 Hello everyone, welcome to East Bay for everyone's ADA special election forum. We are very lucky to have all of the, well, most of the candidates represented, all of the ones that we want to hear from and we're just very excited to have you balance already out. So we wanted to get this to you as soon as we could. So really quickly, East Bay for everyone, if you're not familiar, is a network of people fighting for the future of housing, transit, tenants' rights and long-term planning in the East Bay. We say yes to more neighbors, more housing, more enter protections, better public transit and better infrastructure in our backyards. So today we are joined by a number of candidates going for the special election seat of former Assembly Member Rob Bonta, who is a friend of East Bay for everyone, now Attorney General. So we're joined by San Leandro School Board Member James Aguilar, San Leandro Vice Mayor Victor Aguilar, Community Organizer Nelsi Batista, who is a writing candidate if you're not familiar, Alameda School Board President Mia Bonta is represented by Rowena Brown today, Social Justice Lawyer Jhanani Ramachandran, I hope I said the last name right, and Alameda Vice Mayor Malia Vela. So this is a one hour moderated forum and for all of you watching, the candidates will be going in random order, which has been randomly pre-selected. We will be using mute buttons, so when the candidates run out of time they will be muted. We're hoping that I've been to a lot of debates, so we're hoping you'll stick to it. And then we will have five long form questions, two rapid fire questions, one audience submitted question, and then we will take one or two questions from the YouTube live stream. So drop your questions in the comments. All right. So today, unfortunately, I will be switching to their first and last names now. Unfortunately, Mia Bonta wasn't able to join us, but we do have Rowena Brown, who will be doing an introduction for Mia before we switch to the long form questions. So Rowena, please. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Rowena Brown, Campaign Manager for Assembly District 18 Candidate and Alameda School Board President Mia Bonta. Mia is running for State Assembly to give a voice to East Bay children and working families who have been left behind by the pandemic. Mia will fight for social, racial, environmental and economic justice and seek structural change for communities that have been denied access to resources and the opportunity to thrive. After moving to the East Bay more than 20 years ago, Mia has worked for and led several nonprofit organizations focused on improving outcomes for low income children. Mia will prioritize educational equity and ensure that nearly 50 percent of the state's budget goes towards education to ensure that our schools are recognized as essential hubs of support for children. Additionally, addressing homelessness is among her top priorities as someone who had to move 13 times in 16 years. Mia will prioritize affordable housing construction while protecting existing tenants from displacement and gentrification by protecting them from evictions and rent gouging. Mia has seen firsthand how the systems in our state from education and criminal justice systems to health care and housing often fail to provide for all Californians. Mia is ready to go to Sacramento to fight for all East Bay communities and ensure Californians of all backgrounds get a fair shot. Join us in building a better East Bay. You can learn more about it. So sorry. I forgot to start the timer. You're like 10 seconds over. So sorry about it. We'll go next. Well, thank you so much, Rowena. That was great. And I think Mia had a special occasion today. Center, congratulations. Thank you very much. Well, thank you. OK. And now we'll be switching to the candidates. And so we're doing it a little bit differently than other places. This isn't exactly an opening statement, but you can use it that way if you like. So this will be 90 seconds. You've just heard about East Bay for everyone's principles and our goals. So you can use this 90 seconds to introduce yourself. And then we'd really like to hear. If you're in Sacramento, what legislation you would carry and what would be your legislative baby? So to start, James. There we go. Can you hear me? My mic was having trouble. Sorry about that. OK. Great. Hello, everyone. My name is James Aguilar. I'm running for the California State Assembly because I'm empowered by my experiences. You know, I was raised in Oakland just a walk away to Glenview Elementary School, a bus ride away to Edinburgh Middle School. So I'm a product of Oakland public schools. And really, I'm also empowered by my parents being union organizers. I learned a hell of a lot from them growing up and what it means to be in a union family. First and foremost, though, we lived under a predatory landlord who didn't care that my mom was experiencing health issues, did not care that we were low income, and that we were struggling to make it. So we said we're out of here. And we landed in San Leandro, where I rooted myself in a career in education. I first became a student board member where I learned that we're not only the fifth largest economy in the world, but we're 41st in the nation for per pupil spending. And we spend $70,000 per prisoner. It didn't make sense as a student. It doesn't make sense as an adult even now. So I think my baby in the assembly would be full and fair funding for California public K-12 schools because we have to. Education is the foundation to addressing the issues that we're talking about. I'm empowered by my mom's health experience being knocked around the health care system. I really want to support AB 1400 and get out there, advocate for it. I want to support tenant protections because of my experience living under a predatory landlord and so much more. So I hope you'll join me. Thank you so much. Great to hear about you. I think we're