Councilwoman West: "Blackmailer"

Councilman Kurt Brinkman Accuses Colleague of Blackmail

Opinion

Blackmailer?  Or...

Oh Jennifer West, how could you?  We are so very shocked and disappointed!   After more than four years on the City Council, we thought we had come to know you as a decent and reasonable person.  Now we come to find out you're nothing but an unethical blackmailer.
Either that or your colleague, Councilman Kurt Brinkman is a retrograde buffoon making capricious accusations.

It's getting bad on the Emeryville City Council.
We haven't seen collegiality dip this low on the Council since the days of Councilman Ken Bukowski.

Buffoon.
We report, you decide.

Tuesday, Mr Brinkman accused Ms West of blackmail from the Council dais after she said she would have a hard time voting to hand over $21 million of City money to the School District to build the Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL) on San Pablo Avenue without assurances that a General Plan mandated bike/pedestrian path along the western edge of that project be built.   The Council voted in 2013 to order the School District to build the required path, and the District responded with a plan to build the path in 'phase two' of the ECCL project, a construction phase that even the School District itself admits may never happen.  Mr Brinkman who had voted with the minority in 2013 to amend Emeryville's General Plan to permanently eliminate the path, saw Ms West's attempts Tuesday to fund the path with Capital Improvement Fund money sooner rather than later (or ever) as unethical, "blackmail" he called it, a charge Councilwoman Nora Davis agreed with.
For her part, Ms West seemed baffled by the accusation from her colleague.  Afterwards she told the Tattler, "I'm trying to improve ECCL so we can be proud of it and to show how much we support bikes and pedestrians."
Where Kurt Brinkman levels the charge blackmail, some more reasonable people might call Ms West's action with regard to the ECCL bike/ped path as an entirely proper negotiation with her colleagues to fund something she finds valuable.

"The Tattler is Fox News.  The Tattler lied
when it reported I have voted to tear
down buildings in Emeryville" 

Councilman Brinkman it seems is going off the rails of late.  He's getting rather testy.  With his resignation at the end of his term in November announced last week,  Kurt granted an interview with the blog  E'Ville Eye wherein the accusations flowed freely.
He took pains to explain he never reads the Tattler but when he happened to read the May 22nd story condemning him for being part of the City Council majority responsible for demolishing old buildings in town, he was outraged.  He told the E'Ville Eye he hasn't ever voted to tear down any old buildings in Emeryville.  He held up his own home built in 1910 as proof; instead of tearing it down, "I restored it" he said.
Left unmentioned was his 2011 vote to tear down the City Hall defined "architecturally significant" turn of the century brick Golden Gate Key Building on San Pablo Avenue.  Or another early twentieth century brick building deemed architecturally and historically significant by City Hall at 3900 Adeline Street, now slated for demolition after Kurt voted to move forward with the wrecking ball last year.

3706 San Pablo Avenue
The site of the "architecturally significant"
former Golden Gate Key Building, circa 1915
"Well. I...uh...um...I don't like to tear down...
um...what I mean to say is...um...uh"- Kurt Brinkman

Councilman Brinkman told the E'Ville Eye that criticism of his policy prescriptions is something he accepts even though it amounts to "verbal diarrhea".  He saved the most venom for the most frequent critic of his policies; the Emeryville Tattler and its editor, reserving the epithet "the Rush Limbaugh of Emeryville" although he couldn't think of an instance where the Tattler had posted something untruthful.

But after Tuesday's performance and after Mr Brinkman deviously shut down a democratic citizen's grass roots ballot initiative meant to allow Emeryville voters to decide for themselves about removing the City's infamous Business Tax Cap in 2011, and reported by the Tattler, we have to ask, who's the real Rush Limbaugh here?    

Planning Commission OKs Center for 'Community' Life, Bike/Pedestrian Path Removed

Commission Says 'NO' to ECCL Path

Tonight the Emeryville Planning Commission reversed an earlier vote and OK'ed the contentious Center of 'Community' Life without an adjoining required bicycle/pedestrian path that they had called a 'deal breaker' only last month.  The split vote 3-2 (Vanessa Kuemmerle and Steven Steinberg dissenting) came after the School District made a presentation meant to address the Commission's earlier concerns about the path, the future 53rd Street Greenway and the 'community commons' at the site.  Commissioner John Scheuerman praised the new plan tonight, without the ECCL path in it, calling the slight modifications to the Greenway and the community commons made by the School District "much improved",  even though in July he joined the majority and castigated the District and voted down the plan because it did not provide the path.

