A Short, But Meaty Council Meeting

There was only one item on the agenda, but there was enough in the proposed Sideshow Ordinance to make a very full meal.

Tonight’s Menu: Steak House Council Classics

There’s only one real item on the agenda this week, and it’s a Work Session item. That means there wasn’t a vote, but Council gets to weigh in on the topic so that any changes they want can be made before it’s brought back again later and then voted on.

Public Comment Pilsner

Hayward Concerned Citizens was at it again. TJ asked why we didn’t get a retail theft prevention grant, how much was spent on the Faro trip (good question, tbh), and to put back up red light cameras in the future (which I’m also not wholly opposed to… though saying that twice makes me feel icky). What felt bad was implying that the cameras would have saved Mr. Pena’s life which… is arguable at best, and disingenuous at worst.

Someone put forward the idea that the San Lorenzo food back could go to the Sky West Clubhouse as they apparently recently lost their lease. He kind of strayed a bit far into how it could prevent vandalism and benefit San Lorenzo residents, imo, but I mean… it doesn’t sound like a bad idea, in general. According to City Manager McAdoo, there’s talks about that, but there are concerns about the state of the building and costs.

Mayor Mark Salinas also waxed lyrical about the Executive Airport Open House and talked about how one could get their pilot’s license before their driver’s license. Nevermind the cost, both environmental and dollar, of aviation and it’s precarious future. Shame we don’t have a municipal railyard to promote in a similar fashion.

But speaking of loud, gas-powered events that need a lot of open asphalt…

Wedge Sideshow Ordinance With Ranch

HPD is suggesting that the City enact a new ordinance criminalizing the audience of a sideshow. For those who don’t know, a sideshow is an illegal event where folks close down a parking lot or enormous street and then do donuts or otherwise drive recklessly for fun before jetting off once the police show up. It’s closely associated with the Hyphy movement which grew out of Oakland and reached prominence throughout the Bay Area in the early 2000’s.

To be clear, sideshows are already illegal and participating in one is already a crime. This new ordinance is coming on the heels of a similar one that was passed by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors(BoS) that does the same thing: criminalize watching a sideshow. There has been mention that the BoS passing this had immediate results, though this is largely unsupported by data. Even the staff report admits that this is basically, at best, making this someone else’s problem:

Subject matter experts from cities across the country unanimously agree that if spectators can be curbed from attending, drivers will stop or relocate to places where they can find an audience. [emphasis added]

It’s also important to dig into the definitions. Here’s the main addition:

A person is “present” at the “illegal motor vehicle contest,” “exhibition of speed,” “sideshow,” or other “reckless driving” exhibition, if that person is within two hundred (200) feet of the location of the race or exhibition, or within two hundred (200) feet of the site of the Preparations for those activities.

HPD has discretion to apply a wide range of punishments to those knowingly within 200 feet of the preparations of Sideshow activities. From the maximum of $1000 fine and 6 months in jail, or increasing administrative fines for each offense ($500, $750, $1000) or maybe just a warning. All of this can be given to anyone identified within 30 days it happening (so you can get a fine mailed to your house if HPD ID’s you 3 weeks after the event has taken place).

Bits of Bacon-y Context

Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of further criminalizing something that’s illegal already (looking at you, fireworks ordinance). If the folks putting on the sideshow are as clever as HPD is making them out to be, I’m not sure how effective this will actually be.

Those who participate in this illegal activity are very sophisticated, using their cell phones, police scanners, and other electronic devices to communicate with each other to avoid arrest. They also use the Internet to provide information on where to race, and give advice on how to avoid detection and prosecution.

This also mostly seems to be taking care of technicalities, which, as a Rules Boy makes sense, but this quote feels performative:

For instance, without amendment, the City would not be able to regulate spectators at an event in which a car was not speeding, but was driving on the opposite side of the street or up and off of the sidewalk as a part of the show, since there is no element of unlawful speed.

There’s already laws against unlawful assembly, events without a permit, and doubtless other creative things they could cite, so it’s not like HPD is completely hamstrung here. You can always find something.

The real question is: Did this put a stop to illegal street races? I have my doubts they did, considering the street racing viewer ordinance was passed in 2009 and the Police Chief was complaining about street races as recently as last year*.

Also, I’m generally against wantonly throwing folks into jail or providing too much discretion to individual officers as there’s a long history of the law applying more harshly to others if it’s left to individual choices.

Also, if we really want to prevent this kind of thing from happening, we could just redesign our streets so it’s impossible. The specific mention of big intersections, wide roads, and big empty parking lots tells me we could get rid of those, improve everyone’s lives, and stop sideshows all at the same time.

More expensive? Undoubtedly. But think of all the other things HPD could be focusing on instead.

