Toxic Lead Exposed Tenants Organize to Fight Developer, City

Tenant Blood Testing Reveals 300% Over Federal Safety Limit for Toxic Lead Contamination at Emeryville Residential Building

New Hollis Street Tenant Coalition Arises, Action by City Hall Demanded

Wareham Development Complicit in Urgent Health Issue Tenants Say

Tenants at 6221 Hollis Street have been doused with airborne toxic dust from a remodel project by Wareham Development Corporation causing widespread lead blood contamination up to 300% over the federal safety limit  the Tattler has learned.  The blood work done via a physician's order on some tenants at the building was performed after initial test results showed high levels of lead contaminated dust that had bypassed any mitigation measures by Wareham and settled into residential units and communal spaces in the General Cable Building, as it is known.  New testing of more comprehensive dust collection in tenets' units show the lead levels to be worse than originally had been suspected, with many locations over 1000% in excess of federal safety limits and one residential unit showing 2680% beyond the safety limit. 

The General Cable Building on Hollis Street
A biohazard says tenants.
Calls are for the building to be "red tagged".

The formation of a 19 member coalition of concerned tenants at the building has been announced in a July 15th letter to Council member Kalimah Priforce, a City representative that members say has shown determination and resolve to help.  The sole function of the coalition is to fight against an uncooperative Wareham Development and a recalcitrant City of Emeryville that has so far not risen to sufficiently address the contamination urgency one member of the group said.  Mr Priforce for his part, said he will continue to drive the City to better assist these and all renters whom he said are sometimes “treated like Emeryville’s invisible second class”.

The group has expressed a desire to have their members not be made public at this time, a request the Tattler will abide. 

In response to the increasing imbroglio, the City has issued a 'stop work order' against Wareham while the lead issue is investigated.  Tenants claim however Wareham has already violated the City order.  

The group, the 'Concerned Tenants of 6221 Hollis Street', say they want the City to ‘red tag’ the building, meaning all those living and conducting business at the building must stop until the issue is resolved.  Council member Priforce is attempting to help by getting the City to commit to an urgent temporary relocation assistance ordinance in addition to other city wide tenant protections he has been pushing for over the last year and a half.  So far, the rest of the City Council majority has flummoxed Mr Priforce's attempts by steadfastly refusing to entertain even any discussion of any new city-wide tenant protection policy.   

The Concerned Tenants' letter exposes a litany of abuses by Wareham so far including demolition activities such as jackhammering, wall and ceiling removal, and other heavy dust-generating construction,  “...all undertaken without visible or verifiable use of dust containment or mitigation measures, in clear violation of federal EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) Rule guidance and CDPH protocols triggered by the building’s pre-1978 construction.” the letter reveals.   “The violations are flagrant, ongoing, and extremely troubling”, they add.  Expanding on the previous lead dust testing done by two residents in the building and reported in a May 7th Tattler story, the group states, “Numerous laboratory-confirmed dust wipe tests, taken by multiple tenants, now show widespread lead contamination throughout both inside residential units and throughout common areas. These samples far exceed federal safety thresholds and show clear evidence that airborne lead dust has saturated the building over time due to uncontained construction activity.” 

Many of the health effects of lead exposure,
particularly those related to
 brain damage, are not reversible.

The letter excoriates Wareham, attributing efforts to rectify the situation more to attempting to placate the tenants: “…no comprehensive abatement has been proposed, and Wareham Development has refused to cease operations or fully vacate the building during this ongoing hazard.” The letter continues,  “It is clear from their [Wareham’s] recent conduct that their plan is to abate ‘piecemeal’, cleaning one unit at a time, while leaving the rest of the building contaminated and active construction zones ongoing, thus exposing both current and future tenants to serious health risks.”

Sending their concerns to Council member Priforce over anyone else at City Hall, the tenants recognize a singular council member with empathy for renters, a fact Mr Priforce acknowledged to the Tattler, "No one should have to breathe in poison just to keep a roof over their head." he said.   I'm fighting for actual tenant protections for Below Market Rate and affordable housing residents because right now, they don't exist."  Mr Priforce celebrated the Hollis Street tenants organizing themselves and promised to support them.  They have a right to organize he said, "...without fear of retaliation from landlords or city hall."

Wareham Development and its CEO Rich Robbins, is long considered Emeryville City Hall's most favored developer, having secured more than its share of government largess over the years.  Even this specific project saw a roll back of parking regulation to Wareham's advantage in 2022 after then Emeryville mayor John Bauters intervened on Wareham's behalf at Mr Robbins' request.  

Mayor David Mourra did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

Lead Contamination in Human Blood Cells
Basophilic stippling is shown, characterized by
the presence of small, dark granules
(ribosomes and RNA remnants)within the cytoplasm.

