San Leandro Focus

I support the effort first proposed by community leader Bernard Ashcraft and advocated by former City Council member Ursula Reed to name a public plaza or other location in honor of former City Council member Surlene Grant, the first African American elected to the San Leandro City Council. On Monday, September 25th, at 6 p.m. at San Leandro City Hall in the Sister Cities Room (right next to City Council Chambers) the Mayor and two Council members will review the proposal. Please come and share your views with the City Council. For the reasons why I support honoring Surlene, please read my blog post at https://sanleandrofocus.blogspot.com/2017/08/san-leandro-should-honor-former-city.html

Throwback to Summer 2013: I was one of 18 U.S. mayors that co-sponsored a resolution calling on the federal government to respect state and local cannabis laws. The resolution was presented at the annual meeting of the US Mayors and adopted with bipartisan support.  I was quoted in press reports stating: “The prohibition on marijuana has been ineffective and counterproductive. Voters in states and cities that wish to break the stranglehold of organized crime over the distribution and sale of marijuana in their communities by legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana should have the option of doing so.” The need for local control is even more imperative today.  The restraint established by Congress in 2014 on the Department of Justice from destroying patient access to medical marijuana by criminally prosecuting cannabis cultivators and dispensaries nationwide expires at the end of September 2017.  This article explains what's happening:  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/house

In 1911, California passed Amendment 8, granting women the right to vote in state elections almost a decade before the 19th Amendment provided women's suffrage throughout the U.S. On August 26, 2017, in San Leandro, noted author Elaine Elinson spoke on How California Women Won The Right To Vote as part of the Women's Equality Day Celebration at the San Leandro Museum and Casa Peralta. Elinson is the co-author of "Wherever There's a Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California." The book tells the story of how freedom and equality have grown in California, from the gold rush right up to the precarious post-9/11 era. You can learn more about the book and Elinson's other writings at http://members.authorsguild.net/eelinson The event was co-sponsored by the San Leandro Public Library, Community Impact Lab and OSIsoft. I recorded the video.