A curious case of a Valstad supporter
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 14 October 2010 — 7 comments below »
One may wonder why anyone would be willingly supporting either of the two incumbents — Mayor Kris Valstad or Joe Eddy McDonald — in this year’s City Council election, but the homeowner down the street from me takes the cake.
My neighbors understand the back story of this house (photo to the right), and it is, in a word, interesting to find out that somehow the owner is a Valstad supporter — if it is in fact real, and the sign wasn’t just planted there by the Valstad campaign because no one was around (and the house is empty).
The house above is owned by a person who lives in Marin County. He actually may have never stepped in the city. No one has ever seen him. He is what is called an absentee landlord.
For years, the house above had been the biggest problem in our neighborhood. The police had logged hundreds of phone calls — literally — and made dozens of visits. The only occurrence of gun fire (two shots, I recall) happened at this house. The house above is the main reason my neighborhood has a neighborhood watch program.
Throughout all the problems we had with the tenants, we could not get in touch with the owner in Marin County, and neither could the City’s building department nor the police department. With the help and hard work of the City however — including the police chief and city manager — we were finally able to reduce this problem house from a constant threat to something more along the lines of a nuisance, all without the assistance of the absentee landlord homeowner.1
The house being listed for sale has been well received in the neighborhood, to say the least. The house is currently vacant, with a realtor padlock on the door, and arguably must be gutted before someone new moves in. And now we learn the owner is supporting Kris Valstad for City Council.
Valstad has emphasized a peculiar talking point during his campaign. He frequently praises the fact that the city does not have any ghettos or people fighting in the street, as if that is the ceiling the city is aiming for (and not the floor from which to build upon). It is somewhat ironic then that the “pocket ghetto” that we had in my neighborhood for years, and the person responsible for it, the absentee landlord homeowner from Marin County, is a Valstad supporter. Apparently.
It also gives me an excuse to post this video…
We can do better than that.
- One of my neighbors actually went to the length of initiating a civil lawsuit, on his own dime, against the homeowner.↩
I doubt if the owners are true Valstad supporters. I met them once when I listed a property on the same street. They’re real estate investors and not from this area, thus have no real ties to Hercules. The property is a Short Sale and is now Sales Pending. Hopefully the new purchasers will be owner-occupants and not more investor/landlords.
Not many speculators left in the real estate market ….. most have lost their … like the seller in this case. Owner occupied homes are much better for the neighborhood.
I was biking up Turquoise a few days ago and noticed a Valstad sign in the yard of what looked like a vacant house. It too had a for sale sign. Funny, I said to myself at the time. “It sure would be slimy to be posting yard signs in vacant home yards.” The vacant house happens to be right on Turquoise near Ohlone with great daily traffic.
If it’s the house on the corner of Turquoise and Zircon then it’s probably our listing and yes it is vacant. Wonder if Kris knows his volunteers are resorting to such tacky measures. They must be feeling the heat!
There is also a Valsted sign on the vacant lot on Bayfront. Perhaps someone should add Delgado/DeVera signs to that location. Someone should let Valsted know the community has noticed his signs on vacant properties. Can the realtors remove them legally?
There are numerous Valstad signs posted in a row at the end of Bayfront on what looks like private, undeveloped property.
There is at least one Valstad sign on Railroad across the street from Sala Thai restaurant, also on what appears to be private, undeveloped property.
These are strategically placed in the Waterfront. This appears to be a case of Mr. Valstad lifting his leg and “marking his territory”, or what he considers enemy territory, the Waterfront community. He can’t get homeowners in Promenade to agree to place his sign in their yards, but he wants to remind us uppity waterfront people who we should bow to, so he puts them on what appears to be the developer’s property. Not so subtle message there.
Then I recommend Delgado and DeVera signs be placed, sign-for-sign- next to or in front of the Valsted signs.