businesses. We have built our client base primarily through networking with still other small businesses. My activity with the Albany Chamber was a natural outgrowth of this commitment and has given me a rich knowledge of our local business community. I have also been extensively involved with the Solano Avenue Association, and am a founding member of the Blue Glove Crew, who you may have seen picking up trash on Solano and San Pablo Avenues every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday since 2012. Albany has not had a member of City Council with such an extensive connection to our business community since 2008.

I consider myself a Pragmatic Progressive. That means I support the progressive agenda while acknowledging that sometimes change must be incremental, and that buy-in from all parties is more important than adherance to ideology, dogma, or preconceptions. My history from my education, to building my business, to my volunteer work and civic engagement is all characterized by my talent to welcome disparate opinions, listen to all sides of the argument, and work through the issues with all parties feeling like valued, important parts of the process. It is not always possible to come to a conclusion that everyone likes, but everyone at least feels that they were heard.