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Greg Unangst a Strong Candidate for Mountain View Council

Original post made by Allen Henderson, Old Mountain View, on Oct 15, 2014

In the October 10 issue of the Voice, I noted with interest that Greg Unangst is the only candidate for Mountain View City Council that has not accepted campaign donations from anyone other than himself. Several of the other candidates have accepted significant donations from developers, landlord associations and other special-interest groups. With issues related to development and housing prominent in Mountain View’s future, it would be well to have someone on the council that is not beholden to these interests. Greg is such a person

Prior to my retirement, I had the experience of working with Greg as a staff engineer assigned to a project that he managed for a large national aerospace program. I saw that Greg takes a thoughtful, considered approach to working with diverse personalities and complex technical and organizational issues. Primarily a consensus-builder, he can take a strong stand when necessary. Once a course of action is determined, he is skilled in marshaling and utilizing available resources in the push to completion.

As a West Point graduate, and decorated Army combat commander, as holder of an MBA from Wharton School, an MS in Engineering from U Penn, and a Master’s degree from NYU in Public Policy; Greg certainly has the educational background to prepare him well for service on the Council. Education, independence, and real-world experience are attributes that Greg Unangst can bring if elected to the Mountain View City Council. I think we would do well to vote for him.

Comments (3)

Posted by Lilly
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Oct 15, 2014 at 11:43 am

You say that Greg is not beholden to any special interest groups and yet he has been endorsed by Evolve ( evolve-ca.org ), which is definitely a special interest group that bills themselves as a "community organization", but has endorsed candidates throughout the State of California.

Greg also attended last night's City Council meeting with an Evolve representative and went to talk with him after the representative gave his speech during the part of the meeting reserved for input on non-agenda items. It looks to me like he is very beholden to at least one special interest!

There is only one candidate in this race that has refused to accept money or endorsements from any special interest group and that is Jim Neal! Over the last few years he has proven that he is resident focused and has proven it by interceding with the Council on behalf of residents and Mountain View small business owners.


Posted by hmmm...
a resident of Blossom Valley
on Oct 15, 2014 at 2:49 pm

I don't like that he funded his campaign all by himself. That shows that he doesn't have support from his constituency in the city. And I definitely don't like that.

All it shows is that he couldn't get somebody to donate to his campaign so he had to just do it himself.


Posted by concerned citizen
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Oct 15, 2014 at 8:01 pm

The sources of a candidate's funding are certainly worth paying attention to, and will figure into my decision on who to vote for. I think that self-funding is a kind of neutral attribute, that doesn't tell us very much about the candidate.

My problem with Mr. Unangst is the vision he has for Mountain View. Listening to the candidate forums, it seems that he has signed on to the concept of building as much housing as possible, as fast as possible, in an effort to balance jobs with housing. I don't think it is possible to achieve this balance. We could ruin the city trying to do it. It would be a bonanza for developers, but residents would pay the price. It looks to me as though candidates Siegel, Showalter, Unangst, and Rosenberg are all on this mistaken track.

Mr. Unangst seems to think that we could build to the maximum without creating disastrous traffic congestion, if we aggressively promote non-auto forms of transit. Unfortunately, I think that this is just wishful thinking.


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