Dave Williamson Comments on East End Homicide

Editor,

I'm sure that the one surviving relative of the lady who got hit by that house would agree that the real tragedy here lies not in the crushed and lifeless body of her beloved sister, but rather in the heart-rending fiscal excesses revealed by my analysis of the City of Alameda's budgetary allocations. I'm confident that she fully supports my use of the incident to advance my political cause du jour; after all, if I had failed to do so, her sister would have died in vain.

So, to return to the heart of the matter, the location of that fallen structure is almost right next door to Alameda Fire Station 1, and that station is not suffering from "brown-nosing" like Bay Farm Island's fire station, so the medical response for the housing victim couldn't have been impacted. The City of Alameda, dare I say, "got lucky" this time: if not for a happy accident of staffing, the victim could have been even more dead by the time paramedics arrived. And what about the next victim of a falling shack, house, barn or skyscraper, should an event occur on Bay Farm Island while that station's crew is busy "brown nosing," or rescuing a kitten caught in a tree? Just how dead will these instantly-killed victims have to be before the City takes action?

According to a dog-and-pony show being trotted out to various groups in Alameda by the so-called City Treasurer, the City of Alameda spends a whole bunch of money on something called "General Administration." Why are Alameda residents being forced to suffer "brown-nosing" at our fire stations while the City wastes untold millions of taxpayer dollars ministering to the whims of a bunch of military commanders?

But it gets worse…much worse. I looked into this, and I found that there is an even bigger category called the "General Fund." Why does Alameda even need Generals, or an army, for that matter? Perhaps Council should also look at changing the composition of Alameda's armed forces, perhaps demoting all of those fancy-pants Generals to Colonels or Majors. Then we could get rid of General Administration, the General Fund, and everything else related to Generals!

Dave Williamson