Most of the controversy among the Commissioners tonight settled around the District's continuing refusal to build the ECCL path.  Commissioner Scheuerman seemed to hold out hope that someday the path could be built somehow but Chair Kuemmerle disagreed, "If it's not done now it will not get built" she said.  Commissioner Steinberg agreed with Ms Kuemmerle stating flatly, "We should do [the bike/ped path] now.  It's an amenity everyone wants."

District architect Mark Seiberlich told the Commissioners that an existing concrete wall in the way of the ECCL path will have to be seismically strenghtened for safety and money spent on that now would be wasted if the path is ever built at some future date.  No one from the District told the Commissioners how much money would need to be spent strengthening the existing wall.

Commissioner John Scheuerman
The ECCL Bike/Ped path
can happen somehow,
 someday, just not now.
"Maybe we can get a grant"

he said.

At the onset of the meeting, Charlie Bryant, Emeryville's Planning Director announced that the City had received an award from the State of California for the City's new forward thinking Pedestrian Bicycle Plan, the second award received for the plan so far.  Several attendees and at least one Commissioner noted the irony that as the City of Emeryville starts to reap awards for the new Pedestrian Bike Plan, the City is busy removing bike/ped paths.  If the ECCL path is indeed not built, it will be the second such path removed by the City in recent months.

Commissioner Sean Moss seemed to disagree with his colleague John Scheuerman who stated a wish to someday see a path there.  Mr Moss suggested there is simply not enough space for a bike/ped path on the site now or in the future because it would constrain an existing pool deck he said as he cast the deciding vote, killing the ECCL path.

At an earlier City Council meeting, Council member Jac Asher said the ECCL path should be built now.  Otherwise, she said the ECCL path will not be built for decades because the School District and the City have borrowed the maximum amount of money legally possible and that the school construction bonds Series A through C must be paid back before more can be borrowed to build the path. She noted if not now, it likely will never be built.

The issue of the Center of 'Community' Life now goes before the City Council one last time September 3rd.  The votes tonight could be overturned by the City Council at that time.

School District Goes Rogue Over Bike/Pedestrian Path

Bike/Pedestrian Path Putsch

School District to Emeryville Residents:
You Are Not Respected, 

"Bike/Ped Path Never Rose to a Level of Priority"

Opinion
Emery School District's chief architect for the Center of 'Community' Life, Mark Seiberlich, said it all on July 25th when, speaking for the District, he told Emeryville's Planning Commissioners the bike/pedestrian path associated with the project "never rose to a level of priority" for the District.  Meaning that they never took the required ECCL path seriously when they designed the school/community center.   

That quote, seemingly innocuous in its banality, hidden amongst more demonstrative testimony at that meeting, was really a remarkable admission.  It was an admission of insubordination from a retrograde public agency.  For those paying attention to Emeryville politics, hip to Emery's intransigence, it was like one of those incriminating utterances, an ah-ha moment picked up from a bugged East German dissident's apartment a Stasi official might listen years for. 
  
Mark Seiberlich's utterance about the bike/ped path not rising to a "level of priority" is remarkable in that it gives up the game, really.  Because all this time, the School Board has been assuring us that they want what we want; they're working in the community's interests.  But Mr Seiberlich tells us all what the real program is with the Center of 'Community' Life: Emery is not really legitimate, it's a rogue independent agency, driven by something not known but not good, posing as a school district.

Everyone Has Told the District to Comply

Emery School District to the people of Emeryville:
It's our way or...you can go here

How rogue has the School District gone?  Consider that they have totally snubbed all the authorities in Emeryville; everyone and everything charged with deciding about this issue.  Emeryville's new $200,000 Pedestrian/Bicycle Plan and the $4 million General Plan requires the ECCL path, but the District challenged it..... and then they got their answer: The Bicycle/Pedestrian Committee twice voted unanimously for the path...and then the Planning Commission twice voted for it...and then the City Council voted for it.  The insolence is astounding; they were officially told by the City Council to build the path but obliviously onward they march.   A real public agency working on behalf of the public, at this point would comply, but not Emery.  They're moving forward with the Center of 'Community' Life without the ECCL path, the democratic institutions and the people of Emeryville can all go to hell.

Our School District thinks its not beholden to the people of Emeryville.  They think they're above the democratically institutionalized deliberative process.

School District to the people of Emeryville:
'We got your bike/ped path right here'

It's now obvious that School Board members together with District officials met in private and schemed this plan, now turned into a putsch, many months ago.  They added up their votes on the City Council, 3-2 they figured.  They calculated the Council majority would give in to their commands to not force this path.  But they miscalculated.  The Council voted 3-2 alright but three said NO to the School Board and yes to the path.

