Group Demands Action From City Council,
Criticizes Special Treatment for Developer of 2nd Phase of Bay Street
What: Emeryville residents, workers, small business owners and members of the Coalition for a Better Bay Street will stage a rally in front of City Hall to protest the possibility of a fifth extension of an exclusive agreement with the city to develop the second phase of the Bay Street project. Madison Marquette, also developer of the first phase of Bay Street, is requesting an estimated $50 million public subsidy for the second phase of the project, slated to be a mixedâ€use retail project including a 23â€story hotel and condo tower and 900-car parking garage. The rally comes after an historic town hall where more than 100 residents, workers, and smallâ€business owners called on the City Council and Madison Marquette to work with the community to create a better project through a formal community benefits agreement. Their requests to date have been ignored.
When: Tuesday, September 1, 2009, 6pm, Press Conference and Rally; 7 pm, City Council Meeting
Where: Emeryville City Hall, 1333 Park Ave.(@ Hollis St.)
Who: Sponsored by the Coalition for a Better Bay Street, which includes Residents United for a Livable Emeryville (RULE), East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), and UNITEâ€HERE Local 2850. The rally will feature residents and workers speaking out about their vision, including good jobs for local residents, affordable housing for families, funding for schools, and residents having a voice in how their city spends public dollars.
Why: “Bay Street 2 will cost us—the taxpayers—about $50 million in subsidies,†says Tracy Schroth, sevenâ€year resident of Emeryville and member of RULE. “What do we get in return? What does this $50 million buy in benefits for the people who live and work here? The City Council majority and a handful of developers have had a run of the city for years, and we want it back.â€
Based on more than 400 community surveys collected earlier this year, an overwhelming majority—82%–are not supportive of or have mixed feelings about the current Bay Street Site B proposal put forward by Madison Marquette.
The fact that Madison Marquette has ignored the community is reprehensible. Regardless of all the propaganda about this corporation from both the City of Emeryville and the corporation itself, they have shown us all their true colors.
The fact is that as far as Madison Marquette and the City are concerned, the residents can all go to hell. This steamroller is consummate top-down development as in; they know best and we're just a bunch of ignorant ingrates.
Thanks to the Coalition for a Better Bay Street and let's show them what a real community is like!
Take a good look at the 'Coalition for a Better Bay Street' and see four year olds crying. Oh, they must be Republications. Both sides suck!
I agree, in principle, with the commenter on 8/29.
Yeah, I know what you mean, the 'Coalition for a Better Bay Street' sucks. These people probably see Republicans running the big development corporations. Anyone that would think there are Republicans running the big corporations should have their heads examined. Christ, they probably think there are Republicans under the bed. It's totally outlandish.
The Coalition for a Better Bay Street are a bunch of conspiracy theorists who think there are Republicans everywhere in the boardrooms out to make a buck. Their credibility is zero.
Nora Davis has become the Wicked Witch of The West of Emeryville. There, I SAID IT.
"Has become"? This assumes at one time she wasn't.
The question of the subsidies for Madison Marquette should be a campaign issue for the city council candidates. We should make sure all three candidates spell out clearly where they stand on the whole Bay Street debate. Are they with the residents or with MM?
Have you not been paying attention to what has happened in Emeryville over the past 20 years? As a long term resident who has watched this city turn into a strip mall, I am very concerned. This small city could have been a model for all of the nation, small enough to provide the very best of education from pre-natal through college bound; small enough to provide small businesses with subsidies to keep a feeling of relationships and connections; small enough to provide neighborhoods of caring people. What did we do instead? Turn it into a developers' and bondholders/bankers' dream, indebt the citizens of Emeryville so that the general funds are depleted and there is not enough funding for schools, neighborhoods, and our community services, including police and firepersons.
Watch how the game is played; try sitting through planning meetings as the staff of Emeryville recommend over and over again to ignore height, width, and setbacks. Yes, I said, over and over again. Take a look at the records. Pay attention to the council, who have cut back citizens' speaking time to 3 minutes, and then watch the council berate every citizen who gets up and shares their concerns; sometimes for as long as 20 minutes. Look at how the city has been built. Where is the housing for those with limited economic means; where is the housing for families; where is a true living wage?
What has happened is appalling, and still we sit and pay little attention. you can rant from a republican/democrat stand, but that is futile. This is about the quality of living, life, and the desire to have a relational community and not a strip mall town.
What are you going to do when you truly find out how much each and everyone of you owe in indebtedness to the Redevelopment Agency?
