It’s a concerning trend we’ve got going here. Why does San Mateo seem to have more resident groups advocating for various things here than in surrounding cities?
We have No Cell Outs advocating for stronger cell tower ordinances and enforcement. We have San Mateans for Responsive Government advocating to keep building development reasonable and balanced. We have Flood Free San Mateo advocating to fund necessary and critical flood prevention maintenance … and the list goes on. One observer said San Mateans have had more T-shirts printed for causes to keep that industry happy.
But it is a troubling thing. San Mateo gets a lot of things right, but somewhere, somehow, it’s become more regular than not that residents have to come together to represent themselves and to feel their voices are heard.
Annually, the City Council meets in order that each councilmember may provide their top priorities to focus on for the year. Then the entire council rates those priorities to see which get top billing in the end. But there is definitely a disconnect somewhere. There are too many areas of inaction that residents have had to take up the mantle for.
It’s ironic that the city has faced challenges getting residents to interact with them on some of the subjects they’ve put forward for outreach, yet, have failed to take the lead in numerous areas that have obviously aroused the passion of their citizen “employers.”
Our city staff works hard. Our City Council spends a lot of time on things. Those facts can’t be disputed. So why the need for residents to continuously coalesce for attention and action? The city has spent time with surveys over the years. They even spurred the creation of San Mateo United, the umbrella organization for neighborhood associations to meet regularly — a funnel of sorts for concerns to get back to the city. But it seems that plan has been forgotten. It’s rather become a backward funnel, with residents getting news from the city instead. Not a bad thing, but the original intent is lost.
Recommended for you
There has been a bit of a history with a handful of resident organizations tied to the city, originally devised to work together. Residents in these organizations had personal cellphones to reach city workers and relationships were formed. But over time, and perhaps due to staff and council turnover, these opportunities for the city to truly partner with the community have weakened or fallen by the wayside altogether.
Feeling unheard is a mighty big deal to San Mateans. Working hand in hand is so much more desirable than ordering T-shirts, filling up council chambers and waiting interminably just to speak for a minute or two in the wee hours. The ever-growing number of advocate resident groups in our city reveals a flaw, a crack that will not get better without some serious attention and care.
There is a 500-year-old Japanese tradition that highlights imperfections rather than ignoring or hiding them. They adorn broken ceramics with lacquer mixed with gold. As we march forward with the many issues that need to be addressed, we sorely need our city to look a little deeper and prioritize us, the public, to the point where we actually feel WE are the priority, as are the issues we want to top their annual list.
I wonder if that can happen? If we can get back to a place of more togetherness? Where we can put our efforts toward building something better, rather than designing the next up-and-coming T-shirt.
Lisa Taner is a Beresford Hillsdale resident and an officer on the Board of San Mateo United. Views are her own.
Like minded Millbrae residents recalled two council members who were not acting as representatives of long time Millbrae taxpayers. The frustrations of most Peninsula residents is a result of council members and county supervisors enacting policies that stem from a utopian themed Cal Berkeley elective course. Of course the sane residents will organize and fight the unprincipled reps.
Lisa - it is also known as tribalism. This was initiated by Obama, with the intent to pay attention to individual groups as needed. It has devolved into bickering, prejudice, and further unraveling caused by DEI policies. By now everyone is underrepresented and feels slighted. That is your answer.
Thanks for your letter, Ms. Taner, providing a summary of attempts at citizen outreach. It sounds like past outreach attempts failed for one reason or another. Perhaps the city council didn’t feel what was important to those citizens warranted further action and this happened often enough that folks stopped bothering with “outreach in name only” organizations. It is surprising you note we need our city to prioritize the public. Isn’t that what government is expected to do? Apparently some of these folks have forgotten. As long as the city fails to prioritize the public, expect more recalls of city “leaders” until we reach a state of togetherness.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(4) comments
HIGH ALERT: THE RECALLS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL NO ONE IS WILLING TO RUN! ALL CANDIDATES AND ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED!
Like minded Millbrae residents recalled two council members who were not acting as representatives of long time Millbrae taxpayers. The frustrations of most Peninsula residents is a result of council members and county supervisors enacting policies that stem from a utopian themed Cal Berkeley elective course. Of course the sane residents will organize and fight the unprincipled reps.
Lisa - it is also known as tribalism. This was initiated by Obama, with the intent to pay attention to individual groups as needed. It has devolved into bickering, prejudice, and further unraveling caused by DEI policies. By now everyone is underrepresented and feels slighted. That is your answer.
Thanks for your letter, Ms. Taner, providing a summary of attempts at citizen outreach. It sounds like past outreach attempts failed for one reason or another. Perhaps the city council didn’t feel what was important to those citizens warranted further action and this happened often enough that folks stopped bothering with “outreach in name only” organizations. It is surprising you note we need our city to prioritize the public. Isn’t that what government is expected to do? Apparently some of these folks have forgotten. As long as the city fails to prioritize the public, expect more recalls of city “leaders” until we reach a state of togetherness.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.