having a problem with the timer, but I'm pretty sure you kept under a minute and a half. So thank you so much. So next, Victor, let's hear about your baby as we see Malia has her cute one over there. So Victor, please. Can you hear me? So I'm having problems trying to unmute and mute myself. So am I okay? Okay. Wonderful. Hi, everyone. My name is Victor Aguilar. I am vice mayor, proud son of immigrants from Mexico and the first openly gay person elected to the San Leandro City Council. I was also the first openly gay elected to the school board in San Leandro in 2016. I have dedicated my life to serving those most in need in my community. Today I'm running for the California State Assembly to fight for healthcare, housing and justice for all Californians. We need universal single-payer healthcare with expanded mental health services and funding to keep our public hospitals open. We need safe and affordable housing for all. This includes strong statewide protections for renters and permanent housing for persons experiencing homelessness. And we need justice for all. This includes racial justice. We must confront and root out racism and law enforcement, the criminal justice system and throughout society. Economic justice, we must provide free universal preschool and other programs that enable parents to work and build pathways out of poverty and climate and environmental justice. Climate change threatens all of us but it's most damaging to communities of color and the economically disadvantaged. I would be a passionate and fearless champion for bold change such as reinvesting in education, reimagining public safety and fighting for higher wages. Changes that will make real positive impacts for the people of Oakland, Alameda, San Leandro and our beautiful state of California. I would be honored to have your support and serve you in Sacramento. Thank you so much for this opportunity East Bay for everyone to be here and happy Pride Month. Oh yes, happy Pride Month. This is a good panel for that. So, just a reminder, we're having you introduce yourselves and telling us about your legislative baby. So, Nelsie. Just a reminder, we're having you introduce yourself and telling us about your legislative baby. So, Nelsie. Is it, it did, it did, okay. Hi, my name is Nelsie Batista. I'm a political and economic organizer, a proud single mom, daughter of African refugee and Puerto Rican mother born in the U.S. and have lived, continued to live a month and fight for poor and working class families. I'm running to remind us all that the most reformative work has been in fact worked on and continues to be accomplished by the most marginalized communities, especially of color. I want to bust through all of the myths and the stigmatization of our most vulnerable community members, especially those of the black, brown and indigenous communities that are plagued with the stigmas of being under serving of equity or the cause of our own problems. And that's just not true. So in fact, it's the most vulnerable communities, poor, working class and even middle class that have worked together to bring human rights, childcare, labor rights, women's rights, immigrant rights and building the economy and bringing all of the most vulnerable people to the table to conquer all of our struggles. These are the works and stories that I'm uplifting. I'm running to show that even just the fraction of the work listed on my website was in fact done with little to no dollars and that the education reform, health and human services reform, criminal justice reform, environmental reform and overall budgetary reform were in fact feasible with little to no cost on the taxpayer because they are reformative. And we have paved the way for a foundational rubric that can in fact be reformed. So please consider me as your writing candidate for the California State Assembly District 18 race. I will put the link to my website. The meat button has been smashed. Okay, well, thank you so much. So we were serious about smashing the meat button but we're very excited to have you. All right, so Janani please. Hi, am I unmuted? All right, great. Hi everyone. My name is Janani Ramachandran. I'm a social justice attorney, a community activist, a former Oakland public ethics commissioner and a tenant. If elected, I would just be one out of three tenants out of 120 lawmakers. And I'm excited to speak with all of you today because one of the main reasons I'm driven to run for this seat is not just saying, having a California super majority that says housing is a human right, but taking action to enact policies to actually make that a human right. Which is why I'm fighting for a couple of specific policies that all constitute my baby. A true eviction moratorium, which to note ends one day after this special election. I'm fighting to repeal Costa Hawkins and reform the ALICE Act, which I was a part of a coalition to get introduced in this most recent legislative cycle and want to get back on the table and get passed for good. And I'm fighting to build more housing to get closer to arena goals, particularly for our low income and very low income categories, which is so necessary in 1818 and doing so getting there would include repealing article 34 and getting back redevelopment dollars directed to local jurisdictions. I'm fighting to end racist redlining zoning policies and work towards the overall dream of four floors and corner stores. Next use, building near transportation. I can't see the timer, but... Okay. You were good. You couldn't see the timer. So we were having some issues. We might get a second screen with another timer because the timer's frozen for me as well. Okay. So we're gonna ask, while we get someone to figure out a timer, we're gonna ask Malia to tell us about, you tell us about your physical baby and your legislative baby. