by Reem Assil
With state and local budget crises looming and the economy struggling to recover, a report released this week shows residents and workers in Emeryville want a say in how their “shopping-mall of a city” spends their public tax dollars. United through the Coalition for a Better Bay Street, residents and workers see a key opportunity to achieve a more inclusive and sustainable city through the second phase of a large-scale development project.
“In the midst of a recession, with the possibility that redevelopment funds may shrink in the city, it is more important than ever for residents and workers to have a say in how tax dollars are spent,” said Jennifer Lin, Research Director at the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy and co-author of the report.
The new report, entitled Bringing Main Street Back to Bay Street: Win-Win Solutions to Create Good Jobs and Livable Communities in Emeryville, comes as the City Council is considering an estimated $47 million subsidy for the second phase of the Bay Street project. The agreement between the City and the developer to pursue development is set to expire in September. The community report outlines how the City, the developer Madison Marquette, and the community together can achieve quality jobs for local residents, affordable family-friendly housing, and improvements in the public school system.
“We don’t want our home to be a soulless, regional shopping mall,” said Tracy Schroth, a member of Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE). “We really look forward to sitting down with [developer] Madison Marquette and the city to come up with an agreement. We see this as a huge opportunity to create something really good, for the developer, for the city, and for all the residents who live in this community.” Schroth was one of the residents knocking on doors last February surveying over 400 Emeryville residents. The surveys showed that an overwhelming 82% were opposed to or had mixed feelings about the second phase of the Bay Street project in its current form. Based on the last publicly available information, the project proposal includes a 23-story hotel and condominium tower, up to 130,000 sq ft of retail, and up to 900 parking spaces.
In order to achieve this vision of a Main Street-type Bay Street, the report points to establishing local hire and first source hiring processes that would allow Emeryville residents a first-chance at new job openings, creating family-sized affordable housing that is accessible to a range of incomes, and considering creative resource sharing between the City and the School District. “People living and working in Emeryville need better paying jobs. … Since there is a subsidy involved in the next phase of Bay Street, they should be creating quality jobs, not just creating more working poverty,” said Cristal Ticong, a worker at Emeryville’s Hilton Garden Inn.
According to the report, the first phase of Bay Street represented a missed opportunity. While providing some affordable housing benefits and generating significant tax revenues for future development, it did little by way of quality jobs for local residents, transit, bike, and pedestrian-friendly development, and promotion of locally owned, local-serving businesses.
The report will inform a public discussion at an historic Community Townhall Meeting where residents, small business owners, workers, advocates and other community leaders will gather to call on the City Council and the developer of the second phase of Bay Street to work with the community to achieve a “Better Bay Street”. Free copies of the report will be available at the town hall. Click here to access the online version.
The town hall begins at 6pm on Tuesday, July 28th at the Emeryville Senior Center (4321 Salem Street).
To RSVP, contact Raquel Namuche, raquel@workingeastbay.org
The Coalition for a Better Bay Street consists of residents, workers, and advocates organizing to ensure that the second phase of the Bay Street development creates good jobs and livable neighborhoods. Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE) is a citizens group working to improve the quality of life in Emeryville. The East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) is celebrating 10 years of building power and raising standards for working families.
Reem Assil is a community organizer for EBASE. Reem is inspired by both her love for community and her understanding of the importance of building power in the labor movement. Her formative experience with coalition building and community organizing comes out of organizing in the Arab American community, in which her heart lies.
I went to the RULE Town Hall at the Senior Center, very impressive! A lot of people, information and the chance to see a change in our town. How do people join RULE?
There is a RULE membership meeting this Saturday, August 22nd @ 9:30 am at the Doyle Street Co-Housing, 5514 Doyle St. If your interested in joining, you should definitely come! There will be breakfast and folks will meet to strategize together and actually do some outreach in the surrounding neighborhoods!
I am a Bay Street resident and I would like to join as well. Madison Marquette is an terrible company to deal with. We do not need more of them in Emeryville. With no plan for cite B on Bay Street this would be a great chance for the city to do something that will benefit the residents of Emeryville not just the developers.