As City Hall prepares to give the School District $21 million of our money to build this Center of 'Community' Life, we need to push back.  We need this bike/ped path built and all the other things the School District is taking away like the 53rd Street Greenway and the 47th Street 'Green Street'. We'll have our chance when the Planning Commission meets again to see the latest anti-bicycle & anti-pedestrian ECCL design on August 22nd.   Perhaps the Planning Commission will have the fortitude to again one more time, tell a brick wall to build the ECCL path and respect the people of Emeryville. 

Group Photo:
(left to right) The Emery School Board,
 the Superintendent of the Schools and the
management staff of the Emery School District 

   

School District Peddles Overly Sunny Depictions of Community Center to Media

This is What a PR 'Puff' Piece Looks Like

In a recent article in a spin-off site of the popular on-line business magazine Fast Company called Co.EXIST, a seasoned reporter got buffaloed by the consultants designing the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) and reported a number of fawning but out-dated and inaccurate points about the ECCL design.  In the story entitled, "This Is What It Looks Like When a School Becomes A Community Hub" readers are gushingly told that the design will include "a 'faux creek,' space for gardens and bikes, solar panels, rooftop access, and a 24/7 public bikeway." Well, as it turns out, one out of five isn't bad.

Or maybe it is bad...

This is what it looks like when facts aren't checked.

Those paying closer attention to the ECCL project or engaged in what is known as "fact-checking" would know that the "faux creek" called for in our City's General Plan along the 53rd Street Greenway was just too darn expensive to include in the plans submitted to, and shot down by, the Planning Commission on July 25th.

At that Planning Commission meeting we were told that solar panels were under serious discussion, but still not a definite part of the ECCL plan.

Rooftop access is, so far as the Tattler knows, only planned in the 30-year distant "Phase 2" that most Emeryville residents will never live to see.

And that '24/7' public bikeway... well, from your lips to School District Architect Roy Miller's ears. Let's certainly hope so, but the District has been fighting tooth and nail to avoid building the bike/ped path called for in our General Plan for months now.

One also has to love the quotes provided by 'MKThunk', particularly the last praising the "programs" at the ECCL site, programs that have not yet been developed and that the public has asked the School District to prioritize over the mere buildings for some time now.

This is what it looks like when reporters
print what the government wants them to.

Planning Commission Throws Back Center of 'Community' Life

Planning Commission: Major Problems 

With School District Plan

Planning Commission shocks School District with numerous criticisms of Center of 'Community' Life.

At Thursday evening's nearly four-and-one-half-hour-long Planning Commission meeting, the Planning Commission did not approve the joint City-School District's Emeryville Center of 'Community' Life (ECCL) application.  Each of the five non-recused Planning Commissioners in attendance expressed various concerns, some reaching existential proportions, about the current design of the ECCL project forcing the applicants to return next month with an improved design.
After the School District's architect Mark Seiberlich told the Commissioners the bike/pedestrian path associated with the project along the western border "never rose to a level of priority", the Commissioners were near unanimous in their disapproval of the District's lack of deference for Emeryville's General Plan.  Specifically and especially, the project's abandonment of both the proposed bike/pedestrian path and the proposed 53rd Street Greenway along the northern border were pilloried by the majority of Commissioners. The inadequate 'community commons' part of the project was also singled out for scorn.

City Staff, confident that Thursday night would be a rubber-stamp approval,  had only prepared a resolution approving the project and so at one point in the meeting when a majority of the Commissioners seemed willing to simply deny the application, they were unable to do so as no resolution rejecting the application had even been prepared.


There were two major actions before the Planning Commission regarding the ECCL Thursday evening. First, as the City Staff Report explained, as a Responsible Agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the Planning Commission was to reach its own conclusions regarding the project's compliance with CEQA based on their own independent judgment and analysis.

 Commissioner John Scheuerman
The lack of space at the
ECCL project is "troubling"

Second, the Commission was to consider granting various permits needed for the project to move forward, such as a tree removal permit, a permit allowing the building heights to exceed 30 feet, a permit allowing fewer on-site parking spaces than the minimum normally required, and a general use permit and design review. Commissioner Kairee Tann mentioned at the outset that the residence she owns is within 500 feet of the project site and so she was recusing herself.

At a previous study session held by the Planning Commission, several Commissioners had expressed concerns that the San Pablo Avenue site was too small to accommodate the proposed wide range of uses by so many students and community members. Planning Director, Charlie Bryant, started the evening off by trying to rein in these sorts of comments by admonishing the Commissioners regarding precisely what was before them, stating that any concern that there "is too much stuff crammed onto the site" is not within the Commission's purview, but then he had to admit that to the extent that any such concerns did affect any of the discretionary permits that were before the Commission, that then such issues were fair game.  The warnings from Mr Bryant didn't stop Commissioner Gail Donaldson from piping up, "This project has undersized facilities...minimal community spaces. Everything is squished together."  Collegue John Scheuerman joined in, "It's troubling" that there's not enough space to follow the General Plan he said.

