Meet Your New Officials: Doug deHaan

Alameda Sun Thursday, November 18, 2004, By Suzanne LeBarre

Doug deHaan has served on more than 20 Alameda city commissions, boards, committees and task groups. The latest notch to his belt? City councilmember.

“I was so deeply involved in all other segments in Alameda, it was the logical next step,” said deHaan.

Alameda residents seemed to agree. On Nov. 2, deHaan was elected to city council with 19.1 percent of the popular vote, winning one of two open seats alongside incumbent Marie Gillmore.

As council member, deHaan plans to continue the two-fold goal he has harvested over the years: to advance local business enterprises while retaining Alameda’s distinctive spirit; what deHaan described as, a city, “so close to a metropolitan area but (with) a lifestyle that’s not encumbered by it.”

As a lifelong resident of Alameda, he would know. DeHaan was raised in post-World War II West Alameda. After attending Longfellow Elementary School, deHaan enrolled at the West End’s new high school, Encinal, where he played basketball and insisted that he never got into trouble.

His first job as a “helper general” at the Naval Air Station consisted of work that was at “the low end of the totem pole,” he said, but segued into a career at the base that spanned 36 years. From his humble beginnings as an aircraft electronics apprentice onward to executive public policy positions, he came to serve as one of the base’s key figures.

Accordingly, when the prospect of the base’s closure surfaced, deHaan met the news with a mixture of distress and alarm. “I was deeply involved in it. It was a trying time,” he said.

Still, he remained an active policymaker. During the base’s last two years in operation, deHaan worked as the transition director, ensuring retirement or replacing opportunities for former employees. Moreover, because of his extensive involvement, he was appointed chair of the Base Reuse Advisory Group, one of the positions he considers his most successful.

“That community reuse plan is the basis of the direction for (Alameda Point’s) redevelopment,” he continued.

The base is not the only Alameda locale that owes some of its past and future to deHaan’s contributions. As a member of the Economic Development Commission (EDC) for the last eight years – and chairman for the last two years — deHaan has played a significant role in planning Alameda’s retail renovations at Bridgeside, South Shore, Webster Street and Park Street.

The latter hot spot represents a big accomplishment for the city of Alameda.

The proof?

“We’re seeing new shops, people out on the streets, eating, shopping. Three to four years ago, there was not a whole lot of foot traffic,” he said.

Despite Park Street’s success, deHaan conceded that “we haven’t fulfilled complete revitalization.”

That’s where his position on city council comes into play. As council member, he plans to sustain the momentum of Alameda’s retail development.

Simultaneously, he will look toward traffic solutions, to accommodate economic development while retaining Alameda’s essential feel, a goal he is confident Alamedans share.

“I have a vision of what Alameda wants to be in the future. I want to look at the existing Alameda, merge the positives and move forward.”

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Last modified: November 19, 2004

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