Letters: A risky project | We need the rain | Clear choice for District 1 | Wood Street doc | Meet the safety board

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Conceptual rendering of the concert venue inside the proposed event center. (Image courtesy Visit Tri-Valley)

A risky project

The Tri‑Valley event center proposal is an attempt to create a new regional economic engine using surplus Alameda County land, financed partly through tax‑linked revenue streams. But the political, fiscal and historical context — especially the Tri‑Valley’s loss of all three major professional sports franchises — makes the project both symbolically charged and structurally risky.

The region’s past inability to sustain major sports teams does not directly predict failure here, but it does highlight longstanding issues: fragmented regional governance, inconsistent public‑funding support and uneven economic priorities among Tri‑Valley cities.

Pleasanton is currently not supportive, citing a structural deficit and concern about subsidizing a privately owned facility. Dublin is cautiously optimistic. Alameda County has asked staff to conduct due diligence.

Although the Oakland Coliseum complex is not physically in the Tri‑Valley, the Tri‑Valley has historically been part of the fan‑base and tax‑base for the A’s, Raiders and Warriors. All three left between 2019-2024. The reasons were multi‑factor:

Fragmented regional political support — Oakland, Alameda County and surrounding cities rarely aligned on stadium financing.

Insufficient public funding commitments — Bay Area voters and councils have historically resisted subsidizing private sports owners.

Aging facilities — The Coliseum and Arena were outdated and required hundreds of millions in upgrades.

Competition from other markets — Las Vegas and San Francisco offered stronger financial packages.

This history matters because the new event center proposal is again asking for public participation in a privately owned venue, and Tri‑Valley cities have historically been reluctant to do so.

– Michael Austin, via online story comment

Narum for District 1

I learned a lot about Pleasanton city finances when I served as chair of the No on PP Campaign two years ago.

The city leadership then – both council majority and city manager – tried to convince us only a sales tax increase could save Pleasanton. Turned out it wasn’t so. Instead, we needed to look at the financial tools Kathy Narum and other previous council members had the foresight to implement more than eight years ago to cover increased city retirement expenses.

Cycles are part of financial life. Kathy led the effort to create the Section 115 Pension Trust Fund and it’s that savings account that’s being very carefully used today to help balance Pleasanton’s budget.

Kathy is stepping up again to serve on the City Council to help us avoid the sky-is-falling experience we faced in the last election. With Kathy back on the City Council, our mayor and the council can have a knowledgeable partner in making sure we have adequate water supplies, effective public safety services, maintained infrastructure – all within a balanced budget based upon facts and good decisions.

Please join me in supporting Kathy Narum for City Council, representing District 1. We need Kathy’s steady hand that comes from owning her own business, serving on local nonprofits, Pleasanton commissions and the City Council, as well as the Zone 7 Board of Directors, and demonstrating her impressive ability to represent our interests.

– Doug Miller

Meet the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

Come and meet the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, an independent federal oversight entity charged with protecting the health and safety of employees and the public at U.S. defense nuclear facilities, including Livermore Lab.

DNFSB will hold a public meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 5:30 p.m. at the Livermore Library, 1188 S. Livermore Ave. The meeting is part of a national tour by DNFSB staff in communities around the nuclear sites it monitors.

The board was created by Congress in 1988 due to the number and severity of radiation accidents that were occurring in the nuclear weapons complex, including at Livermore Lab.

For decades, DNFSB has had access to facilities and information it has needed to perform its duties. Its safety recommendations have been largely heeded, operational changes have been made, and radiation accidents have been reduced, although not eliminated.

This is changing. DNFSB’s oversight is under attack. The board’s July 2026 Report to Congress details “the most significant” denials of access and information in DNFSB’s history.

Challenges to DNFSB are happening at the very time that Livermore Lab has increased its plutonium activities to support development of new warheads and a nationwide plutonium bomb core production program that will produce them.

I will be there. I invite my friends and neighbors to welcome the DNFSB staff to our community, and learn more about their essential nuclear safety role.

– Marylia Kelley

Wood Street documentary

There will be a screening of the documentary, “Wood Street,” at the Vine Cinema in Livermore on Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. The film follows the sweeping of the Wood Street Commons encampment in Oakland, where about 300 unhoused people lived. Here’s a link with more info about the film: www.woodstmovie.com.

The director of the documentary, Caron Creighton, will be at the screening for Q&A and it’s likely that some of the folks featured in the film will be on hand as well.

We’d like to have a good turnout from local policymakers and influential organizations at the screening. A number of these are included on this invite.

Let’s have a good Tri-Valley turnout. Tell friends and family – this will be an evening to remember! Purchase tickets on the Vine Cinema website.

– Ward Kanowsky, co-founder, Indivisible Tri-Valley

We need rain for our water supply to last

We need the rain to come for our water, but our extreme air and ground traffic blows tremendous amounts of heat, drying out the moisture to be in clouds for us to have rain.

And if the rain comes it’s stormy because of the heat from this traffic because this heat feeds the winds to be very strong and unpredictable winds. Also this extreme traffic takes away our water and makes it harder to grow our food.

We must lockdown transportation one week at a time to calm down the earth for our rain to come back. With the 2020 lockdown the rain came back after one year or so; that’s how long it took for the rain to drop on us.

Please help me voice out that we must lockdown transportation one week at a time.

– Erlinda Jandeleit