Bauters' Media Blitz Pauses Disruptive Caltrans Project

Backroom Project:

Caltrans Tries to Pull a Fast One

Councilman Bauters Drops the Accountability Hammer

Major Highway Bridge Replacements Would Bring Major Headaches for Emeryville

Caltrans, seeking to take a wreaking ball to replace several bridges in the 'maze' intersection of elevated Interstate Highways on Emeryville's southern border and thereby causing major traffic disruptions on local streets, has run into a wreaking ball to its proposal it didn't intend on; namely the ire of Emeryville City Councilman John Bauters.  The formerly fast tracked project, now on hold largely due to Mr Bauters' whirlwind of activity publicly exposing the proposed traffic diversions, would involve diverting traffic for several months at the intersection of Interstate Highways 80, 580 and 880, one of the most crowded highway intersections in the United States.

After working on the proposal for two years behind closed doors at Caltrans, the transportation agency suddenly announced in March it would proceed with its plan to raze several bridges in order to raise them; adding several feet of clearance to accommodate bigger trucks Caltans says.  The public was given only the legal minimum time to respond, raising the Councilman's hackles.  After he discovered Caltrans has claimed its proposal would have "no impact" on Emeryville and that they had not even bothered to first run their proposal by Emeryville City Hall (or Oakland), the Councilman has taken action publicly exposing the public agency.
Mr Bauters has appeared in no less than four media forums alerting the public about the proposal and the lack of accountability at Caltans.  At his insistence and after a large public outcry as a result of his media campaign, Caltrans has paused the project and agreed to rescind their 'Negative Declaration' planning document that makes the fatuous claim of no impact to Emeryville, a claim Mr Bauters calls "a joke".

Even though the documents associated with the Caltrans proposal don't admit it, Emeryville will likely experience major disruptions over a period of up to two years.  Mr Bauters' blog describes the following problems we can expect: "Traffic snarling on local streets, lower air quality resulting from the displacement of large diesel-polluting semi-trucks into sensitive areas (Emery Unified Schools, our Senior Center and Child Care Center, etc.), noise from nighttime construction and the rerouting of trucks overnight, impacts to our local businesses and economy, the accelerated degradation of local streets, and safety impacts for bicyclists and pedestrians".

A 'Negative Declaration', sometimes called a 'Neg Dec', is a cursory and lower level state required document, much desired by applicants, that precludes a more onerous and expensive Environmental Impact Report (EIR).  Neg Decs can only be approved if a series of questions can be responded to negatively as to the likely environmental impact of a project.   Critics have noted the great financial incentive to lie or exaggerate on a Neg Dec to avoid an EIR.  The Caltrans claim getting Mr Bauters in a huff is unusual because it is a public agency making a non-credible negative claim as opposed to such claims made routinely by private developers.
Here in Emeryville, a notorious example of such a phony environmental claim was made in the late 1980's, before the advent of John Bauters when the developer of the then proposed Powell Street Plaza mall (the Trader Joe's mall) submitted a Neg Dec with a section on archaeological resources.  The developer audaciously answered NO to the question: 'Would this project likely disrupt possible archaeological remains at the site?'  Conspicuously, the site is located directly on the largest Native American midden and burial shellmound on the West Coast.  The same shellmound footprint caused major disruptions years later at the Bay Street Mall located just across the street when the developer of that site dug up a trove of human bones and Native American tools and votives, remains from what was a major center of human activity going back at least 10,000 years.  The developer of the Bay Street Mall was required to produce an EIR and as a result, an archaeologist was on site during the excavations for that project enabling recovery of the objects and reinterment of the human remains.  Because of the less rigorous Negative Declaration of the Powell Street Plaza, no archaeologist was required, leaving the excavation contractor free from any such nuisance prying eyes.

Councilman Bauters' KQED story,  a San Francisco Chronicle article as well as radio interviews are part of the media blitz our Council member has enjoined to bring accountability to this Caltans project.  Readers may get more detailed information on the Councilman's blog.

UPDATE- The Bay City Beacon also covered this story.  Read it HERE.


Alameda County Transportation Commission Meeting
Emeryville City Councilmember John Bauters calls the Caltrans proposal "a joke".
The accountability hammer drops at 26:26.

