Brandon Soublet — Rooted in our community

Roots in the 94608

My connection to this community goes back literally as far as I can remember. My parents and I moved to North Oakland, right across the Emeryville border, when I was two years old. My most vivid early childhood memory is celebrating my third birthday amid the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake—a birthday present I’d rate a solid 0/10; would not recommend.

Growing up here, I got to watch our neighborhood transform in real time. I remember when major retailers moved in (my favorite was obviously Toys’R’Us), when we got our Amtrak station, and as violent crime dropped and our streets became noticeably safer and more welcoming.

A hot second at Long Beach State taught me that Southern California life wasn’t for me, so I came back home to attend Cal State East Bay. That’s where I discovered my passion for political science and economics—and met my best friend of over 20 years. In 2007, I was selected for the Panetta Institute Congressional Internship, spending three months in Washington, D.C., working for the late Congressman Pete Stark. That experience sparked a real drive to understand how public policy can tangibly improve people’s everyday lives.

Policy, Data, and “Translating Engineer into English”

That passion led me to Georgetown University’s Master’s in Public Policy program, where I studied under incredible academics and practitioners like Paul Begala. The program was intensely quantitative, teaching me how to look past shiny executive summaries and dig straight into project data. (Don’t ask me to run a logit or probit regression today; it’s been a while).

After graduating, I worked in the private sector for an architecture and engineering firm. In Washington, where the first question anyone asks at a gathering is “What do you do?”, my go-to response was always: “I translate what engineers write into English.” My job was taking dense technical proposals, environmental reports, and complex datasets, auditing them for accuracy, and communicating them in a way that made sense to non-experts.

Coming Home

By 2018, I’d had enough of D.C. The city I originally moved to in 2008 no longer existed, and I couldn’t help but notice the vibe changed right around November 8, 2016… Having met my life partner and adopted an adorable rescue dog, it was time to leave the Beltway and head back to the Bay. And I knew right where we were going: straight back to the 94608. We moved into the Triangle, and when we outgrew our apartment during the pandemic, we made our home in Emery Bay Village. We rent here, love our neighbors, appreciate the cool shade of our neighborhood redwoods, and plan to stay as long as we can.

Why I’m Running for City Council

Some folks have pointed out that I haven’t served on a city board or commission. While that’s true, I don’t believe you need an appointed seat to understand what’s happening on our streets.

Attending public meetings regarding the proposed Sutter medical center campus exposed a critical detail: the decision-makers evaluating major city projects don’t necessarily live in the neighborhoods most affected by them. Right now, not a single sitting councilmember (or other candidate) lives south of Powell Street. Members of city advisory bodies and city staff have even acknowledged in public hearings that they lack a full picture of everyday issues in our part of town—like the daily traffic chaos during drop-off and pick-up outside Anna Yates Elementary.

I’ve spent three-quarters of my life in this community. My senior parents walk and bike around these blocks and spend time at the Emeryville Senior Center multiple days a week. (Well, my dad handles the biking; my mother on a bicycle is something nobody needs to witness). Our friends are raising their kids in neighborhood schools.

This isn’t just a dot on a map or a line item in a budget to me—it’s my home, and has been my entire life. I’m running for City Council to bring a fresh, independent perspective to the dais, backed by the technical policy background to audit complex projects and ensure every neighborhood in Emeryville has a real voice.