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Vice Mayor Malia Vella. I am also a worker's rights attorney with the Teamsters and a professor at Mills College in Oakland and the mom of two young kids. I have a two year old and a three month old. The reason that I got involved and ran for office was actually because I was seeing so many of my friends and family and so many members of our BIPOC communities getting forced out and priced out. And so I'm gonna continue to fight for these things. I'm gonna continue to fight for meaningful tenant protections. The city of Alameda passed meaningful rent control just cause eviction. We need these things statewide. We also need to make sure that we are keeping and preventing more displacements, which is why our moratorium is actually more extensive than the state of California. I'll be continuing to work on that. And I'd love to see a wealth tax and more corporate accountabilities that we can actually fund all of our affordable housing needs and remove exclusionary zoning, which is something that I fought very hard for here in the city of Alameda and we need to continue to fight for statewide. So those would be my legislative babies that I would really like to see move forward. Thank you so much. Great, all right. So now we're gonna get to the questions that were ready and chomping at the bit to ask you. So as you all know, East Bay for everyone started because of the housing shortage and California has a housing shortfall of 3.5 million homes. Construction costs for all those would come to nearly $2 trillion. So East Bay for everyone is a huge supporter of 100% affordable housing. We send letters. We're a huge supporter of rental protections. But what policies would you guys champion, you people champion, that can help get us enough new homes built at the scale necessary? So now we're randomizing. Nelsie, we're gonna begin with you. Hi, yeah. So this is a very dear topic to me as much as it is to all people, most people in everyone in California. So basically in the struggle for affordable housing, I've been on every single affordable housing campaign and I will tell you time and time again, one of the main issues that keeps coming up is that we do want to encourage the local city government as well as the counties to consider a little bit more ethical or changing the developers that they work with. So that we're actually assisting our trades in meeting accurate PLA agreements. We also want to reform zoning and expand zoning rights for cooperatives. I believe cooperatives and SROs along with residential treatment are really crucial to be included in mixed housing. And that's also going to be encouraging more federal HUD funding to come down as we do have not just residential room here for persons who are returning citizens or mentally ill or homeless or poor families, but we also want to encourage the government to take seriously veterans, right? And of course the veterans that are gonna be returning home from Afghanistan. And so this is our opportunity to expand on federal HUD dollars and expand on SROs and expand on cooperatives as well. So those are gonna be a lot of the initiatives that I've chaired. Thank you. Yeah. All right, next, Janani. Like I've mentioned in my opening speech, I want to work towards a world where we have mixed use, mixed income housing, high density housing, near transportation, but doing so with a tenant's rights lens, making sure that we're not destroying or demolishing any housing that's already occupied by long-term rent control tenants tenants in the process of doing so. Part of the solution is up zoning and making sure that we root out the vestiges of racist redlining policies to facilitate being able to build multi-family units specifically in places that have been single-family zoned for a long time. I believe 80% of zones in the entire Bay Area zone for residential use are still zones exclusively for single-family homes and we need to change that. I also recognize that the problem with building housing is not always about legislation itself, it's also about enforcement. And we need to root out corruption and bureaucracy in some of our local jurisdictions. When serving on the City of Oakland Public Ethics Commission, I learned how the extremely high costs of building and the whole permitting process often takes longer because of the corruption both that is, that goes on within our city. I also believe to build more affordable housing we need to implement social housing programs and restore the ability for local governments to use redevelopment authorities to fund these programs and partner with minority-owned small real estate developers as well. Thank you so much. Great. I'm also realizing that we are so blessed to have such a great field of candidates and I'm realizing I have to stop nodding my head. So now I'm gonna be stoned. Not gonna nod for you anymore. All right. Unfortunately, you're the first one I'm not gonna nod for. Malia, please. Thank you. A lot of this is gonna be a combination of actually using our state funds and our state surplus plus more corporate accountability as well as developer accountability. And while on City Council, I made sure that we had projects that had 25% inclusionary housing, made sure that we built workforce housing by partnering efficiently with our school district and utilizing our public lands for public good. But in addition to this, I think the corporate tax rate increases that have been proposed by AP71 are something that really need to get passed so that we can actually fund housing, transitional housing and homeless services. We need to make sure that we're passing SB5 and we can get more state affordable housing bonds. I also support the creating permanent affordable housing and I would have liked to have seen more support for AB 387 assembly member Alex Lee's bill, assembly member Lee has endorsed my campaign and I've been working very hard on these housing issues locally. So additionally, we need to up zone, we need to get rid of exclusionary zoning AB 1322. We shouldn't