I ask you to pay attention to the detail and look ahead. We are in deep trouble, we have misunderstood the bubble of supercapitalism and we will go under if we continue in this way. Pay attention, save Emeryville and stop the subsidies to development, we owe too much already and we no longer need to pay the developers for development in this city.
To the person who left the following comment. Would you be willing to attach your name to this so we could actually publish it on the blog? Even initials would work, with some information about you – how long you've lived in Emeryville, etc. Thank you.
PS – Here is the comment we want to publish:
Have you not been paying attention to what has happened in Emeryville over the past 20 years? As a long term resident who has watched this city turn into a strip mall, I am very concerned. This small city could have been a model for all of the nation, small enough to provide the very best of education from pre-natal through college bound; small enough to provide small businesses with subsidies to keep a feeling of relationships and connections; small enough to provide neighborhoods of caring people. What did we do instead? Turn it into a developers' and bondholders/bankers' dream, indebt the citizens of Emeryville so that the general funds are depleted and there is not enough funding for schools, neighborhoods, and our community services, including police and firepersons.
Watch how the game is played; try sitting through planning meetings as the staff of Emeryville recommend over and over again to ignore height, width, and setbacks. Yes, I said, over and over again. Take a look at the records. Pay attention to the council, who have cut back citizens' speaking time to 3 minutes, and then watch the council berate every citizen who gets up and shares their concerns; sometimes for as long as 20 minutes. Look at how the city has been built. Where is the housing for those with limited economic means; where is the housing for families; where is a true living wage?
What has happened is appalling, and still we sit and pay little attention. you can rant from a republican/democrat stand, but that is futile. This is about the quality of living, life, and the desire to have a relational community and not a strip mall town.
What are you going to do when you truly find out how much each and everyone of you owe in indebtedness to the Redevelopment Agency?
I ask you to pay attention to the detail and look ahead. We are in deep trouble, we have misunderstood the bubble of supercapitalism and we will go under if we continue in this way. Pay attention, save Emeryville and stop the subsidies to development, we owe too much already and we no longer need to pay the developers for development in this city.
Response to August 31, 2009 4:02 PM. Who drew the uncompromising line in the sand about the stand candidates should take for the city council election? With residents or with MM????
Who decided that all the residents are in agreement with the Coalition? Forget the survey – surveys can be manipulated to any desired result, as any statistician knows.
The Council is doing a fine job without you guys mucking it up. Haven't you paid any attention to the economy? We need to do more then we ever have to attract development because we're in dire straights. I agree before perhaps the council was giving away too much to the developers but now we need to let them develop…it's our only chance to avoid what's been happening to other towns, namely bankruptcy. NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO SAY NO TO ANY DEVELOPER! NOW IS THE TIME TO LET THEM PROFIT SO WE CAN STAY IN THE BLACK. DEVELOP BABY DEVELOP!
Response to commenter Aug 31 7:52PM-
There is a natural division of interests you aren't acknowledging in your observation that the residents interests are the same as developers.
Developers are interested in maximizing profit while residents are interested in improving the town. The two interests only cross when developers make the residents happy with their development proposals. This is a one way street because developers don't count. They actually don't count. Only the residents count since it's only the residents that can vote.
If there is information breakdown and the residents aren't fully informed then the government can help the developers interests at the expense of the residents. That's what's happening here.
Only an ideologue would say that the council has done right by the residents with the Bay Street phase one…it's clearly a regional shopping mall and the benefits agreement was anemic even by Emeryville standards.
So it's a reasonable position I'm taking: the interests of Madison Marquette are not the interests of the residents, even though Madison Marquette will say they are. It is to be expected they would say the interests are the same, after all they have a program to maximize profits and this would be part of that program. They are well aware they have shareholders to answer to.
please also voice your opinion on the red light cameras Redflex contract item TONIGHT. Redflex is the company that Emeryville uses for its red light cameras, at powell and on 40th street. These right turn and red light tickets are over $400, and discourage people from shopping in emeryville.
I'm getting ready to go to this meeting and I'm excited at the prospect of the residents of my little town standing up for a better city! It seems as if we may have finally arrived, at least we think so. Now we've got to convince the City Council.
Here's to People Power in Emeryville!!!
Looks like the citizens of Emeryville got RICK ROLLED all over again. When did they vote? 12:30 a.m.?
I was at this meeting and I was shocked at the arrogance of the Council. At one point they impugned our integrity for rising up like this. They should be happy the residents are this active and interested. I'm new to Emeryville and I think the Council acted appallingly.