Emeryville Developer Wareham's Lead Dust Makes Tenant's Homes "Unihabitable"

 Wareham Development Demolition Doses Tenants with Toxic Lead 

Lead Report Says Toxicity at "Dangerous Levels" in Homes

An Emeryville family was recently forced out of their Hollis Street home because their landlord, Wareham Development Corporation, has contaminated their unit with toxic lead dust from a large remodel project on their building.  The lead contamination has rendered their home “uninhabitable” according to a report produced by a lead abatement firm tenant Wendy Medeiros and her husband hired.  The couple alerted the City of Emeryville starting in March after what a neighbor called “constant disruptions” in dust and cuts to their water and power by Wareham and now the lead report that concluded the presence of “dangerous levels of lead” in their home and in the hallways and other rental units in the building.  The lead contamination and disruptions has contributed to an exodus of residential renters from the building neighbors say; just 16 out of 41 units are still occupied, a condition Ms Medeiros called “disheartening”.

Large scale demolition work has been happening on the
building since March.  No water spraying dust mitigation 
measures have been noted by the residents, a standard
method to keep dust levels low, especially toxic dust.

The remodel project is part of the controversial EmeryStation V, a new five story, 300,000 square foot R+D building with a nearly 500 space parking garage all attached to the existing residential building between Hollis Street and Overland Street at 62nd Street.  Wareham and its politically connected CEO Rich Robbins has developed more than eight large projects around the Amtrak station over the last 25 years, many with generous application of public funds.  

The first spate of demolition associated with the project, in 2024, produced a lot of dust says Ms Medeiros, but Wareham offered to clean up their apartment.  Wareham hired a lead analysis firm at the time and they reported “low levels” of the toxin she said.  However, Wareham did not make the findings known to the couple.  Starting in March with the latest demolition on the site and new clouds of dust entering their home, they hired their own firm, Alpha Analytical Laboratories of Petaluma CA.  After an onsite inspection and dust sample collection by a licensed lead abatement technician, the report concluded the lead contamination was acute and happened because of the demolition.  However Wareham is questioning the validity of the Alpha report the couple says. 

The tenant Wendy Medeiros told the Tattler after last year’s toxic dosing of her home by Wareham followed on by this latest onslaught now proved by the independent lead report, has left her at her wits end, “It is disheartening to find myself in a position where I must explain that my right to habitability, health and safety matters.  These are not privileges — they are the bare minimum of what any tenant should expect. Lead contamination is not negotiable.  Habitability is not negotiable.  No one should have to battle that, she said.  

6221 Hollis Street
Large amounts of toxic dust have entered 
tenants' living spaces, including in
the hallways.

A neighbor in the building, Sara Chestnutt-Fry who also has been living under the cloud of lead dust, agreed with Medeiros, “I think the saddest part to me is none us want to move. Everyone left in the building has lived here long term, some tenants for decades, and if we’re forced to relocate it will be devastating to our little artist community, Chestnutt-Fry told the Tattler.  “The most frustrating part is they could have done it right. All they had to do was be transparent and protect our health and safety”, she added.

The EmeryStation V Overland Project became known for having received an improper favor from then Mayor John Bauters wherein CEO Rich Robbins was allowed to provide an excess of parking spaces, above and beyond the official parking policy of the City of Emeryville.  The City Council give -a-way to Wareham is but the latest act of improper largess forwarded to Wareham by certain Emeryville elected officials over the years that has been shown to be a pattern and practice for the politically connected developer.

Wendy Medeiros spoke for the whole community in her building after the latest Wareham dust cloud settled, "It should not be up to tenants to insist on protections that are, by law, non-negotiable or be forced to defend what should never be up for debate in any landlord-tenant relationships”.   

Emeryville City Attorney John Kennedy indicated he would be willing to meet with the tenants to hear their concerns but he has not yet done so say neighbors.  

Wareham Development could not be reached for comment.

The Hollis Street front of the building.  Many people live or until
recently lived in this front part.  The demolition has occurred chiefly 
in the rear portion but inadequate dust mitigation by Wareham 
has allowed the dust to migrate into the resident's homes.

Council Member Bauters Running as Bike/Walk/Public Transit Champion: His Record Refutes That

Alameda County Voters Should Know John Bauters' Transit Record

Mr Bauters Overturned City Ordinance Controlling  Parking to Accommodate a Developer's Wishes

 

What He Says is Different From What He Does

News Analysis

Former mayor John Bauters led a drive to approve a development with 496 parking spaces, an excess of 85 spaces over Emeryville’s maximum as stipulated by a City ordinance, refuting his new official narrative of him discouraging single occupant vehicles in his candidacy for Alameda County Supervisor.  A July 2022 City Council action that highlights this disconnect came when favored developer Rich Robbins, CEO of Wareham Development, asked Mayor Bauters to overturn the City's Planning Commission who had earlier voted to enforce Emeryville’s rules on the number of parking spaces allowed for the Wareham project known as Emery Station Overland, a bio-science lab campus proposed for Overland Avenue.  

