Vote for the Vision

On November 6, 2007, the citizens of Cupertino will select two out of six candidates for the city council. They are incumbent and current mayor Kris Wang, Mark Santoro, Gilbert Wong, Raj Abhyanker, Albert Yu and Barry Chang. So there are 4 Chinese Americans, one caucasian, and one Indian American. If the people vote along racial lines, Wang and Santoro will be elected. Why? Because being an incumbent, Wang will have the best chance to get the Chinese American votes while Santoro will get the white votes.

Let's hope that the people will vote based on the competence and service to the community. So who has the most competence? As an incumbent Wang has the lead. Does that mean that Wang will be reelected for sure? It's very probable that she'll serve a second term. Because of that, she doesn't seem to actively campaign. Who's next in line in the domain of competency? Gilbert Wong. With his five years as a Planning Commissioner, he claims to have experience dealing with issues facing our city. So does that mean that the road to the city council must pass through the planning commission? Wong took the pain to personally write a letter to residents of Cupertino. By putting a personal touch to reach to the people, Wong has a good chance to be elected.

How about the others? Chang has experience with the CUSD board. Is it enough for him to run the city? Does his experience dealing with our schools make him the expert in city issues? As for Abhyanker, he seems to be a fighter who likes to be controversial. Instead of trying to compromise and find an adequate solution to a problem, he is willing to go to the Supreme Court to fight the busineses that use only foreign signages (mainly Chinese). Do we want to have a city council member who is willing to divide the residents of Cupertino? How about Santoro? He has only one goal which is to fight the "unjust laws" by pledging to work "for the people." The only candidate who does not campaign at all because we don't see any sign around town is Chu. So we can dismiss him.

So what is the controversy? As viewed by some people, there're two groups: for development and against development. Wong is seen as for development because as Planning Commissioner he voted for the building of condos, etc. But in his statement he wants to maintain the small town character of our city. So what to believe? On the opposite side we have the rest against the condos. What do we want? If we want to keep Cupertino small, why do we allow the businesses to be established in the city? We should get rid of the businesses then. Are we for growth or not? How are we going to have growth while fighting development. How are we going to have a balanced and sustained growth? What do we think of Whole Foods? Do we need such a big store in Cupertino?

The battle now is between Wong and Chang. For sure this will divide the votes of Chinese Americans. Chang is against the condos, but still wants to attract new corporate headquarters. Friends of Chang accuse Wong of serving commercial interests. They ask the people to vote for Wang and Chang. So they use the popularity of Wang to get Chang elected. Wong has a very long list of endorsements including Mike Honda who supports both Chang and Wong. As we vote for two only, does that mean that according to Honda, both Wong and Chang should be elected thus eliminating Wang in the process? Does Honda know something that we don't. So does Honda want to see pro-development Wong fight con-development Chang each other as city council members? That's interesting. All in all, even Honda doesn't understand the politics of Cupertino.

Maybe we should bring back the orchards to Cupertino. This way we can have a quiet life. We don't need coporate headquarters. What for? We don't need condos. We don't need big businesses. We want to live in a rural area. We want the prices of the houses to go down. We don't want more new people to move to Cupertino. What a nice wishful thinking.

Vote for the vision.