Editor,
I’m writing to support Councilman Warren Lieberman for another term. He helped the city purchase and protect many acres of land from development at no taxpayer expense. He supported Measure I which is already helping to fund critical repairs to Belmont’s aging roads. Mr. Lieberman provides a wealth of experience, a steady hand and continuity to a council that is helping Belmont navigate modern challenges while protecting our natural heritage.
Kelly Huffman
Belmont
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(28) comments
He's been on the council too long. Time for some new blood.
And, finally, we have money to pay for roads, a sustainable pension situation, impact fees to pay for new affordable housing, new restaurants, planned pedestrian and bicycle improvements, a new park...
If you want those things to go away vote for the candidate who will freeze city revenue and force every good thing to compete for a shrinking piece of pie.
I have a curious question Kevin. Would you consider yourself an active YIMBY?
I think we should build exactly as much housing - and no more - as the Belmont City Council planned for in the decade before you bought your home.
Lieberman did not do anything to purchase the San Juan Canyon. In fact he voted AGAINST the purchase. I thought that Trump was the only one lying - but I guess in desperation, others locally can distort the truth likewise. So sad that someone has to stoop so low. Look at the November 12, 2009 minutes, he voted against the purchased.
Besides that, Lieberman voted AGAINST the now well known second hand smoking ordinance.
What an embarrassing time in Belmont History.
Ms. Coralin Feierbach herself presided over several of the most turbulent, incivil, anti-housing councils in Belmont's history. Her endorsement for Bolbol should serve as an enormous red flag to sensible voters.
Really?
Let me count the ways:
I thought we did some really good things for Belmont:
1) save 35 acres of the San Juan Canyon (which Lieberman voted against)
2) We introduced the Second Hand Smoking Ordinance that has now been copied all over the US. (Lieberman voted against that too)
3) Introduced Measure F which will prevent over development in our Western Hills
4) Introduced the ability for people living on speeding streets to have humps on their street
5) Super concerned about our residents - tried to help as many as possible
6) Tried to preserve our small town atmosphere -
and so forth.
Secondhand smoking bans and protecting open space pale in comparison to the damage you and fellow councilmembers wrought on the children and future residents of Belmont by fighting infill development and preventing the creation of adequate amounts of housing.
Belmont is now a de-facto gated community, its open space available only to those who inherit homes or make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. That's your legacy.
Lieberman lied about helping acquire open space in Belmont. Fact is Lieberman voted AGAINST the purchase of the 35 acres in San Juan Canyon. See the video on deniz4belmont.com. Lieberman also opposed Measure F more than a decade prior, that has prevented development of the Western Hills area, and he voted to turn down a donation of undeveloped parcels adjacent to open space. I'm voting for Deniz Bolbol who has the courage to expose his lies while the incumbents remain mute.
Your concern for protecting space is admirable.
Ms Bolbol's opposition to infill development in Belmont will lead to hundreds or thousands of acres of open space in places like Gilroy and Rio Vista being turned into single family homes with big lawns and residents with 2 hour commutes in private autos, polluting our air and clogging our roads. I'm curious how you reconcile those two positions.
"He helped the city purchase and protect many acres of land from development at no taxpayer expense" - if Ms. Hoffman is referring to the 35 acres of land in the San Juan Canyon that the City purchased to preserve as open space, she and voters should watch this fact-check video where Council member Lieberman grossly misstated his involvement in the purchase of the 35 acres of land.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12pBO_qkRBA&t=4s.
I'm voting ONLY Deniz Bolbol for Belmont City Council for her values and integrity.
Your concern for protecting space is admirable.
Ms Bolbol's opposition to infill development in Belmont will lead to hundreds or thousands of acres of open space in places like Gilroy and Rio Vista being turned into single family homes with big lawns and residents with 2 hour commutes in private autos, polluting our air and clogging our roads. I'm curious how you reconcile those two positions.
I sure hope the residents of Gilroy and Rio Vista will stand up against development of their open space. Politicians need to address the root cause - high-tech or high paying jobs that are creating the affordable housing problem.
Right on!!
Repeating lies doesn't make truth. Lieberman's claim to have saved the San Juan Canyon or any open space is a bald faced Trumpian lie. He was the lone vote against the 35 acres of the San Juan acquisition which was revenue neutral, voted down free lot acquisitions, and was also against measure F which capped density in the San Juan Canyon and the Western Hills. He is a complete phony.
