The people against Measure U are over-reacting to this minor zoning change and they are misleading people about what Measure U will do. The no on U arguments are unfounded, uneducated, unfair and unjust!
Don’t be fooled by the Politicians and their well-meaning but misled supporters.
Many of these people do not live in Fort Bragg and have no business trying to influence zoning ordinances meant to protect our community.
Measure U supports quality social services for our most needy and vulnerable. We want the best for our clients and our community.
Measure U supports all social services in the district before January of 2015, they are grandfathered in.
Yes on Measure U protects and keeps Art Explorers, Project Sanctuary and Parents and Friends in the district. If they must move they have 95% of the community to move to, including the other side of the streets that border the four blocks of the Central Business District.
Yes on Measure U also protects and preserves our small business district for business and tourism, safety and cleanliness. Yes on U preserves the pedestrian friendly character of the district.
Yes on Measure U demands responsible use of tax dollars and the highest quality of services for our most needy and vulnerable.
For over 2 million tax dollars homeless clients should be getting more than 10 beds! This is what MCHC with the help of Fort Bragg City Government has spent in the past couple of years, about $200,000 was for a garden (I’d love to see that financial report).
The CBD is a very small neighborhood -- 4 blocks-in the Commercial District -- zoned for commerce.
Measure U sets reasonable limits on land use in this neighborhood that benefit everyone not just a select, special few.
Measure U insists on compliance with the city’s Municipal Code, General Plan and Economic Development Plan. City government needs to follow these rules and stop bending them for special interest groups.
Measure U makes the point that there aremore and better locations in Fort Bragg for social services outside of the Central Business District’s few blocks.
Service organizations that moved into the district after January 1, 2015 knew that Measure U was going on the ballot in 2016, namely the project in the Old Coast Hotel and they chose to gamble.Case law supports retroactive enforcement when this law passes.
Supporters of Measure U support all social services organizations and want the best services our clients.
Measure U supports professional, appropriately located services for our vulnerableneighbors.
Measure U does not hurt or exclude anyone from the community, it is a new zoning rule that promotes the welfare of the whole community not just one part of the population. The civil rights issues raised are a misinterpretation of the laws they are citing according to what I read.
Measure U makes a positive change for everyone including small business, tourists, property owners, social service organizations, children, elders, and the disabled; everyone who lives in Fort Bragg and visits herebenefits from this change.
U Can Make a Difference in Fort Bragg and Yes is the Smart Choice for U!
And by the way Measure U opponents:
We were told that it is unlawful to leave flyers on doors in the City of Fort Bragg by residents who have run campaigns in the past. The people from Little River and Mendocino knocking on doors in Fort Bragg probably don’t know that. It is also unlawful to remove Yes on Measure U signs from people’s yards. The signs belong to the campaign and removal of them constitutes trespassing and theft. Aggressive solicitation is also unlawful, for example: multiple phone calls to a one business person insisting they remove a sign meets the criteria for aggressive solicitation and is reportable to the police.
Please return any signs you walked away with on Saturday, April 16, 2016 by messaging Yes on Measure U Fort Bragg CA at facebook.com; we’d be happy to come and pick them up, people want them.
Let’s educate ourselves about the rules of the campaign and “play fair.” We are all neighbors and want to debate this issue with civility and fairness for all.
RE: “Yes on Measure U protects and keeps Art Explorers, Project Sanctuary and Parents and Friends in the district.”
Fort Bragg Advocate 03 May, 2016, “Nonprofits ally to fight Measure U”, page 3, The non-profits named in this article have formed the Social Workers Allience, and they say Measure U folks are lying. They will have to move if Measure U passes.
Why are they so convinced?
If RQMC chooses to stay with the Old Coast Motel, it is a done deal. Oh, by the way BB Grace, what is RQMC’s stance on medical marijuana vs. pharmaceuticals? Good luck with that too.