have to do this district by district municipality by municipality. It's very expensive and confusing. We need to stop these local exclusionary zoning provisions. And then finally, you know, SB9 and SB10 making sure that we're allowing for by right housing opportunities as well. Thank you so much. All right, James. Yeah, so I think especially with the Bay Area, you know, in regards to building, we've got nowhere else to go. We've got no more land to expand out to. So we've really got to think upward in what we can do to support high density, mixed use and many different forms of transit oriented housing. And that's going to take many different policy initiatives in Sacramento. That's going to take supporting up zoning. That's going to take eliminating exclusionary zoning and really a trend on redlining in the state of California that still exists despite people saying it's illegal but it happens and it needs to stop. I think too that we need to get the dollars in Sacramento, we need to put our money where our mouth is when it comes to housing because it's a crisis. You're looking at the bedroom of a one bedroom apartment that once had five people in it. You know, my brother, my niece, my mom, dad, myself and that's the same story for a lot of people in the Bay Area and parts of California. It's got to stop. I also think in regards to tenants, tenants need to be included in the conversation completely because as a tenant, I feel left out of the conversation quite often when it comes to policy change. I think that was evident with SP50, not enough tenant inclusion in the bill but regardless, fighting for ending in Costa Hawkins, ending the Ellis Act because tenant protections are crucial and making sure that we also in the equation uplift community-based services to help people get into affordable housing and have wraparound services. Thank you and Victor. Victor, you're muted. So if someone has... Unmute yourself. If someone can unmute... It'll be at the bottom of your screen. The little microphone. Yeah, there you are. Okay. Wonderful. Sorry, thank you for asking this question. I think too many of our East Bay neighbors have been forced out of their homes. We must strengthen rental protections and build more affordable transit-oriented housing and provide robust services to our homeless neighbors. We need to remove barriers to home ownership and curb displacement. I think Governor Newsom has this $12 billion policy and we need to make sure that we're advocating at the state level to address that issue. We have a moratorium on eviction that is ending at the end of this month. We need to cancel the rent here in San Meander. We push for working with Centro Liganda de Arrasa to help pay for our constituents to make sure that their rent's being paid. That's something that I've been a champion for moratorium on eviction here in San Meandro. I've worked to pass tenant protections on our council. I have some success in some areas and still working on others. I would like to see more protection, including just cost for eviction protections and a rent increase cap below the area CAPI. I see myself as a champion of tenants' rights. I support stronger statewide protections. We need to limit inclusionary zoning projects here in San Meander. What I've advocated for is inclusionary housing. And we've met our rena numbers and surpassed affordable housing and building that here in our jurisdiction. But what I see with this market rate housing, it's modern day redlining. There are folks who would like to live in a nice building and I think that there needs to be inclusionary housing so that we can all benefit from the locations of being in good school districts and what have you. So thank you so much. Thank you. So I think really hard not to nod with people. I'm learning to control myself but this is East Bay for everyone and we do really care about new housing but we do care about renters. So I'm a renter. So our next question is you all support repealing cost to Hawkins and the Ellis Act adding tenant protections as goals and adding them as goals. So with the eviction crisis upcoming and meeting renter protections into the future. So not just after COVID but just in general. What would you do? What do you see as the path to the goal of protecting renters like me and what work would you do in the legislature? So we're gonna start with Janani this time. Am I muted? Sorry. One of the reasons I chose to get into this race was working with individuals who were being evicted during the pandemic because our statewide eviction moratorium did not protect them. Our state eviction moratorium ends the very day after the special election and we need to immediately extend and expand this moratorium. I advocated for expanding AB 15 and it was part of a coalition that tried to do that unfortunately because of politics and none of those efforts were able to pull through in SB 91. But we're about to face an eviction tsunami. There are about 40% of renters who are behind on rent. We're not able to take advantage of SB 91. So we need to be able to better utilize the two and a half billion dollars given by providing provincial relief to more equitably serve our communities. In addition, beyond the pandemic beyond repealing Costa Hopkins and the Ellis Act I support a right to counsel because 90% of landlords have access to attorneys and 90% of tenants don't. I also support banning banking rent control increases and among other things, but my time is up. Thank you, James. Yeah, so I'm just like you Gregory. I mean, I'm a renter as well. We've been here in San Leandro for I think nine and a half years, something like that. And back in Oakland, our family, we're also renters in our two bedroom apartment. And as I've outlined, we went through hell. We went through a landlord who just didn't care. So I'm absolutely out there advocating for not only the repeal of the Ellis Act, but Costa Hopkins. It's not an either or deal. We've