Why Elect TOM SOULES For City Council?

When we came to Livermore in 2002, I was attracted to the small-town feel of the city, the lovely diagonal parking, and the wisteria trellises in front of the small businesses downtown, as well as the vineyards and the hills. Then came a canyon of townhouses along First Street, Groth Brothers Auto was replaced by the large Legacy Apartments, and a huge garage is being constructed at L Street behind the First Street shops, etc. All this occurred in the name of progress, and downtown was rapidly becoming a dense concrete city. In fact, there is only one vacant lot left in downtown, a large parking lot behind the new garage where the old Lucky store existed, and it is owned by the city. I wrote many letters to the editor suggesting that this space be turned into a park. As a result, several people asked me to run for Council. I said no, repeatedly. Why at this time in my life should I want to take on the headache of being on Council?

But then, two things happened:

First, after we collected signatures for a referendum to move Eden Housing and free this last piece of land for a better downtown, the signatures were not processed due to a deliberately manufactured technicality. The City erroneously claimed that the planned housing could not be subject to a referendum because it was an administrative, not legislative, act. The Court sided with the people, but the City has still not put it on the ballot. Clearly, the city does not want it on the ballot and is using the kind of legalese I am quite familiar with to keep it off the ballot. Still, I chose not to run.

Then Barbara and I visited her cousin in Cary, NC. The first thing she did was drive us to downtown Cary. They showed off their beautiful park right in the center of town. Check it out for yourself. The city had to buy the houses and then raze them to build the park. Visitors were like us – families, people walking their dogs or letting them play in the dog park. The park also included art installations, a playground, pond and benches for relaxation.

I changed my mind about running. Why couldn’t Livermore have something like this, even on a smaller scale? In my mind, it would serve to preserve a little bit of the small-town atmosphere, allowing folks a bit of respite. It would also be a catalyst for tourists to visit the wineries and generally make Livermore a more desirable place to live.