The rules on maximum allowable parking spaces are codified by Emeryville’s Transit Hub Overlay Zone, a delineated area around the Amtrak Station of which the Overland project is in, that was certified as a City ordinance in 2013 to encourage commuters to not drive but to take alternative transportation.  Limiting single occupancy vehicle use for development within the zone is central to the goal of the ordinance by limiting the number of parking spaces available.

Mr Bauters, who is running for Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 5 has been receiving donations from developers and YIMBY California (a developer lobbying organization) at a frantic clip, and he has also been telling Alameda County voters he is against single occupancy vehicle (SOV) use as a planning precept.  Developers as a default, want more parking to be made available for their tenants and that is shown by Wareham’s Overland project.  Approving the project as the developer wanted it is at cross purposes to the announcements made by candidate Bauters to Alameda County voters.

Mayor Bauters' Overland project decision allowed 20% more parking spaces than the Transit Zone allowed and would result in a minimum of extra 170 daily vehicle trips to the site.  Bauters downplayed all the extra cars massing on the site by announcing the parking garage would likely be transformed in housing at some future date.

Emery Station Overland will be located on Overland Avenue between 62nd and 63rd streets.

Emeryville’s Bike Committee unanimously urged Mr Bauters to follow the rules and deny the developer the extra 85 parking spaces and one member, Jordan Wax, also personally attended the Council meeting and spoke out, but to no avail.  

The Chairman of Emeryville’s Planning Commission, Steven Keller called the developer’s 496 parking space number “inflated”.  He told the City Council, Wareham “did not convincingly demonstrate that additional parking is needed for the project” and the Council voting to approve would be making a “precedent setting mistake”.  Although the Transit Center Overland project is located right next to the Amtrak Station, Wareham, for its part said Amtrak is no good and people don’t use it as a reason why so many private parking spaces are needed. 

Vice Mayor Ally Medina supported Mr Bauters' idea to overturn the ordinance.  Without providing evidence, Ms Medina announced, “[transportation] Mode shift does not come from denying parking spaces, it comes from infrastructure”, meaning the bike infrastructure alone in Emeryville will be enough to get people out of their cars despite the extra availability of free and easy parking spaces.  Mr Bauters concurred, hinting the extra parking spaces will sit empty.  A Wareham spokesman also agreed, calling the 85 extra parking spaces beyond what Emeryville’s General Plan allows a “win win” for residents and for Wareham.  

Mr Bauters told the attending crowd, “We would love to reduce parking as much as possible”, but Wareham is going to provide a lot of bike infrastructure he indicated.  However, Alameda County Board of Supervisors candidate Bauters, like Ally Medina, never explained to Emeryville residents how providing better bike infrastructure at the same time as an excess of free and easy parking would reduce the number of drivers.

Wareham is planning on breaking ground on their 496 space parking garage later this year.

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors District 5 election is on November 5th.

Below is the video of the City Council meeting.  The Overland project begins at 52:22.  Public comment including those from the Planning Commission and the Bike Committee begin at 1:19:38.  Council comment including those from Mayor Bauters begins at 1:27:40.

Government Favoritism (in Neon) in Renaming of Emeryville Train Station

Doubt Emeryville's Pro-Developer Culture?

It's in Blue Neon at 5885 Horton Street

News Analysis

This last week, Rich Robbins, the CEO of the San Rafael based Wareham Development Corporation, repaid former Emeryville City Councilwoman Nora Davis posthumously, for all the tax breaks and outright gifts of cash from the public coffers she extended to the development giant over the years with the erection of a sign proclaiming Emeryville’s popular train station henceforth be called the Nora Davis Emeryville Transit Center Station.  The renaming will ripple through vacationer’s and commuter’s macrocosm as they become accustomed to the change appearing on new brochures and passenger train websites. The legendary Amtrak Zephyr will now be listed as the route from the historic Chicago Union Station to the Nora Davis Emeryville Station.  Travelers on California’s iconic Capital Corridor train will board at Sacramento Valley Station and disembark at Emeryville's Nora Davis Station.

Seemingly public infrastructure, the train riding public would be surprised to know the Emeryville station is actually private property.  Mr Robbins himself owns our local train station.  He built it and he owns it but with a proviso that the public be allowed to use it as if it were part of the public commons.  But that’s also why he gets to name the station after his favorite City Council member who ruled our town from the Council dais for 29 years before she passed away in 2020.

Councilwoman Davis was famous for her pro-developer philosophy and of all the developers she showered government largess upon, and there were many, none were sanctioned at the level of her favorite, Rich Robbins of Wareham.  

