Last night’s Park Street Tree meeting was really invigorating (depressing as well). Below is the twitter comments at #alamtg. Before I get there, I want to share some brief thoughts now that it’s 12-hours later. The meeting was a perfect example of how public involvement, even when its contentious, is good. Disparate voices, many...
A quick post in advance of the City’s Nov. 9th meeting about the Park Street Trees. According to the arborist hired as a part of the creation of the Tree Master Plan, two-thirds of the 21 trees that were removed in the 2nd phase of the Park Street Streetscape project were rated in Good...
Tonight the Planning Board will hold a public hearing on scoping for a possible EIR on the proposed reconfiguration of the City’s golf courses and land swap. Because of the Brown Act, it’s important to remember what this meeting is about:
There is a lot of information out there about the Alameda Golf/Mif Swap unfortunately much of it is pretty bad which causes the discussion to wend its way out of control and into the absurd. That said, I think the swap is a terrible idea, something I’ll write about later, but just became aware...
So HBIA, aka Ron Cowan, has hired a consultant to produce a minute and a half video of what building sports fields in the middle of a business park looks like. The only problem is that the cheesy music gives the proposal a bucolic feel, which is less consistent with the tiny baseball fields...
One of the hallmark's of the last eight years of planning at Alameda Point was a decisive unwillingness on the part of the City Council to get actively involved in any of the planning of decision-making. While this isn't to say that specific council people didn't have ideas, or try and influence what was...
Tonight at Planning Board, the Boatworks Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) will get its day in the sun. The plan, 242 housing units shoe horned on to an old industrial site with very little public open space and contrary to the General Plans goals for roadway design. (quick note to Planning Board, please, please,...
To me, Measure B is a choice between moving forward to develop a very good, sustainable (environmentally and economically) vision for Alameda Point. The question before us is, will we (the city) be able to see this vision come to fruition, and after much research and thought, I’ve decided that yes, it does.
I wanted to talk about the conversation around the leases, especially with Darcy Morrison running around claiming that Alameda Point has generated $126 million in net income over 12 years. As proof, she points to David “Action Alameda” Howard’s “analysis” of the ARRA’s cash flow analysis (wonky terms, but stick with it for a...
I really think that when the dust settles and the lawsuits begin (those filed by SunCal for breach of contract and not negotiating in good faith), last Tuesday’s meeting will be included in the list of places where City Staff stepped away from their legally required neutrality and fell head first into advocacy by...