ECCL Architect Mark Seiberlich:
"The bike/pedestrian path was never ignored
[during the design phase] but
it never rose to a level of priority".

Commission Unimpressed With District's Environmental Analysis
When it came time to discuss whether the District's environmental study for the contentious project, called the Initial Study Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS /MND) adequately identified environmental impacts and whether its analysis was adequate, Commissioner Gail Donaldson expressed concerns that 53rd Street had numerous traffic safety issues, calling it "a nightmare of conflicts between bicycles, pedestrians, turning cars, and people that are impatient, angry, and backed-up and stacked beyond what the capacity of that intersection is."  Commissioner John Schuermann responded that, "I definitely share that concern... I'm really uncomfortable that it hasn't been addressed and I do see a lot of conflicts." Chair Vanessa Kuemmerle then added, "I also see conflicts.  Especially with the queuing and also left turn lanes... I don't feel like the traffic was adequately addressed in the initial study.  And there are definite bike-pedesrian-vehicle conflicts."

Then one of the District's consultants, paid to produce the Initial Study, rose to respond that, "With regards to the turnaround, just keep in mind, in the mornings with drop-off, folks when they drop their kids off aren't lingering, there'd would be a lot of movement at that point. You let your kid out.  They shut the door.  You move on... This layout would work in addressing drop-off."

This provoked such guffaws from the parents in attendance that Chair Kuemmerle had to ask the

audience to quiet down and only whisper to themselves.  As parents know, drop-off at the existing Anna Yates Elementary School on 41st Street, especially for the youngest children, is rarely as quick and simple as consultants might like to imagine.  Kindergarten parents almost universally go with their children onto the campus, especially during the first months of school, and may stay with their child on campus until the bell rings at 8:27.  Currently the end of Salem Street closest to Anna Yates' 43rd Street entrance fills up with the cars of parents who are walking onto campus with their children.  The 41st Street entrance also sees its parking spots in wide use during drop-off and pick-up.  Yet somehow consultants who seem to know nothing about what the parents in our District actually do assure us that parents dropping off at the ECCL will barely slow down to a complete stop as they shove their children out the doors and speed away.

City Staff Fight Hard for The Project
Chair Kuemmerle also raised the issue of the failure of the proposal to be consistent with the General Plan's call for a bike/ped path along the western edge of the property, since part of the CEQA checklist asks whether  the project would conflict with any applicable land use plan, including the general plan, adopted for the purpose of avoiding or mitigating an environmental effect.

Planning Director, Charlie Bryant, spoke up on behalf of the applicants again, arguing for the view that being inconsistent with the General Plan in this respect does not create an environmental impact, simply because if there is no path there now, then not having one in the future could not negatively impact the environment.  Somehow Mr. Bryant could not fathom that one good reason for including the path in the General Plan, at the site of a Community Center that, if successful, would dramatically increase the number of community members traveling to and from the site, was because failure to do so would have the detrimental environmental impacts created by all those additional car trips to the site, and the greenhouse gases and other harms they would cause.

It was clear that a majority of the Commission wanted to reject the IS/MND as inadequate, so Planning Director, Charlie Bryant, then rallied to the project's rescue, and read from the state CEQA guidelines to say that the Planning Commission's only options were to 1) Take the School District to court 2) be deemed to have waived any objections 3) prepare a subsequent Environmental Impact Report (EIR) if permissible, under another section or 4) Assume the Lead Agency role. Bryant then said he did not know whether the last two options were applicable and said that the Commision's choices were basically either to approve the IS/MND or sue the School District.  The Tattler was unable to determine whether Mr. Bryant was wearing an "S" on his chest and had donned a cape for this performance.

Commission Chair Vanessa Kuemmerle
The 'community commons' area is dark &
foreboding. "It could be called the 
'community canyon'."  Also, "It looks 
like a hamster cage"

Assistant City Attorney, Michael Guina, then jumped in to state that essentially the Commission had to either approve the IS/MND or sue the School District, adding a halo of gravitas to the claim.  It was particularly bewildering for onlookers to watch as the attorney for the City, which was the applicant with the School District for this project, gave legal advice to the Planning Commission who had just made it clear that a majority of them were inclined to adopt an adverse position to the applicants. This conflict of interest never seemed to trouble City Staff and the pressure they applied had its desired result.  Faced with the unappetizing option of having to figure out how a group of volunteer citizens serving on the Planning Commission could sue the School District, the Commission backed down and voted 4-1 to approve the IS/MND.  As the Commissioners voted, one could almost feel the weight of the City's thumb pressing down on them.