The renaming of the train station by Mr Robbins comes after a push by many in the Emeryville business community to name all manner of public infrastructure after the deceased City Councilwoman for all she did for them as well.  Proposals included renaming Doyle/Hollis Park as Nora Davis Park and the new bike/pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks at the Bay Street Mall as Nora Davis Bridge.  Either out of ignorance or a sense of taunting (owning the libs?), the business community has never acknowledged the fact that when she was on our Council, Ms Davis actually fought against these two public infrastructure projects.  The existing City Council knows Ms Davis’ record and they rebuffed the business community’s proposals.  Indeed, Council member Davis made the city the current City Council is struggling to remake.  Ms Davis saw Emeryville as developers at the time saw it: a low slung, low density suburban style town with lots of strip malls with baking asphalt in front, serviced by anti-bike anti-pedestrian ‘stroads’ choked with auto traffic inching towards the copious at-grade free parking.  That is Nora Davis’ actual legacy.

But all that is forgotten now by Rich Robbins of Wareham who returns favors and doesn’t forget a generous friend, even in death.  For us, the Nora Davis Emeryville Transit Center Station will always be there as a reminder about who the levers of power in government are supposed to be for.

The two most powerful people
in Emeryville:
Wareham CEO Rich Robbins
and his friend the late
Councilwoman Nora Davis

Story earns one Nora smile...

Emeryville Transit Center's $8.4 million in Public Funds Fails to Help Transit

No Transit at Transit Center

City Won't Say When Bus Bays Will Be Operational

More than ten years after the City Council OKed it and after Emeryville taxpayers were later tapped for an economic subsidy of $4.2 million to help build a private development laboratory/office tower near the Amtrak station on Horton Street known as the Transit Center, citizens still wait for the publicly accessible bus bays that were touted as the primary reason for the Center and the public subsidy.  A year and a half after completion of the Transit Center, City of Emeryville officials are now admitting negotiations between the developer, the City and Amtrak are "not progressing as expected".  An agreement should eventually be reached and the bus bays made available for public transit use, the City added.

Privately however, a City official told the Tattler that the COVID pandemic has brought down Amtrak to such a degree (Amtrak ridership down a whopping 95%), it is unlikely the rail service even has any use for the bus bays anymore and any agreement for their use may be a long way off.   

The Transit Center, built by Wareham Development is also known as ‘Emery Station West’, and was approved for construction  in 2010 with a toxic soil clean up.  Wareham received its final occupancy permit in April of 2019 and with the Amtrak serving bus bays, Wareham also secured an additional $4.2 million in State of California Transportation Fund money ($8.4 million total public expenditures).  

Emeryville Transit Center
For all the taxpayer subsidy,
it's supposed to have a transit component.

The public largess given to Wareham for the Transit Center has been substantial. Notably, the City will receive no taxes by agreement for 12 years after the issuance of the occupancy permit.  This 'tax increment'  forgiveness is a relic from the days of the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency (RDA) and was commonly used by other RDAs up and down the state until they were all ordered shut down by then Governor Jerry Brown in 2012. The idea was that developers would get a tax break for a certain number of years in order to spur development. Critics noted that RDA financing came at the expense of local school districts and contributed to California’s public education slide beginning in the 1980s.  

However Wareham, unlike most other private developers from the redevelopment era, got an exemption from the State shuttered RDA money after the City of Emeryville convinced Sacramento of the extraordinary public benefit of the bus bays.  It is notable that the bus bays were added as an afterthought by Wareham and were meant to juice public money for the Transit Center who's primary function was always Emery Station West, the laboratory/office tower.  

Emeryville also gave Wareham a $208,000 tax rebate in 2017 for the project after CEO Rich Robbins convinced the City Council that since the bus bays represent a public benefit, he should get relief from the standard developer impact fees. 

The 165 foot tower also required the City Council in 2010 to amend the then newly certified General Plan to increase the allowable hight in that specific area from 55 feet to 165 feet.

The Mayor of Emeryville, Christian Patz was contacted to comment on when the public can expect to get the bus bays they paid for, but he declined.

Free Parking at the Transit Center
Private vehicles are using the bus parking  
that Emeryville taxpayers provided.
Why not?... since buses aren't using the spaces.

Emeryville's Greedy Business Sector: No Support for Schools

Emeryville's Stingy Business Sector 

Emery Schools Left in the Cold

Tightfisted Businesses Extract From Community,
Don't Support the Community

Wareham One Bright Spot

Emeryville’s growing business sector, an economic engine that funds City Hall with a workforce that more than doubles the town’s population each work day, is nonetheless extremely stingy when it comes time to help fund Emery’s schools according to a document recently released by Emery Unified School District.  The document, obtained by a Tattler public records request reveals that only one business, Wareham Development, donated anything beyond a pittance to the schools during the last three years.  

Despite occasional claims to the contrary, corporate philanthropy to Emery schools has been anemic over the three years we checked; the top ten major corporate employers in Emeryville were all shown to have given the schools nothing or almost nothing.

Sad that Pixar is so miserly.
And Grifols...and Leapfrog...and
the Oaks Club...and Peet's Coffee...

