Oakland Running Festival

Cities with single marathons for only a few hours on a single day of the year are soo last century!  Move aside LA, SF and NY Marathons!  Why have just one marathon when you can have a FESTIVAL!

That’s right, Oakland is celebrating my least favorite form of exercise with the Oakland Running Festival this Saturday and Sunday, March 26-27!  A weekend of 4+ races and activities including:

• Full marathon
• Half marathon
• 5k
• Relay
• Kids fun run!

Measure R: Giving Berkeley What It Wants

This past Tuesday, Berkeley voters overwhelmingly passed Measure R, the controversial city measure that called for greener and denser development around transit in Downtown Berkeley.  Measure R passed with 64% of the vote.

Supporters stated Measure R is the greenest direction for Downtown Berkeley because it increases Downtown’s density.  And by pushing green building standards and encouraging new residents to live near transit, it will help achieve Berkeley’s Climate Action plan passed last year. Opponents, however, argued that Measure R is too vague and doesn’t go far enough to ensure affordable housing.  They also protest the increased height limits.

I previously wrote a post, Understanding Berkeley’s Measure R, that went over many of the opponents claims and found them to be largely unfounded, if not flat out false.  As it turned out, Berkeley voters did understand Measure R.

Measure R repeated part of the Downtown Plan the Berkeley City Council had approved last year. This plan was later rescinded after Councilmen Jesse Arreguin and Kriss Worthington–the only council members who voted no on the original plan–led a controversial, though successful, signature gathering campaign to place the council’s decision on the ballot.  Measure R came to exist after the City Council scrapped the original plan and are  now tasked to create a new one.   With Measure R now in place, the Berkeley City Council has a clear direction of what the voters want to see out of their Downtown.  But some opponents are downplaying the passage of Measure R.

Understanding Berkeley’s Measure R

Measure R is about environmentalism but it is also about understanding how planning and development work to improve communities

Residents in the City of Berkeley will be asked this November to vote on the direction of their Downtown… again.  Like most issues in Berkeley, this measure is the subject of some controversy.

The fight between environmentalists and their opponents over how to plan the development of Downtown Berkeley has gone on for years, with affordable housing and the height of future buildings being two subjects of contention.

On one side, supporters of Measure R include environmental groups like the Sierra Club and The League of Conservation Voters, 7 of the 9 City Council members, as well as organized labor and a range of planners and economists, including former Labor Secretary to the Clinton Administration, Robert Reich. Supporters argue that Measure R is the greenest direction for Downtown Berkeley and that by increasing Downtown’s density, it will help achieve Berkeley’s Climate Action plan passed last year.

On the other side you have the opposition–which includes two council members, The Berkeley Daily Planet—a local news website, and the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association, argue that Measure R is too vague and doesn’t go far enough to ensure affordable housing.  They also protest the increased height limits.

To understand why Measure R is on the ballot, you need only know that this measure repeats a part of the Downtown Plan the Berkeley City Council had approved last year. This plan was later rescinded after Councilmen Jesse Arreguin and Kriss Worthington–the only council members who voted no on the original plan–led a controversial, though successful, signature gathering campaign to place the council’s decision on the ballot.  As a result, the City Council scrapped the original plan and are  now tasked to create a new one.   It comes as no surprise that both Arreguin and Worthington are the only two council members opposing Measure R and actively seeking its defeat this November.

In the end, whether Measure R is good or bad comes down to density, environmentalism and an understanding of how planning and development works.

Improving Jack London Square

It’s been two months since I moved from Berkeley to West Hollywood to pursue a masters degree in urban planning from UCLA.  Though I am hundreds of miles away, I find myself in class thinking of practical uses of concepts back in the East Bay.  Often times, Oakland is a good candidate for many.

In one class, we discussed two, not very dissimilar concepts for district improvements.  The first was the idea of a parking meter zones (PMZ), as proposed by “prophet of parking” and UCLA professor, Donald Shoup.  The second is the concept of a business improvement district (BID) or a community benefit district (CBD).  Each together and individually have the potential to bring out Jack London Square’s, and Oakland’s in general, true potential.

I’ve wanted to write a post to this effect for some time and am very happy that my time at UCLA has allowed me to finally move forward.

NIMBY Say What?

Just the other day at the website: Next American City, Yonah Freemark, an Urban Leaders Fellow, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, wrote a column talking about one of my favorite subjects: The East Bay Bus Rapid Transit project.  As readers will have figured out, I am very much in favor of this project and have written two posts about the issue: Why Berkeley is Wrong on BRT and Why Councilman Arreguin is Wrong on BRT

I take issue with Freemark’s columns, specifically his most recent entitled “Opposition to a Bus Rapid Transit System is More than Just NIMBYism“.  The biggest and most frustrating part is that many of the arguments against BRT in the East Bay are either false or based off false assumptions that do nothing to further legitimate debate.

In his three part column (currently at two),  Freemark quotes former Berkeley Willard Neighborhood Association president, Vince Casalaina and both seem to suggest their biggest concern is with greenhouse gases.

“If you’re going to put a quarter of a billion dollars into it,” he said, “It better do something about greenhouse gases.” Casalaina points out that the diesel bus line could actually reduce ridership on the mostly parallel BART rail line, which is electrically powered and therefore arguably cleaner.”

The part about this criticism I never truly understood is that, in the same breadth that many critics of BRT use to say that they care about the amount of greenhouse gas emissions, they also say the one thing they are most afraid of losing is “driving lanes”, the ability to drive your car and park when going to the stores they are trying to protect.

Why Councilman Arreguin is Wrong on BRT

This is a follow up to my previous post “Why Berkeley is Wrong on BRT“

Councilman Arreguin collecting signatures against Berkeley's Downtown Development Plan. Yea, we fought on that one too.

Somewhere along the line, you would think that the constant barrage of facts and studies would prove some point.  Whether you are for or against something, the general train of thought is that the “correct” argument is the argument that has the most support (data, literature, etc) behind it.  Bus Rapid Transit is a positive thing for the neighborhoods and cities it serves.  There are numerous examples of BRT all around the country and the world.  BRT is nothing new and has been around for decades.  So you would think when Berkeley was asked to consider studying the construction of a fully tricked out BRT system they would take to heart all these examples and past literature and data to make an informed decision.  But Berkeley has its own rules and so does Berkeley City Counciman Jesse Arreguin.

Not since John Kerry’s infamous flip-flop during the 2004 presidential campaign against George W. Bush have we seen an example of moving back and forth on the same issue as we see with Councilman Arreguin on BRT in Berkeley.  Except in this case, Councilman Arreguin first didnt vote for anything, then indicated he would vote for it before finally voting against it.

Oakland’s First Annual Pride Festival!

This year, Oakland will host its First Annual Pride Festival since 2004.  Oakland has the third-highest concentration of LGBT people in the nation, only behind San Francisco and Seattle.  So why shouldn’t we have our own Pride?  There is a lot to be proud of in the East Bay, such as great weather with REAL seasons (i.e. Summer?).

Oakland Pride, Inc. (the business behind the festival) recieved a donation from the Port of Oakland in the form of 4,000 square foot office space in Jack London Square.  With only a few months to go, fundraising and last minute organizing has been in full swing to make this first festival one to remember and bring hope to continued festivals in the future.

Oakland Pride is also serving as the vanguard of a full-fledged fundraising effort to create the first All-Inclusive LGBT Community Center in Oakland in collaboration with City Councilmember, Rebecca Kaplan, the council’s only openly gay member.