Emeryville's San Pablo Avenue Failure:
Optimizing For Cars Means Fewer Trees
Means Diminished Public Space
Means Less Pedestrians
Means Less Citizen Engagement
Means Less Local Economic Activity
Means Civic Failure
Infrastructure of the 1995 San Pablo Avenue Beautification Project: Street lights, bricks & ample left hand turn lanes. Trees are allowed but not encouraged. |
News Analysis
Twenty eight years ago, the City of Emeryville embarked on a visionary $4.1 million San Pablo Avenue Beautification Project, to create a pleasant pedestrian-centered boulevard out of a grimy and drab busy thoroughfare. Up the street in Berkeley, there was no big initiative, though it has always been a tree-lined road with a landscaped median; standard Berkeley stuff. Here in Emeryville, all of San Pablo was reconfigured with the 1995 beautification project; a new raised median was added and many trees were planted. Emeryville seemed to catch up with Berkeley, and then some; the project also included brick pavers on the sidewalks and pedestrian oriented street lamps.
Twenty eight years later, the trees (what’s left of them) have matured. Taking stock of our $1.4M infrastructure project--how have we done? We've failed– because, baked into the revitalization project was a guiding philosophy that beautification and pedestrian improvements shouldn't in any way impede traffic or commerce. The median is mostly the province of motor vehicles---long left turn pockets at each cross street. Some take up the entire block, in both directions, leaving no trees at all. Other left turn pockets stretch half a block, leaving a two foot wide median, enough for a shrub or two, but not trees.
The city also specifically chose species that remain small, so as not to hide billboards and signs on businesses, at the request of short-sighted local and national merchants.
In Berkeley, sylvan, mature trees arch over San Pablo, forming a canopy in places. It's helped Berkeley attract locally serving retail shops to a place pedestrians linger, as if it were a destination in and of itself, not a corridor to a more pleasant place elsewhere---completing a virtuous cycle of good urban design. Emeryville can’t seem to attract any locally serving retail on San Pablo Avenue without city subsidies, such as Arizmendi’s Bakery. Here, we must provide financial assistance or risk our commercial spaces falling vacant or being gobbled up by fast food and national chain stores
Compounding the lack of median trees in Emeryville, most of the trees planted in 1995 have since been replaced by saplings. Whenever developers remodel or replace a building, out come the chainsaws. City Hall allows this as despite our Urban Tree Ordinance, street trees aren't valued here.
So there you have it, clear to see. Travel the length of San Pablo Avenue from University Avenue in Berkeley to 39th Street in Emeryville. But be sure to have your sunglasses handy when you reach Emeryville. Here the street is sun blasted and hot in the summer while in Berkeley it's cool and shaded. The divergent values can be easily seen with one transit. One city prioritizes public space for pedestrians, the other for a swift vehicular pass through.
Street Optimized For Cars Typical road diet in Emeryville: long left hand turn lanes, no room for trees. |
San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley: Dappled Sunlight, Pedestrian Friendly It's much cooler than Emeryville and much more inviting for small locally serving retail shops. |
Our Mayor has engaged an advisor to create a plan to plant 1,000 trees in Emeryville. It is happening now, and a Report is due very soon. When that happens, we may see some progress. Stay tuned!
ReplyDeleteUnless he plans on removing the left hand turn lanes and planting trees like how Berkeley has done it, San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville will always be what most of the rest of Emeryville is: utterly thrown over to cars. The whole City is devoted to moving cars efficiently. Look at the fight to save the street trees at the Sherwin Williams project (use the Tattler search bar to review).
DeleteThe Mayor recently led a drive on the Council to overturn the Planning Commission who voted to reduce the number of parking spaces for Wareham Development’s Overland project on Horton Street. He is committed to helping developers bring more cars to Emeryville and that is seen by his votes (talk notwithstanding).
To see any real change, we would have to see this Council start saying NO to developers. There is no indication they will. In fact, they’re doubling down placating developers….look at the Council majority’s support of the YIMBY takeover of City Hall. It’s total deference to corporate developers in Emeryville. No Report needed to see the truth.
This comment was written by the mayor or one of the other council members. It's obvious.
Delete28 years is quite a long time. Maybe it's time to redo San Pablo and make it better for pedestrians AND bikes. More trees and take away a traffic lane for bikes!
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI'm a member of BPAC and I wanted to share the plan for San Pablo. We recognize that it is currently very inhospitable to anyone outside of a car and there is a great plan in the works to help transform this corridor.
This section of the project will be done in partnership with Oakland and Berkeley, although the full corridor transformation will only extend a couple blocks north into Berkeley as they opted against the plan. We will be replacing one car lane in each direction with a bus lane as the 72 is AC transits highest ridership line, and adding a protected bike lane on each side. There will also be pedestrian improvements like wider sidewalks, shorter crossings at crosswalks, and bus islands that are more accessible.
Unfortunately since this plan is across city lines it is taking longer to plan but the current planned construction date is in 2026. Obviously I wish we could have these changes now but the project needs to be coordinated with Oakland which extends the timeline.
https://www.alamedactc.org/programs-projects/multimodal-arterial-roads/sanpabloave
Kudos to BPAC for all the work you do but this story is not on making San Pablo better for bikes. It's about how the city refused to optimize for pedestrians by not planting trees in medians like Berkeley does. I looked at the plan you're talking about and I note that it won't add any trees. It looks like it will actually remove some trees. Brian makes a good point. Berkeley is better and trees have a lot to do with it.
DeleteOh, I forgot to say removing the parking to put in bike lanes will come at the expense of retail shops on the street. With no place to park, people will just go to the malls like Powell Street Plaza where there's retail and plenty of parking. No trees no parking no locally serving retail. San Pablo's fate as a possible future pedestrian friendly corridor in Emeryville is sealed.
DeleteNo one cares about bicycles… why cater to the 5 people who ride bikes in Emeryville…
ReplyDeleteWhy care about bikes? Because the government has a charge to protect the people. It’s the most basic of reasons for why we have government. In this context, people need to be able to move about freely ( a core prime directive) and so the government has to plan in order to make that happen. The Constitution doesn’t provide that the government restrict people from living in any city or town they want (again, freedom of movement) and so too many people driving cars means the provision that people be allowed to move about freely gets subverted by the government’s ability to provide infrastructure towards that aim. The use of eminent domain (a last resort for a free people) and the treasure of any municipal government is finite and must be used in a proportional manner.
DeleteIn this equation, cars take up much more public space than pedestrians or bikes and given the finite amount of space in any municipality, the government must provide for the maximum amount of movement for the people. Given the higher cost of car infrastructure (as well as geographic space needed), any government constrained as Emeryville is, must follow the prime directive and allow the maximum amount of freedom of movement for the people. That means bike and pedestrian infrastructure must be provided by the government. Further, the government has no freedom to make one mode of transportation inherently superior over another otherwise it would again, run up against its prime directive. So the pedestrian (and bike) experience has to be made at least as pleasant as the car experience.
Like I said… no one cares about bikes. Go ride your bike at the park and get out of the streets
DeleteThis is Emeryville, there aren't any parks.
DeleteNo one cares about cars. Go drive your car on I-80.
DeleteEmeryville isn’t Amsterdam and never will be. If u want to ride your bike please move there. I want my tax dollars to fill the pot holes on San Pablo.
ReplyDelete