In my email inbox this morning was a message sent by Sunnyvale City Council candidate (Seat #1, currently held by Tony Spitaleri) addressing the plight of the Sunnyvale downtown redevelopment project. The project is now fully mired in turmoil due to the economic state of affairs, and progress on the project is crawling along at a snails pace. The set of problems facing the project are fairly well known and have been documented in the local paper, the Sunnyvale Sun, in detail. See here for more information on the race in question.
The Email from Mr. Meyering reads like a grade-school playground taunt of his predecessor's failure to keep the project on track. The language Meyering uses is, in my opinion, excessively negative, childish and sarcastic. A few examples:
"Learn about the financially-shaky foreign lender the current City Council agreed to partner with on the development project"
"Stroll Mathilda Ave, and see the 15-foot rust stains on the new Retail spaces, completed just before the current Council's developer walked away from the project earlier this year"
"Watch as the setting sun casts a gentle glow on your Downtown's diverse types of open beams and steel girders"
I understand that this is a competitive election, despite being non-partisan. And I appreciate the need of each candidate to differentiate themselves from the competition. But what disappointed me most about this email was the fact that it included not a single statement about what Mr. Meyering would do to make things better.
But then again, politics are politics. Right?
The full text of the email can be downloaded here: Download Email
