Should SLO voters stick with Mayor Heidi Harmon? Yes — and here’s why
You may not agree with her progressive politics or her outspoken style of governance, yet Mayor Heidi Harmon stands out as the most experienced and qualified candidate on the ballot.
Harmon is very much on a mission to make San Luis Obispo a better place — meaning more environmentally friendly, more diverse, more tolerant, more affordable and more accessible.
She was a driving force behind the City Council’s ambitious 2018 decision to set a goal of being carbon neutral by 2035 — and of the much-maligned ordinance encouraging that new residences be outfitted with all-electric appliances.
Following the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests in San Luis Obispo, she proposed allocating $160,000 for diversity programs, along with the appointment of a new Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Task Force.
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She inspired a huge debate over values when she questioned the appropriateness of placing a statue of Theodore Roosevelt in a city park — a project that wound up being dropped.
In other words, Harmon is not a laid-back, go-with-the-flow kind of mayor. She’s proactive, she raises questions, she challenges assumptions, and she sets goals that at times seem almost impossible to achieve.
She couldn’t be elected in, say, Atascadero or Paso, but she’s a good fit for the city of San Luis Obispo, and she deserves a third term.
Again, Harmon is not universally loved.
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She’s been attacked by the right — Supervisor Lynn Compton once referred to her ideas as “beyond the fringe” — and some on the left have questioned her decisions on development; one Facebook post referred to her as “a developer in green drag.”
Overall, we’ve found that Harmon is thoughtful and willing to compromise, and she admits when she’s wrong.
For example, when she tweeted out a message that she was “quitting” Amazon — a statement quickly interpreted as a call for a boycott — she followed up with an apology.
“For any frustration or hurt that caused members of our community, and our neighbors who work at Amazon, I apologize,” she wrote in a Tribune Viewpoint.
(She also included a dig at the media, calling on us to be “precise and honest” in our portrayal of facts.)
Looking ahead
If she’s reelected — and we believe she should be — we’d like to see Harmon push harder for policies that would ensure more affordable homes are built.
One of Harmon’s challengers, Earth Day Alliance Director Sandra Marshall, suggests the city require at least 25% of homes in new projects be affordable. That’s a good place to start.
Another of Harmon’s challengers, downtown business owner Cherisse Sweeney, is calling for more safety and security in the downtown.
“I wouldn’t even let my kids walk into Mission Plaza by themselves because I didn’t feel like it was safe,” she told New Times. “I have to usher people out of the store often who wander in who are usually intoxicated or high. This was before COVID.”
We don’t disagree that downtown needs more attention, though right now the focus must be on helping businesses survive the pandemic.
Sweeney — who is considered the biggest threat to Harmon’s reelection — makes some valid points, but she comes across as a single-issue candidate whose main goal is the betterment of the downtown commercial district. That’s way too narrow of a focus.
She’s also taken some heat for moving into the city limits just recently, in order to run for mayor.
On top that, none of the challengers has previous political experience.
That would it make it tough to take on the city’s top leadership position even in normal times, and these times are anything but normal.
The city needs to recover financially from the COVID-19 shutdown; hire a new police chief; address the inequities raised by BLM protesters; work on providing more affordable housing; continue to try to meet clean energy goals; and deal with the impending closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
Heidi Harmon is in the best position to lead the city in these unprecedented times.
The Tribune strongly recommends voters reelect San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon.
This story was originally published October 11, 2020 at 5:30 AM.