Meet Blake Hooper, District 5 Candidate For Petaluma City Council

PETALUMA, CA—The upcoming Nov. 5 general municipal election marks the second time Petaluma has held a district-based election.

The city has been mapped into six districts with nearly equal populations; residents of each district vote for one eligible candidate to represent them on the City Council.

Districts 1, 2 and 3 were the first three districts to elect district representatives in 2022. Districts 4, 5 and 6 will elect district representatives on Nov. 5.

Seven candidates are vying for three seats —one in each district. Patch sent the candidates an identical list of questions.

In District 5, candidates Blake Hopper and Alex DeCarli are vying for one council seat. See Hopper's responses below. At the time of publication, Patch had not heard back from DeCarli with his responses.

Full name: Blake Hooper

Age: 34

Hometown: Petaluma

Did you attend college? If so, where and what level of degree did you earn?
"I attended UC Santa Cruz and earned a degree in Politics, and studied at the University of San Francisco for a masters in Public Administration."

How long have you lived in Petaluma? "I’ve lived in Petaluma, and District 5 for almost my entire life, minus a few years for college. I was raised in District 5 on Grevillia Drive off of I Street. I live in the fifth district now with my phenomenal wife Iliana — where we plan to raise a family."

What is your party affiliation? Democrat

Have you ever held public office? If so, what, when and where? No

Why did you decide to run for Petaluma City Council?

"I want to represent the people of the fifth district to be their advocate and bridge to the city. I want to fight to make sure Petaluma protects what we love while building what we need. I grew up in a Petaluma of vibrant working multi-generational families. That Petaluma is rapidly slipping away. This is why I’ve worked hard to build up skills and experience on housing, economic policy, direct community services, and much more. I want to fight for our home and the community that helped raise me."

What are the main issues facing your district?

• "Housing is Increasingly Unattainable - The number one issue that I hear at almost every door is the cost of housing. Families have been driven apart in our community - with kids and grandkids moving far away, and parents and grandparents struggling to stay in town. The cost of housing has made home ownership practically out of reach for most families, and especially difficult for seniors looking to downsize. I personally feel this problem, having come from a working family in Petaluma. My wife and I have been renters for the past decade and still work to one day own a home. Petaluma is missing critically needed units that can allow young families to have an onramp into home ownership and also allow seniors to downsize if they so choose. These units include row housing, duplexes, quadplexes, cottage units and other similar unit types that have limited square footage but can be designed to look beautiful while still remaining affordable. I’ve also heard repeatedly at the doors how hard it is to try and build an ADU in this city. This is why I would like to push for standardized ADU plans that are already pre-reviewed so that homeowners have an option to easily and affordably add ADU’s onto their properties."
• "Traffic Congestion & Unsafe Transit Conditions - the D street bridge bottlenecks traffic from shipping, folks bypassing the freeway, and everyday city traffic. This is why we, in the fifth district, need the Caulfield Cross Town Connector to split freeway and shipping traffic across multiple routes. We lack designated safety routes for students to be able to easily bike to Grant, McDowell or Petaluma High School without risk of accidents. We also lack street lights to ensure safety for drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians at night - many parents have expressed to me just how scared they get when their kids are coming home after sundown for this very reason. The fifth district has limited access to public transit because of the narrowness of our streets- we need more shuttle-sized bus options to ensure the availability of public transit outside of our downtown and Petaluma Boulevard South. We lack a complete streets policy that ensures bikes, cars and public transit can work together in harmony along a given corridor - rather than being pitted against each other. The city has worked hard to improve our overall road quality, but the long-term schedule for road repair should be easily accessible to the public. Finally, our sidewalks are currently the responsibility of already overburdened home owners, who then have to pay an encroachment fee to take any action. We need to look at bringing sidewalk repair back into city responsibility over the next five years - prioritizing those areas where seniors and individuals with limited mobility would have issues getting around. Overall, and especially in the fifth district, we have a significant problem when it comes to pedestrian access for individuals with limited mobility."
• "Developing Community Driven Design Guidelines - As a planning commissioner, I’ve had to watch many aesthetically unfortunate projects go through approval because we didn’t have community driven design standards in place, which meant we were severely limited on what we could legally challenge on those projects. Regardless of concerns around height and mass, we will always be at risk of having questionable buildings in precious areas like our historic downtown until we have these standards in place. We need these standards to come from a community driven process with facilitators trained in conflict resolution to help bridge divides so we can come out with a shared vision. I also want to see us transition to a majority in-house planning department over the next 10 years, so we have staff who can focus more on long-term planning and policies like design standards."
• "Meaningful Community Engagement - Recent events around D street and the downtown have highlighted the work that is needed to create robust and meaningful community engagement processes and structures within the city. Our planning - for example - needs to be reworked to bring community engagement into the process near the beginning: utilizing trained facilitators to take in community input. This may not be required for every project, but it’s time we add the staffing and skills necessary to be able to consistently bring these processes to the forefront when engaging in large and sensitive projects where the needs of the community must be carefully balanced. Alongside these changes to process, we need more communications staff and resources who can help the city regularly take critical information and make it accessible to the public - whether it be about road repair, changes in street design, or major development projects."
• "Local Economic Opportunity - We need to bring in more light- and medium-manufacturing businesses, along with skilled and trained labor contracts, to help our existing workforce live and work in Petaluma. I’ve talked to countless residents who travel multiple counties away to utilize valuable skills that we could be employing in Petaluma. The more we diversify Petaluma’s economic activity the better we will weather future recessions and natural disasters that would otherwise reduce economic activity from tourism."
• "Protecting our Environment and Way of Life - Our city has passed ambitious climate mitigation plans and a climate blueprint. We need to see these plans translated into action through implementation within our next general plan and our building code. We also need to preserve our urban growth boundaries which help prevent urban sprawl by Passing Measure Y, and help protect our agricultural heritage by voting no on Measure J."
• "Working Together With Petaluma City Schools - Our school campuses need support for meaningful wellness centers and added programming that they can’t fully afford on their own. Outside of ensuring we have safe routes to school, we need to prioritize having robust early support for students while they are on campus. Working families have been especially impacted since recovering the pandemic and need the extra support. This is why I want to see the city and our school districts partner on programs where combined resources can help create positive early outcomes that reduce the likelihood of needed services later in life."
• "Expanding Parks on the West Side - We don’t have enough parks for baseball, soccer, and pickleball on the west side of town, let alone in the Fifth District. I grew up practicing soccer at Cavanaugh and can attest to the need for renovations."
• "Protecting Local Control - We just recently had a project move through approval that couldn’t be modified or rejected. In short, state law completely tied our hands. The city will need to identify potential SB 330 project sites and begin to prioritize the zoning code changes, land use agreements, and other infrastructure needs that will need to be in place to prepare for these projects as they come forward. We can mitigate the impact of these projects to better ensure that they add to our city, but only if we prepare ahead of time."