Community members had previously provided critical comments on this IS/MND, also found it inadequate.  While it was likely nice for these commenters to learn that a majority of the Planning Commission shared many of their concerns, it was equally distressing to see the will of the Commission thwarted by City Staff.

Commissioners Hold Their Noses During ECCL Design Review
In what followed, the Commissioners explained the remainder of their concerns about the ECCL project, centered around its lack of the Bike/Ped Path on the western edge of the property, the traffic problems on 53rd Street which they felt should have more of the features of the Greenway described in the General Plan, and the "Community Commons" which was intended to serve as the K-5 play area as well as an after-school community space, but which Commissioners felt was, as currently designed, achieving neither function well.

Thwarted by City Staff once more, since Staff had not prepared a resolution denying the permits, and since Staff seemed incapable of drafting a resolution reading "Application denied." on the spot, the Commissioners instead took a two-fold approach.  First, they worked on a list of conditions of approval they would want added to the project, if it were to be approved, and second they decided to continue the discussion at next month's meeting, giving the applicants time to improve the design in the areas mentioned.

The Tattler expects to provide follow-up stories with more details on this remarkable chapter in the apparently unstoppable march of the ECCL project.  Watch where you step.

Community Members Comment on ECCL's Environmental Impact

July 11th was the final day to submit comments to the Emery Unified School District as part of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process for the proposed Emeryville Center of Community Life.

The District issued an Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (and technical appendices) that alleged that, with the mitigation measures proposed, the ECCL project would not have a significant environmental impact.

A group of Emeryville residents, parents of children who currently or will attend the schools of the Emery Unified School District, and individuals that own property or are employed in Emeryville have collaborated to draft a set of comments.

The Comments suggest that the District should prepare a full Environmental Impact Report, rather than the Mitigated Negative Declaration, and the Comments highlight the ways in which the commenters believe the ECCL is inconsistent with Emeryville's General Plan, particularly for its failure to include the bicycle/pedestrian path on the western edge of the property and for failing to design the northern edge of the property as the east-west greenway called for in the General Plan.

The final version of comments with signature page are below.

ECCL CEQA Comments (Final)

Center of Community Life Violates City Mandated Environmental Requirements

Dominoes Start to Fall at Community Center

Newly released CEQA environmental impact documents reveal Emeryville's Center of Community Life will not meet the City's General Plan requirements for a planned 'Greenway' on 53rd Street and a planned 'Pedestrian Priority Zone' and 'Green Street' for 53rd and 47th Streets the Tattler has learned.  Additionally, the School District announced Monday that it plans on providing only 98 bike parking spaces, 24 less than recommended at the community center/school.

The Green Street and Greenway mandates are General Plan concepts designed to encourage walking and bicycling on certain key streets.  The Plan identified these streets to help connect the city's neighborhoods by calming vehicle traffic, providing generous plantings, consistent street furniture and such to make walking and biking more pleasant and by increasing sidewalk widths.  The Center of Community Life is so cramped on its site, the School District has pushed it out and impinged on space needed to accommodate the Green Street and Greenway designations it was revealed Monday.

The Pedestrian Priority Zone, too is an idea the General Plan identified to help pedestrians in five key areas of the city.  The goal according to the General Plan is to make pedestrian safety and movement a top priority in these identified zones.  The plans for the Center of Community Life have been revealed to negate the Pedestrian Priority Zone designation as well, mostly by sidewalk constrictions.  The Pedestrian Priority Zones are meant to service "neighborhood centers and schools".

The bike parking requirements (122 spaces) were calculated by the city's Bicycle Pedestrian Committee using a 10% metric; bike parking spaces for 10% of the daily users of the site.  This represents an increase in bike parking over other developments in town owing to the fact that the Center of Community Life contains a school and owing to the fact that it has a designed lifespan of 50 years.  The Committee is looking farther into the future and imagining increased bike use.  The School District says  the site is too cramped to allow for more than 98 bike parking spaces.

The Center of Community Life environmental impacts have not stopped with the degradation of the green status of 53rd and 47th Streets, the School District has battled over the 'ECCL Path', a bike/pedestrian path alongside the school site, a General Plan required amenity they don't wish to build.  And in a blow to sustainability, the School District announced too in February it would not meet LEED certification with the Center of Community Life.  City Hall has been encouraging sustainable building, including LEED certified building for our town.  The School District claimed it doesn't have enough money to build with an eye towards sustainability.

CEQA, or the California Environmental Quality Act is a statute that requires municipal and other agencies to identify significant environmental impacts.  LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a voluntary consensus-based market-driven program.

