Candidate Close Up: Navid Sadigh

Navid Sadigh is a college student running for Irvine City Council. Photo credit Navid Sadigh

Navid Sadigh is not the only city council candidate to grow up in Irvine (Irvine Mayoral candidate Branda Lin and Irvine City Council Member and current candidate Anthony Kuo can make the same claim). He’s also not the only candidate calling for Orange County’s proposed Veteran’s Cemetery to be moved from Anaheim back to Irvine (Irvine City Council Member and current candidate Larry Agran and Irvine City Council candidate Tom Chomyn have called for that as well). But Sadigh is far from the typical candidate. For starters, he is a student at Irvine Valley College.

“I’m majoring in computer science, so I want to work in cyber security,” says Sadigh via Zoom. His political goals are even more ambitious than his professional ones.

“I’d like to run for President one day so this is a stepping stone to that office,” Sadigh says. “In the meantime, I probably want to run for State Assembly, and then Congress, and then finally the presidency.”

Sadigh says he’s wanted to run for President since creating his “About Me” poster as a first grader at Westpark Elementary. After attending South Lake Middle School and Northwood High School, he moved on to Irvine Valley College. He says his interest in politics was heightened during the 2018 midterms. Sadigh became obsessed with on a YouTuber named Ethan Kelly whose channel, Let’s Talk Elections, broke down politics for Sadigh. But it was his frustration with Cox Communications that lead Sadigh to run for city council.

“[Cox] can treat us however they want to and we don’t have any recourse against them,” says Sadigh. “We can’t switch to another provider, we can’t negotiate prices, we can’t really do anything.”

Sadigh says especially in today’s world with so many still working from home, Irvine needs high speed broadband internet options. He wants to see Google broadband fiber installed in every home in Irvine and he wants to break Cox’s iron-clad hold on our city.

“I hope that Irvine would serve as a model for other cities to get rid of ISP (internet service provider) monopolies,” says Sadigh. “I would start by repealing the laws that favor Cox’s monopoly status. Then I would follow that up with incentives for other internet service providers to extend their services into older neighborhoods. With incentives like loans and grants they would be able to do so. They would pay back those loans with additional revenue from people to switching to them for their services.”

Sadigh likens his plan to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, but he would be providing ISP choice to Irvinites instead of electricity to rural communities.

He has plans for some of the other issues facing Irvine today.

Crime

Sadigh is concerned about crime and says Irvine’s current officer to resident ratio is low. He says we currently have .84 officers for every 1,000 residents but we should have closer to 1 officer for every 1,000 residents. He says an increased police presence would cut down on drag racing and violent crime.

Orange County Power Authority

Sadigh describes the OCPA as “fishy.” He says it was “founded with good intentions” but says its execution is problematic. He believes the OCPA should be an opt-in system instead of a system where residents are automatically enrolled.

All American Asphalt

Sadigh wants to implement a tax on the plant in the hopes that this would disincentivize the asphalt maker from operating in Irvine.

Irvine’s Carbon Neutrality Pledge

Sadigh feels our city’s 2030 pledge to be carbon neutral is “noble,” but says he would go about it differently.

“We need to push for more nuclear energy,” explains Sadigh, who says nuclear energy has been proven to be safe. “It’s actually much less deadly than other energy sources are and much cheaper.”

City Council Interactions with Residents

Sadigh wants to see Irvine City Council Members interact more with residents at City Council meetings.

Although he had never attended a city council meeting until he decided to run, he has attended a meeting since becoming a City Council candidate. Based on what he observed, he feels that more opportunity for residents to discuss issues directly with City Council Members would have positive results.

While Sadigh’s campaign is still under way, he’s already voted. He wants Irvine’s voters to take a look at all the candidates and “vote with their conscience.”

“I hope that you’ll vote for me,” says Sadigh, “and for any candidate that you think will serve Irvine the best.”