Truth, Lies and Urban Growth: Archive

Gallant and Highsmith Up to No Good in Alameda;...

Sorry to be out of pocket for so long, but news of Alameda city government and the erstwhile Alameda Point developer Suncal mediating to possibly resolve massive lawsuits can only be looked at as good news. Unfortunately, they are likely to have a lot to untangle in the next 90 days as former acting manager Ann Marie Gallant’s M. O. seems to have been to play everyone off against everyone...

May 2nd

Gilmore Wins in Alameda with Majority, Perata...

Ancient Athenians are credited with ‘inventing’ democracy. But their system involved the winner getting the fewest votes, not the most. Athenians threw their negative or ‘bong’ style vote at the candidate they liked the least. The result was some seriously milquetoast leadership that likely led to their downfall. By contrast, modern American democracy has been more ‘wedge’ style or divisive...

Nov 12th

Big Pay in Small Alameda Catches up to City...

Looks like someone’s tired of getting the run around from the unelected down at city hall. A mailer linking Alameda to the corruption plagued town of Bell, CA hit mail boxes and what it says about Acting Manager Anne Marie Gallant needs truthing, one way or the other. So let’s get right to it. First off, does she really pull down over $280,000 dollars a year? Turns out the salary itself is a...

Oct 7th

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Matarrese Loses Support of Labor in Alameda...

To hear Frank Matarrese tell it, his long tenure in Alameda government has been nothing but sugar and spice, everything nice. So why is he getting no traction in his bid to become Mayor? Maybe it has something to do with the twin crises of our current jobs famine and Alameda budget fiasco. Even our fair wage friends in organized labor are turning away from Frank. You can only blow so much...

Sep 23rd

So It's Come To This, Alameda

So it’s finally come down to this: For better or worse, our little patch of island paradise was chugging along on a community driven plan to finally take on the festering redevelopment issues surrounding Alameda Point. We know the expenses are large and growing. We know also we don’t want development that will add to traffic. We do want jobs and things like open space to preserve and enhance...

Sep 21st

Alameda Mayoral Candidate Platforms: Truth and...

Political turmoil is brewing in Alameda, and the stakes are high due to the November 2 mayoral and city council elections. Because there is quite a lot of controversy surrounding a few of the candidates, I’d like to take a moment and outline the platforms. As voters, I believe it is our collective duty to ignore political games and focus on the facts. Part I is an overview of the five mayoral...

Sep 14th

City of Alameda Sued by Developer and Deleted...

We’ve reported here before that there was a real disconnect brewing between the current Alameda City Council plus staff and the master builder of the Point, Sun Cal. In the wake of today’s news about a federal lawsuit Sun Cal is now filing against the city, an apology for total understatement seems warranted. I have to assume that Sun Cal ran their press release by attorneys before sending it...

Aug 6th

Less Cars, Less Car-bon in Alameda Point

If you live in a sea level community like the Bay Area, you need to be concerned with polar ice melt and rising sea levels. Even if you don’t live at sea level, you still need to worry about a world where billions of people will be displaced by rising oceans and other impacts from weather in upheaval. In response to the need, California has taken a leading role through SB 375 as it has in the...

Jun 30th

Alameda Urban Growth Threatened by Skewed Report...

The Alameda Point project, a Bay Area urban growth hopeful, is struggling to break through legislative red-tape. The argument of the moment? It seems that the City of Alameda and the developer, Suncal Companies, have conflicting fiscal analysis reports. The city’s report, done by Economic Planning System (EPS), concludes that the Alameda Point project will be much more costly than the developer’s...

Jun 25th

Bay Area Transit Stats…Are You One of Them?

Taking some info from the 2000 Bay Area Travel Survey (2000 BATS), MTCH, I’ve included some interesting statistics regarding rail and ferry transit oriented development (TOD): People who live or work within a ½ mile of a rail or ferry station: - 4x as likely to use transit for all trips - 30% of commute trips by transit - 19% of all trips by transit - 4x as...

Jun 10th

Truth, Lies and Density...

I call this Blog “Truth, Lies…” for a reason, and today it’s time to put the lie to the idea that greater density means more traffic. Sure, if you put more tract houses at the edge of farmland in Contra Costa county, everyone in every home over the age of 16 is going to need to use a car for just about everything. Getting to work or school, soccer games, golf, the store, everything. If, however,...

