Parks Get in the Way of Housing Says Emeryville Mayor

Mayor Announces Parks Are No Longer a Priority for Emeryville

It's Only Housing, Housing and More Housing For Emeryville

General Plan Parks Policy Overturned With Mayor's Proclamation

News Analysis

Emeryville’s mayor Tuesday night, finally put to words why Emeryville has stopped building new parks; “Because people don’t need to sleep in a park, they need to sleep with a roof over their head” he said, adding that “the region is suffering from a lack of housing”.  

The surprising announcement came as a response to questions from the Tattler at the City Council meeting, when Mayor John Bauters presented a major reversal of settled public park policy for Emeryville.  He said the City of Emeryville will no longer prioritize building parks, focusing instead on building as much housing as fast as can be built.  “Our housing jobs balance is off” he offered as a rationale. 

While his City Council colleagues looked on silently, the Mayor did not equivocate, “Every person on the City Council agrees we wish to expand parks and find opportunities to do that but not at the cost of housing” he said.

Mayor John Bauters
He says Emeryville needs housing
instead of parks.  He presents a false equivalency
between the two: it's going to be
parks or housing and he choses housing.

The issue of parks was discussed Tuesday night as a result of developers who had responded to a request for proposals from the City of Emeryville to build a large, new all rental residential tower on land south of Christie Avenue park.  The developers told the Council they were prepared to expand the existing park by as much as 10,000 square feet if they are given permission to build their proposed project.  But 10,000 square feet of park expansion is anemic, short by about 120,000 square feet if we are to keep pace with what the General Plan says should be built to offset the proposed tower.

The false equivalency of parks or housing put forth by Mr Bauters mimics draconian language from the national housing advocacy organization YIMBY, a group with tendrils extending into the Emeryville City Council.  YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard), a lobbying organization funded by developers and right wing entities such as the Koch brothers, was formulated as a pro-development foil to the discredited and disorganized NIMBY phenomenon that local residents sometimes engage in to fight undesirable development.  Other cities in the Bay Area have also recently taken up the YIMBY cause, some council members taking money from them and approving formerly controversial development projects as the organization grows in political power.  Several Emeryville City Council members are associated with YIMBY and at least two have taken money from them, either directly or indirectly.  

It's important to note while NIMBY represents opinions and behavior from individual citizens and as such is not an organization in any meaningful sense of the word, YIMBY is a powerful lobbying organization funded by interested parties, often with corporate dark money.

Emeryville City Councilwoman Courtney Welch (in red)
She agrees, Emeryville needs much more market rate housing.
Posing with YIMBY luminaries at the
YIMBY Prom Gala: "2022's biggest YIMBY party".  
City Council candidate Welch quietly took a campaign
donation of $1000 from the 'YIMBY Victory Fund' .

What Mayor Bauters failed to note as he announced Emeryville’s new park policy is that our guiding document, the General Plan, says Emeryville DOES need to build more parks.  A lot more.  In fact, more than 50 acres of parks are delineated by the sunset of the General Plan in 2030.  As of 2020, Emeryville had (and still has) only 22.4 park acres.  We should have had 41.6 acres by 2020 if we were following the General Plan.

Mr Bauters’ unquantified announcement that the City will not build parks until some future day when there is enough housing, was really more of an imprimatur, finalizing what has been a 'no park' trajectory by the City since the General Plan was written more than ten years ago.  The City has not been building parks nearly fast enough to offset all the new housing being built and Emeryville has been falling further behind our designated park needs every year.  The mayor’s announcement simply puts to words what has been the City's default policy of not building enough parks.  

The ‘parks or housing’ false choice proffered by Mr Bauters belies Emeryville’s massive market rate housing boom of recent years.  The City has been building housing at a prodigious rate.   The San Francisco Chronicle has reported that Emeryville wants to exceed housing requirements from the Association of Bay Area Governments by 50 percent even while neighboring cities are failing to meet the ABAG housing minimums.  The Chron reported as such, "One Bay Area town, the small city of Emeryville, is shooting to not only meet the target but exceed it by a mile".  Councilman Bauters admitted as late as 2019 the City was doing its share building housing, “Developers line up to build in the City”, giving Emeryville a “pro-housing” designation, he told the Real Deal, a local real estate magazine. 

