Stop, Drop and Roll

31 May 2007 | Alameda Community Development Forum | John Knox White

Blogging is made a lot easier when other people write articles that you wanted to write.

With that in mind, I present “Sprawl clashes with warming in California” from Sunday’s (5/27) SF Chronicle:

As we discuss development issues in the East Bay (and in Alameda in particular), we need to keep a regional perspective as well as a wholly local one. From the article:

The need to rein in sprawl has not received much attention from Schwarzenegger, who has garnered international attention as he has talked about creating more efficient cars, boosting solar power, and developing new carbon-trading markets for industry. But experts, including the governor’s own climate advisers, argue that changing how housing is developed is key to meeting the emissions reductions that AB32 calls for.

AB32 is the groundbreaking climate change protection bill passed last year in California. It outlines aggressive goals for greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Every housing unit we don’t provide in Alameda, or Oakland or Emeryville, is a housing unit that is going to become Sprawl. As I worte previously, ABAG is predicting about 2 million new residents in the Bay Area in the next 25 years. Houses are going to be built.

I am not saying we need 10,000 units at Alameda Point, but we should be considering these aspects of development and what the appropriate level is for our fair city.