My name is Joe Shaw and I'm running for City Council in Huntington Beach, California.
Today some of my employees and friends donated their time and their cookies to throw a bake sale fundraiser for me, in front of my store in Downtown Huntington Beach.
The first person that bought some cookies donated $20 and said she'd read about my candidacy here on Daily kos. So I thought I'd give you a campaign update.
We are running a grassroots campaign and we have Marcy Winograd's campaign manager on board, Laura Reichelt, who also was the field director for a successful grassroots campaign for Los Angeles City Councilman Bill Rosendahl.
Many people are sceptical that we can knock off the incumbents, but I have confidence that the voters in Huntington Beach are just the same as voters across the country: they want change.
The same thing that is happening at the national level is happening here in Huntington Beach: many of our city councilmembers are in thrall to the developers, and sponsor giveaways to the people who least need it, while our infrastructure crumbles.
Huntington Beach residents want change. City Hall lurches from deal to deal without ever looking at the real needs of our or our residents or our businesses. We don't do good long term planning.
We've given bundles of affordable housing money to hotel developers instead of creating badly needed senior housing. And we've spent a fortune on a fleet of helicopters that residents find just as useless as they are annoying.
It's time for a change.
Now City Hall is simultaneously concocting two more bad deals for the people of Huntington Beach. One "shoot before you think" deal would close downtown streets with virtually no planning. The second deal would divert $25 million dollars of Park in Lieu fees from their proper purpose: to buy land to create and improve park facilities.
Instead, termed-out politicians and their cronies want to use this money to eliminate park land. There are dozens of long overdue improvements to our parks that don't have funding. Why take all of our money and spend it on one grandiose project? Let's find a better way to help our seniors.
We're ready for change.
I'm vocal about the city's plans for Main Street because I live downtown and I own businesses downtown. But the issues in my backyard are the same issues in every neighborhood. Poor long-term planning, an unresponsive bureaucracy, and a waste of tax dollars are hurting every neighborhood.
If you'd like to help us make changes at the grassroots level, please consider supporting my campaign.
Visit my website and see what this campaign is all about.