My group was a critique of his Facebook saturation campaign and his failure to describe who he is. The basis of it was a critique I wrote of the start of his campaign on September 1st titled: Berkeley City Politics Gets Alittle Creepier on Facebook! I actually agree with most of what he has to say. Here is the subject content of the group that I wrote:
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Dear Mr. Beier,
You've never told us who you are or where you come from. Never said why we should trust you. What are your political credentials? What's your track record?
Few people know of your alleged role in shutting down La Chateau student co-op. What else have you done with the Willard Neighborhood association for or against students?
What is your stance on People's Park?
What and why don't you want us to know? What are you hiding?
Best of Luck,
Berkeley Students
~~~~
Here is his profile (my comments in parenthesis):
I'm running for the 7th District of the Berkeley City Council. Below are 8 ideas I have for improving student life in the city of Berkeley. I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!
1. Safety First. The City needs to collaborate with the ASUC External Affairs Office to reduce crime and theft in our Southside area. Our Council member must voice student safety concerns to BPD, UCPD, and the City. Let’s add more “emergency” call stations, improve lighting in Telegraph area (including Bancroft through Dwight), promote auto theft reduction/awareness (i.e. purchase of UVP systems), and increase nighttime police patrol along Telegraph and perpendicular cross streets near campus.
(Duh...)
2. Improve Affordable Housing and Advocate for Rental Issues. The City Council needs to do more for student housing. Let’s create a student-driven rating service (see http://www.georgebeier.com/cal_rental_mo... to rate good and bad landlords. Let’s have the Rent Stabilization Board and Cal Rentals provide better access to housing and rental resources (i.e. tenants’ rights and responsibilities, security deposits, eviction information, repairs, legal assistance, etc). Let’s also establish a reasonable program for summer subletting. For example, the City can work with UC Berkeley Summer Sessions to sublet apartments to summer session students) using the “Summer Visitors” section on the Cal Rentals site.
(Who doesn’t promise this? For heavens sake even ASUC candidates promise this.)
3. Create a Student City Council District. Students have been unrepresented on the City Council for far too long. It’s time to create a district that encompasses the co-ops on Northside, Southside (at least as far as Dwight Way), Clark-Kerr, and the fraternities and sororities. Let’s also consider making the appointment a two-year seat, to make it easier for students to serve.
(Actually not a bad idea. But expect a heated fight to get these district boundaries redrawn. My bet is that it won’t happen.)
4. Opportunities for student appointments/internships/jobs in city and local government.
The City has dozens of ways that students can increase their involvement in their community and gain valuable experience in their area of academic interest. Let’s have more student representation on the Board of Education, Housing Advisory Commission, and Planning Commission. The city should offer internships and part time jobs within its many departments and offices. For example, City Attorney for Boalt Law and pre-law students; Economic Development, Finance, and Auditor’s Office for Economics and Haas students; Health and Human Services for MCB, Public Health, and pre-med students; Information Technology for Computer Science students; and Public Works for Public Policy and Political Science students.
(This sounds like a crowd pleaser. Don’t they already do this on a limited basis?)
5. Encouraging More Food vendors around Telegraph. Students are attracted to the area because of the diversity of food options. Let’s reform outdated zoning laws in the city and actually encourage vendors to the area. We all want to see more variety of independent and locally owned business on Telegraph.
(Sure… look back to #1)
6. More Options, Less Waste: Use Cal 1 Card and/or Cal Dining Point in the Telegraph Area. Students often waste a lot of their dining points because of the lack of variety and options in the campus eateries. Let’s give them the opportunity to use these points at local merchants. Ultimately this would provide students more variety in diet while helping merchants at the same time!
(Innovative idea. But I'd heard it before. But breaking the University monopoly on meal points would be a good thing. How would he do this?)
7. Collaboration is key: Joint Service Projects between Neighborhood Associations and Student Service Groups. Let’s improve student/neighbor relations while at the same time work with (or continue working with) the ASUC External Affairs Office and Cal Corps Public Service Center to provide volunteer opportunities to improve our community,
(Sure…)
8. Raise Awareness for Disaster Preparedness and Prevention. The City and University have a lot of resources to offer students. So, let’s help students take advantage of these opportunities.
(I think they already have a decent program for this.)
~~~
Unfortunately, I think his attempt at a Facebook campaign is at this point a flawed because he doesn't seem to convey who he is. All you tend to see is a not-too-bad-looking face and a name that reminds you of ice cream. He fails to name a reason why we should trust him nor mentions how his background qualifies him. He does not discuss his back ground, past experience in government or even any past leadership roles.
He does mention that he is a Cal alumni. His undergraduate is in economics and he went through the MBA program.
He also provides his personal contact information and his home address. I found this odd because he hardly mentioned anything else about himself.
He does seem to have a few good ideas to kick around. He does not specify in any concrete method how he would go about accomplishing them. Without establishing any credibility as a basis for his ideas, the moment that I looked at his profile I felt let down. Just one promise after another, just gives you a sugar high.
Even more disturbing/annoying, was that when he started his Facebook campaign I was hoping that someone was requesting to be my friend because they actually knew/liked me. The moment I realized it was some cheap advertisement, I felt that my relative ‘privacy’ on Facebook was being abused. This was before the Newsfeed was implemented. That pisses me off even more.
Bottom line:
All sugar, no taste: not even vanilla.
Ideas are good. Not telling the voters who you are right away is BAD. Creating a bad impression by a poorly thought out creepy attempt to appeal to students won’t win the ‘student’ vote.
Here's a copy of the stern email that I recieved from Facebook regarding why it was deleted:
Subject: Facebook Account
Thu, November 2, 2006 12:32 pm
Hey,I wonder what the casuation was that this group was deleted. It was deleted at 12:32pm and George Beier sent me a message at 12:29pm.
The group "Who is George Beier? Kinda Creepy" has been removed due to a violation of
our Terms of Use, and this email serves as a warning. Additional violations will
result in the termination of your account. Please read our Terms carefully and
refrain from posting abusive material in the future. Thanks in advance for your
understanding and cooperation.
The Facebook Team
I wonder....
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