Emery-Go-Round at a Crisis Point

Is Emeryville Finally Going to Grow Up?

Opinion
Emeryville's free bus service,  Emery-Go-Round has been in the news a lot recently.  It was featured on National Public Radio today after a crisis point was reached last week when Watergate neighbors erupted as the buses stopped servicing their area.  A nadir seems to have been reached at EGR and as the NPR piece illustrated, everyone seems to think change is inevitable for the popular bus service.  We agree, change is coming to Emery-Go-Round but we want to make sure the looming change is to the benefit of the residents.
To make sure there's this kind of beneficial change, first we need to dispense with a popular meme, uniformly forwarded by business elites and so pervasive in our culture that it seems to be simple common sense. We're talking about the idea that the private sector is more efficient than government and somehow better at delivering public services.  Without getting bogged down with a civics discourse at this point, suffice it to say some things are best taken care of by government, perhaps not widget manufactory but certainly public mass transit delivery.  The breakdown at Watergate last week should be seen as a persuasive buttress of this non-radical idea.  We think more of this kind of service disruption is coming even as the EGR Board of Directors has agreed to a temporary fix at Watergate.  As this bus service has grown over the years, EGR now can't seem to provide the service Emeryville residents need and are expecting.

A Little Emery-Go-Round History
Against a backdrop of ever increasing traffic jams brought on by Emeryville's incessant development, the free buses were started in 1995 by Emeryville businesses looking to speed transit and convenience for their workers, their clients and customers.  A transit authority with taxing authority was set up, run by the businesses and paid for primarily by them (City Hall and the School District also pays some).   But like a newly widened freeway drawing more cars by easing the commute to far-flung suburbs, EGR's popularity became an engine in itself for more growth in our town. The City Council members started seeing EGR as a green light for more intensively developed residential projects.  Traffic studies for proposed residential mega-projects could tap into the Emery-Go-Round to show a lighter impact on our streets, giving the Council all the cover they needed to approve more and more development.
And develop Emeryville has.  At this point, like it or not, we're totally dependent on the Emery-Go-Round; without it our streets would be hopelessly clogged and business here would take a big hit.  Where neighboring cities can ameliorate their traffic problems with reliance on traditional buses (and BART), Emeryville's massive growth makes AC Transit insufficient.

The problem is that the City Council bought into the line that Emeryville's business sector could take care of the traffic problem. Now that it's been shown that they can't, we're going to have to fund EGR the old fashioned way; by government.

Why Did EGR Falter?
For years this bus service has worked fine.  So why is it not working now?
As more and more people started using the service, costs started going up.  This has recently been a source of irritation among the business property owners that pay for the buses.  An EGR Board of Directors shakeup finally resulted in a revolt of a sort.  The Tattler recently reported how the new Board drew a line in the sand: the EGR buses are for payers, not the general public they said.  Watergate residences, being non-payers were cut out.  But the Board of Directors, wishing to stave off a public relations disaster, tried to blame City Hall for the disruption in service because of recent sidewalk improvements.  They tried to forward the canard that due to this City Hall "negligence", the buses could no longer turn around at Watergate. The Tattler revealed the sidewalk argument was nothing but a red herring, meant to draw attention away from the Board's own draconian decision to ace Watergate residents out of the bus service.

Emery-Go-Round at Wareham Development's
Emery Station East 
Wareham CEO Rich Robbins wants Emeryville
taxpayers to pay but he wants to continue to control the bus service.  
If City Hall takes over, he might have to pay more.

Businesses Aren't Charities
Some of the more forthright Emery-Go-Round Board members will publicly state the obvious: the businesses that fund EGR aren't operating a charity; they're trying to look after their bottom line all the City sidewalk work obfuscation notwithstanding.  The EGR service has been morphing into a bus service primarily for non-payers, they'll remind us.  We agree with this sentiment; it's foolish to assume the business community will volunteer their resources for the greater public good.  We should always assume they're looking out for their own bottom lines.  That's why it was a fools errand to allow the business community to run the Emery-Go-Round to begin with.  The City Council massively developed our town and they're responsible for any negative impacts, not the business community.  City Hall must now take over this vital service and fund it the old fashioned way: with taxes.

