Harbor Bay Club Opposition Speaks Up

Feedback on the new club idea

Your article on the Cowans’ effort to build a new Harbor Bay Club [“To Build or No to Build,” June] misses one important fact—the money. If the Cowans build 80 new homes on that land and sell them for $1 million each, they get $80 million. The most they could ever get from building offices on their parcel in the business park is $25 million to $30 million. By rezoning the Harbor Bay Club land for housing, they earn windfall profits. While a new health club might be good for Alameda, if the city council is smart, they will insist that a reasonable portion of this profit windfall be donated back to the community.

Larry Popelka via Facebook

 

It’s insulting to the audience that you chose this topic to be your cover story, rather than sticking to the usual fluff. Journalistic ethics would require you to allow an equal amount of space to the opposing view (which you didn’t do in the June issue of Alameda = Oakland “magazine”) as well as transparency in fully disclosing that you’ve taken their money for a most expensive full page ad every month since at least when the Mif Albright “home building swap for golf course land” was first proposed.

Dave Houser via online comments

 

Less Leadership

I trust our mayor will lead as the force of the electorate expects her to [“Deer in the Headlights?” May]. After all, she defeated a candidate backed by the Democratic Party machine. That is no small feat. For the minority feeling a need for more or better leadership, consider this: A little less leadership, or the perception thereof, is better than bad leadership.

Jan Edmunds, Alameda