Candidate Interview: Angela Andrews
In Which: I summarize a candidate interview with Angela Andrews in an attempt to learn her vision for the City of Hayward.
This is the first of several interviews I’ve conducted with candidates for City Council. So far, it’s just been incumbents, but the Candidacy period opens on July 15, so if you’re planning on running, hit me up! haywardherald[at]protonmail.com
I’ve synthesized the important parts of the interviews into something that best represents who they are as a candidate. If you want something a little more detailed, let me know.
Meeting Angela Andrews
I met Angela Andrews on April 19th at Eon Coffee on Hesperian Blvd.—her location of choice. We talked for about an hour and a half. I asked her the same list of questions that I’ve asked all candidates, as well as a little more chatting afterward.
The questions tried to get at what Angela Andrews’s vision for the City—not what it can do or has done, but what it should do. I’m still relatively new on the scene—it’s been less than a year—so Andrews seemed a little uncomfortable with the conversation at the start. But by the end, she seemed to have loosened up some, and I think I got a feel for her vision for the City.
Who Is Angela Andrews?
Angela Andrews is, after a very turbulent 2022, the second-most senior member of the Hayward City Council—having been elected in 2020. She’s a Black woman, a mother, and has a background in urban planning. She’s relatively new to the City—having moved here in 2016 because, “it seemed chill compared to other parts of the Bay Area”—but she immediately jumped into civic service as soon as she arrived.
Andrews applied for both the Keep Hayward Clean and Green Task Force (KHCG) and the Planning Commission shortly after she arrived in Hayward. She admitted that she didn’t fully understand how the Planning Commission fit into City politics, but she got on KHCG and that experience has helped inform how she governs. She moved to the Planning Commission two years later, and then successfully ran for City Council in 2020—a 4 year journey from arrival to governance.
During the course of our conversation, several themes came up which shape who Angela Andrews is as a Councilmember: Investment, Amenities, and Identity. These themes came up from over an hour of conversation and get to the heart of how Andrews approaches the City and where she thinks it should be going.
Investment: Rising Tides Lift All Ships
Investing in our community can take a lot of different forms, from picking up litter to small business bailouts to funding social services. And Angela Andrews supports all of these in one form or another.
The most visible way that Andrews has supported social services investment has been through the Hayward Evaluation And Response Team (HEART) program. She has consistently pushed for HEART to be a 24/7 service—held up by mental health providers not being available 24/7—and wants it to be more accessible. Right now, the non-emergency phone number is hardly memorable, so she’s hoping for something more along the lines of 988.
Andrews also said she wanted the City to address homelessness more directly, working with existing nonprofits like Bay Area Community Services (BACS) and others. She lamented safety net gaps, saying that there are people “not poor enough” to get help who, she says, think “I’m just gonna be unhoused because it’s easier.” Though no specific instances were mentioned.
Along the same lines, Andrews wants partnerships with the business community. She’s long been a verbal supporter of the Downtown Streets Team, especially the workforce placement program. She wants the City to work with the business community to bring in jobs for people who live in Hayward, and revitalize the Downtown business corridor.
And while she didn’t say so explicitly, Andrews seemed to invoke the idea that what’s good for the business community is good for everyone. She wanted inclusionary housing, but framed it around local hiring and business development. She insisted amenities are “not just stores, but parks” but then pivoted to banks closing and a need for middle-class department stores. She wanted third spaces, but focused on a coffee shop, where you have to pay to spend time there.
Amenities: Is It More Than Shops?
If there was a word cloud for our conversation, “amenities” would be the biggest one. Angela Andrews described her vision for the City as making it “somewhere people see as thriving for families” and talked a lot about what makes that possible. Amenities were framed as something that Hayward is missing and could also turn around—or cover—a multitude of ills.
As a parent to a young child, Andrews really wanted there to be things for people—especially families—to do. Although Hayward is already home to dozens of parks, facilities, and programs, she said “People feel like they have to go to other cities to do things.” She didn’t elaborate, however, on what that could look like in practice.
When she did get concrete around amenities, Andrews focused on commercial development. Downtown was a particular area of interest, “I want us to get that cute little downtown.” She also highlighted Eon Coffee, where we met, as somewhere that “fosters community engagement”—she’s pushed hard for the inclusion of a café in the plans for the upcoming Stack Center.
But more than anything else, amenities are about perception. Andrews lamented how some people talk down about Hayward—that the business community buys into it, and choose not to invest. She also said that new residents may feel regret about the state of Hayward businesses, “You pay 1.5 million for a house and you don’t even have a TJ Maxx.” And finally, she alleged that in more affluent places—Palo Alto was specifically mentioned—amenities hide the perception of homelessness.
Identity: Who You Are Matters
We all bring our histories and identities with us, and as the only Black woman on the Hayward City Council, Angela Andrews’s identity has been a source of political power and has informed her priorities as a Councilmember.
Although it didn’t come up in the conversation, Andrews has publicly shown that she’s deeply connected to the Black Women’s political scene. She appears to be a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority and seems to have close ties to Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA). As we discussed back in February, these Black political organizations have power in the Hayward area.
Beyond political connections, identity also informs her stance around Public Safety. Andrews was elected in 2020, after the Movement for Black Lives had shaken our country with conversations around police brutality. And while it doesn’t appear as though she’s in favor of defunding the Police, Andrews does frame public safety in terms beyond policing.
She expressed a desire to “reduce those violent interactions” with the Police, and also tied crime to mental health, saying that she’s seen people “breaking windows and not stealing anything.” Andrews also said that safety can come from services, like maintenance and paratransit, “people [residents] can call if they’re in need.” Public safety, she said, is a huge concern, “but we are looking at that balance.”
But what kinds of crimes specifically concern her are also integral to her motherhood. On multiple occasions, she expressed concern for missing children and child trafficking—something that is an issue around the Bay Area, but has thankfully been falling for years. She talked about the Ebony Alert, which identifies missing black young adults, and conversations with California Attorney General Rob Bonta around those who are allegedly hiring young adults to commit crimes.
Conclusion: What Does It All Mean?
If I were to put Angela Andrews into the larger nationwide political spectrum, I’d call her an Obamacrat. From our conversation, her views are largely liberal with her desire for change limited to tempered reform. When we talked about bike ridership she emphasized balancing with drivers and upgrading over time, not building explicitly for bike- and walkability. On public safety she talked about reducing violent interactions, not eliminating them. On housing it was about building for all income levels and helping businesses development, not housing is a human right.
Angela Andrews’s vision for the City seems to be change, so long as it’s not too drastic. It’s impossible to know whether she’s pragmatic or if she doesn’t believe big change is possible—or desirable. The question voters have to ask themselves is whether that’s enough right now.