Parkside Trees: Whatever Is Most Cost Effective?

Council Member Asher:

'Let's Do Whatever Is Most Cost Effective'

Council Members Davis & Brinkman:

'Let's Not'

Opinion
The Emeryville city council finally resolved the contentious Parkside tree issue last Tuesday night and their vote serves as a stand-in for all that ails our town; another reminder, as if you needed it, of who gets served by our City Hall and who gets left wanting.
Readers will remember the developer of the Parkside condominium project wants to cut down all the street trees surrounding the project site but residents rallied and convinced the council to change their earlier vote and save nine large mature trees along Stanford Street in what will be a future small park.  The council vote Tuesday was to save the nine trees but they specifically rejected saving them in the most cost effective manner.  Instead of saving the trees by just leaving them as they are, they opted instead to dig them up, place them in boxes and store them off site for a year or so until the park site is ready for replanting them.

Hope you like it-
it's going to cost you
a bundle.

The developer, Archstone Development Group expressed interest in cutting down all the trees as a way to save money...something or other about their profit.  But Council members Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman suggested the developer's and the resident's desires both could be met by their plan to dig up and box the trees, a "good compromise" as Ms Davis called it.  The fact that Emeryville residents, not the developer would pay for digging up, boxing, storing and re-planting nine very large trees was left unmentioned Tuesday by the two council members.  It must have slippped their minds.

Council member Jac Asher had a better idea in mind; she motioned that Charlie Bryant, the Planning Director should determine which idea is the most cost effective; the save the trees where they are plan or the dig up and box the trees plan.  Mr Bryant would then oversee the more cost effective of the two.  Council member Ruth Atkin liked Ms Asher's motion and offered a second.  With mayor Jennifer West absent, the motion advanced where it died as a result of a NO vote from Nora Davis and Kurt Brinkman, the Broken Record Twins.

So now the city must pay to dig up the trees, store them and re-plant them because....well... Ms Davis and Mr Brinkman wouldn't say.  We think it has something to do with Archstone's desire for a greater profit.  It wouldn't be the first time for these two for this kind of vote and it won't likely be the last.

This harebrained tree idea of theirs is not a win-win...it's not a "good compromise"...it's just bad governance.  And once again the Broken Record Twins show us where their allegiance lays.

"Save the taxpayers
some money?"

"Not gunna do it!"

"No!"

The Broken Record Twins

Councilwoman Nora Davis:
Broken record

Councilman Kurt Brinkman:
Broken record

Opinion
We can't afford livability for Emeryville.  We have to make sure the biggest businesses pay less Emeryville tax than the smaller businesses.  We've got to give the developers everything they want.  It won't pencil out.  No comment.  We can't let the citizens decide for themselves about the business tax cap.  We've got to widen the streets to allow more traffic.  We don't have the money.  Emeryville's not good enough to ask more from developers.  We can't quiet traffic to keep bicycling safe on Horton Street.  We're not in the position to ask developers to build housing for families.  We can't afford livability for Emeryville.  We have to make sure the biggest businesses pay less Emeryville tax than the smaller businesses.  We've got to give the developers everything they want.  It won't pencil out.  No comment.  We can't let the citizens decide for themselves about the business tax cap.  We've got to widen the streets to allow more traffic.  We don't have the money.  Emeryville's not good enough to ask more from developers.  We can't quiet traffic to keep bicycling safe on Horton Street.  We're not in the position to ask developers to build housing for families.  We can't afford livability for Emeryville.  We have to make sure the biggest businesses pay less Emeryville tax than the smaller businesses.  We've got to give the developers everything they want.  It won't pencil out.  No comment.  We can't let the citizens decide for themselves about the business tax cap.  We've got to widen the streets to allow more traffic.  We don't have the money.  Emeryville's not good enough to ask more from developers.  We can't quiet traffic to keep bicycling safe on Horton Street.  We're not in the position to ask developers to build housing for families.

We need to get up and put on a new record, this one keeps skipping and playing the same thing over and over.

The Visioning Thing

It's Thursday, Another Day We Can't Afford Livability

Opinion

With much fanfare, Tuesday night's City Hall 'Visioning Workshop' drew a large crowd of residents keen on weighing in on and hearing about Emeryille's future in a post Redevelopment Agency dystopia.  Three council members made it clear: the collapse of Redevelopment funding need not mean the end of pursuing livability for our town.  The other two were not as sanguine; now is the time to throw in the towel when it comes to livability they warned.

The two council member naysayers, predictably, are Nora Davis and her sidekick Kurt Brinkman.  These two are the same ones that have for years let developers walk all over us, even during the go-go years, refusing to negotiate on our behalf, instead giving in to the "it won't pencil out" histrionics from developers about how they can't afford to build anything nice in Emeryville.  The pedagogy is remarkably consistant: the Davis/Brinkman team always feels the developers pain.

Now there's a whole new paradigm with the Redevelopment Agency gone and we're going to need to rethink how we develop and to hear Davis/Brinkman giving the same old prescription as they did on Tuesday night removes all doubt: listening to them now is a little like listening to the Fox News commentators didactically lecture about how to prosecute the Iraq war even after the whole 'weapons of mass destruction' lie they forwarded was revealed.

Livability is not something we can afford now the Emeryville Two say.  It's going to be public safety and public works and nothing else from City Hall...oh and we're not in a position to ask developers to build family friendly housing, thank you very much.  Nora Davis detoured for a moment to explain that we don't even need family friendly housing anyway since families will locate here no matter the housing stock supply since the schools are going to be so good.  We're wondering why she bothered to rationalize beyond the standard line that family housing 'won't pencil out'.  Could it be that Davis/Brinkman feels a little exposed on this in front of hundreds of onlookers?

Still, it shouldn't be surprising that a massively destabilizing contraction like the demise of the Redevelopment Agency should net anything substantively different from these two; the broken record twins.  The idea it would seem is to keep your copy of Machiavelli's The Prince close at hand, stay on message, patronize, co-opt when you need to and smile, smile, smile.