Only San Rafael based Wareham and its CEO Rich Robbins, Emeryville’s largest developer, gave any substantial donations to Emery Unified, breaking the $10,000 mark three years running.
Major corporations in town have long made public claims of support for Emery schools but only Wareham and Mr Robbins have followed though, the document shows. 
Perhaps the other corporate actors in our town meant they support the idea of supporting the schools.  Or they support the schools in spirit...like saying the word support is itself support...like 'I support the troops'.  

A District spokesperson has noted in addition to the large donations from Wareham, some small non-monetary donations have come in from some businesses during the three years.

Also of particular note is the penurious parsimony of Pixar, a Disney subsidiary that has earned $11 billion for its parent company, itself a nine billion dollar a year corporate entity with a youth oriented focus.  Pixar has led all Emeryville penny pinching corporations in cupidity by offering virtually no support at all to the schools or the community.  Other than in 2004 when it needed Emeryville voters to support a major campus expansion and when it stated categorically it would be a continuing major benefactor for Emery schools, Pixar has never felt any need to share its good fortune with the education of the children of our community who pay to watch its films.  Pixar supports the troops and maybe they'll offer Emery schools their thoughts and prayers.
  

Chart courtesy of City of Emeryville and EUSD

Emeryville's Biggest Employers	Number of Employees	2014-2017 Donations to Emery Schools  (10K or greater value)
Pixar	1155	0
Grifols	544	0
AC Transit	511	0
Oaks Card Club	430	0
Clif Bar	397	0
LeapFrog	373	0
IKEA	348	0
AAA of Northern CA,NV,UT	300	0
Novartis	280	0
Peet’s Coffee & Tea	258	0

Fiscal Year	Donor	Amount
14-‘15	Wareham Development	$25,000.00
15-‘16	Wareham Development	$10,000.00
16-‘17	Nancy & Rich Robbins	$15,000.00

Grossly Overstated: Emeryville's former City Manager goes to bat for Pixar in 2004 with effusive public testimony as the citizens prepare to vote on Measures T&U; permission for a major corporate campus expansion.  They will be a "major benefactor to the schools" the City Manager said of Pixar.

Wareham to Receive $208,000 in Public Funds

Council Gives Wareham CEO Rich Robbins

Gift of Public Money

Corporate Profits Remain Private But Risk is Made Public

Mayor Scott Donahue
Giving Wareham $200,000
of the people's money is nice
but $500,000 would be better.

In an unprecedented act of City Hall-to-developer largess in a city long known for its extraordinary generosity to developers, the Emeryville City Council, acting on a recommendation from the staff, voted Tuesday to give a lavish gift of $208,000 in public money to Rich Robbins of Wareham Development Corporation for the controversial 'Transit Center' project on Horton Street.  The City will write a check to Wareham, drawn from public funds because Mr Robbins, the CEO of Wareham and a major player among developers in town, thinks it's unfair to him that the City increased its development impact fees before the Transit Center was finished and that he should get any additional money he paid returned to him.  The final amount agreed to by the City Council Tuesday ends the contested cash back request from Mr Robbins begun in January when he asked the City for $729,000.

Councilwoman Ally Medina felt Rich Robbins' pain Tuesday night and argued to give Wareham $208,000, however her two colleagues Mayor Scott Donahue and Councilwoman Dianne Martinez thought Ms Medina was too stingy with the people's money and held out for a gift of $500,000 instead; the amount recommended by staff.  All three pointed to the public benefits the citizens will reap from the Transit Center project.  The City Attorney, Michael Guina reminded the Council members that returning the money to Mr Robbins is strictly voluntary and they are under no legal obligation to do so but that fell on deaf ears among the majority on the Council.
Ms Medina's argument ultimately held sway and the City of Emeryville will now write a check for $208,420 to Mr Robbins for building the project the Planning Commission twice voted down due to its "lack of public benefit".  The two figures bandied about Tuesday night ($208,000 and $500,000) represent two visions of what was characterized as "fair" by their respective City Council champions Tuesday but neither had any legal basis, opening up the City to possible lawsuits from other developers similarly taxed and looking to be made whole.

Councilwoman Dianne Martinez
Yes, let's make it a cool half million.

Mayor Donahue told the Tattler after the final vote, "Fees are paid or improvements are made to provide a city for reimbursement for public services.  When infrastructure is provided that the fees pay for, having that fee is a kind of double charge."  The Mayor added the cash back to Rich Robbins is "prudent" and speculating about future Wareham development projects in Emeryville, he cautioned, "We'll have to negotiate with Rich in the future (for our benefit)."
Councilwoman Medina expanded on the idea of "fairness" after the vote, stating she felt constrained by "the intent of [the City of Emeryville's] credit policy for transit impact fees' regardless of the City Attorney's concise release from any such (legal) constraint.