Councilman Bauters' Blog Takes on Train Noise

Mayor Bauters Attempts Long Standing Train Noise Fix

Public Invited to Help

Blog Drives Public Policy Using Facts as a Foil Against 

E'Ville Eye Hyperbole 

Mayor John Bauters is using his Emeryville-centric blog to activate the long simmering issue of excessive train horn blaring with a citizen drive to secure grant money for infrastructure to quiet the neighborhoods adjoining the tracks.  The issue, a source of much agitation especially for those Emeryville residents living near the tracks on the north end of town, has been taken up by many City Council members over the years, notably at election time, but Mr Bauters' efforts seem to be real and on the verge of success.  He is requesting residents to help in this effort by use of a letter writing campaign (see letter below).

It is the latest from Councilman John Bauters who has been a whirlwind of activism on the public's behalf since he took office starting with his prodigious blog he began shortly after being elected to office in November of 2016.  The no nonsense John Bauters' Blog has been used effectively to impart valuable information for residents and has stood above the blog sites other Emeryville City Council members have edited over the years not least in its rigorous density of information.
A recent January 1st blog entry, Closing out 2017: Progress on Priorities is especially impressive with its plenary list of footnotes and links that will long serve as a central repository of factual information on Emeryville's progress moving forward with the City's priorities up through 2017.
Also impressive is how Mr Bauters' March 2017 blog entry Information on the Halleck/Beach Dog Park, effectively used his blog to shut down a politicized issue of a dog park across the border in Oakland proposed by local blogger Rob Arias who sought to use it to keep homeless people out of his Park Avenue neighborhood.  Animating Mr Arias was a not-so-hidden attempt to increase his standing and that of his monetized blog The E'Ville Eye in the eye of the public by huckstering his dog park idea, PT Barnum style.  Councilman Bauters was viciously attacked by a hurt Rob Arias after the Councilman led a drive to kill the ill-advised dog park; a return to rationality after Mr Arias' self promotional foray into what should be public public policy.  Mr Bauters' blog post defending his Halleck/Beach Dog Park action was a non-political tour de force of purely rational public policy featuring a total lack of hyperventilating bombast to serve as a counterweight to the poisonous  E'Ville Eye missives.

Now, Mayor Bauters is using his blog to remind us the train noise issue looms with a deadline of January 25th and he urges residents to help write emails to secure the funding to finally do something about this vexing problem for Emeryville residents.
 Mr Bauters submitted the following letter to the Tattler to help towards that end:   

Dear Neighbor,

The City Council is actively pursuing a competitive grant that would bring us the funding necessary to install infrastructure at the 65th, 66th and 67th Street railroad crossing that would allow us to create Quiet Zones that silence the Amtrak train horn.

I am working with city staff to pull together an application and we need your help!

Attached to this email are two letters. The first letter is a letter I am submitting on behalf of the city council with our grant application.

The second is a draft letter we wish to submit from you, the residents and community members who stand to benefit from winning this grant award.

We would like to sign as many resident names onto this letter as possible to show how much the community supports the city's efforts to bring Quiet Zones to Emeryville. You can help us by doing the following easy steps:

(1) Read both of the short letters attached to this email.

(2) If you are willing to sign on in support of this request, please send an email addressed to both:

roconnell@emeryville.org
jbauters@emeryville.org

(3) In the subject line of your email please write: "Quiet Zones"

(4) In the body of your email please provide only the following information:

• Names of any adults in the household who wish to sign on to the letter
• List whether you are a resident, business owner or employee
• Your physical street address (we will not publish this, it is only to confirm for the grant review team that those signing the letter are from Emeryville if we are asked to provide proof)

Only your name and affiliation to our city (resident, employee) will be listed at the bottom of the letter.


(5) Once you have sent us your sign-on, please forward this email to your neighbors and ask them to sign on as well.

We must submit the application on January 25th.

I will post a final copy of the letter we submit on my blog site after we file the application. You can find my blog site at www.johnbauters.wordpress.com.

Thank you for supporting our community and helping us create a more livable space for everyone to enjoy!

Cheers,

John