got to repeal both. And, you know, a good note on the eviction moratorium coming up, the ending of that we need to really get bold and start talking about an indefinite eviction moratorium. Because if we're gonna support the tenants of the state of California, then we're gonna support them full stop. So making sure we have that in place while also providing the community services necessary to uplift our communities and make them feel not only accessible to the process of applying for housing, but to make sure that they feel welcomed too. Thank you. Thank you very much. Malia. We really need California to really follow the lead of many of the Bay Area jurisdictions like Berkeley, like Alameda, who are leading on tenant protections. This includes not just a right to legal counsel, but funding for legal counsel for tenants, registries that we can actually track vacancies and track rental increases. And so that we don't see landlords acting around and trying to find loopholes in the regulations. I supported both Prop 10 and Prop 21. We do need to repeal Costa Hawkins, but we need the state to take more of a lead in that. And also make sure that we are taking care of everyone through the COVID-19 pandemic, making sure that rent relief is available in a culturally competent manner utilizing our CVOs in the existing relationships that folks are actually using the resources and benefiting from them. Thank you so much. Victor. Thank you. Here locally, I've been a champion in tenant protections throughout my time on San Leandro in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. I've organized efforts to pass into eviction a moratorium on eviction that was instrumental in ensuring rent control for mobile home parks here locally. And I think what we need to do is we need to make sure that at the state level, we champion the moratorium on evictions and that we cancel rent for everybody. Yeah, I think of what a lot of renters are facing is they're trying to figure out, okay, what happens once this eviction moratorium ends, where am I going to go? What am I going to do? We need to make sure that we're partnering and pass legislations that will require foreclosure documentation that will allow the DA to determine which foreclosures are illegal and also work with, you know, have the right to counsel to make sure that our tenants are protected and not being kicked out and put out in the street. This is something that I will champion. And what I'm also looking to support is the stronger statewide tenant protections supporting reduced statewide barriers to tenant protections from the Costa Hawkins and Alice Akseter. Yeah, thank you so much. As a renter and also as someone who grew up in Alameda, I feel very good about what was just said. Thank you all. All right, we're gonna move to something else that's very, very important now that we're moving into June. So transportation is the number one source of greenhouse gas emissions in California. We all experienced the day on Mars last year where like the day of eternal night, so it's very late. So CARB said we can't, the California Air Resources Board said we can't meet our climate goals without reducing vehicle miles travel. So the question for this is, what would you do in the legislator to de-prioritize cars and prioritize sustainable modes of mobility? So we're gonna start this one with Victor. Thank you. What, you know, what we've done locally here in San Luis Angeles is to sign up onto the zero emissions vehicle by 2030 here and, you know, work with the state with regards to what you Gavin Newsom have put in eliminating our carbon footprint by 2035. And that's something that I would advocate for to make sure that, you know, we work on extending our public transit systems as someone who takes public transit every day when I, you know, when I work in the city. You know, I know what it's like to make sure, you know, to be on packed BART cars and to be on packed buses, we need to make sure that we have rapid transit and that we're, you know, we're also, I signed out to make sure that we extend the bus lanes over the Bay Bridge so that, you know, buses are not sitting in traffic and that we have that accessible lane and can rely in that our buses can be reliable to make sure that we're going green and supporting the environment. But also to make sure that we have housing around public transit. This is something that, you know, do a little bit. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you. All right, we are going to move on now to James. Yeah, I mean, it's crucial to note that as transit is inextricably linked to the climate crisis in sense of mitigating the climate crisis, transit has been a really big center of the work that I've done, not only on the school board, but in my many roles outside of that. I worked for a local nonprofit called San Andrew 2050 where we actually work with the California Air Resources Board to get out to low income communities and ask, you know, what's going on? What are your priorities? But specifically with transit, you know, we've got to uplift people to get up out their cars, get walking and get using transit. That's going to take so much and that's going to take an agency merger between all of the 27 transit agencies in the Bay Area. That's going to take recurring funding for infrastructure development and expansion. That's going to take supporting our transit workers. It's got to be a complete 360 in supporting transit and making sure that we're providing the funds necessary to do all of that and while focusing on affordable, if not free transit. Thank you. Malia, please. We know that almost 40% or over 40% of our greenhouse gas emissions are coming from the transit sector and transportation sector. We need to move away from farebox recovery which really makes transit less accessible for our lower income communities and has meant that we have not seen the expansion of things like BART where we've made transit