Candidate for
City Council Member; City of El Dorado Hills

A VIEW TO THE FUTURE

"We shape our communities, and then our communities shape us"

C. Howell Ellerman, with apologies to Winston Churchill

"If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else"

Yogi Barra

Communities are like sharks -- they must continue to move forward or they die. From its inception as a master-planned development meant for Aerojet employees to its current status as northern California's finest new city, El Dorado Hills has benefitted from a vision of itself that demanded the highest quality from those who shaped it. World-class developments like Serrano, La Borgata and Town Center do not happen by accident. They are the result of good planning, exacting standards, and they are built by enlightened developers.

As El Dorado Hills matures and those developers pick up their stakes and move elsewhere, local citizens must step forward to take on the role of community-building that has, up to this point, been handled by profit-making companies. Just like when the models for a subdivision are sold off and the landscaping is torn up to put in driveways, there is a natural process by which El Dorado Hills will change as its major new developments mature and the developers move on to develop and market their next places. It's important that there be a smooth transition so that the quality of life here can not only be maintained but enhanced. It's important as they leave, to quote an old Boy Scout saying, that they leave the campsite better than they found it.

As we take on the role of governing ourselves without the help and financial backing of large development firms, there is a danger. If we fail to seize the opportunities of leadership in self-governance, we could become yet one of many vacuous suburbs, a place with no "there" there, or as AO Scott has said,

...."a place of empty, phony social connections, vulgar materialism and social competitiveness, where the children are as heavily medicated as the grown-ups." (New York Times, Aug. 8, 2005)

In the alternative, if we seize this opportunity, with skilled and enlightened leadership, we can become...

"... the most celebrated new American town of the decade--the subject of slide lectures in architectural schools and reports in housing-industry magazines, and the object of visits from design professionals throughout the United States... Build a better town and the world will pay plenty to live in it. But "...It's not enough just to look like a town," ...It has to function like a town"-- which means that it should be able to govern itself flexibly and democratically." (Adapted from "A Good Place to Live" by Phillip Langdon, The Atlantic, May 1988)

I think you can guess which view I adhere to. Because of the great work of some of America's best developers, El Dorado Hills has the opportunity to become the next great American small city. But it will not happen without enlightened leadership. Sadly, when it comes to looking for local democratic leadership, El Dorado Hills residents have, until now, had an indifferent, culturally and geographically remote county government or the local Community Services District. No wonder some fear incorporation. Vince Lombardi said the secret to his success as one of the NFL's best coaches was to be "brilliant in the basics."

One small example: The El Dorado Hills monument signs on both sides of Highway 50 were created by private developers over thirty years ago to give a sense of place and importance to their developments. The sign south of 50 has been without letters for at least a decade, and now the one on the north side has lost its letters too. It would be unthinkable for a developer of a new community to allow those signs to deteriorate. But they have been let go, and now someone else has to do something about it. The city should own those signs, fix them up, and light them as a beacon to the region that we're proud of our past and confident about our future.

There are many, many more example of how El Dorado Hills can become a world-class small city by focusing on the basics of local government. Keep the streets clean and well-maintained. Make sure deadbeats landowners and nuisances are dealt with quickly and decisively. Get the trash picked up. Demand traffic improvements. Get more parks and playfields developed when subdivisions are granted. Maintain and improve the parks we have. Then, and only then, can a city afford to dream about its future, and then make the decisions as to how to make those dreams come true.