Hi, I’m David Newman.

I’ve lived in Thousand Oaks for more than 20 years, and have served on our city’s Planning Commission for the past eight years. I’ve owned two businesses here and previously worked as an award-winning journalist. I’m a husband, a dog dad (both to our rescue pup Roni and, thanks to my wife Sally, an ever-changing cast of foster dogs), an avid cyclist, and a too-infrequent hiker.

Every day I am reminded how fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful, vibrant area. That didn’t happen by accident. Good governance and beneficial land use are very important to me, and have been with me all my life.

A bit of background: Around the time I was born in New York’s Greenwich Village, powerful builder Robert Moses and the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine wanted to bulldoze my parents’ neighborhood. They wanted to run a freeway down Fifth Avenue and through Washington Square Park, displacing middle-class and working-class families who’d lived there for decades.

Neighbors organized in protest, and for the first time defeated Moses and finally ended the corrupt Tammany machine. Thus I learned from an early age that communities can come together to solve their own problems, and to advocate for the housing that benefits them, and not some outside developers.

Fast forward to today. We have a climate crisis. We have a housing affordability crisis. We sell public land at fire-sale prices to a billionaire LA developer in exchange for all-luxury apartments on an unprecedented scale, with zero affordable units in return. We see projects aimed at making our city more walkable (a laudable goal), but in reality adding thousands more car trips each day.

As we continue to build up Thousand Oaks, the people filling the pipeline with more and more unaffordable housing swear up and down that they’re not turning Thousand Oaks into another San Fernando Valley. Okay….

When I previously worked as a product reviewer for a computer networking magazine, I regularly had marketing and PR people telling me a dog was really a horse, if I just squinted the right way. I have a bit of experience in distinguishing sales claims from reality.

I’m for serving everyone’s housing needs, not just the needs of a few developers and property owners. We need more housing, yes — but density isn’t the only or best answer to every housing question.

We have some of the best minds in the world here in Thousand Oaks — scientists, teachers, healthcare professionals, creatives, engineers, and many, many others. We all share a common interest in keeping our city working for all our residents. I am running to represent everyone’s interest, not just special interests. Working together and with your support, let’s make that happen!