infrastructure very expensive and we are not actually funding it. So we need to make sure that our developer impact fees and all the people that are benefiting from our transit are actually investing in it. So we also need to see fleet upgrades for our buses. We've started that, but not just in our high income communities. We need to see them in all of our communities and then making sure that as we are looking at our high opportunity zones, we're also expanding public transit there because whenever we say we're only going to build by transit oriented development, we're actually saying that we're not going to build in those high opportunity areas which are using a lack of transit to get out of building their fair share. Thank you. Jonani. Firstly, we in order to be prioritized cars, we need to make sure that we are expanding access to transportation. I'm a huge fan of AC transit. I've taken buses up and down my entire time at Cal and realized that the reason I was able to take it absolutely everywhere was because it was free and I lived in neighborhoods that had access to easy with no more within a couple of minutes walks away from a bus stop. So unfortunately, many of the clients that I worked with at the time who were facing eviction and in legal aid needed to take three buses just to get to the courthouse or a legal aid office. And the issue is we need to not necessarily make all transportation public transportation free but expand subsidies given to large swaps of populations. So we need to make transit more seamless and integrate different systems that people can get across the bay. We need to expand bus lanes because the number of accidents that I've been on in AC transit is wild. But we also need to utilize Biden infrastructure dollars to expand public transport as well. Thank you so much and Nelsie please. Yes. So I am actually currently pushing the bar with organizations like Sunrise on trying to get a more green infrastructure bill to include solar power transit. And the reason why that is really important is because I've been working on transportation campaigns for years with AC transit with various other including even with BART. And one of the main things that we could do is that we know that solar power transit is actually a fraction of the cost of electrical. We know that it has the opportunity to become a feeder to the local community as well as to BART and to AC transit when they want to roll out even solar powered buses which we actually are fortunate to say that we're nearing that with the Green New Deal Coalition we're actually nearing that ability to do so. And of course it will open up funds to be able to fund for more projects including rebuilding the streets, reconstructing our streets, covering pop holes and of course even into affordable housing and also cutting the bills, the electrical bills for the street lights as well. So a lot of funds can go back into the city. Thank you. And community. All right, thank you so much all of you. So I'm just going to let the people who are watching on YouTube know that the chat is on. So we are, and comments were just turned on. So if you want to ask a question we're going to ask two audience questions. Feel free to drop it in the chat or drop it in the comments. So we're going to go to the last long form question that we prepared for you. This is 60 seconds. So obviously East Bay for everyone we've talked about building new housing, renter protections, we talked about climate and transportation. So another issue that's very important to us is social equity. So an issue that East Bay for everyone has championed over the past few years has been getting armed police out of traffic safety enforcement. Do you support the movement to de-police traffic enforcement and what actions do you want the legislature to take in order to ensure safe streets without depending on armed police? All right. Hope you're ready for it, Malia. You know, I think that there's a few different ways of doing it. Certainly David Chu had his legislation or has his legislation that would use technology to address traffic concerns. There have been a number of critiques of that legislation that led to some meaningful amendments to make sure that their privacy concerns are addressed but there's still continued issues relative to the bias behind the technology. So I think some of the things is also just allowing for us to lower speed limits. There's a number of things we can also do to make our streets safer relative to road diets and things like that that just by design are gonna slow people down and therefore make our streets safer. So I support things like that. I also support having non armed officers and non sworn officers engage in traffic enforcement in areas where we need it. Thank you. And next is, well, next was someone who dropped off who will return. So instead, next will be Nelsie. You're muted. Nelsie, you're on mute. Oh, sorry, thank you. Yeah, so current state of California, Pino Code actually requires that traffic police be peace officers. So this is something that we're not just, we're not seeing, right? Even far police is supposed to be peace officers as well. So that means people who, you know, should be unarmed should be able to actually incorporate more of a rapid response, rapid responder team and a rapid response team that can actually go in first and be led by community. Many other countries do this and fellow United Nations associations members are working on this, even with the Camden project and actually the Camden program on ethics and training. And so I actually would like to reform AB 57 to include and remind the state of California that we are supposed to be having peace officers and that these issues can in fact be handled even by rapid responders that are community based and also community trained and community led. So that's something that I really wanna move towards. Okay, thank you so much. And then I was just reminded that