Tell us about yourself and your family.

"My mom is a U.S. Army veteran who came here from Wisconsin when she was stationed at the Presidio. She has been a dedicated volunteer at St. Vincents. My dad is retired, but used to work in data science and has directed many choir groups. He’s from Maryland. When my family came to Petaluma they were seeking a community where they could raise a child who would have community, roots and opportunity. They couldn’t necessarily afford it, but through a lot of hard work, sacrifice and some good luck, they were able to raise me here in the fifth district. I got to grow up with Mr. Hash’s farm over my back fence, on a street full of houses with other young families growing up alongside me. Other than a few years for college, I’ve lived in Petaluma for as long as I can remember. During my youth, my parents and our community made Petaluma a phenomenal place to grow up. But as I got older, many of my neighbors struggled; until one by one they started to move away from the city they loved. This sparked my resolve to do everything I could to help families like them do better.
"After attending elementary school and junior high in Petaluma – even spending a few years going to school in the portable buildings in the fairgrounds – my adolescent schooling finished up traveling by bus to Technology High School in Rohnert Park. If not for public transit, I would have been deprived of the education that inspired me to serve on Petaluma’s Transit Advisory Committee as an adult. I spent my college years in Santa Cruz, learning exactly how governments at all levels can help people in smaller cities like Petaluma.
"A year after graduating college, I went to a community organizing retreat where I met my wife, Iliana. She shares in my love of Petaluma (it didn’t take much convincing), and a commitment to public service that has only strengthened our bond over the years. We got married at St Vincents, where I’d been an altar server growing up, and Iliana made me promise that this was the place where we’d raise our family.
"Iliana has an amazing capacity for love and compassion and has brought that spirit to every aspect of her own service to this community. We have worked together through thick and thin – both working for U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman. She ran a food distribution center during COVID and that serviced thousands of residents all over Sonoma County and currently works to fight for working people. She is also an amazing dancer.
"Growing up next to Petaluma’s greenbelt was a special experience for me that I believe more of us should get to share in. So, after graduating college with a BA in Politics, I got straight to work for the people of Sonoma County. I went to work with Sonoma County Conservation Action to help residents all over Sonoma County advocate for more parks and open spaces, protections for our agricultural land, and combating urban sprawl. This led to my advocating for Measure M, making sure our County Parks – including Helen Putnam Regional Park – are properly funded and open to everyone.
"Growing up with a U.S. Army veteran for a mother, I understood the value of, and the troubles facing, the VA. My upbringing helped me to realize the need that veterans all over Sonoma County and Petaluma have for benefit assistance. That is why I was proud to serve as a caseworker and field representative for Congressman Jared Huffman, starting in 2016. There, I helped the people of Sonoma and Marin counties who’d fallen through the cracks navigate the Federal Government to obtain their benefits and secure expanded housing opportunities for veterans. In the aftermath of the Tubbs Fire, I helped survivors navigate FEMA and the SBA so they could begin to rebuild their lives.
"In 2019 I joined the California State Senate as a Legislative Aide. My daily commute between Petaluma and Sacramento is worth every minute; because it means that I can help the state design programs that benefit the people of cities like Petaluma. I’ve been especially interested in working on building better responses to wildfires and floods, home insurance, and of course, improving housing affordability so that families like mine can afford to stay in the places they love.
Since 2016, I’ve volunteered on boards and commissions at the city and county level. Beyond the Transit Advisory Committee, I’ve served on the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, the Youth Commission, and since 2020, on the Planning Commission, including a year serving as Chair."

Is there anything else you would like voters to know?

"I have worked hard to build a record in this community of dedication and service. I’ve committed myself to public service, and to the city of Petaluma, because this is my home and I don’t want to watch more people forced out of our wonderful community. We can do the work to protect what we love while building what we need. We can bridge the divides that have erupted over recent issues and come together again. I’m committed to being a bridge between the fifth district and the city, and to fight for you everyday as your councilmember. My leadership style is pretty simple - engage with the community where they are at, listen, ask questions, and collect the facts before making any decision. This is part of why I’ve been endorsed by the Sonoma County Democratic Party, the Sierra Club, the North Bay Labor Council and many local community members."

Please provide your campaign website and social media handles.
Blakehooper.com
IG: hooperforcouncil
FB: hooperforcouncil

What is the best way for voters to reach you?
By Phone: 707-338-8187
By Email: blake@blakehooper.com