Does Councilor-elect Bieda think Belmar is a criminal-filled slum?

A little over 154,000 people live in the City of Lakewood, but only 31,425 cast a ballot in this year's city council election. That's just twenty percent of city residents (some of whom, admittedly, are under 18 or otherwise ineligible to vote). Turnout among registered voters was only something like thirty-one percent.

A Bieda campaign advertisement that appears to
imply Belmar is a criminal-filled slum.

Thirty-one percent turnout stinks. There's just no other way to look at it, especially given the ease of voting by mail. Voters weren't familiar with the issues and so they just didn't return their ballots. In Ward 3 (which includes Belmar), the race came down to 300 votes out of just 6,120 ballots cast.

The winner? Mike Bieda, who ran on a platform of extreme opposition to Belmar and the very concept of a vibrant, downtown Lakewood.

What? Yes, I'm afraid so. Bieda also ran against redevelopment on Colfax, against affordable housing, against smart growth, and against the kinds of public-private partnerships that made Belmar possible. Shockingly, his ads during the campaign even appeared to imply that Belmar is an urban slum whose residents are extra-prone to criminality. It was a dog whistle campaign of the worst sort, suggesting to Ward 3's many senior citizens that Belmar's younger residents are somehow a dangerous threat to their way of life.

This divisive man is now our representative on the city council-- and will be for the next four years.