“What was going through my head to support North River Farms” This is the innocent sounding title of a post by City Councilman Christopher Rodriquez on the local District 2 area of O’side digital chat room platform Next Door Neighborhood (NDN). The text of which is quite lengthy, and therefore not presented here at this time. It actually seeks to explain away criticisms, justify and otherwise “purify” all his many reasons for rezoning the farmlands into becoming a housing development.
I have included in this letter a small sample of the kind of complaints City Council District 2 representative Christopher Rodriquez has received to answer his clearly biased explanation of “What”………..
There have been over 180 responses to date on local NDN from numerous voters.
The very large majority of which responses are similar as here, some are very harsh indeed with their complaint regarding the blind irresponsible disregard of the majority of voters wishes.
The City Council public meetings of November 06 and November 20 further displayed the degree of resentment toward this City Council decision by a majority of local voters. THE VOTERS ARE OUTRAGED.
In my opinion………There are now 3 Blind Mice dominating this city folks. I have questions regarding the legality of such goings on in O’side; are voting laws being violated, are shills being paid to interfere in our city’s voting process by some entities, if such shills exist, do such shills get paid $20 per hour to misrepresent to the voting public in various locations and venues in this city?
These are serious questions folks; North east O’side district 2 & central O’side District 4 are now ablaze with resentment of the city council decision to go ahead with for profit development of the farmlands!!
Some NDN posted example complaints :
L …….”You were elected to be the voice of your constituents, they voted no, you should have also voted no to NRF”
S……..”My complaint is from an article I read that Solutions for Change bused people out of the district to the meeting holding green signs so it appeared as if our neighbors were the ones in favor of the new development. According to this article these people who don’t reside in Oceanside took many of the seats that people in our district should have had. Because of this many of our neighbors who also wanted their voices heard had to stand in the hallway”
Richard Burton’s answer on NDN :
S……That is a well stated legitimate complaint.
There are many of us who believe this type activity to be an example of unfair political gamesmanship, if not downright dirty politics. I believe those of us who think likewise are in the majority opinion throughout the voting population of O’side.
As many are now aware of from other posts on this NDN site by the president of Solutions for Change (SFC), that organization is a long time (20 years?) associate of the developer for profit company Integral Communities. That company which is so effectively presenting their for profit vision of O’side’s future, with their “North River Farms” plan for the existing Morro Hills farmlands area for example. That vision resulting in the extremely contentious issue in our city of rezoning those farmlands by our City Council, thus to allow housing developments into those farmlands. Integral Communities helps SFC, then SFC helps Integral. It appears as a classic example of the now infamous phrase “quid pro quo”, of which some might say “one hand washes the other”, or the dictionary might say “a favor or advantage granted or expected in return for something”. S…….That is the root of those innocent folks you refer to, those who have been described here on NDN as “clients” of SFC by the very president of that organization no less. Those innocent people having been bused into that O’side City Council meeting was a quid pro quo in my opinion. Those innocent people who were instructed by SFC management to take seats at the meeting, hold up signs in favor of NRF, and not speak otherwise to the issue at hand. Except to state to the effect that they support Integral because Integral supports them. If that is not an example of the very heart of a quid pro quo by definition, then I will eat my hat. City Council members Rodriquez, Feller and Weiss are the majority proponents of this plan in our city government. I think it is time for a change here.
It is my hope the voters of O’side who think these kind of goings on are bad for us all, (majority and minority….all), will then have long memories when next City Council elections are held. IMHO………Genuine change for the betterment of all will be a long time coming to O’side, unless the voters wake up and make smart growth and smart planning the norm here. There are many good and honest people in this city. People who genuinely wish to be leaders for the betterment of all the citizens of this small town type community. BUT THEY WILL NEED THE SUPPORT OF WE THE PEOPLE !! I shall not hold my breath however. For I suspect Darth Vader and his Empire of minions have a long standing well entrenched force here in this little community. Be careful who you listen to folks. Be careful who you vote for my friends. Be inquiring and suspicious of motives always. Good luck everybody………………except Mr. Darth.
-Richard Burton
Oceanside CA
A registered voter and O’side home owner in Oceanside election District 2