It seems like there is a tension between preserving open space, limiting density in existing areas zoned for housing, and being able to fund nice things like road maintenance and schools. Choose two.
You got that right!
Lieberman lies. Not only about his false claim of preserving open space (he voted AGAINST it), but lied when he said there are no plans for 4 stories in the downtown plan--which clearly provides for 3-5 stories. His supporters either don't fact check or just happily drink the kool-aid.
I love the passion everyone is bringing to the decision on who to support for city council. I understand the passion for Deniz from those who feel the council doesn't support their interests. Other than a personal connection to the incumbents, I am having trouble understanding the passion to protect 5-0 council votes from becoming 4-1.
One, there is another election in two more years for another two seats on the City Council.
Two, there are real questions about her temperament, her history of vexatious litigation and whether she will cost the City money through further ethics or legal violations.
Three, I'm not an impartial observer here, but she frequently lied about or made inaccurate statements about plans for the city, what happened in the past, or the plans for new development. It is not good to have someone on the Council who does not have a firm grasp on the facts.
Four, even though she can be outvoted, she will have some ability to steer the agenda, and based on her campaign promises, she will steer it in a direction that will not be good for schools, for teachers, for renters, for carbon emissions, for low income residents or for young people.
They are scared and fear someone who thinks differently from them.
Jordan and Kevin - I don't know what prompted you to move here but I surmise it had something to do with the environment that we had established prior to your arrival. You don't know that Belmont was not always the most desirable place to live, infact it was considered somewhat bohemian because many of the old sections did not and still do not have sidewalks. While we bought our house at what appear to be bargain prices by today's standards, they were not cheap then. You also don't realize that us old fogies saved Cipriani School from a planned sale by the School Board. It is easy to slam us as too conservative but that is exactly why you found Belmont to be a nice place to live. Please give credit to the former Council members who are seeing interlopers destructing the vision that we endorsed when we moved here. Yes, Deniz Bolbol is committed to preserving one of the last pleasant communities on the Peninsula.
Belmont is great for people who bought homes a long time ago and have locked in low housing costs, and increasingly, *not great at all* for everyone else. I pay $36,000 for an apartment where the hot water doesn't work all of the time. I can afford it but that's an insane amount to pay to live close to where the jobs are. More and more when I walk around I am seeing evidence of folks sleeping in cars or on the ground on Belmont streets.
The salary scale for Belmont teachers tops out at $100,000 for 30 years experience and you can expect to pay somewhere around $25,000-$36,000 in rent to live in town. Try saving for a house after that. It's inhumane to treat teachers that way. It's not good for education.
Bolbol wants policies that will increase housing costs and will accelerate every bad trend that comes with it - wealth inequality, a school district that can't hire teachers, homelessness, RV's on Belmont streets, unfunded pensions, bad roads, low and middle income residents being displaced, kids who grow up here and can't afford to live here.
I don't know how you can call a community "pleasant" when it actively chooses to have those values.
Kevin, cry everyone a river with your continued 'woe is me - the world is not fair - I didn't get mine." Quit making Belmont residents be the boogey man for your belittling everyone who does not agree with you. News flash: Belmont residents are not going to do as you say, sell our homes, rent an apartment near the train tracks to appease you. #GetOveryourselfAlready
HHC I’m not asking anyone to sell their home, I’m asking Belmont to make room for people who look exactly like you but happened to be born twenty years later. It’s not fair to benefit from a housing boom and then suddenly declare the city is “full.”
Do you talk to your kids that way? I’m probably about their age. (Can your kids afford to live here?)
Dirk van Ulden, with all due respect, there wasn't a coup in Belmont. Those "interlopers" were elected by the voters who believe in and endorse *their* vision.
I agree with everyone who has accurately concluded: Do NOT trust a lying politician. Once a lying politician, always a lying politician. I hope Belmont comes to its own conclusions NOT to vote for Lieberman despite the 'endorsement' here.
He is a stellar guy. I will vote for him all day long. He has made Belmont proud and has been a wonderful leader. He is smart and has put up with a great deal over the years and has been lucky to end up on our current City Council where there are rational and fair thinkers. He listens to the community. He volunteers in the community. He has been nothing but an up and up guy. I have voted for him in the past. He has proven himself time and time again. Vote for Warren Lieberman.
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