The Solano Stroll 1: Ellen Toomey for City Council

Ellen Toomey (above) is running this November for the City Council of the small East Bay community of Albany (click here for her website), which is surrounded by Berkeley to the south and east, and El Cerrito and Richmond to the north.



Ellen grew up in a large Irish-American clan in Oakland, studied art at the University of Montana followed by the Pratt Institute in New York City, and then made a living with her own graphic design company in San Francisco during the 1970s and 1980s. That's a tricky business in which to survive, but she was good at her craft and she also has a more rounded intelligence than most people I've known in the industry.



She moved to Albany and bought a house about fifteen years ago when she married and had a daughter who went to the local public schools. During that time, she helped to found an organization called SchoolCARE which has raised about $2 million for the schools. Ellen also been working to establish an urban agricultural/educational farm (click here for their website), and it was through these two efforts that she ended up meeting most of the political movers and shakers in town.



The City Council has five members serving four-year terms and among them they elect a mayor who usually sits for a one-year term.



There are three seats up for grabs, and Ellen is endorsed by the Democratic Party and the Sierra Club, although the latter group is oddly controversial in Albany.



Politically, it's a good move, but she is hoping to connect with a broader range of the population...



...which as you will see contains a little bit of everything.