Housing Advocate: Rebecca Cohn
Cohn says she'll focus on transportation, education
The Saratoga News will profile all six candidates for the District 24 Assembly seat before the March 7 election. --Editor
By Kara Chalmers
Rebecca Cohn emerged from her car under an umbrella during last week's torrential rains, and before she even took a chair inside, she wanted to talk about traffic. The Saratogan, who commutes to work in Alameda and travels the world as an international business consultant, sees how bad it has gotten in the Valley and how much better it could be.
"As one of the people who sits in it, it's horrific," she said.
The economy has gone through a dramatic reversal in the past 10 years, and the high-tech success of the Silicon Valley has driven a large part of it, Cohn said, but there are drawbacks to that success.
"We are driving the economy of the world, and we can't drive to work," she said. Gridlocked roads go to the heart of questions about the quality of the "good" life here, she said. Much time is wasted in the hours working parents spend in their cars trying to get home to their families.
Cohn is a Democratic candidate for the District 24 seat in the state Assembly. She proposes the state budget surplus on a combination of transportation and education in the Valley--the place she says generated the surplus in the first place. She specifically proposes more spending on mass transit, more and better expressways and more incentives for people to telecommute. She also supports SCA 3, a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would allow more sales-tax revenue to fund transportation if a simple majority of voters want it to. Gov. Davis said he will not support this amendment, which changes a two-thirds vote to a simple majority vote.
"If we're fed up with traffic and willing to tax ourselves on that issue, we should be able to do that," Cohn said.
In her quest to improve the quality of life for working families in the Valley, Cohn also proposes to raise the salaries, benefits and training for teachers. She also supports additional reductions in class sizes. In fact, education is Cohn's top priority, she says.
"Until we begin to pay teachers like the professionals they are, we're going to lose them," she said. "Most teachers can't afford to live in the Valley. We need them to be part of our community, not just guests during the day."
She also sees a need for improvement in health care, especially that of the elderly. A strong proponent of a "patient's bill of rights," Cohn says efforts to decrease the cost of health care have been placed above the quality of care. "I think we need to reverse that," she said. She remembers how much better it used to be when she was in the health field as a physical therapist, she says. Cohn especially wants to see better standards for nursing homes, specifically better staff-to-patient ratios, more timely response to resident complaints and more professionally trained staff.
"The people who came up with all the ideas for technology, the people who lived through hard times to make sure their kids had opportunities, they were the greatest investors in our present way of life, and we are not prepared to take care of them the way they deserve," she said. "We are all going to be there one day. I think as a nation and as a community, who we are is reflected by how well we treat people."
Fifteen years ago, Cohn came to the Valley as a single parent. It was difficult even then to afford housing here, and she could not afford to buy a house, she said.
Her personal experience and her sense of fairness lead her to believe that no community should shirk its duty to provide low and moderate-income housing. Right now, Campbell and San Jose absorb much of the state's requirements for high-density housing in this county, and other communities in the area continue to be out of compliance with the state's rules.
"I think we need to hold our communities accountable for the rule," she said. "The regulation is there for a reason--to take care of balance in communities. ... The children who grow up here need to grow up around diversity. ... It's about making sure everyone in Silicon Valley has a shot at the new economy and new prosperity that's being created here."
Even a small change in houses per acre could make a big difference, Cohn said. The failure of some communities to comply contributes to the unbearable transportation problems in the Valley, she said, as people like teachers, firemen, policemen, and young workers in general travel from far-away communities to work here.
Cohn has never held elected office, but she has worked extensively with the state Legislature for years. Before her current job as an international business consultant, she owned her own consulting business. She says she has the experience and knowledge to "hit the ground running" in the Legislature and will not need much time to learn the ropes, which is essential in this age of term limits, she said.
A strong advocate for battered women, women's issues rank high on her list of interests, but she also has business interests.
Cohn lived in Los Gatos before she moved to Saratoga nine years ago.
|
Saratoga, California Since 1955