YIMBY Prom Court
Ms Martinez, a vocal
antagonist against planning and
a long time critic of ABAG's 
housing needs assessment,
was also a 'VIP' guest at the
October YIMBY prom gala.

So while Emeryville has built housing more than what the jobs/housing balance actually requires as tabulated by ABAG and in spite of Mayor Bauters’ proclamations,  Mr Bauters now says the City needs to step up even more in its zeal to build housing.  Taken at his word, the parks-at-the-expense-of housing equivalency presented by Mr Bauters hints that whereas before Emeryville could presumably build parks, now we can’t, regardless of what our General Plan says.  Parks are a luxury Emeryville can no longer afford Mayor Bauters implies.  

The new no parks policy has come at a bad time for our town.  Emeryville has been the worst city in the East Bay area for parks for decades.  Our residents per acre of park in 2020 was at 549.  That number has gone higher since 2020.  We need to be much lower; three acres for every 1000 residents or 333 residents per acre. As we build more housing and don’t build enough parks to offset the increase in population, every year Emeryville gets worse.  And with Mr Bauters’ new no parks policy, delivered by executive fiat, that will likely be our fate.  Against all this pressure from an outside organization and barring a democratic pushback, Emeryville is now on track to remain the worst city in the East Bay area for parks into the foreseeable future.

Mayor Bauters refused to comment for this story but he said his comments made at the City Council meeting can be quoted as accurately portraying his policy ideas.

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.

Council Considers 'Fair Work Week/Employee Scheduling' Ordinance

The Emeryville City Council is considering possible legislation supporting regulations regarding employers scheduling of their employees work times at a study session on August 16th.  A new ordinance called the Fair Workweek / Employee Scheduling Ordinance is the intended outcome.  Last spring, the Mayor Dianne Martinez and Council member Ruth Atkin authored an op-ed piece for the San Francisco Chronicle on this subject.   We re-post their op-ed here:  

Needed: A Regional Employee Scheduling Law

For low wage retail and service workers at large corporations, there’s no moving forward.

 Do you know what it’s like working long, erratic hours without knowing day to day what your schedule would be?  Some of us do.  If we haven’t worked in low-wage retail or the service sector, we’re lucky that usually our hard work paid off, and we could advance in our careers. 

For low wage retail and service workers at large corporations, there’s no moving forward. When someone has an “I’ll do anything it takes” attitude, they are not rewarded for their labor, their adaptability or their commitment.  Instead, they are often met with the chaos of unpredictable hours. 

When people don’t have stable full-time or even part-time hours, they can’t budget or schedule basic things like child care, doctor visits, classes, family time or self care. 

Take Cinthia, who works for DB Shoes, one of Emeryville’s numerous corporate retail chains.  She works hard to take care of her family, but struggles with not having reliable hours.  She juggles appointments for her younger brother,classes and work.  When we met her, we asked how much sleep she got the previous night.  She said, “Four hours.”

A recent survey conducted by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy and the Center for Popular Democracy found that a staggering 80 percent of retail workers have fluctuating hours from week to week; 68 percent only receive part-time hours; and more than half experience “clopening” shifts — back to back closing then opening a few hours later.

Two out of 3 workers surveyed want more hours but can’t get them.  Fluctuating hours are considered undesirable by many workers.  There are thousands of working people like Cinthia who are run ragged with erratic work schedules that not only have harmful effects on them personally, but on their families and our communities. 

Our cities are built on everyone coming together to create a thriving place where people can live, work and play.  But when people are not earning enough and have erratic schedules, they don’t have time to invest in our community or local businesses.

San Francisco passed a fair workweek policy, putting the Bay Area at the fair workweek movement’s forefront.  Emeryville and San Jose are also considering similar policies to begin to move the entire region toward a more sustainable work model and ensure that people have both higher wages and regular, predictable hours they can count on. 