School Board's Latest Bike/Ped Path Rationale isn't Cogent

Bike/Pedestrian Path Can be Built

Running Track Issue is a Ruse

As the Tattler previously reported, Emery School District now claims that the reason the Center of Community Life's design cannot accommodate the required bicycle pedestrian path on the Western edge of the property called for by the City's General Plan is because it would require them to remove two of the four lanes on the running track, rendering it useless.  The Tattler has learned to be skeptical of rationales given by the School District as they seem to frequently change and fail to pan out, as we learned when their concerns about the impact the bike path would have on the width of the existing pool deck were shown to be unfounded.

Closer analysis of this latest rationale from the District raises similar concerns. The proposed running track consists of only four lanes and is not a standard oval shape. This makes the track that District Staff are proposing only suitable for practice, as it could not be used for normal competitive meets.  Shortening the track on it's Western side to accommodate the bicycle path is not to blame for our students not having an official competitive track: the District's own decision to cram too many buildings and too many grades onto too small of a property are responsible for that.

All that could be changed now is the relative usefulness of the track for practice purposes--all it was ever going to be good for. But since the District is planning on using "staggered starts" for runners owing to the sub standard size anyway, there is no effective compromise by building the bike/ped path.  The section of straight line track along 53rd Street stretch remains at more than 360 feet long, unaffected by the bike/ped path and that portion of the track could still be used to practice the 100m and the 110m hurdles. Long distance runners can better accommodate an irregular shaped or length track and so will not be as adversely affected as the short distance runners who must run in a straight line.

While it may cost the District money to have the architects move things around in the design slightly to accommodate such a track, this expense is the District's own fault. The bicycle pedestrian path has been part of the General Plan for years, long before these designs were finalized. The District simply believed they would be given another exception to the rules and so they ignored this requirement to their own detriment, to the detriment of the people of Emeryville, and most unfortunately, to the detriment of Emery students.

The Running Track at the Center of Community Life
The School District Plan
53rd Street is on the top to the north and the bike/pedestrian path would
be on the far left side to the west between the row of trees and the track.
To accommodate the path, a space only about half the width of the
four lane track would be needed. 

School District: Won't Build Bike/Pedestrian Path, "Too Late"

Pool Deck & Rapists Are Out, 

Now it's the Running Track
and the Cost

Bike/Ped Path Can't Be Built Because......

Opinion
First the Emery Unified School District told us that they can't construct a required bike/pedestrian path adjacent to the school at the incipient Center of Community Life because the path would constrict an existing pool deck to such an extent as to render the pool useless and besides the path would be crawling with pedophiles and drug dealers waiting to prey on the children they told us.  Now they're telling us there's no room for the path because it would constrict a proposed running track at the school.  Oh and they forgot to mention earlier, they say they can't afford to build the path anyway.

Emeryville City Councilwoman
Jennifer West:
Now we know the pool 
deck argument was a 
School District ruse

The flip flop by the School District was revealed Tuesday when Emeryville's Bicycle Pedestrian Committee held a special field trip meeting at the site of the required path.
The School District had repeatedly told the people of Emeryville the pool deck was too small to shave away even a little to make room for the bike path (called the ECCL Path) but as the committee members Tuesday saw for themselves how truly large the existing pool deck really is, suddenly the School District Staff members and School Board members attending the meeting switched tactics and told the Committee members now it's the running track that 's going to be too cramped to accommodate the bike/ped path.
Council member Jennifer West, noting the reversal took the opportunity to look on the bright side, "The good news is at least now we don't have to worry about the pool deck any longer" she told the attendees.

The pool deck issue settled, the assembled School District staff and School Board members are now turned their focus on the yet to be built running track at the future school; there's simply no room for the bike/ped path they took pains to reveal at the Tuesday meeting.  The ECCL Path will take away two lanes rendering the track useless they said but left unmentioned was the fact that the School District selected the San Pablo Avenue site for the Center of Community Life years ago and they designed the whole site including the track with afore knowledge that the ECCL Path would have to be located there.  After the site was selected, it should be noted, the District went into attack mode against any naysayers who claimed the site was too small.
At this late date, with the design set in stone, the ECCL Path cannot be built, it's too late and the site cannot be redesigned said Mark Seiberlich, chief architect for the Center of Community Life,  "The [bike/ped] path takes up too much space and we must remove two track lanes" he added.

School District architect
Mark Seiberlich:
It's too late to redesign...
"The bike/ped path takes up
too much space" 

After disparaging comments from the School Superintendent Debbra Lindo, excoriating the Bike/Ped Committee for their recalcitrance on this path,  one Committee member, exasperated by such talk told the assembled throng because of a lack of planning on the part of the District, "we're now being made to feel guilty for throwing the children under the bicycles wheels".  The idea was floated that the running track would be built whole now but two lanes of it would be removed later with the possible inclusion of the bike/ped path when the District builds out phase 2 of the project, but the idea was summarily rejected by Committee members as not credible.

