Concord D2 Residents Can Vote Out Caviar Carlyn

With so many Concordians unemployed or underemployed, facing increasing rents, and the homeless population of Concord growing, council person Carlyn Obringer is salivating over luxurious caviar. Obringer has been using Twitter to promote caviar: (https://twitter.com/CarlynObringer/status/1320504774165315585) As well as using Facebook to promote caviar: (https://www.facebook.com/CarlynObringer4ConcordCityCouncil/photos/a.1726215747595170/2816856028531131) Caviar Carlyn is promoting luxury food products that start off at $40 per half ounce, at a time when so many Concordians are going to food banks for sustenance.

Caviar Carlyn has been weak on tenant protections. As a council person, Obringer has not worked to protect renters from exorbitant rent hikes during the Covid crisis. Some of the latest victims of these rent hikes are the tenants of Clayton Crossings, which is supposed to be a low income apartment community. Caviar Carlyn's answer to the pleas of Concord renters, is for them to take on debt by getting loans for these rent increases. Calls for a rent freeze in Concord have not been supported, not even for low income renters.

When the pandemic came, Obringer was slow to act to protect homeless people from the virus. As a council person, Obringer expect the county to take leadership, and for the city to be exempt from any responsibility. It was only after members of the community came forward, that council put out a couple of handwashing stations, and portable restrooms. Concord made minimal effort to get money for hotel rooms. Meanwhile there are homeless encampments in Concord that don't have regular trash pick up.

Obringer claims to be a supporter of more low income housing in Concord, but the council person had pushed for a luxury hotel on city owned property in the downtown area. According to Surplus Land Act, develop opportunities on city owned lots must first be offered to low income housing developers. Obringer wanted to circumvent the Land Act, and attempted to court luxury hotel developers for an empty lot designated as Town Center II.

Orbinger was a supporter of the failed downtown Concord soccer stadium on another city owned property on the outer edge of downtown. Rather than a city owned park, or a new library, or low income housing, or a mixture of all three, Carlyn wanted to make the land available for a privately owned soccer stadium.

Caviar Carlyn has been openly expressing desire to gentrify Concord, to make it the "gateway to Silicon Valley". She was quoted in Forbes magazine as saying: “Look at Dubai, now a global city. Few people realize that Dubai was a regional backwater 50 years ago, but their leaders managed to redevelop and redesign their economies, not just around oil, but around new technologies that they are bringing into the city. Concord has the potential to do the same—I see it as the gateway to Silicon Valley.” (https://www.forbes.com/sites/johncumbers/2020/01/03/will-concord-be-the-bay-areas-next-tech-hub/) Does Caviar Carlyn understand that Dubai is known for terrible workers' rights, and for economic disparity? Does Carlyn understand the economic disparity that already exists in the Bay Area, because of the leverage Silicon Valley has on local politics and public policy?

The city of Concord has an opportunity to be the location of a future university. While people have been expecting a plan for a public university (like a CSU), Caviar Carlyn has been trying to develop a plan for privatized education. Obringer has been looking for tech-sector corporations to develop curriculum and programs. In Obringer's current plan, most of the university land is envisioned as corporate r&d labs. This is a level of privatization that goes beyond what occurs at UC Berkeley.

Caviar Carlyn claims to be a "green" candidate because she drives a electric car. She doesn't support an environmental commission for Concord, and doesn't support community based urban environmental and agricultural programs in city parks. Discussions on climate change and environmental restoration are absent from council meetings.

Caviar Carlyn's last campaign for city council was heavily funded by the Concord police department. In this current campaign, she is supported by the establishment wing of the California Democratic Party, a who's-who of Californian neo-Liberalism.

Concord residents in District 2 have an opportunity to vote out Caviar Carlyn. There is a progressive candidate on the ballot, Hope Johnson. Go out and vote, or mail your vote, either way: VOTE.