*It’s really hard to find independent data on this! I tried the Crime Map but even on the 4th of July, they don’t even list the shooting near Miami Avenue that ABC 7 reported on! And a public records request can take up to 10 days to even get a response, so it’ll be interesting to see what the presentation is like…

Twice Baked Public Comment

There was one public comment which pointed out that increasing fines on already illegal activity doesn’t usually work, much like the fireworks ordinance hasn’t worked. They also pointed out an issue with saying that there’s been success in unincorporated Alameda County: too many people in the area have a hard time even knowing they live there, let alone avoid doing a sideshow there. They suggested taking a different prevention approach, including community education and investment in youth programs. They also pointed out that the ordinance did not pass unanimously in Alameda County, with our own homegrown Elisa Marquez voting against it.

Council Comment Plate

Home Fries Sprinkled With Minor Changes

Council suggested some around-the-edges changes to the ordinance and, by all accounts, were generally supportive of it. The main concerns were a lack of data showing the positive effects of this kind of ordinance, some potential changes to enforcement measures (community service or restorative justice), and the concern that not having this ordinance will, as a byproduct, promote it in Hayward.

Acting Chief Matthews mentioned the 4th of July evening numerous times. As detailed above, it was a particularly dramatic evening wherein 14 people were shot, although only 1 incident started out as a sideshow. Despite that, the evening was used numerous times as an example of how sideshows cause violence.

Councilmember Julie Roche asked for data about how successful other ordinances around the state have been. Matthews had no data and just anecdotes that it works, which isn’t very convincing. Matthews alleged that many spectators bring firearms to the events, and that most spectators aren’t from Hayward: “There are ways we can make a determination that somebody is not just there by happenstance.” To her credit, Roche was the first to put into words the issue that this can have a “purely racial outcome”, which is why the lack of data is so disappointing.

Coucilmember Dan Goldstein wanted a public service alternative to fines and maybe include a restorative justice component which is I have doubts that the current form of Law Enforcement could handle appropriately. Councilmember Angela Andrews also supported administrative fines and a potential restorative justice practice.

Councilmember Ray Bonilla Jr. mentioned that during his research, the headlines around sideshows usually center around “violence, it’s killings, it’s injuries…” which.. yeah, that’s what news follows. The only reason traditional media covers Hayward is when there’s a crime of some kind. Having data from the police department to compare to the sensationalized headlines would go a long way. Bonilla Jr. also asked that the ordinance be clearer that the enforcement measures are stepped, as the ordinance is supposed to be the deterrent and you can’t deter people with something that they can’t easily parse.

Buttered Green Built Environment

Councilmember Francisco Zermeno asked if there were any locations where sideshows frequently occurred. Acting Chief Matthews mentioned a few different locations around the City. Aside from some residential neighborhoods, the common denominator here seems to be big, seemingly abandoned, stretches of asphalt.

Andrews also asked what the responsibilities of the property (usually parking lot) owners was. Matthews said that HPD could work with the owners to consider preventive measures. Matthews specifically mentioned built measures despite the fact that we, as a city, aren’t considering doing the same.

Syrop also spoke about investing in changing the built environment to combat sideshows on public streets, as was done at the water treatment plant. He tied it to saving police resources:

“When we talk about having vacancies in the police department, I’m also worried about wasting officer time going and having to break up a big sideshow, if we can build a sidewalk instead that’ll discourage cars from drifting at that location.”

Porterhouse Cultural Event with Herb Butter

Councilmember George Syrop also expressed concern about the racial/cultural element of the sideshows:

There is an event that many of the elected officials up here, including myself, and many prestigious community groups attend where we all witness animal abuse and we park illegally for a mile to witness. And that’s the [Rowell Ranch] Rodeo. And I’m sure a lot of the folks at that rodeo are also 2nd Amendment fans, too and they’re probably packing some heat, as well. But that’s treated very differently.

He pointed out that people coming from out of town to engage in events is also known by a different term: tourism. Syrop put forward the idea of having definitions of what a legal sideshow would look like: “We have these old car shows, we allow people to bring their vehicles in and tote them around, we just don’t like when they have fun with them.”

Andrews also jumped on Syrop’s sanctioned sideshow idea, alleging that folks had come up to her to ask about sanctioned sideshows (kinda wonder why she didn’t lead with that) and wondered if there were places that had ordinances for that. Matthews mentioned Laguna Seca (which doesn’t offer an open track day and costs up to $500 to rent, not to mention scheduling issues) and other raceways having track available. Andrews wanted the private sector to fill the gap (though we literally have acres of blacktop at the airport not being used… just saying).

Goldstein and Bonilla Jr. seemed less convinced that a sideshow rink (if you will) would be a welcome addition to Hayward.

28-Day Dry Aged Porterhouse Salinas Steak

Okay, Haywardistes, there’s a lot to unpack in here. You can watch the full fifteen minutes here if you feel up to it. But I’ll go over the highlights and provide some important context and analysis.