The dissenting Council members, John Bauters and Christian Patz, relied on the City Attorney's view and also the need for future transit public infrastructure improvements.  Mr Bauters reminded everyone of the considerable impacts the Transit Center will bring, especially as pertains to bike safety with the glut of cars from the 823 parking spaces the project will provide, "We're going to put a lot of cars on [the Horton Street] Bike Boulevard" he said noting the money, fungible as it is, could help ameliorate that safety issue and help other transit needs the City has.
For her part, Ms Martinez agreed the Transit Center will have a negative impact but she said she is more concerned with being "fair" to Mr Robbins.

Councilwoman Ally Medina
After what the City Attorney said,
$500,000 might sound too generous...
Let's settle on $200,000.

Mr Bauters noted developers, when they put together a project, take a risk that a municipality might change the rules (including the fee schedule) and they are not required to be made whole following such a public policy change.  "Development equals risk" he said Tuesday, raising the specter of the much derided federal government's fealty to Wall Street and their propensity to help them keep corporate profits private while socializing the risk.

Wareham Development Seeks $3/4 Million Tax Rebate

Wareham Now Wants Retroactive Tax Credit After Transit Center Approval

Wareham Development Corporation, among developers, Emeryville's largest receiver of government largess, is seeking a retroactive rebate and credit of almost $729,000 from the City's developer impact fee schedule for Horton Street's Transit Center because four bus bays associated with the office tower will assist "public transportation facilities", something the developer claims the City agreed to, an argument that will be presented Tuesday.  A reading of the municipal code however negates Wareham's claim, a fact that will be presented by City Hall staff when the City Council considers whether to grant Wareham the tax relief Tuesday night at their regularly scheduled meeting.

The Transit Center
The 165' tall building will have four bus bays 
(hence 'transit').  The City Council overturned the 
Planning Commission who rejected the 
Transit Center because it has 
"too little public benefit". 

The Transit Center, a beleaguered and controversial project, features a 165' tall office building with 250,000 square feet of floor area and (together with it's parking structure across the street) will have almost 900 parking spaces.  It required special density bonuses to be granted to build the main tower over 100', leaving the developer's rebate in jeopardy the City says.   At issue is language in the municipal code that would preclude the City from giving the rebate to Wareham stating, 'no credit shall be provided against impact fees otherwise owed if an applicant has received a development bonus in accordance with the Planning Regulations for providing the specific facility'.

Wareham CEO Rich Robbins
Emeryville's most connected developer.
Not satisfied with all he's gotten from Emeryville 
up until now, he's been lobbying the City Council 
trying to get them to give him another gift of cash
Tuesday at the taxpayers expense. 

A vote by the City Council in Wareham's favor would rack up one more approbation from City Hall for the Transit Center, adding to the well documented litany of favors already showered upon Rich Robbins, Wareham's politically connected CEO.

The Transit Center project has already received indulgences from City Hall in the form of tax relief and forgiveness from codified internal City Hall adverse constraints; the General Plan was amended to exclude the 55 foot height limit at the future Transit Center site to allow for taller buildings there and the City Council put taxpayers on the hook for financing the project with public money by way of unprecedented tax increment financing, a deal that lets Wareham avoid taxes for 12 years that normally that would be paid to City Hall if the developer were to finance the project with his own money.  Additionally, Mr Robbins announced after approval was given for the project he would not remove all the toxic soil from the project site, regardless of former claims to the contrary; the main reason given for the project by former City Councilwoman Nora Davis and her colleagues.  Unabashedly, concerns over the remaining toxic soil on the site triggered Mr Robbins to get the City Council to agree to a 'no lawsuit clause', making it impossible to make the people of Emeryville whole, should a future problem occur.

Mr Robbins, a perennially favored developer with many friends on the former City Council, for years railed against the Horton Street Bike Boulevard, worried the 1800 car trips per day his project will put onto the boulevard would tend to make the City Council, with the public watching, skittish about approval for the project. However the Council has opted instead to ignore the 3000 vehicle trip per day constraints called out in Emeryville's Bike Plan for the street, letting Mr Robbins put all the extra traffic on the street unimpeded, regardless of its bike boulevard status.  Earlier, Mr Robbins incredulously maintained not one project generated car would use Overland Street (part of the Horton Street Bike Boulevard).  The 'not one car' claim was codified into an environmental document prepared for the project called a Mitigated Negative Declaration and was later found to be fraudulent. The claim drew strong condemnation from Jim Martin, the former Chair of the Planning Commission.
Sensing the irony of the glut of traffic generated by the ostensible bus/train project, former City Councilman Ken Bukowski was moved to publicly proclaim the Transit Center more accurately be called the "Automobile Center".  The Planning Commission rejected the Transit Center and then later again, rejected the Transit Center a second time, calling the project 'too short on public benefit', a cause former City Councilwomen Jennifer West and Jac Asher took up in their dissenting votes against the project on the Council.

Emeryville Institution, Bucci's to Close

Emeryville's Premiere Restaurant 

Serves its Last Meal

"When you get to be our age and still in good health after working this hard in this business, it's time to move on to the next journey"- Amelia Bucci.

