, oops, I meant the East Bay Business Coalition, a cabal of developers lining up to purchase the best Concord City Council money can buy, is now pandering cynical scare tactics and vacuous bromides as reason to vote for Allen, Chavez, and Leone.
These “Gangs of Concord” alarums come straight out of Helen Allen’s dog-eared, 12- year-old Law n’ Order playbook. What better way to scare the bejesus out of suburban soccer moms and blue-haired Bush poodles than with racist innuendo about violent Black and Latino gangs peddling drugs at our schools when the even bigger drug and alcohol problem runs rampant in the adult Anglo community.
Wait a minute, didn’t Ed James, Concord’s former City Manager, recently proclaim there were no gangs in Concord? Wasn’t Allen Mayor when Council reduced community services funding by $100,000? And exactly just how many more cops and police budget beyond 52-percent will make Concord safe?
These punk con artists pimping their bumptious bimbos are playing Concord voters for fools. Folks, the most dangerous gang in Concord is not from the Monument or bussed in to Mt Diablo High School from Pittsburg. It’s clubhouse is located at 1320 Willow Pass Road.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
PS… Your survey on least favorite breakfast “join” – Don’t know if it matters to the survey,l but Country Waffles is located in Clayton – not Concord.
I, a born and bred Concord native, have lost all love for this city. I can hardly wait to sell my home and move out of state. I, too, live near downtown old Concord. I, too, am overly stressed with having to worry about break-ins, prowlers, vandalism, and a less than helpful police department.
I shouldn’t have to stop what I am doing in the morning to monitor the comings and goings of Mt. Diablo High School “students”.
I shouldn’t have to worry about homeless bums sleeping behind my garage.
I shouldn’t have to get calls from my neighbors telling me they saw kids coming out from behind my house while I’m at work.
I shouldn’t have to hesitate calling the police for assistance.
But this is what happens on a sometimes day-to-day basis.
Shame on Concord for putting the almighty dollar first and its residents a distant second.
You could be correct: after this election, 1320 Willow Pass Road may, for all intents and purposes be the mailing address for Concord City Council.
Dear Editor,
I appreciate your reply.
I share your concern about candidates running for city council whose motives are questionable and whose backers do not have the best interests of Concord in mind.
You said “whether there is crime in Concord is not the point.” If that’s true then don’t mention it in three out of four of your paragraphs. I’d also suggest keeping race out of it and certainly not implicating an entire race of people (Anglo) without the facts to back it up unless you’re only trying to appeal to the most naive and ignorant of your readers.
You said “the most dangerous gang in Concord is not from the Monument” and suggest the city council is more dangerous than Concord’s street gangs. Does the city council sell meth? How many prostitutes have the city council pimped on the streets of concord? How many members of the city council have left biohazardous used condoms on my driveway? Which members of the city council have broken into my neighbor’s houses?
Would you rather have a questionable person on the city council or be robbed at gunpoint? Political corruption is dangerous and destructive but suggesting that it is worse than the crime I see on the streets every day eliminates any credibility your argument might have.
I think you and I agree more than we disagree. I also do not want to see a bunch of carpetbaggers elected to the Concord city council with questionable backing. Your argument would appeal to a more intelligent and influential audience if the racist and relativistic arguments are eliminated and you stick to the facts.
Thank you for caring about Concord and trying to make a difference.
As someone who lives downtown in “Old Concord” and has to live with the insanity spilling out of the bars late at nite, the homeless scrounging along the path between the tent cities under the Hwy 242 and lunch at Baldwin Park, plus the kids walking away from Mt Diablo HS in the morning instead of to school, I appreciate Jay’s concern about crime in Concord neighborhoods.
That said, whether there is crime in Concord is not the point…
Here’s the point:
Organizations, like the East Bay Business Coalition, and candidates like Helen Allen, who, it is questionable whether or not she even resides in Concord, do not give a rat’s ass about public safety or whether there is open prostitution on Toyon Drive or Oakmead, or Almond, or in the parking lot at the Hilton.
But they do know that messages like the “Enough is Enough” mailer will rile up and fool enough people into voting for candidates “who care” just to manipulate voters to get their sock puppets elected so they can make millions before they move on to the next unsuspecting community like a swarm of locusts.
It is obvious the author of this piece has never lived in the Ellis Lake area. I have lived on Toyon Drive for over 7 years and see drug dealers on street corners every day. I find used condoms in front of my house several times a year. Next month the Concord PD will be painting the curb across from my house red, not because it is next to a fire hydrant but because people park their cars there while they are serviced by local prostitutes.
The scare of residents in this neighborhood has nothing to do with racist innuendo and everything to do with reality. Don’t believe me? Spend a few hours at the corner of Toyon and Ellis on a Friday night. Spend a few hours at the 7-11 at Cowell and Monument any late night.
If this article had anything substantive to say, it would not have been necessarry to play the race card and make false claims that gangs and drug dealers are not a problem in Concord. The article claims that drug and alcohol problems are worse in the white community in Concord. Without statistics to back this up, any intelligent reader will write this off as race baiting.