Jun 9th

Walk This Way with SunCal to Alameda Point

An urbanist’s dream is a pedestrian’s heaven. SunCal is trying to make that dream become a reality with their transit-oriented development (TOD). Likewise, pedestrian-oriented development (POD) is crucial to improving Alameda Point’s workability. While an overwhelming majority of Americans use cars for mobility, walking is becoming more popular. POD is a good idea for Alameda Point to allow access...

Jun 3rd

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SunCal Collaboration: Urbananism and Suburbanism...

Over 60 percent of Americans live in our nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas. Those areas are growing twice as fast as the rest of the country. Because top corporations and highly skilled work forces are focused on these areas, metros are key to keeping the U.S. competitive in the global economy. As metros sprawl over into suburban areas, how do we execute a successful merger? Can these two...

May 27th

Urban Planning is Growing Green, Could Alameda...

Urban planning is nothing new to our ears. It’s seeing a surge in popularity amongst up-and-coming architects and builders, and even popping up on several top ten lists of green jobs. Planners are taking on more environmental and green approaches to building cities, configuring mass transportation and mapping out transit. Tons of jobs can be created through urban planning with a “green” twist to...

May 26th

The future does need to be paid for

I am going to reference “Discovering Urbanism” today, a blog dedicated to this topic. I found his take on transportation very interesting. Check out other blogs by this author at http://discoveringurbanism.blogspot.com/ This month’s Atlantic is a special Future of the City edition with a number of thought-provoking features and essays. Before getting into the actual material, I...

May 19th

May 12th

Your Chance to Become a Psuedo City Planner

IBM has a gloomy reminder for us all today. And that is that our cities are in big trouble if the global population continues to surge and already outdated infrastructure. All the more reason for us to think urban growth! IBM announced on Monday, its plans to unveil CityOne, a video game that plops you into the role of being a city planner, trying to solve the sorts of business and environmental...

May 6th

Is Motorized Transportation a thing of the past?...

Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, has recently announced a “sea-change” in American transit planning: As he writes on his blog, “People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.” Check out this video where LaHood...

May 5th

IS ALAMEDA POINT ON THE CUTTING EDGE?

Will Alamedans ditch suburban life for a more sustainable way of living? A recent study by the Harvard Business Review revealed yesterday that some of the big name companies such as Walgreens owned chain of drug stores, Duane Reade in New York, is signaling to improve its urban presence and United Airlines announcing to move their operational headquarters out of the suburbs and back into the...

Apr 29th

Word on the street in Alameda. . . Alameda closing...

John Knox White writes in his Alameda blog today, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inalameda/detail?&entry_id=62049 about Alameda Landing, a project on the other side of the island that was presented as a “mixed use” development, despite it never actually being one. Instead of Target being built where people already shop for Target-complementary things (that would be Towne Centre, where...

Apr 27th

Watch

Peter Calthorpe’s Master Plan to Revitalize Alameda Point

Apr 19th

Apr 14th

The Alameda Point Master Plan Embodies New...

Interface is the connection between public and private space. It’s the street, the sidewalk, and the edges of a property. Good interfaces are the backbones of a healthy city – they are the places we interact and the places we cherish. One of the big problems in development today, in particular in the area of city planning, is distinguishing between good urban infill and mediocre urban infill. At...

Apr 13th

Guidelines for SunCal, Lennar and SRM Associates

SunCal’s development at Alameda Point follows the AIA’s 10 principles for livable communities below. It is unacceptable in this current climate of limited resources that we further ignore our impact on the environment. New Urbanism is the way in which we can mitigate our negative influence and start to become more inclined to a sustainable way of life. The East Bay area, as a trend, are using...

Apr 8th

Urban Trend Watch

Urbany According to trendwatching.com, “Urbany, meaning urban culture is the culture, has been dubbed a defining trend for 2010, 2011, 2012, and so on: urbanization on steroids. We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves: “Less than 5 per cent of the world’s population lived in cities a century ago. In 2008, for the first time in humanity, that figure exceeded 50 per cent. In the...

Apr 6th

Apr 2nd

Hello

I’m not a politician, I’m not a company blog, I’m not a outspoken concerned citizen, I’m not a stay-at-home mom, I’m not a non-profit advocate and I’m not an unemployed 20-something with nothing to do. Wow, what’s left to blog about? I’m passionate about urban design and planning, and I’d like to use this space to advance and distribute the professional expertise in our field. There’s a...

Apr 2nd

Mar 10th