Alameda Point's Future

Alameda Point - The Future

These pictures from Emeryville give you an idea of what Alameda Point is likely to look like if voters pass an exemption to Measure A for the Point. Even worse, many more places in Alameda could look like this if Measure A is repealed all across Alameda, which some people in Alameda are secretly pushing for.

Traditionally, the auto-dealerships in Alameda - mostly on Park Street - have been the greatest generator of sales tax revenue for the City. But slowly, one-by-one, the auto-dealers have been moving out of Alameda, and sales-tax revenue has been declining. See this report from the City of Alameda on the sales-tax for the quarter ending September 30, 2007.

So what does the sales-tax report mean? What it means is that City staff have embarked on a path of trying to replace the declining auto-dealership sales-tax revenue with retail store sales-tax revenue. And that includes trying to bring in big-box stores - automobile intensive stores - to increase sales revenue. City staff drool over Emeryville's high per-capita sales-tax revenue. Commensurate with that, they have to bring in lots of housing - high-density housing - to have people to shop at the stores, to generate the sales-tax revenue.

And what's wrong with that? Plenty:

• While the City of Alameda Planning Board advocates public transit as a solution to move all the new residents on and off the island, they are also trying to bring in big-box stores which rely on acres and acres of parking for automobiles, and which rely on shoppers using automobiles. That's a contradictory policy. It seems that City staff can recommend public transit when it suits their purpose, and automobiles when it suits a different purpose.
• The regional transit agencies have told Action Alameda members several times that commercial uses - where there are lots of workers - are the best land-use applications to increase transit use, not housing.
• Retail tends to bring low-paying jobs, close to minimum wage. Why can't we have more higher paying jobs in Alameda? Or a broad range of jobs at different salary levels?
• City staff seem to think that people are going to come from all over the Bay area to shop in Alameda. But why would they? If they're on the other side of Emeryville, they're going to shop there. If they're on the other side of San Leandro, they're going to shop there, where they have big-box stores. Alameda Towne Centre has been struggling because it's so far away from all of the access points to Alameda, and Alameda Point is a dead-end - to get to Alameda Point, one must come through the tubes, and drive all the way out to the westernmost part of the island. How many people will want to fight across the bridges and tubes to get into Alameda, and drive all the way across the island to Alameda Point or Alameda Towne Centre, when they can get on the freeway and drive to San Leandro or Emeryville? Not many.
• We currently have a huge jobs/housing imbalance in Alameda. Urban planners seem to think it's important to have an equal number of jobs to workers within a city, so that people don't have to leave their home town to get to work - even though there is no mechanism to guarantee that people will both live and work in the same city. But anyway, to the extent that one believes we should have a jobs/housing balance, we currently have a huge imbalance in the City of Alameda - over 30,000 homes in Alameda, while the top 10 employers employ less than 5000 workers. (Two of the top ten employers are the Alameda Unified School District, and the City of Alameda by the way.) Building more housing at Alameda Point to support the retail they want to fix the sales-tax problem will aggravate the current jobs/housing balance.
• Alameda has been left out of the "East Bay Green Corridor" established by UC Berkeley and our neighboring cities, like Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville. Has anyone in our City government or staff put an honest effort into reaching out to the University of California to locate a campus at Alameda Point to provide a range of jobs, and thereby allow us to participate in the East Bay Green Corridor?"

Media

High-density housing in Emeryville across from the shopping center.

Is this "transit oriented development" ? Does this promote public transit use, or automobile use?

There is no BART or light rail service planned or funded for Alameda Point anytime soon.

Acres of automobile parking and big box stores in Emeryville.

This type of land-use requires shoppers to use cars to get to and from the shopping center.

If Alameda Point is exempted from Measure A, you can expect a wall of these buildings between you and the water. Just like what happened on Shoreline Drive before Measure A.

What can be done?

Encourage Alameda City Council to focus on bringing light industry and commerce to Alameda Point, instead of fixating on building houses and retail. Developers like building houses and retail, because that's the best way for them to maximize profit, but it doesn't mean it's the best thing for our city.

Business-to-business sales-tax revenue has the potential to grow exponentially, as businesses grow, without bringing in more people and houses into the City. In contrast, sales-tax revenue grows linearly with the number of people living and shopping in the city - to keep growing sales-tax revenue means building more housing and bringing in more people to live or to shop in Alameda. It's a fools errand, especially with San Leandro and Emeryville close by, drawing customers from Oakland, our immediate neighbor and their own cities.