Thusan Amarasiriwardena is a newcomer to Alameda politics but we like his focus on building housing and car-free living. We especially like his goal that Alameda should be a place where every child is able to walk or bike to school safely. Most of all, it seems that Amarasiriwardena is focused on tangible outcomes for residents. He wants to improve housing permitting timelines, developing and meeting transit service goals, and delivering needed infrastructure. This is a refreshing perspective for local government.

For Alameda Mayor, we endorse CM Malia Vella. As a member of council, Vella has been a leader in supporting housing development – especially at Alameda Point. She has also been heavily involved in efforts to help get unhoused people into housing with transitional housing projects. In suburban Alameda Vella has also been an advocate for renters protection. We also appreciate Vella’s work to make Alameda a more multi-modal city for transport with investments in safe street infrastructure and improvements to roadways and signals for buses.

CM Mourra has been a vocal champion of housing, transit, and safe streets during his time on council. He was one of key votes supporting Emeryville’s 40th Street Multimodal Project, adding a mile of transit lanes and protected bike lanes along one of Emeryville’s most important corridors. He is also a large supporter of Emeryville’s pro-housing designation and has been finding ways to reduce development costs and streamline housing development. He has also spent years on Emeryville’s Transportation and Sustainability Committee, helping direct city staff to decrease reliance on private automobiles in future city projects. Our endorsement joins those by the majority of Emeryville’s city council, State Senator Jesse Arreguín, the Alameda County Democrats, The Sierra Club, and more.

Corry Frydlewicz is unapologetically devoted to safe streets and building a more walkable community. She cites direct benefits to businesses, community, and overall vibrancy when we build cities in ways that are not reliant on private automobiles. Corry also joins the wave of pro-housing progressives that believe in both protecting our renters and increasing housing supply at all income levels to drive down rents, philosophies that are highly valued by East Bay For Everyone. We believe that she will be a strong voice towards continuing Emeryville’s trend of being the pro-housing, walkable gem of the East Bay. As a first time candidate, she has managed to earn the endorsements of the Alameda County Democrats, East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club, California Democratic Renters Council, SEIU Local 1021, and more.

We endorse James Maes for the next Mayor of San Leandro. He is a fresh voice who has spoken strongly for enabling housing and safe streets citywide, even when they inconvenience existing interests. He also brings experience as an engineer, public servant and regular transit rider, and supports the continued improvement of tenant protections.

We’re recommending Ross Bernet for Berkeley City Council D1 for his dedication to housing and safe streets. While serving on the Sierra Club’s executive committee, he’s consistently supported and voted for housing, bike lanes and pedestrian safety, and transit over cars. He is also the only candidate in this crowded race who contributed to the Measure FF campaign, the battle to bring safety improvements to Berkeley’s streets, rather than just repaving them to make it smoother for cars. Finally, he has earned the endorsement of a number of elected officials that we admire and trust: Councilmembers Rashi Kesarwani, Terry Taplin, and Mark Humbert, as well as superstar Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. We strongly support Ross for Berkeley.

We support CM Igor Tregub for re-election to Berkeley City Council District 4. CM Tregub has been a consistent supporter of all approaches to housing (produce, preserve, protect) while on council. With his latest vote in favor of the Hopkins bike lanes, we are excited to see CM Tregub becoming a bigger champion for safe streets in Berkeley. In addition, we appreciate his commitments to working on an updated transit priority policy for Berkeley with transit service goals.

We support Syrak Micael for Berkeley City Council District 7. Syrak champions an all-of-the-above approach to housing that includes building housing at all income levels, funding affordable housing, advancing social housing, and supporting robust tenant protections. In his service on Berkeley’s Housing Advisory Commission he has voted to support housing construction and he is strongly supportive of Vision Zero / traffic safety projects. One of his signature safety policies will be continuing CM Lunaparra’s work on making Telegraph Avenue car-free near campus, a long-term priority of our organization.

Councilmember Mark Humbert readily earns our endorsement for re-election to Berkeley City Council District 8. In his strong first term, CM Humbert has taken tough positions in favor of housing, including the Middle Housing Ordinance and housing along Berkeley’s commercial corridors, and has been a vocal supporter for adding more housing in the Claremont District. Not just his votes, but also his comments on the dais, demonstrate that he truly understands the importance of building homes and embracing change in order to solve our housing crisis. In addition to his housing work, we appreciate Humbert’s consistent support for safer streets, including his vote for the Hopkins Street bike lane, and better transit in Berkeley and the region writ large.

CM Charlene Wang is our pick for Oakland D2. Wang has served a half term and has been a consistent supporter of housing in her district and Oakland generally. One of her major wins was to implement transit-oriented upzoning bill SB79 in her district as soon as the law came into effect, years sooner than the citywide plan, a crucial stand that rippled to neighboring jurisdictions. CM Wang also has touted her efforts to add more homeownership options through AB 1033 ADU conversions and we appreciate her focus on improving transit and safe streets as well. Going forward she intends to lower the cost of construction (faster permitting, simpler standards, and more flexible unit sizes) and continue to work on improving Oakland’s response to homelessness.

CM Kevin Jenkins gets our nod for re-election. Since being elected in 2022 he has supported Oakland wide re-zonings as part of the Housing Element process, including fourplexes and upzoning Rockridge. CM Jenkins told EB4E that he believes the best way to reduce homelessness is prevention, which includes rental assistance and a functioning rental market. Furthermore we appreciate CM Jenkins willingness to support service-led planning and transit priority for bus service in Oakland. Finally, CM Jenkins expressed a desire to streamline Oakland’s procurement process for safe streets infrastructure investment so dollars go further to ensure Oaklanders can get around safely.

A founding member of East Bay for Everyone, Valencia is an everyday rider on the AC Transit system. Centering her campaign on the rider experience, Adriana calls out three focus areas of Reliability, Affordability and Accountability. She sees good governance as a requisite element of any progress at the agency, even throwing herself into the fray by filing suit against the District over the half-million dollar sweetheart deal engineered by her opponent, Joel Young, to outgoing GM Michael Hursh at the end of 2024. Her consistent advocacy over the years portends a vigorous role in delivering better service and a greater rider focus going forward. Adriana has earned the endorsement of the Alameda County Democratic Party, and disparate groups from Empower Oakland to Our Revolution, and elected officials Buffy Wicks, Nikki Fortunato Bas, Lena Tam, Zac Unger, and current and former transit officials Rebecca Salzman, Jean Walsh, Sarh Syed, along with many transit advocates.

A current Board Director and professional planner, researcher and policy expert, Sarah Syed has been focused on both rider labor needs. It was Syed who brought nighttime service displacement on Broadway in Oakland into the spotlight, and was instrumental in getting that service restored. While she faced blowback from management and its allies on the Board, she has persisted in her focus to improve how the District sets its priorities and delivers service to the community. She is endorsed by both the Sierra Club and AC Dems, as well as elected stars like Jesse Arreguin, Charlene Wang, Kevin Jenkins, Lena Tam, Nate Miley, Jean Walsh and Barnali Ghosh, and across the spectrum from The Wellstone Democratic Club and Empower Oakland.