John and he had to leave a little bit early. So next we'll go to Victor. Thank you so much for asking this question. I think, you know, what we've been doing locally here in San Leandro is making sure that we're working on road diets to make sure that there is, you know, equity that we're slowing down traffic here in the city and not forcing, you know, on giving tickets to people. I think there, you know, there are a lot of folks who are targeted, especially those, you know, on the lower income bracket who are being targeted and are being issued these tickets that a lot of us can't afford. You know, if I run a red light, it's a $500 ticket. That's something that I've been advocating for for change to make sure that, you know, we give subsidies to those folks who can't afford these but also making sure that, you know, working with our community, our police department to reimagine what, you know, what public safety looks like and how we, you know, how we go out and, you know, police are our streets. You know, I think we need to police with compassion and work closely with the community and listen to what, you know, what they want. You know, they, at the end of the day, we pay the police department salary and, you know, they, thank you so much. We have active mute button followers. All right, so I'm looking at the time now and to respect everyone's time and the people who are viewing, I'm going to skip over our rapid fire questions. So you're lucky we're not gonna ask if you rent own or own rental property or use public transit. Although I'm seeing the faces. All right, let's do it. Let's do rapid fire. All right, so unmute yourselves. All right, first question. Do you own rent or have rental property and do you use public transportation? Pre-COVID answers are okay. Let's start with Nelsie. Yes, so I am currently a renter, proud renter and single parent, still living in community, you know, poor working class community that is highly dependent on public transit and also just... All right, rapid fire. We gotta know we won't be fast. All right, so James. I do not own rental property. I am renter have been for as long as I can know. So is my family. And I also use public transportation almost every single day, bar AC transit. Perfect, Victor. Thank you. I've been a renter for 12 years. My husband and I were fortunate enough to purchase our own home here in San Leandro. I do take bar AC transit in Muni. And I don't, I am not a landlord. All right, Malia. I don't own any rental property. I was a renter for many many years, just bought my first home. And I take public transit all the time. And I'm gonna throw in all of the forms of public transit that were just listed as well as the ferry. Great. And also we just wanna say, we are East Bay for everyone is a mix of homeowners and renters. My parents are homeowners. They're homeowners are nice people. One day I hope to be a homeowner. So that's why we created East Bay for everyone because we can't afford anything. Speaking of which, so this is an audience question that was submitted after we sent out the announcement for the forum. So this is gonna be personal to someone. So all right, the question is, my wife and I cannot afford to move out of our small rent control department where we live with our young son. Despite the fact that we both have master's degrees and earn above median incomes. She's a public school teacher and I work at a local nonprofit. What will you do to change local laws in our communities that hinder the building of new multifamily housing? I believe these laws have harmed my family and they prevent me from achieving the California dream of home ownership, which was available to my working class parents even with modest incomes and a lack of educational opportunities. So that is actually basically what we just said. This is how I feel. James, please let us know how you're gonna get us a home. Yeah, I mean, our family is in pretty much the same position, you know? I mean, we're a low income family. We would absolutely love to own a home. I mean, me myself, I'd love to own a home one day but we know we can't afford it. We can't afford anything dammit and it's frustrating. And so I think to empower municipalities, our cities and our counties to build more affordable housing and to really get people into, you know, the houses that they need and want, we need to support, I'm gonna bring it up again but we need to support up zoning and eliminating exclusionary zoning but we also need to support and get creative with ADUs which I think are gonna be the future of the conversation with housing. You know, I think living in the Bay Area with an interesting relationship with single family zoning, that's gonna be really important and crucial in supporting those who want to move into homes and really uplift them to move into their own. So yeah, those are just some of the things that I would love to do in the assembly. Thank you, Nelsi. Yes, this is also a really personal issue for me on so many levels. When serving the community and renters especially during the movement on Prop 13 reform and the repealing of cost to Hawkins, it's really important to understand that not only did we see a spike in property tax increase on childcare facilities, public schools, as well as homeowners and also on renters but it's important to know that a lot of those campaigns and those anti-affordable housing campaigns were actually led by the California Real Estate Association and the California Business Association. And it's about time that we actually go after the people who violate the 1% property tax increase and the 5% property tax increase and go after the Real Estate Association for violating Prop 13 laws. That is something that I really want to work on I'm currently working on with the childcare community, with the educational community because yes, we did see middle income families go into the working class. Okay, thank you so much. Victor. Thank you. We