The feeling I got from both RQMG and OMG was they don’t care where Mendo wants services, they care about providing the best services. Mendo says Old Coast Hotel (there’s really no parking for it to be called a motel), or Affinito’s place, they don’t care and why I believe neither corporation is involved in what is a very fight over identity ugly with all the name calling.
If I thought Fort Bragg businesses were greedy and the people NIMBYs and liars, I would leave.
How do you serve a community with those kinds of thoughts about the people? I don’t know.
“Yes on Measure U also protects and preserves our small business district for business and tourism, safety and cleanliness. Yes on U preserves the pedestrian friendly character of the district.” As of right now, without the Old Coast Hotel as a shelter, there are homeless people on the streets of the business district almost every time I go downtown. Voting yes on Measure U and prohibiting this resource won’t make our streets any less safe, clean, or friendly–in fact, the most likely effect of the shelter would be to help homeless and disadvantaged people have a safe, indoor place to sleep and a resource for improving their lives. Rather than being forced to stay out on Fort Bragg’s streets, the homeless would have somewhere better to go; it would in fact be an improvement for all parties.
Measure U does not demand “the highest quality of service for our most needy and vulnerable” because it does not provide an alternate resource for those primarily affected by the bill (i.e. the homeless community)–you say that “homeless clients should be getting more than 10 beds,” and while this is absolutely true Measure U in no way provides more than ten beds; it prohibits the only ten beds beds being provided. Unless supporters of Measure U would like to band together and create a shelter outside of the affected zone with more than ten beds, or amend the resolution to require a similar act, Measure U has an adverse and discriminatory affect against the homeless and therefore the claims that “Measure U does not hurt or exclude anyone from the community” and “Measure U sets reasonable limits on land use in this neighborhood that benefit everyone not just a select, special few” is patently untrue.
It is neither everyone in the community nor necessarily a select, special ‘few’ who benefit from Measure U; all of its benefits are to the faction of people who are of the opinion that the homeless and the non-neurotypeical pose a threat to the “business and tourism, safety and cleanliness” and “pedestrian friendly character of the district.” Our town should not prioritize the delicate sensibilities of the privileged over the physical and mental well-being of its residents, regardless of their class, status, or ability to own a home.
Social services and not tourist services.
How many folks came to Fort Bragg opened up restaurants (not mattress manufactors and sock shops) I’m talking TOURISM. How many open places thinking they would have tourists?
Most.
Let’s look at services:
Social services spend tax money
Tourist services earn tax money
Let’s look at a popular CA tourist town with population under 7K, Catalina:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Catalina_Island,_California
3,400 sustained living jobs on Catalina from tourism
http://www.coastalliving.com/lifestyle/so-you-want-to-live-in/want-live-avalon
Note homeless in Catalina are actually shipped to San Pedro
http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/cgi-bin/id/city.cgi?city=Avalon&state=CA
So let’s look at our Coast as a Catalina.. we see Mendocino Town with it’s Fine Dining, Retired community, shops, expensive houses only an idiot or someone with way too much money would buy, and the help have to travel to work there, so parking sucks, and we have Little River and their golf Course and none of them, like Catalina, have homeless shelters, though, they make more money in tourism.
Why? Because they ship their homeless to Fort Bragg, like Catlina ships homeless to San Pedro.
What’s wrong with Affinitos Social Services building?
What should we put there, Ruth Chris Steak House?
Good points, BB! But what about Ukiah, our county seat with twice the population of Fort Bragg?
Ukiah reminds me of a Tulare County Sheriff who would park himself between some trees, hills, bridges, a lake and Porterville, where the action was. Sheriff had himself a nice place to park where he could watch traffic pass knowing they had no where else to go, but back to the Sheriff.
What’s Ukiah got to worry about? Either they move North or South, and those who come West, well, they get Mendocino’s Finest escort service with a better room and board than most worn out hotels waiting for the tourist industry to kick for all the cancer treatments and HWY restroom seekers. Of Course In and Out Burger is going to change that, and it serves Ukiah right.