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Dublin voters stay the course

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The population and demographics of the city of Dublin have changed dramatically since 1995 when voters approved the road map for the city to more than double in size.

One of the headlines in the Tri-Valley Herald read “Doubling Dublin”.

What hasn’t changed over nearly 30 years is the majority of voters like those plans. There have been bumps in the road — the school district’s horrible decision that Dublin High could serve the entire city. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The traffic alone on Dublin Boulevard should have scuttled that notion.

The newly opened Emerald High in East Dublin was shoehorned into a site that was barely big enough, but was the only one available. One bright point in that decision is Dublin High has wonderful performing arts space that it shares with the community and the 50-year-old school has been largely rebuilt.

The move east won its latest voter approval in November when a measure to allow commercial property along the extension of Dublin Boulevard so it connects with North Canyons Parkway passed with better than a 53% margin. It drew opposition from open space advocates, but the majority supported the council.

It boiled down to finances and sensible land use. Leaving freeway frontage as open space when surrounded on both sides by suburban uses was silly. Pleasanton and Livermore are separated by the existing gravel pits that are starting to transfer to ownership by the Zone 7 Water Agency which will utilize them to manage water supply and flood control.

There’s no such break north of the freeway where the alternative east-west connection to Interstate 580 has been needed by years. It’s been a matter timing for development in Dublin to move east. With major new development approved east of Fallon Road, the time is at hand.

The approval allows the city to accept a 1.5-mile land donation for the road and the accompanying commercial property will allow additional leverage to provide some of the $150 million cost. The land has been owned for decades by heirs of famous singer Bing Crosby. His son Nathaniel Crosby has spoken about development potential on the land in the past. Like his dad, Nathaniel is an avid golfer, twice serving as captain of winning United States Walker Cup teams (amateur competitions) and compiling a distinguished amateur career. His venture into professional golf was not as successful and he had his amateur status reinstated.

The city of Oakland is a mess and will have a new mayor this year after voters recalled Sheng Thao. A group of community leaders have mounted a campaign to convince retired Congresswoman Barbara Lee to run. The 78-year-old did not run for reelection Congress, deciding instead of run for Senate to replace the late Dianne Feinstein. She never raised the money necessary for a statewide run and did not make the general election where Adam Schiff won the seat.

There’s a billboard up urging her to run, but people should be careful about what they wish. She followed Ron Dellums in Congress and he was persuaded to run for mayor and did so successfully. The city was anything but successful because he did not engage enough to move the city ahead. Whether Lee will is an open question. She certainly will have the name ID over any opponent.

A sad final thought as I finished writing this Christmas Day: what does it say about our society and the warped Hollywood culture that a horror film featuring vampires was released today. Ugh, ugh. Joy to the World?

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