Amelia Bucci

The venerable Bucci's, an Emeryville family dining institution featuring "Italian soul food", will close it doors for good on September 30th, and the three partners who built the popular destination eatery will retire after 27 years they announced this week.  Diners expressed dismay; many of them brought their children and now grandchildren to the restaurant, especially the very popular annual Christmas tree lighting celebration which featured complimentary dinners and hands on pizza making for young people.

Partner and restaurant baker Paul Camardo, summed it up, "Bucci's was conceived as a place for a community of like minded people to share our passion for good food",  but he added, it's time to close..."Better the restaurant fail than we do".

Paul Camardo

Ms Bucci, who insists she be simply called Bucci, emphasized Emeryville's recently passed Minimum Wage Ordinance had nothing to do with the closure.  Heading off any untoward speculation, she noted "The new minimum wage law is not the reason we're closing " she said definitively adding Bucci's supports Emeryville's minimum wage.

Egged on by friends, the three partners, friends themselves, opened Bucci's in what's now the Public Market on Shellmound Street amidst a lot of construction as the food court there was being rebuilt in 1987...a rough start.  By the end of 1988, however they moved to the more upscale digs on Hollis Street after hiring lauded Emeryville based set designer, the late Jeremy Hamm, to build the iconic new facilities.

Les Julian

The partners, all Berkeley residents, will be selling the restaurant's assets and it is expected a new restaurant will open on the site but nothing has been determined yet.  "Rich is committed to keeping it as a restaurant" Bucci said, referring to landlord Rich Robbins of Wareham Development.

After closing, Bucci said she'd be taking a vacation to...where else? Italy.  But as to her next adventure, after a 27 year stint in the harried restaurant business, Bucci shot back, "Can I get two weeks off?"

Horton Street Bike Boulevard is Coming But Businesses and Council Members Say No

Who Are You Going to Believe on Traffic?

Independent Traffic Engineers or City Council Demagogues?

Davis/Brinkman Emerge as Would Be 
Climate Science Deniers
 to Stop Bikes on Horton Street

News Analysis/Opinion
Should public policy have a rational basis at Emeryville City Hall?  Most would say yes to this but Kurt Brinkman and Nora Davis have a different take.
So badly do council members Brinkman and Davis want to do the bidding of developers and the business community at the expense of the residents, they've now resorted to a similitude of climate science denial; rationality nowhere to be found.  The two council members are now publicly stating that independent traffic studies using the scientific method, prepared by reputable traffic engineering firms, and retained by the City itself, are not to be believed; "Hard to believe" they both said specifically after casting aspersions on engineers and the idea of a cogent polity emanating out of City Hall.  Instead of science we're supposed to believe their vague unsubstantiated impressions about traffic; an alternate view that, incidentally they would have us believe, would help their developer friends and businesses.
It's all being done by these two Council demagogues to try to stop traffic calming measures coming to Horton Street, an eventuality that favored developer Rich Robbins of Wareham Development and other connected business owners on the street say they don't want.

Nora Davis
Scientists have a hidden agenda.
They're not to be believed.

Traffic calming is coming to Horton because there are too many cars and trucks using the street.  This isn't an opinion, it's quantifiable...it's the law.  Traffic is controlled on Horton Street and other streets in town that have been designated as 'bicycle boulevards' by the City's Pedestrian/Bicycle Plan, a document ensconced into law by a vote of the Council two years ago.  The Bike Plan provides that certain identified commuting bike boulevard thoroughfares are meant to exist primarily for bikes (but motorized traffic is also allowed).  Central to this provision is the mandate that no more than 3000 vehicle trips per day be permitted to use bike boulevards for safety and to encourage bike use.  The 3000 number incidentally, was arrived at when the Bike Plan was drafted because Emeryville business concerns wanted a higher number than what our neighbor to the north, Berkeley allows for their bike boulevards (that being 1500).  The actual daily traffic counts on Horton Street as measured by the traffic engineers range from 4800 all the way up to 12,000 near the Amtrak station, a gross violation of the Bike Plan.  The Plan calls for mandatory traffic calming to be used to force vehicle traffic below the 3000 threshold.

Emeryville's new award winning Pedestrian/Bike Plan, completed in 2012, took two years to formulate.  It was vetted at many public meetings with the help of the Bike Committee, city staff, citizens and Berkeley's Alta Planning at a cost of $200,000.  It was certified by a unanimous vote of the City Council.

Kurt Brinkman
Who's your daddy?
Why believe scientists when you can
believe us and our developer friends?

