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 Friends, neighbors and supporters,

As many of you know, for the last few years I have taken a very public role in getting better projects in our community and speaking up on critical affordable housing issues. I feel that I have stayed true to my mission and the tenants I have established since day one:

  • It’s not personal - it’s policy.
  • I do my homework.
  • I never throw City staff under the bus.
  • When I make a mistake (which happens), I immediately correct it.
  • I meet with people representing both sides of the debate.

While there have been some successes along the way, there is tremendous pressure from outside development and special interests to continue at the current accelerated rate and pace we have recently experienced. This upcoming City Council election is critically important to restoring some balance to our community and allowing us to start to focus on the quality life issues that are being neglected in our rush to develop.

My outspoken advocacy on certain issues makes me an easy target for personal attacks. I know this. I have a thick skin but just when I thought this David and Goliath story couldn’t get any worse, I’ve been the target of three Public Records Act (PRA) requests with the latest one by Climate Magazine’s own resident journalist Mark Simon. Click here the view the PRAs: https://goo.gl/dT78cZ A PRA request is a formal submission to a Government agency to turn over records -- it’s the local equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Seriously, we’re just days away from an incredibly important election and this is how Climate Magazine wants to spend its time? Sifting through a resident’s suspected text messages to Councilmembers and Planning Commissioners instead of covering more in-depth the special interest and corporate influences on this election?

For those who might not know, Climate Magazine is published by Adam Alberti, a partner with a successful national public relations firm, Singer Associates. That firm has two of Redwood City’s biggest developers as its clients and is the founder of Bay Area Media Group (the owners of Climate). And, no, it’s not a coincidence. https://singersf.com/our-clients/
Their first high-profile Redwood City client is Stanford University. Stanford currently has a 1.5M square foot plan to build an office park in Redwood City. (That’s three times the size of all office space built in the downtown in the last 7 years.) The first phase of that project is already underway but they still have some approval hoops to jump through for phases 2 & 3. I appealed that project back in 2016 primarily because of its inadequate community benefits, the use of outdated traffic data and zero dollars given to affordable housing. This incredibly one-sided development agreement will haunt us for decades to come since it’s a 30-year term! https://goo.gl/5SK3G4


Singer’s second big Redwood City client is the multi-billion dollar Jay Paul Corporation. They have a pending 1.1M sq ft office park proposal called Harbor View (on land formerly owned by Malibu Grand Prix). https://goo.gl/LG9Rus . This contentious project requires a general plan amendment and zoning change and has been hotly contested by environmental and affordable housing advocates alike, myself included. Equally important is the well-hidden secret that Facebook is the likely tenant of this office complex. No wonder the stakes are so high!
Needless to say, Singer Associate Adam Alberti’s sudden interest in managing a magazine in Redwood City this year isn’t just coincidental nor due to an altruistic interest in our town. The real reason is that the outcome of our city council race is critically important to their clients. Having a PR-run publication that bills itself as an unbiased source of news helps them influence public opinion favorably toward their clients’ projects.

As you know, both the Stanford and Jay Paul/Harbor View projects will significantly and negatively impact this city’s horrible traffic problems and jobs/affordable housing imbalance. Stanford’s project, in the Friendly Acres neighborhood, will drop 7,500 employees near one of worst traffic impact areas of the Woodside corridor. Meanwhile, the proposed Harbor View project will further compound our traffic and infrastructure woes by adding another 5,500 employees at the 101/Woodside Rd interchange.

Given such impacts, the battle for approval will be uphill. But that’s where Climate Magazine comes in. Singer/Alberti have relied on a similar public relations strategy before. After a big oil refinery explosion in Richmond, Singer Associates started a local newspaper, the Richmond Standard, to garner support for its controversial client, Chevron. At the same time, Chevron also poured $3 million into trying to get their candidates on the city council, but failed. Eventually people caught on. The City’s vice mayor described the Richmond Standard as “... solely a marketing strategy to distort and distract from the real news. It’s part of the way Chevron bullies this city.”  Sound familiar? You can read more about Singer’s poor attempt to covertly influence Richmond’s citizens here: ( https://goo.gl/UCPDGp ).

