A month ago, like we do a dozen times every election season, we reached out to all the candidates running for Council District 1 and invited them to a mobility debate. We got email confirmations back from:
Sylvia Robledo
Maria “Lou” Calanche
Raul Carlos
Nelson Grande (never confirmed by email, but did accept the calendar invite)
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez
These mobility debates matter to us — and to our audience. In the past four years, Streets For All has hosted 15 debates, all via Zoom. We have found the Zoom format to be the most effective, as constituents are able to join from anywhere, making the debate as accessible as possible.
After having confirmation from five of the candidates, we created a graphic, promoted the event via our email and social media channels, and spent the hours it takes to craft thoughtful curated questions and slides to make the event run smoothly. We publicized the event on November 10 and quickly received over 70 RSVPs.
On November 18, we received an email from Raul Carlos: “Thank you for the invitation to participate in your upcoming virtual forum. We respect the space you hold for CD1 residents and the effort that goes into organizing these conversations. However, after reviewing our commitments and the current landscape in the district, we must firmly decline”
On November 19, we received an email from Sylvia Robledo: “We all decided we prefer to do an in person event. It's a better environment for the community. I hope you reconsider this format.”
On November 20, Maria “Lou” Calanche also declined, and despite accepting the calendar invite and weeks of promotion and being tagged on social media, Nelson Grande said he had never accepted in the first place.
I emailed all of the candidates, asking if we could chat on the phone; only Sylvia replied. I spoke with Sylvia, where I expressed our disappointment in this coordinated attack on our event, and that I felt like Streets For All’s event was becoming a political football for reasons that had nothing to do with us. I then sent the following email to all the candidates:
Streets for All is a small non-profit organization, and we are planning on having debates for at least 7 races this election cycle across many different geographic districts. It simply would not be possible, with limited resources, to hold each of these in-person.
Despite our best efforts, all of the candidates except for Councilmember Eunisess Hernandez have now backed out. Instead of cancelling the event, we are going to proceed with the questions we already wrote, and give the Councilmember the platform and space to answer them without having to compete for time with the other candidates.
The more debates — both virtual and in-person — the better for our local democracy. While we are disappointed in this outcome, we look forward to our discussion with the Councilmember at the same time as the originally scheduled debate, and hope you will join us in what should be a thoughtful and informative discussion.
After the discussion, we will then send out our endorsement questionnaire to all CD1 candidates, and publish those responses, consistent with how we’ve done this for the last four years.
Hope to see you on Thursday for a discussion with Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez! RSVP here.