Some of us take our routines for granted.  We get up, rush to get everyone out the door, work a single job, come home, eat, go to bed. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.  But for too many working people, that kind of stability is a dream.  It shouldn’t be — and we can do something about it. 

Now that we’ve won a $15 minimum wage across California, we know we need to finish the job and ensure working people have hours they can count on.  A regional fair workweek provides hardworking people with the opportunity to work with stable schedules so they can pay the bills, live healthier lives, and contribute more to our communities. 

Dianne Martinez is the mayor of Emeryville.  Ruth Atkin is a member of the Emeryville City Council.

What's Next? A 'Regional Approach' on Composting Fees?

Composting Services For Businesses Are Free in Emeryville 

Must Fees Now be Imposed

to Meet Oakland?

Opinion
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Oakland has almost doubled their fees on restaurants for composting in a piece printed today, recalling a recent meme forwarded by pro-business forces in Emeryville that business fees mandated by local cities should be done only as a part of a 'regional approach'  rather than in a unilateral move like this.  The notion that a city might act unilaterally imposing business fees is a bete noir for the right wing opinion blog the E'Ville Eye and much ink has been dedicated to foreclosing on Emeryville raising its minimum wage in that blog, owing to the need for the regional approach, an idea the blog presents as an inherent good.

Now Oakland takes unilateral action with the compost fee increase, drawing Emeryville's Farley's Cafe owner Chris Hillyard into the fray.  Mr Hillyard, who owns cafes in Oakland, San Francisco and in Emeryville told Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson,  "What’s so stunning about Oakland’s deal with Waste Management is that few, if any, cities pay anything close to the rates Oakland commercial customers are paying".  Mr Johnson goes on, "Hillyard confirmed that he pays $77 a month in San Francisco and receives free services in Emeryville, but the monthly bill for compost services at his Oakland store is around $500.  “In Emeryville and San Francisco, both cities provide a diversion discount,” Hillyard said. “Instead of throwing stuff in the landfill, you’re given a credit on your bill for recycling and composting in both cities.”

Emeryville it would seem is the place for small business...especially restaurants.

Are customers going to abandon Oakland restaurants now and run for Emeryville because of the low composting fees?  That's what the E'ville Eye would have us believe if they're planning on presenting a consistent argument.  Oakland taxpayers presumably are tired of absorbing these costs that arguably should be borne by the private businesses and so they're now going to see these businesses flee to Emeryville or go bankrupt if the E'Ville Eye is correct.

The shoe is on the other foot with Oakland acting on its own and Emeryville standing by on the sidelines...the opposite of what happened during Emeryville's minimum wage debate.  Is the E'Ville Eye now going to start railing for a regional approach for composting fees as they did for the minimum wage increase?  Are they going to demand Emeryville slavishly raise their fees to match Oakland to accommodate this meme of theirs?  Or will the pro-business E'Ville Eye now see the silly procrustean nature of their previous hamstringing argument?

The San Francisco Chronicle article may be read HERE.

Emeryville Police Shoot, Kill Woman

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Emeryville police shot and killed a woman along the city’s border with Oakland Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

The shooting happened after officers responded to reports of a “combative theft suspect” at 12:35 p.m. on the 3800 block of Hollis Street in Oakland, said Emeryville Sgt.Fred Dauer.

Dauer said officers were told by the reporting caller that the suspect was armed with a gun, and had fled the scene.

Two officers reported locating the suspect a few blocks away in front of a storage facility on the 3400 block of Hollis. They confronted and shot the woman, who was pronounced dead at the scene, Dauer said.

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Officer Johnna Watson, an Oakland police spokeswoman, said investigators found a gun in the area of the shooting, but could not say with certainty that it belonged to the person killed.

Oakland and Emeryville police and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office are investigating, Watson said.

Oakland resident Russ Whitehead said he was pulling into the storage facility to unload boxes when he saw a woman screaming and five or six officers shouting commands at her from behind a police car.

“They were giving her commands and then all of a sudden there was gunfire right next to me,” he said.

