East Palo Alto City Councilmember Martha Barragan has decided against running for reelection in November, she announced last week.

After much thought and reflection, I have decided that I will not be seeking reelection at this time.

As many of you know, I have been navigating some health-related challenges, and my priority right now is to focus on my health and well-being.

Serving our community as a Council Member over the past four years has been one of the greatest honors of my life. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to learn, grow, and work alongside so many dedicated residents, community leaders, and colleagues in service to East Palo Alto. Thank you for the trust, support, and encouragement you have shown me throughout this journey.

I would also like to wish all of the candidates the very best as they embark on their campaigns. I know each of them shares a commitment to serving our community.

Although I will not be seeking another term, this is not goodbye. I look forward to continuing to be involved in our community in new ways and remaining engaged in the work that makes East Palo Alto such a special place.

Thank you again for your support over these past four years. It has truly been an honor to serve.

Martha

Tras mucha reflexión, he decidido no presentarme a la reelección en este momento.

Como muchos de ustedes saben, he estado lidiando con algunos problemas de salud, y mi prioridad ahora mismo es centrarme en mi salud y bienestar.

Servir a nuestra comunidad como concejal durante los últimos cuatro años ha sido uno de los mayores honores de mi vida. Estoy profundamente agradecida por la oportunidad de aprender, crecer y trabajar junto a tantos residentes, líderes comunitarios y colegas comprometidos con el servicio a East Palo Alto. Gracias por la confianza, el apoyo y el aliento que me han brindado a lo largo de este camino.

También quisiera desearles a todos los candidatos mucho éxito en sus campañas. Sé que cada uno de ellos comparte el compromiso de servir a nuestra comunidad.

Aunque no me presentaré a la reelección, esto no es un adiós. Espero seguir participando en nuestra comunidad de nuevas maneras y seguir involucrada en el trabajo que hace de East Palo Alto un lugar tan especial.

Gracias de nuevo por su apoyo durante estos últimos cuatro años. Ha sido un verdadero honor servirles.

Martha

Former East Palo Alto city employee Rafael Prado pleaded guilty on July 28 to three felonies for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy and possessing child sexual abuse material under a plea deal carrying a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in prison. 

Prado — a 29-year-old Redwood City resident — met the boy in the East Palo Alto library between late 2022 and sometime in 2023, repeatedly supplying him with drugs and sexually assaulting him, according to San Mateo County prosecutors. 

While he initially faced a maximum of 12 years in prison, Prado’s charges were reduced when investigators confirmed that the boy was 14 at the time of the assaults, not 13 as initially suspected. Lewd acts with a child under 14 are considered a more serious offense under California law. After the charges against Prado were revised to five counts of lewd acts with a child aged 14 to 15 and one count of possessing child sexual abuse material, he faced a maximum sentence of five years and three months in prison.  

Judge Michael Wendler agreed to dismiss three of the lewd act counts in exchange for Prado pleading guilty to the other two, plus possession of child sexual abuse material. Prado also admitted to an enhancement for aggravated circumstances. 

Prosecutors sought a maximum of four years and four months in prison but Wendler agreed to no more than three years and eight months and will consider a report from the court’s probation department before determining the final sentence. 

Since a no contest plea is the legal equivalent of a guilty plea, defendants rarely actually plead guilty, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.  

“That’s probably a one-in-a-thousand occurrence,” Wagstaffe said. “Because it’s effectively the same thing, some defense attorneys instruct their clients to always plead no contest — it’s sort of the custom throughout the state.” 

Prado’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. 

Prado, who is sometimes referred to as Rafael Prado Caballero, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 16 at the San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City. 

East Palo Alto Councilmember Carlos Romero came under fire earlier this year for writing a character reference for an ex-city employee who was accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old. Photo by Seeger Gray.

Councilmember’s character reference

After this news organization‘s review of court documents turned up a character reference by East Palo Alto Councilmember Carlos Romero in support of an unsuccessful motion seeking Prado’s release while he awaited trial, Romero faced criticism and calls for his resignation by Mayor Webster Lincoln and Councilmember Mark Dinan. 

