After Deadline Public Comment Item #17 - Support Rescinding Censure(6)From:
To:Clerk
Subject:Public Comment Item #17 - Support Rescinding Censure
Date:Tuesday, April 18, 2023 5:02:25 PM
[EXTERNAL SENDER]
Hello,
As a former resident of Cupertino (20 years) and someone interested in seeing the South Bay
become a more inclusive and equitable community, I would like to submit a written commentin support of Agenda item 17, the rescission of Planning Commissioner Clark's censure.
Censure was a disproportionate and unfair response to Commissioner Clark's comment
because underlying her comment are two objective facts: 1) there are racial and socio-economic inequalities in the distribution of social harms and damages in regard to housing
access and from shortages in the US, and 2) studies have shown that in many localjurisdictions, anti-housing comments statistically come from populations that whiter, and
richer, from the underlying jurisdiction's voting population (see much of the work done here,and explored in "Neighborhood Defenders").
Additionally, for Los Gatos, it is especially important to note the history of
predominantly Caucasian (or "White" by Census definition) communities in the Bay Areaimpeding housing development, and their explicit as well as de jure racial discrimination
through single-family zoning, racial covenants, social discrimination, other exclusionaryzoning, real estate practices, and threatening community actions (in fact, the book "The Color
of Law", opens with an example set in Santa Clara).
While the comments may have lacked some tact, this alone is not sufficient for censure.Council should rescind the censure of Commissioner Clark, not only because its initial
decision violates her First Amendment rights, but also to recognize the reality that the racialand socioeconomic factors found in Los Gatos' anti-housing public commentary, are
connected and contribute to, the same racial and socioeconomic disparities that persist in oursociety today.
I hope to see the Council correct their original mistake in this matter. We should uplifting
voices for justice and recognition of history, rather than rewarding the cowardice and harm incensuring such commentary.
Regards,
Sean Hughes