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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Watergate Neighborhood Explodes as Emery-Go-Round Scales Back Bus Service

Bus Service at Watergate Cancelled
Watergate residents have been flooding Emeryville City Council members with angry calls and e-mails after the Emery-Go-Round bus service has been terminated along Powell Street adjacent to the resident condominiums recently.  The popular free bus service, paid for primarily by commercial businesses in town, is used by many Watergate residents and service has been disrupted ever since the Emeryville Public Works Department started a sidewalk restoration project there a few weeks ago.  Emery-Go-Round officials informed residents that the City didn't confer with them before they began the sidewalk project and now as a result,  there's no room to turn the buses around, a requirement because the street dead-ends.
The charge of non-cooperation with the City is being denied by Public Works.
Meanwhile, the President of the Board of Directors at Emery-Go-Round announced at a meeting that the problem is not the new sidewalk but instead that Watergate residents aren't payers into the bus system and that is why service has been curtailed there.

Watergate residents are incorrectly assigning blame with the City says Maurice Kaufman, the City Engineer and head of Public Works.  He flatly denies the charges made against the Department, "Emery-Go-Round has known of the sidewalk work proposed there for years, We've been discussing it with them for a long time" he told the Tattler.  "They've changed their minds about their acceptable method of turn around" he added, indicating that EGR officials now don't want to make 'K' turns at Watergate condos since the street in the area isn't wide enough for a U-turn for buses both before and after the sidewalk work.   Mr Kaufman conjectured that perhaps prior EGR managers didn't communicate with new managers as to the source of the miscommunication.

If there is a miscommunication.

Geoff Sears, President of the EGR Board of Directors, hinted to Board meeting attendees that sidewalk
EGR President Geoff Sears
We have a fiduciary responsibility to accommodate
the payers into the bus service, not the non-payers.
work by the City has nothing to do with the cancelled bus service.  He says they are attempting to curtail rising costs and that they are responsible to the payers into the bus system to do so.  "Watergate residents don't pay into Emery-Go-Round" he said at the last meeting adding, "We need to optimize the route for payers into the system."
Board member and Emeryville commercial property owner Francis Collins agreed, "The turn around controversy isn't a big deal as far as I'm concerned.  The real deal is this bus system is dead unless we can figure a way to legally fund it" he said, in a nod to the payers/non-payers calculation.  Mr Collins indicated that the way the service is being paid for now is illegal and unfair to the payers into the system, the commercial property owners.

Former Council member Ken Bukowski, a long time supporter of the Emery-Go-Round said the service should be paid for by an Emeryville sales tax.  He noted "Alameda County is going to have an additional 1/2 cent sales tax before voters in 2014.  Emeryville should get enough to fund the EGR.  Perhaps we should have a 1/2 cent sales tax of our own to help pay."

Council members have indicated they are going to work to resolve the issue, "Elderly Watergate residents [and others] need the Emery-Go-Round" Jac Asher told the Tattler, "Some have gotten rid of their cars and use the service for all their transportation needs".  "EGR is extremely popular" the Councilwoman said.

5 comments:

  1. The new sidewalk has nothing to do with this. EGR can turn around if it wants to do so. The reason this happened is because a few tea-party-inspired property owners don't want to pay their fair share anymore. Ken Bukowski has been to City Council meetings and said during public comment that the current system was illegal and the City might get sued over it. This veiled threat and his effort to get Francis Collins on the EGR board to push this anti-tax nonsense are what is really going on.

    But before they get too comfortable with their legal position, they should ask: how many developments in town, subject to CEQA, have cited the existence of the EGR as a mitigation measure that makes their development pass muster under CEQA? Answer: all of them. So, when they degrade the EGR, they degrade their own rationale for why their development wasn't going to have a negative impact on the environment. If they continue to let the EGR service degrade, I expect every development in this town to face an environmental lawsuit. You can't rely on it a decade ago as the reason you don't need to further mitigate your environmental impacts and then actively work to destroy the very thing you claimed was mitigating the impact of your presence. Our memory is not that short. Just test us on this. You'll find your answer in the form of a summons.

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  2. It's not the tea party, it is our city that is tea bagging us. The city is illegally exacting monies from its businesses in the name of "Benefit", but who is this service benefiting anyways? Shouldn't people pay for the services they use? And why should people pay for something that they don't use or want? Back to tea bagging, why has the city been redoing perfectly good streets and sidewalks in the Watergate area anyways? Answer: they are TEA BAGGERS.

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    1. Libraries: Who are they benefitting anyway? They're paid for by taxpayers but shouldn't people pay for the services they use? And why should people pay for something they don't use or want?

      Public Schools: Who are they benefitting anyway? They're paid for by taxpayers but shouldn't people pay for the services they use? And why should people pay for something they don't use or want?

      Roads: Who are they benefitting anyway? They're paid for by taxpayers but shouldn't people pay for the services they use? And why should people pay for something they don't use or want?

      Railroads and Airports: Who are they benefitting anyway? They're paid for by taxpayers but shouldn't people pay for the services they use? And why should people pay for something they don't use or want?

      Parks: Who are they benefitting anyway? They're paid for by taxpayers but shouldn't people pay for the services they use? And why should people pay for something they don't use or want?

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    2. This is spit in the face of Watergate residents, and an insult to all Emeryville residents. The EGR is a nearly-essential service, and one of the few concessions that the city has arranged from the developers to give back to the community and neighborhoods they would otherwise want to screw over for their bottom line. There are distinct advantages to doing business in Emeryville, and distinct reasons people wish to live in Emeryville. Too often, the (unfriendly majority of the ) city council is giving away too much of the former, to detriment of the latter.

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    3. Its simple, if Watergate residents contribute to the "Citywide Property and Business Improvement District" that funds the Emery-go-round, they too can have a "$"free"$" bus to ride.

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