Obstructionist Tactic: Deny
This Bike Plan however is something council members Kurt Brinkman and Nora Davis can't countenance now even though they themselves voted to certify it.  The two are using a well worn tactic of the right now that a regimen of traffic calming is (past) due: they're denying the traffic counts, denying the science.  Mr Brinkman said at the July 15th City Council meeting (on video below), "I drive that road almost everyday and I don't see very much activity on Horton Street.  I know there were some traffic studies that were done a number of years ago but I just question how much traffic is going on on that street.  It's hard to believe."  Nora Davis piped up,"It's hard to believe. You could shoot a gun down there most of the time".  Traffic studies, schmaffic studies.

As the Horton Street Bike Boulevard finally comes to a head, the two science denier council members are likely planning to deliver a crowd of pitchfork and torch wielding business owners and selected residents to loudly say NO! to traffic calming at a meeting (or two) scheduled for September.  They may wish for the political cover a hoped for angry mob can deliver.  This remains to be seen but one thing can be relied on; any move by the City Council to stop traffic calming for Horton Street will be met with a legal requirement for them to vote to change the Bike Plan (and the ordinate General Plan) to either increase the number of permissible vehicle traffic trips on the street (something considerably higher than 12,000 per day) or delete the Horton Street Bike Boulevard all together.  However lot's of people like the Horton Street Bike Boulevard and a vote by the Council against traffic calming there will not come free.  Davis/Brinkman demagogic rhetoric aside, accompanying a No vote will be a hefty political price that will be paid.

Video Courtesy of the Emeryville Property Owners Association 

'Transit' Center Project Mysteriously Missing from Emeryville Capital Improvement Presentation

'Transit' Center Pushed Down the 
Memory Hole

Opinion
If the City of Emeryville planned on spending $4.2 million on a specific capital improvement project between the years 2014 and 2019, wouldn't you think that project would appear in a City Hall produced document for public edification entitled 'Capital Improvement Program Fiscal Years 2014-15 to 2018-19'?   Especially if smaller projects representing less public money were highlighted in the document?
That's what we thought.  So we were surprised when the City Staff gave a thorough account of planned capital spending and the 'Transit' Center, a Wareham Development project planned for Horton Street with it's $4.2 million publicly purchased amenity of four Amtrak bus bays, was completely  left out of the document handed out to the public and discussed yesterday morning.  Other  projects, like the Senior Center Rehabilitation at $1.9 million, the Peninsula Fire Station Renovation at $1.3 million, the Art Center at $3.9 million were explained in detail by the Staff but strangely, the 'Transit' Center at $4.2 million was not.  
"It was an oversight", Public Works Director Maurice Kaufman explained when asked.

An "Oversight"... Was it Really?

The City used the Saturday meeting to explain about the Capital Improvement Program which is essentially a 'wish list' for City projects to benefit the people.  The City also wished to elicit comment from the public about the CIP.
They took pains to describe the negative repercussions on the CIP as a result of the demise of the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency (RDA) and about how the City had rescued some projects from the clutches of the State of California when Sacramento declared Redevelopment Agencies illegal state-wide last year.  Emeryville had four projects so rescued and some former RDA funds were permitted to be unlocked.  The State is basically letting us use our own money to fund these projects. The four projects are the Center of 'Community' Life on San Pablo Avenue, the Art Center at City Hall, the South Bayfront Ped/Bike Bridge over the railroad tracks and the 'Transit' Center project.   Other projects in the CIP wish list are to be funded by the City with money generated without the Redevelopment Agency. The three projects included by Staff were described in detail Saturday but the 'Transit' Center never made it into the document or the discussion.  Observant people with a knack for budgetary spreadsheets might have seen the small text entry of the $4.2 million in an adjoining financial accounting however.

The crowd Saturday was asking for capital improvement funded amenities one would expect from residents: parks (for dogs and people), bike and ped infrastructure, street trees and those kind of things.  Nobody there was clamoring for bus bays.  In fact we've never heard any Emeryville resident ask for more bus bays from the public coffers.  Yet that's what we're getting.  And that illustrates the point: The 'Transit' Center project is not popular with the people of Emeryville.  There already are bus bays at the Amtrak station near the proposed "Transit' Center.  The people in Emeryville don't think it's a wise use of limited public money. The Emeryville Planning Commission, a body hand picked by the City Council, agrees with the residents; they twice voted NO to the 'Transit' Center, stating there wasn't enough in public amenities to justify the $4.2 million public cost.  But the City Council majority overrode the Planning Commission and voted to grant the public money to favored developer Rich Robbins, CEO of Wareham Development  anyway.
Now that that's done, obviously, they want it to just quietly disappear.  They'd rather not needlessly crow about it and remind people that it's developers that call the shots in this town.

Sometimes it's the little things that give away the bigger picture in Emeryville.  Like when our City Attorney Mike Biddle leapt out of his seat, grinning ear to ear, and shook the hands of Wareham representatives in attendance at the January 21st meeting after the Council voted (3-2) to override the Planning Commission and give the green light and public money to Wareham's Rich Robbins.  Sometimes it's the non-existent things that tell the tale; like when the 'Transit' Center got pushed down the memory hole.