Whitehead said he ducked as bullets shattered the windows of his gray Ford Focus. Because he dropped to the ground, he said he didn’t see what the woman was doing when she was shot.

Six or seven shots rang out, Whitehead said, before an officer approached his car to if he was OK. He said he was covered in broken glass but unhurt.

“I wasn’t really scared in the moment. You either live or you die,” he said. “I’m just sorry that things like this have to happen.”

A group of about 20 neighbors gathered on a corner near where the shooting took place, talking and exchanging theories about what happened.

“Too much killing in the world,” said one neighbor, shaking her head.

Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SFKale

Emeryville Cops Take Down Adeline Street Brothel Owners

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

2 held in Emeryville brothel case get indicted by feds

By Henry K. Lee Updated 10:22 pm, Tuesday, December 23, 2014

                 

Two men charged in state court with exploiting women in a sex trafficking ring in Emeryville and bribing a police captain posing as a corrupt officer were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on bribery charges, court records show.

The investigation centered on Acucare Oriental Massage at 3900 Adeline St., which authorities said operated as a brothel, with young women of Asian descent used for sex and then replaced every two weeks.

Co-owners Jimmy Gong Lee, 55, and Tom Loi, 58, were charged in U.S. District Court in San Francisco with conspiracy to give bribes involving a federal program, giving bribes involving a federal program and bribery of a public official.

Lee and Loi were named in a complaint filed this month in Alameda County Superior Court with 30 felony charges, including conspiracy, pimping, pandering, bribery, tax fraud and bribery.

Federal court records revealed that the investigation began in 2012 when agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Emeryville police began investigating Acucare — and that Homeland Security agents posed as Emeryville code enforcement officers.

Authorities said men would be buzzed in to enter the business, pay about $60 to Kuang, and then select a “masseuse” from a group of usually five women. The women would then negotiate further fees for sexual services, investigators said. Confidential informants working on behalf of Emeryville police posed as customers and were quoted prices for the services in conversation that were secretly recorded, authorities said.

When Emeryville authorities began questioning the legitimacy of the business, Lee allegedly gave Loi thousands of dollars to pay off Emeryville police Capt. Dante Diotalevi, head of investigations, who was working undercover as a corrupt police officer.

In a series of recorded meetings between March 2013 and May 2014, Loi gave the captain a total of $24,000 in bribes — about $2,000 a month — so that Acucare wouldn’t be shuttered, authorities said.

Lam also paid a Homeland Security agent posing as a corrupt immigration officer tens of thousands of dollars to illegally process four Chinese nationals for green cards, authorities said.

On June 5, state Department of Justice and Homeland Security agents served search warrants at the brothel and Lee’s home in San Francisco. They reported recovering $69,000 in cash.

Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @henryklee

Regional Minimum Wage Proposal: Emeryville Mayor Jac Asher Joins East Bay Mayors

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

East Bay mayors looking to raise minimum wage together

Carolyn Jones

Updated 5:45 am, Monday, June 23, 2014

East Bay mayors are moving forward with a plan to adopt a single minimum wage for the region in order to share the benefits and burdens of raising salaries for the lowest-paid workers.

The proposal, initiated by Berkeley MayorTom Bates, calls on Berkeley, Oakland, Emeryville, Alameda, Albany and El Cerrito to adopt a minimum wage of $12.82 per hour by 2017. Richmond already has adopted its own minimum wage, $12.30 by 2017.

"It makes so much more sense if we were all on the same page, for the same amount," Bates said. "This way we can share enforcement duties, and no city would be at an economic disadvantage."

Bates' plan is modeled on Oakland's proposal, which goes before voters on Nov. 4. The primary difference is that the wage would only jump 11.6 percent the first year, instead of 36.1 percent as proposed in Oakland. Bates' plan also does not include mandatory health benefits or sick leave, which he said should be handled individually.

The advantage of a regional plan is that cities with higher minimum wages would not lose business to neighboring towns with lower minimum wages, he said. They could also share paperwork and economic analyses, as well as enforcement duties.