need to make sure that we're educating our own and working closely together with families to educate them on purchasing a home and the programs up there. My husband and I were able to purchase a home through a FHA loan, which basically allowed us to put 3% down and purchase this home. I think that's something that we need to have became for everybody, but too many of our East Bay neighbors have been forced out of their homes and we must strengthen renter protections and build more affordable transit oriented housing and provide robust services for our unhoused neighbors and remove the barriers to home ownership and curb displacement. So, what I would do is to make sure that we allow up zoning near transit oriented areas. We need to make sure that we're, that there are eviction restrictions for COVID-19 rental related debt. Like I said, at the end of the month, we're facing, the moratorium on eviction is being lifted and so we need to advocate and make sure that we're counseling the rent, keeping people in homes, but also making sure that we're advocating so that people can purchase homes during this time and providing like down payment assistance. And- Thank you so much. All right. Malia. You know, there's so many things that we have been doing at the local level that I have done at the local level to really try to push these issues. We need to build more housing. I mean, we have not had enough housing supply because of barriers. So removing exclusionary zoning provisions, really trying to use public land for public good and negotiating with developers to make sure that we're getting affordable housing, affordable by design, workforce housing. And then, you know, also negotiating that when these properties condoize and they get divided, that there's potential for first-time home ownership opportunities, pushing for things. One thing that I've really been pushing for is rent to buy opportunities, especially with new development properties so that folks can actually convert and gain some equity from the money that they're putting in to rent. Additionally, we need to expand CalHFA loans to make them more widely available and really look at this as a form of reparations to many of our BIPOC community members. All right, I'm just gonna say I'm very encouraged by listening to all of you. And I think as someone who grew up in Alameda, Go Jets and Snow High, I'm very, very excited with you all. And I think just to close, we're gonna turn this to a 30-second closing. Sorry, you won't have closing statements, but this is very much in line. This is an audience question on YouTube. So how would you bring people who are normally disengaged from the political process into conversations when making laws? So this is a big goal of East Bay for everyone. This will be the closing 30 seconds. So let's start with Malia. Really being proactive the way that I have been as an elected official, reaching out to our different communities and stakeholder groups, being available, being proactive, making sure that we're talking to everyone, not just doing it through email or electronic or digital platforms. During the pandemic, I organized a group of volunteers to call our renters, call our vulnerable community members and actually dropped off paper information about how they could access different things. And I think we need to do more of that and I would do more of that. Thank you so much. Nelsi? Yes, as a longtime political and issue-based organizer, I have always worked with community and coalitions in bringing the voice of the poor and the working class to the table. We continue to do so every single year. When you take a look at my website, you will see the long list of accomplished legislation in the state as well as on the statewide level and within all the three cities that are within the ADA team district. And that's just a fraction of the work that was accomplished and it was accomplished by poor and working class families. So I want to bless through the midst and remind everyone that the economy is in fact... Thank you so much. Thank you. Victor? Thank you. I think local interpersonal outreach is the single most effective way to bring about lasting change. This approach to outreach-making, daunting or simply impractical, but grassroots efforts beyond the 2020 cycle must fill the substantial void left by traditional field organizing and apply the techniques of hyper-localized and personalized targeting awards towards dynamics, digital and digital organizing. Progressive organizers must provide a virtual heart for activism that both ordinary citizens and volunteers can turn to for a sense of unity within our seemingly torn social fabric. So long-term community cultivation, comprehensive training opportunities, and... Thank you so much. All right, and James? Yes. So I think first and foremost, outreach and accessibility. You got to be accessible as an elected official. I pride myself on being extremely accessible. My number, my email, it's all there, but that has to continue as an assembly member. I was an intern in the legislature and I see that there are unnecessary barriers scheduling meetings with legislators to scheduling anything with an office. So my office will be open and accessible to all the community and much more. I think you can find a lot of accessibility on my platform, on my website. All right, so we want to thank the candidates, oh my God, campaigning just for a little local council district versus a school board versus city council. Thank you all so much for your time. We are very, very thankful that you came and talked to East Bay for everyone. So once again, we want to thank Alameda Vice Mayor Malia Vela, social justice lawyer, Janani Ramachandran, Rowena on behalf of Alameda School Board President, Mia Bonta, community organizer, Nelsi Batista, San Leandro Vice Mayor, Victor Aguilar and San Leandro School Board Member, James Aguilar. Thank you so much. Good luck. Have a great Saturday.