David Pollack

David Pollack

Several recent articles have pointed to San Mateo’s changing demographics as the chief reason for the county’s shift toward more diverse leadership. A point that might be missed, however, is that white folks have not been the majority in San Mateo County for quite some time.

Since 1995, only one Latino — and not a single API — candidate has won a supervisor race in San Mateo. The single Black member was appointed to office. In response to a suit filed in 2011 to move to district elections, county officials claimed to The New York Times, “it had been the dearth of Asian and Latino candidates, rather than racially tinged voting patterns, that had led to a mostly white Board of Supervisors.”

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(6) comments

Cindy Cornell

Great article on "the times they are a'changin." It's way past time for entities like the Board of Supervisors and our city councils and commissions and boards to become inclusive. The article in this week's DJ about the Democratic Central Committee highlighted how and why certain demographics have always bubbled to the top. People at the top annoint the new people, blind to their own constituents' needs. One need only look at the condition of Shoreview and Parkside in San Mateo to see how entire neighborhoods are neglected and abandoned by the City because of a lack of local representation, and the power of the status quo.

Dirk van Ulden

Cindy - you may be alluding to this but it appears that once these characters are elected they forget their campaign promises. Ample evidence abound. In Belmont we have stepping Stone who has managed to get himself entrenched in numerous committees and boards. For example, instead of holding Caltrain to their original budget to electrify the system, which I supported initially, he has no problem burdening you and me with another multi-million dollar cost over run. He is the poster boy for political ambition and seems to get awarded, like his predecessors, with another safe political position. Ergo, times are "not a-changing" and the beat goes on.

willallen

identity politics for sure, but that's always been the case. There was a time, in living memory, when religion was a demographic.It is to some degree today but not like it was when SCOTUS had a Catholic and Jewish seat. When a woman was named it was a big deal. We now have a court that - for the first time in history - does not have a Protestant.and few even noticed. Who defines what groups are important? The media does.

Terence Y

Blah, blah, blah, here we go again. Mr. Pollack writes, “A number of elected officeholders continue to hold on to a sense of entitlement…” I didn’t realize “elected” officeholders could decide to stay in office, regardless of what voters wanted. Maybe they’re elected because they got the most legal votes, from all races.

“While progress toward leadership being more responsive to and reflective of our actual demographics…”? Maybe Mr. Pollack feels the county is full of racists and who feel that only someone just like them has to represent them. So much for progress. At this rate, Mr. Pollack’s specious arguments will serve more to divide us than unite us.

Dirk van Ulden

David - this all sounds great but what improvements over our society at large are made by this tribalism? Instead of leadership that recognizes the needs of its diverse constituency we will now get stuck with leaders who will only prioritize their own, generally myopic, interests. If individual diversity representation were so important, we would need councils that number perhaps 20 members or more, lest one group is left out and underrepresented. One of our last presidents was a community organizer and he left our country in shambles in terms of race and ethnicity relations. Do we want to reinforce that debacle?

Eaadams

Well said David.

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