Several mayors said they support the idea and plan to push for it with their city councils.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said a regional minimum wage, especially if it's lower than San Francisco's $15-per-hour proposal, would give the East Bay an economic advantage in attracting business but still help its lowest-paid workers.

"We're trying to get this coordinated," Quan said. "It shouldn't be more difficult for one city to raise its minimum wage. ... It'd be much easier for all of us if this was a coordinated effort."

One hitch is that each city has its own economic nuances, which might be better addressed on smaller scales. Oakland, for example, has mostly rebounded from the recession, but some sectors of the economy are still fragile and should get specialized attention, she said.

Nonprofits and summer youth employment programs should also have exemptions, she said.

Emeryville Mayor Jac Asher said the City Council plans to look at the idea in July.

"My feeling is that we need to raise workers' wages, and we need to do it immediately. People are really having a hard time," she said. "I absolutely understand what Mayor Bates wants to do, and if there's some way to get a regional minimum wage, I'd be very supportive."

Her colleagues on the council might not be as receptive, she said. Even with a regional minimum wage proposal, each city will still have to navigate difficult political waters with its own business and labor communities, she said.

"Even Berkeley has had a hard time with this," she said, noting the Berkeley City Council's revisions and delays to that city's minimum wage plan. "I think, no matter what, we'll all be fighting battles over this."

Carolyn Jones is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail:carolynjones@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carolynajones

Horton Street Crematorium Running Up Against Oakland Resident Backlash

After wearing out its welcome in Emeryville, Horton Street's Apollo Crematorium continues to run up against a reluctant populace in Oakland, the site of its proposed relocation.  Apollo is one of California's busiest crematoriums, incinerating 3000 to 4000 bodies a year, injecting toxins into the air in the Park Avenue area, an increasingly residential neighborhood.  It's bad for Oakland AND Emeryville.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Toxins from burning bodies bad for Oakland, lawsuit says

Will Kane

Published 5:19 pm, Wednesday, December 11, 2013

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(12-11) 17:18 PST OAKLAND -- Oakland approved a large crematorium in an East Oakland industrial area without first considering the health impacts of burning some 3,000 bodies a year, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by an East Oakland environmental group.

The suit, announced Wednesday by Communities for a Better Environment, alleges that Oakland's city planners wrongly considered the crematorium a "general manufacturing facility" that could be approved without a public hearing.

Residents of East Oakland worry the crematorium planned at 98th Avenue and Kitty Lane will spew toxins into an area already polluted by exhaust from a nearby freeway and airport.

"We're in the midst of more toxic pollution here because we're a disenfranchised community," said Maxine Oliver-Benson, a resident of East Oakland and member of the environmental group. "Our families' health is not being taken seriously and we don't want the dead to kill the living."

The plan is for the Neptune Society, owned by Stewart Enterprises, to shutter its long-standing crematorium in Emeryville and move to an empty building at the corner of industrial East Oakland, made up of mostly warehouses, truck yards and parking lots. Stewart Enterprises was also named in the suit.

Neptune's Emeryville facility is small and outdated, and with Baby Boomers getting older, demand in the Bay Area for crematoriums is only going to keep rising, the company has said.

Mike Miller, president of the Neptune Society of Northern California, said he hadn't seen the suit and could not comment. Alex Katz, a spokesman for City Attorney Barbara Parker, also declined to comment.

The city approved a permit for the new facility without fanfare in the spring of 2012. Regulators with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District said at the time that the crematorium would not release enough pollution to be a risk to the community.

When residents learned of the plan they immediately took issue. The City Council has since passed emergency legislation regulating crematoriums and tried to slow the process, but efforts to kill the plan or force a public hearing have so far failed.

The fiery rhetoric, nevertheless, continues.

"Stewart Enterprise have been tone deaf to seniors, families and other residents in the community who have expressed legitimate health and safety concerns about this project," said Rev. Daniel Buford of East Oakland's Allen Temple Baptist Church. "As a result of not considering these concerns, I am calling upon all clergy to boycott them because we are deeply concerned with the health and well being of the living."

Will Kane is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: wkane@9sfchronicle.comTwitter: @WillKane