Mayor Salinas opened with the following:

I had no idea I was gonna hear this issue associated to like modern day slavery and the torture of animals at rodeos, because I mean with all due respect to my colleague, I’ve been going to rodeos my entire life in virtually 5 different states and I’ve never seen bull riders get so intense where they started shooting all the spectators up in the stands.

Again, this is likely in reference to the night of July 4th, which I’ll say again was 1 incident among many shootings and it was perpetrated by the crowd, not the participants. I’d bet real money there’s been plenty of crowd fights during rodeos, whether guns were involved or not.

Also, the “modern day slavery” was just a recognition of the realities of incarceration under the US Constitution: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.”

Mayor Salinas then took issue with the idea of equity in law enforcement:

I would say over the last few years, I' guess, we have really taken this word ‘equity’ and have really perverted it. We now apply equity to virtually everything that we think is unfair or unequal or something to that effect.

I’m not entirely sure that he thought this one through, because that’s literally what equity is. And applying it to everything, including punishment for crimes, is something the City of Hayward has been making a big effort on internally, according to Assistant City Manager Regina Youngblood at the most recent Community Services Commission Meeting.

At several points, Mayor Salinas seemed to take issue with certain communities in other parts of California, including “Tracy, Modesto, and somewhere else of the 99 or even in LA”:

Okay, if they are caught, and they are students from Hayward, okay. Let’s use restorative justice. But if they’re from Ripon or somewhere off the 99 or some city near the grapevine and they come here and they do what they do… You don’t see [donuts] in Alamo, and (Healdsburg?).

For context, Tracy, Ripon, and Modesto are all places with per capita incomes between $30,000 and $44,000 per year and have high Latine and white populations. Alamo, on the other hand, has a per capita income of over $250,000 per year. Healdsburg is a small tourist town in the Sonoma wine country.

To be as generous as possible, Mayor Salinas seems genuinely concerned about how illegal sideshows impact our residents of color. He says it in extremely classist language by implying that we could be anything like Alamo or Healdsburg and have so little in common with lower-income Central Valley towns.

But this is not the first time Mayor Salinas has expressed a desire for Hayward to be like a nice affluent tourist area. The only issue is that we’ll never be those places. And why should we be? Hayward deserves to stand on its own merits as opposed to chasing some idealized WASPy standard.

And because of that attitude, he seemed to have no regard for anyone who isn’t from Hayward. He, wryly, said that if they’re students from Hayward then they deserve restorative justice. But when it came to sideshow participants:

When [HPD] do successfully apprehend these sideshow perpetrators, what do they find in the cars? They find drugs. They find guns. They find all this stuff that we’re trying to fight, particularly in communities of color, in our neighborhoods.

“You’re not gonna find another person that supports restorative justice more than me… but, do you think you’re gonna use restorative justice on one of these guys that we catch in our neighborhoods?…No. It’s not gonna happen.”

This over-the-top tough-on-crime stance seems to be catching like some kind of Mayoral Measles in the Bay Area recently. The issue of this happening in poor neighborhoods of people of color is, Salinas admitted in his own roundabout way, larger than this ordinance. Poor neighborhoods are more likely to have overly large streets, few trees, lots of parking lots, empty storefronts; the kinds of things that draw criminal activity. But this doesn’t solve that issue.

The old Food Maxx will still be empty, Tennyson will still be too big and dangerous, that light up sign will still hang over that neighborhood off of A Street, and the people you’re worried about will still be poor. Sending spectators of a sideshow to jail for 6 months will not solve that. That’s why “we can’t have nice things”, historic disinvestment that this will not fix.

“Speaking as a brown man, if I’m out there. Fine me.”

Mayor Salinas, with all due respect, you have such privilege. You are mayor of a city of 160,000 people and rub shoulders with the bourgeoisie all day at airplane shows, golf courses, and rodeos. You’re a Rotarian (with dues of ~$1,000/year). You sing the praises and positive side-effects of the Bay Philharmonic moving to Chabot’s theater, but suggest that it’d be unconscionable to try to make money off of folks who are, apparently, already traveling hundreds of miles for the sheer pleasure of using our existing infrastructure.

What would it look like to remove the classist lens through which Mayor Salinas seems to view this and instead understand that this is a part of Bay Area culture? Could this be decriminalized, mainstreamed, and be a draw to Hayward? We’re not getting the bowling alley back, or the roller skating rink, or the comic shop, or the arcade. So what are we going to have instead?

We can criminalize this, or we can mainstream it and make it a boon for our City. I sincerely hope we do the latter.

Whiskey Adjournment Pudding

Council was adjourned in honor of Millie Saad, a city staffer who recently passed away and will have a tree planted in her honor, and Chuck Horner, a pastor who was active for a long time on the Keep Hayward Clean and Green Task Force and volunteered in many other orgs.