Make San Leandro Average Again!

San Leandro mayor calls his city poor, and adds, "We want San Leandro to be an average city again;” The One, Big Beautiful Bill could decimate the county's ability to help the unhoused and low-income

☕️MORNING BUZZ

—The ‘Dro is dealing with a budget shortfall, chronically unfunded and crumbling roads, shocking public apathy, and a councilmember who said recently that he's counting the days until being arrested by federal agents.

San Leandro could use a pep talk these days.

They did not get it from San Leandro Mayor Juan Gonzalez III on Wednesday morning.

At a Rules Committee meeting focused on the city’s proposed rent stabilization ordinance, Gonzalez called San Leandro a “poor city” and laid out a goal for becoming merely average.

“The last thing we need in San Leandro, which is already a relatively poor city, is the transition into the situation in which we have slumlords. That is not the strategic goal of the council,” Gonzalez said.

“We are looking to uplift the city of San Leandro. To make the city of San Leandro increasingly attractive to people. We want San Leandro to be an average city again.”

Gonzalez prefaced his comments with a recitation about the neglect of San Leandro’s infrastructure and his uncertainty about impacts of a future rent stabilization on the quality of rental properties.

The boiling over of Gonzalez’s frustrations over the state of San Leandro’s infrastructure has gotten him in trouble in the past. A year ago, he blamed himself and the community for not holding public officials accountable to fix its second-worst-in-the-county roads.

San Leandro mayor blames residents for failing streets

Gonzalez’s uninspiring sentiment on Wednesday has an antecedent in East Bay political history.

In 2014, then-Hayward Councilmember Barbara Halliday leveled with residents at a mayoral candidate forum, saying their city will never be as rich as some other places.

“We need to stick to our plan. But, you know, let’s face it, we probably never will in our lifetimes be a very wealthy city like, I don’t know, Piedmont, Palo Alto.

“We’re Hayward. I’m proud that we’re Hayward. We have a heart and we’ve shown it,” said Halliday, who went on to win the mayor’s race in 2014.

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