Related articles:
  • Singer Assoc. named Small PR firm of the Year primarily due to their work for Chevron on the devastating ecological disaster in Ecuador: https://goo.gl/H46N5T
  • Singer shapes public opinion in Richmond, CA: https://goo.gl/2LEZKe

So while I’d like to believe Singer/Alberti’s purported intent that Climate’s goal is to create good will, this past history and latest PRA make me doubt it. Such a move is divisive, hostile, and meant to intimidate. Despite claims to the contrary by Adam Alberti, my efforts are not an attack on journalism. Nor am I a “muckraker,” as others have called me. My efforts are deliberate, well-researched and reflect the needs of a community solely being served by a PR publication like Climate magazine. In lieu of a legitimate local news source, you can’t blame Redwood City residents for filling such a void by sharing information through social media, can you? It seems as though some in this town, would like to blame “the interweb” as the source of all uncivil behavior brought about by this contentious elections season. My theory, is quite different, and has to do with the huge amounts of money being made by corporate outsiders at the expense of our city’s residents.

Despite what some may believe, all candidates have been subjected to personal attacks and unbelievable vitriol. It saddens me, truly. As public figures, the first amendment allows for greater scrutiny and harsher criticism of candidates, so it goes with the territory and some understand this well. Residents, such as myself, are also being singled out by elected officials and outside public relations people who have invaded our town because we’re raising legitimate questions about corporations and special interest money. It’s election season so talking about money and politics is not impolite, nor personal, it’s to be expected. Candidates are free to take money from whomever they wish and others are free to discuss them doing so.
 

What really bothers many residents, however, about this particular Redwood City election is the influx of special interest money. We’ve become a big city overnight with development projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. The concern is the vast resources and staff that large corporations/organizations with business interests, such as Stanford and Jay Paul, have at their disposal to influence this election directly or indirectly. Candidate Diana Reddy, for example, was targeted by the statewide organization of apartment developers, the California Apartment Association (CAA). Fourteen thousand dollars worth of hit pieces were distributed to residents filled with inflammatory and deceitful statements about her character and policy positions. On the Board of Directors at CAA is Greystar -- yet another player in this high-stakes saga.

Greystar is responsible for four luxury high rise apartment buildings in downtown Redwood City in the past five years. They have approval for 917 apartment units (35 of which are below market-rate) which means Greystar has a vested interest in keeping candidates from being elected who might encourage renter stabilization policies or demand more of market rate housing developers for affordable housing. Furthermore, Greystar’s latest project at 1601 El Camino (think Towne Ford, Main & Elm, Redwood City Roller Rink) will completely transform that area of Redwood City into an ill-conceived, congested, 568,000 square foot office park for ~3,000 employees with just 272 housing units. This is yet another proposed project by an emboldened developer that wouldn’t get approved in any other downtown on the peninsula.

As Mark Simon will soon uncover with his recent PRA, my drum beat is consistent. All I ask of our elected officials is to insist that developers produce better designed projects and provide genuine community benefits. Get us a project like Station 1300 in Menlo Park. http://station1300.com/ and I may even go away for awhile. All I’ve ever wanted was for developers to dig deeper into their pockets and propose aesthetically-pleasing projects that truly leave us with a net positive, and not a net negative, especially when it comes to affordable housing, traffic and quality of life.

So instead of investigating stories that matter, Climate/Singer decided to turn their spotlight on me, an outspoken and fact-driven resident. Presumably this PRA is meant to sully my reputation and stop me from exposing the dark underbelly of big development in this town. I’m not sure what salacious details Mark Simon and Singer Associates hope to uncover. Like many of us, I’m sure I would have rethought the wording of a few texts or emails I’ve sent in my lifetime. Even so, I stand by my prior statement that I have nothing to hide involving my interactions with City staff or Council. As their PRA inquiry will reveal, if I’m guilty of anything, it’s of being a thorn in the side of City officials who have graciously, professionally and consistently responded to all my requests for information over the years. My quest for the truth has been relentless despite the personal attacks from elected officials, corporations and their public relations firms, and supporters of other candidates.

Those who know me well understand that I take my advocacy for residents seriously. I have nothing to gain financially or professionally for doing so. For them, I’ll continue to stand tall against big-money corporate giants (and the bully tactics of their public relations firms) who propose projects that are a bad idea for our city or that don’t provide real community benefits. Nor will it get me to back down from asking firm but fair questions or pointing out relevant facts about the monetary connections between developers, PR firms, campaign donors, candidates and elected officials. I will continue to expose the impact that corporate and special interests are having in this election. https://voteforrwc.com/special-interests.html .
I will also continue to expose the insane amount of out-of-town money being funneled to some candidates. https://voteforrwc.com/contributions.html . Because, in the end, someone has to ask questions but with these types of nasty tactics at play, very few dare to.

Warm regards,
Kris Johnson

P.S. If you’ve gotten this far, I sincerely appreciate your perseverance. In conclusion, I will be supporting Christina Umhofer, Rick Hunter and Diana Reddy in this election for many of the reasons I have detailed above and in the past. Thank you for your consideration.