Who Should Pay?
Back before the advent of supply side economics and phony rational market mania took over Washington, glazing the eyes even of Democrats, there used to be an axiom when it came time for government to raise revenue; the notion of 'the ability to pay'.  The idea was that those with the greatest ability should pay the most, those with less ability should pay less.  This is a philosophy that got us out of the Great Depression and helped built our great American middle class.
With regard to the Emery-Go-Round, those with the greatest ability to pay are the business community.  We must remember, they're here at our pleasure (insofar as the Constitution allows us to craft our city to our liking), not because we like them but because we want them here to pay for stuff we want.
Businesses don't count in this equation.  They literally don't count:  they can't vote.  Only residents can vote.  It's the residents who drive what our town will become and it's the residents for whom the town is built. We need to remember this as we turn a page with the Emery-Go-Round.
The private business sector can't be trusted with this public service, but they're the ones that should pay for it.  It should be seen as the cost of doing business in our town. We need to start selling our town for what it's worth instead of constantly selling it short.  We've had it with the hand wringing "win-win" phony declarations from this Council when it comes time to make business pay their share.  Win-win usually comes to mean win for the business community and lose for the residents.
Regarding the Emery-Go-Round, we say it's time for Emeryville to put away this childish argument about businesses being responsible for the public infrastructure.  It's time for Emeryville to finally grow up.  We the public are the responsible party for public transit here.

Breaking: Emery-Go-Round Resumes Bus Service at Watergate Community

Emeryville City Manager Sabrina Landreth announces Emery-Go-Round bus service has resumes at the Watergate neighborhood.  The community had been shut off for weeks in a controversial move by the Board of Directors of the EGR.

Here is the City Manager's notice to residents:

FROM: Sabrina Landreth, City Manager 

SUBJECT: Emery Go Round Shuttle Stop by Watergate Condominiums 

The Emeryville Transportation Management Association (TMA) has temporarily restored the Emery Go-Round (EGR) shuttle bus stops located near the Watergate Condominiums, effective today Tuesday, November 5, 2013. The EGR bus operator has crafted notices that will be placed on the shuttle’s website and on the buses to notify riders of that the stops have been temporarily reinstated. The notices also indicate that there may be some delays on the Watergate Express and Shellmound-Powell routes as the buses will be travelling further west on Powell to the Marina south parking lot in order to turn around. 

The EGR is still scheduled to be discussed at the December 3rd City Council Meeting. Both short-term and long-range funding strategies will be part of this discussion. 

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

Bus Service at Watergate Cancelled

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

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

If there is a miscommunication.

Geoff Sears, President of the EGR Board of Directors, hinted to Board meeting attendees that sidewalk

EGR President Geoff Sears
We have a fiduciary responsibility to accommodate
the payers into the bus service, not the non-payers.

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

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

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

National Night Out is Tonight

National Night Out is Tonight, Tuesday, August 6th

There are multiple National Night Out events planned in Emeryville tonight. Three events are planned by local home owners' associations at Oak Walk, Watergate, and Bridgewater. Two additional events are open to all Emeryville residents. One is at the Park Avenue Plaza, as previously mentioned on the Tattler and runs from 5:30 until 8:00 p.m. Additionally, there will be a public event at Doyle-Hollis Park from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Details below:

Note to readers:
The Emeryville Tattler does not condone the placement of the Target logo on the notice above.  The City of Emeryville has chosen to associate itself with Target for purposes of this National Night Out.  By placing the logo on official City documents such as this, the City gives to Target Corporation a positive civic association and it's beneficial to the company from a PR perspective.  Since Target has shown itself to be highly anti-gay in recent years in words and deeds, we think it's not well advised for the City to do this.  The Tattler does not think Target should be rewarded like this for the past anti-gay work it has done.