Amid a plethora of challenging questions from disbelieving Bike/Ped Committee members, School Board member Josh Simon moved the conversation away from the intractable running track issue.  After suggesting there might be a yet to be revealed way to fit a bike/ped path in,  he lamented the high cost of the ECCL Path.  Mr Simon told the meeting attendees that the School District was not going to build the ECCL path during 'phase 1' construction of the Center of Community Life but perhaps a path could be build during phase 2, someday in the future.
But it's the high cost of building the required path that's got the School Board vexed he told the Committee members, "The reason we pushed the ECCL Path into phase 2 is the cost" Board member Simon said.  Emeryville residents will remember this School Board said the amount of money the District can raise through selling bonds is enough to build the whole Center of Community Life, an "exceptional" community facility they assured us.

This required bike/ped path really has the Emery School District grasping at straws.  After pleading with the Planning Commission and the City Council to reject the path by telling lies about the size of the pool deck and raising the specter of looming rapists and drug dealers, now they're pivoting and delivering this running track poppycock.  Their performance drew the ire of former School Board President Cheryl Webb who attended the meeting, "disingenuous" she said of the staff and Board members.

Former  School Board
President (resigned)
Cheryl Webb:
The District is
"disingenuous"

After showing us they have no compunction about lying to the people of Emeryville, this School District is now preparing to build a school and community center at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.  It's not inspiring a lot of confidence. Emeryville taxpayers would be right to be concerned.
But the School District doesn't have a choice about this path; they are required to build it.  It's the expressed will of the people of Emeryville as revealed by our award winning General Plan and as specifically codified by the City Council's ruling after hearing the School District's lamentable case against the path.
It should also be noted the General Plan says the Center of Community Life is a "pedestrian priority zone".  And so now is the time to build it, when the Center of Community Life is being built, now, not perhaps if Josh Simon can figure a way to do it at some unspecified later date.

We grow tired of all the chicanery and outright lies from this District about this issue.  It's been a litany; the bogus claim of the too small pool deck from District architect Roy Miller, the rapists and drug dealers, the cost and now this absurd claim the running track will be negatively impacted.  This School District, we now know, purposely designed this Center of Community Life behind closed doors over the years without the required bike/ped path.  Any talk now about it being too late is insulting to the people of Emeryville.  We remind the School District that they need to build this school and community center for ALL the stakeholders in the community, including the bicyclists and the pedestrians.  Once again, absurdly, this District and this School Board shows us they don't know the meaning of community as they build the Center of Community Life.

In Emeryville, Only the Poor Get Stuck With Bike/Pedestrian Paths

The Rich Are Gloriously Free From Pedestrians and Bicyclists

Opinion

Dialectical Materialism
The workers control the means of
production and bikes, an inherent 
contradiction of the petty 
bourgeoisie, will spell doom to 
capitalism and its running dogs. 
We will destroy bikes and create
a classless society. 

We live in a wacky town here.  Take last Monday's performance at the Bicycle Pedestrian Committee meeting by Emery Schools Superintendent Debbra Lindo; the City Council is "classist" she says because they are foisting a bicycle/ pedestrian path on the School District as it builds the Center of Community Life.  Unlike the neighboring private school across the street, the hoity toity Escueala Bilingue Internacional, who didn't have to build a proposed path adjoining their facility she noted. They got a pass from the Council she took pains to remind everyone.
Everybody knows bike/pedestrian paths are horrible, tacky things, dreadful really.  But only the disadvantaged public school has to endure one directly adjoining its facility thanks to the plutocrat apologists on the City Council, Ms Lindo says.

These comments, lambasting the Council for its classism were so far out in left field (so to speak), the Bike/Ped Committee at first had no idea what she was talking about.  The Superintendent had to explain her tortured logic twice to the Committee.  Even then some Committee members seemed confused.
Ms Lindo is so desperate to stop the ECCL Path, she is so distracted at the thought of it that she's biting the hand that's feeding her; her partner in the Center of Community Life, the City Council.

All the talk Monday of looming criminals loitering on the path, threatening the children were over the top to be sure.  But it's the "classist" charge leveled at the City Council, with its bizarre Marxist overtones that's especially revealing about the desperation taking hold at the School District.  Everything gets turned on its head it seems at the School District as they attempt to bully their way forward with the Center of Community Life...everything gets turned on it's head, even Karl Marx it would appear.

Here's how the wealthy live: Lots of street,
 no bike/pedestrian paths

We're wondering where the Superintendent is going with this spurious and ridiculous charge directed at the City Council.  We're hoping Monday's performance, entertaining though it might have been, is not an indication of a new trajectory for the Center of Community Life.  We've got too much money wrapped up in this thing for it to falter.  So while we may chuckle at the increasingly erratic antics, we're getting worried this whole thing may not pan out.

