District 1 Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez (right) and supporters on Santa Barbara's Eastside | Credit: Courtesy

The other week, Eastside Councilmember Alejandra Gutierrez awakened to discover every single campaign sign on her street stolen overnight, yet another attempt to intimidate her.

It didn’t work. She dutifully put them all back up.

I live in West Downtown, where a fairly bromantic election for our councilmember is underway. Neighbors on my block have opposing candidate signs, and we’re still friendly. I’m backing Oscar, as he’s been responsive and helpful to my community.

Contrast that with the Eastside, where a good incumbent running for re-election is repeatedly hit with smears and rampant sign-stealing.

Our local media isn’t covering it, but they also don’t understand the double patriarchy Latina candidates live under. Feminists rose against Donald Trump globally in the Women’s March in 2017, striking back at the patriarchy. But there’s also a Latino patriarchy, with very different expectations and demands of female candidates. Few white feminists have navigated both patriarchies, so in maligning Alejandra, they are demonstrating their stunning lack of cultural competency. Gossip-mongering fake feminists in the Democratic Party and District 4 are viciously attacking Alejandra, and influencing the endorsements process and media to land their blows:

  • “Alejandra missed meetings.” She had a serious health concern. The research of fierce feminists in Democratic Women of Santa Barbara County showed Alejandra missed seven council meetings. Mike Jordan (who also takes representing community very seriously) missed eight. Why is Alejandra being held to a different standard?
  • Alejandra suffered a condition that only strikes women and endured repeat hospitalizations. Women’s health is widely known to be under-funded and under-researched. Yet powerful white women maligned Alejandra. Feminists would have rallied around her, called for more funding, research, and less discrimination for women’s health.
  • A high-dollar fundraiser was just held in District 4 for Alejandra’s opponent. The promise of district elections is “local” representation. That opposition candidate seems to be bought and paid for, by forces outside District 1. She’s a “carpetbagger that just moved to the district,” according to Cruzito Cruz, also running, in a media blackout.

Her opponents want rent control. I agree that the rent is too high. My landlord is a mom-and-pop who has kept our rent as low as she could. She should not be unfairly penalized by sweeping, one-size-fits-all Draconian ordinances, when the real villain is profit-seeking investment firms, mostly from outside Santa Barbara, who hoover up apartment complexes, evict everyone, throw up a little paint, and jack the rent. Mom-and-pop landlords prefer long term, stable tenants and keep rents lower. Yet, those pushing for rent control see them as “greedy.”

I talked with the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Housing – she made the documentary film Push that explains exactly how giant investment firms are taking over housing and pressing higher rents, globally. A city fighting off these forces should follow Alejandra’s lead, and push for a real solution for all of us, renters and small landlords, instead of pandering in fear to the loud megaphone set.

Alejandra also knows the sales tax hike on the ballot will be borne by working families, struggling with inflation, not the wealthy vacation homeowners of District 4.

Alejandra is hands-on in her community and stands up for her constituents, though she gets little credit or media coverage. Eastside families have benefitted from her representation, fulfilling the promise of district elections, while outside forces are trying to subvert it.

I stand with Alejandra for the Eastside.

Sharon Byrne was executive director of the Milpas Community Association on the Eastside for five years and now directs the Women’s Liberation Front.

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