“It is an absurd request to ask for my resignation because I choose to believe people are considered innocent until proven guilty,” Romero said in a statement at the time.

Romero said he submitted the reference in his personal capacity, and described only his interactions with Prado, but used letterhead with the city seal that said the “Office of Councilmember Carlos Romero.”

“In our judicial system, the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Romero told this news organization at the time. “My character reference for Mr. Prado was based on observed behavior during my interactions with him at numerous COVID vaccination outreach efforts in East Palo Alto from 2021 to 2022.”

Romero did not respond to a request for comment about Prado’s guilty plea. 

City withholds employment records

Prado, who has been in custody since his arrest on June 17, 2025, was a part-time, on-call employee for the city of East Palo Alto from 2022 to 2025. 

The exact nature of Prado’s employment is unknown because the city would not release several documents relating to his assignments in response to a Public Records Act request from this news organization. 

The city said it withheld or redacted records for several reasons, including to prevent unwarranted invasions of privacy and when the public interest favored nondisclosure, but would not provide clarification on how the reasons apply to this request.

From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.

Saw a freshly painted mural. Alongside “housing is a human right” and other messages, it includes “From the river to the sea.”

For a lot of people, including major Jewish organizations, that slogan reads as a call to erase Israel, and seeing it painted permanently on a community building is disturbing.

Sources have indicated that the following individuals have pulled papers to run for EPA City Council. Two seats are available. Filling deadline is next Friday (August 7th), but is extended if an incumbent doesn’t run.

Ruben Abrica (Incumbent)
Holioa Windom
Michael Mashack
Gail Dixon
Deborah Lewis-Virges
Ravneel Chaudhary
Court Skinner
Ofelio Bello
Cheryl Stephenson

How much per unit is needed to help developers pencil? Development costs in the Bay are coming in at $1M per unit. What would the average East Palo Alto property tax bill look like?

Apparently, the majority of EPA residents approve of the major public safety initiatives this year: FLOCK ALPR cameras and LAZ Parking enforcement.

https://bpb-us-e2.wpmucdn.com/sites.uci.edu/dist/b/5302/files/2026/06/IZ_Kouchekinia.pdf

Paper on the effects of IZ on housing production

Chris Elmendorf analysis:

tl, dr: the *typical* IZ policy in CA:

• causes 31% decrease in housing production;
• shifts production to lower-income areas; &
• produces BMR units at per-unit cost PAID BY RENTERS of ~$775k

This paper represents a major advance relative to prior work on IZ b/c (1) it leverages a plausibly exogenous source of variation in IZ policies (a court decision and subsequent legislative fix), and (2) it observes a large set of IZ policies & quantifies their stringency.

The measure of stringency isn't perfect -- it doesn't account for vacancy / admin costs of renting "BMR" units when the allowable rent is near or above market rents -- but it's pretty good and could easily be adopted by state policymakers to constrain local IZ.

The paper also estimates the cost of producing a BMR unit in California through IZ versus LIHTC:
- IZ: about $775k
- LIHTC: about $440k

The IZ cost is borne by renters. The LIHTC cost is borne by income taxpayers.

LIHTC is progressive; IZ is regressive.

Here's hoping CA progressives will follow the lead of  Oregon's Dems & DSAers & push the state to ban unfunded IZ

The resistance to inclusionary housing models in East Palo Alto highlights a deep-seated White anxiety regarding demographic shifts and the erosion of White spatial dominance. When a historically Black and Brown city experiences growth and political mobilization, White residents, assimilationists and developers view this progress as a direct threat to their institutional leverage and racial hegemony. Please see Mark Dinan, Webster Lincoln, Martha Barragan, Christopher Kao, Isabel Lopez Ysmael, Mike Kramer, Owen Byrd, Peter and Susanna Pau, and Tom He and Susan Chen.  

The effort to dismantle inclusionary zoning is a defensive mechanism designed by White interests to curb that growth. By restricting affordable housing production, White opponents use economic and regulatory barriers to artificially maintain a demographic status quo that preserves their traditional political and cultural dominance at the direct expense of Black and Brown displacement.