This is what poverty in America looks like: 
Not a pretty picture

A tony neighborhood; no bikes.  Oh, to be rich!

School District and City Withhold Public Documents from Tattler & the Public

Public Better Off Being Ignorant Says City Attorney & School District

Opinion
Emeryville's City Attorney has ruled that documents in the possession of the City and the School District outlining meetings of public officials that took place behind closed doors will not be made public according to a letter recently received by the Tattler.  The City Attorney, Michael Biddle, ruled that the release of the documents would harm the public now and that the public would be further harmed later because government officials would not be able to engage in "robust" behind closed door discussions necessary for good public policy formulation.

One of the documents, a major traffic study regarding the new Emeryville Center for Community Life (ECCL), was requested by the Tattler in April from both the School District and the City.  Both refused to provide the document in response to a California Public Records Act request and as a result Emeryville residents can now only guess what public officials know about the traffic impact that will be caused by the ECCL that officials are unwilling to share with the public.

City Attorney and interim City Manager
Michael Biddle (on left) with recently retired
City Manager Pat O'Keeffe 

The Emeryville Center for Community Life, still years from being completed, has recently disappointed residents that hoped it would live up to the environmental promises made by both School District and City officials.  First, this February we saw the School District request special permission to be exempted from the City’s LEED environmental standards for Emeryville public buildings. In a 3-2 vote, the City Council allowed this environmental promise to be broken.

More recently, in April, we saw the School District back before the City Council requesting that it be exempted from another environmentally-friendly requirement that it found bothersome, the General Plan’s requirement that there be a bicycle and pedestrian path along the western property border of the proposed ECCL site. While this 3-2 vote of the City Council preserved the path in the City’s General Plan, none of the most recent ECCL designs show any intention by the District of actually building the required path.

With the School District’s record clear, the Tattler has decided to watch carefully the District’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as it proceeds with the ECCL design and construction.  On April 11th the Tattler wrote ECCL project director, Roy Miller, requesting all Environmental Impact Reports related to the planned ECCL, all CEQA notices, and to be placed on a list of “interested parties” to receive all future CEQA notices.  Mr. Miller replied that such documents were not currently available and would be available at the District office once “they have been prepared for public release”,  presumably after having been scrubbed clean.

However, we were surprised a few days later with the release of the monthly Progress Reports, dated March 1 and April 1, prepared by the City’s Building & Planning Director, Charlie Bryant, which each describe the School District providing the City with a copy of a traffic study for the ECCL project, and the City’s Building and Planning department responding to the District with comments.  The Progress Reports reveal no details of the traffic study.

If the earlier request for CEQA-related documents was not clear enough, the Tattler again wrote to the School District’s Roy Miller to request a copy of this ECCL traffic study.  For good measure, the City also received a request for the same ECCL traffic study document.

After several days, lawyers for both the City and the School District flatly refused the Tattler’s request for Public Documents.  City Attorney Biddle responded on behalf of the City that the traffic study was a “draft” not subject to the Public Records Act.  Mr. Biddle’s letter claims that “the public interest in withholding those records clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure,” citing a California Supreme Court decision called Citizens for a Better Environment v. Department of Food and Agriculture. 

Phony Case Law
Readers might find it as amusing as we did to read the court opinion cited by Mr. Biddle (in the link above), because what the Court actually decides in that case is that the documents at issue have to be disclosed to the extent the document contains factual material and that only the expressions of opinion have to be redacted.  So, clearly this top secret ECCL traffic study is either entirely a work of opinion, and therefore not subject to disclosure, or a work containing factual material that the City and School District are improperly withholding from the public.  This leaves one to wonder what value a traffic study would have to a CEQA process if it were made up entirely of opinion and contained no facts on which to base those opinions.   Leave it to our School District to break exciting new ground in purely fictional traffic studies!  Bravo!  The Tattler expected nothing less.

Mr. Biddle also argued that the documents requested were “deliberative materials necessary for robust agency discussion” and therefore subject to an exception to the Public Records Act intended to foster “robust policy discussions.” This is what the Tattler has always found to be true of both our City and School District. They never shy away from a “robust” policy debate… just so long as the public isn’t included.  If we're allowed to listen in, presumably the talk becomes wimpy and feeble.

This City and this School District, fearful as they are of transparency should come clean with regard to this withholding of documents.  We ask again, are these environmental documents for the Center of Community Life factual in nature?  If so, the City Attorney's own citation requires their release to the public, by his own reckoning he must make them available.  And in that case, Mr Biddle and the School District is wrong, for they are harming the public more by withholding these documents than by releasing them to the rightful owners, the public.