Hello Again
“Hello again, hello Just called to say hello I couldn’t sleep at all tonight And i know it’s late But I couldn’t wait Hello, my friend, hello…”
Measure A is the single most important thing to happen in Alameda. Or so goes the conventional wisdom of some folks around town. The lore continues, without Measure A to protect us, the density of housing in Alameda would have exploded just like it did in other cities that surround our island paradise.
But it’s just not true. Look at the rate of density increase from 1970-2000 in the cities around us, none of which have Measure A:
City % change 1970-2000
Richmond 33.84%
San Leandro 28.32%
Alameda 28.15%
Albany 22.47%
San Pablo 20.50%
Oakland 7.43%
Piedmont 6.48%
Berkeley -1.03%
And similar numbers for the 1990’s. WITH measure A, Alameda’s density increased faster than Oakland, Berkeley, El Cerrito, and Albany:
City % change 1990-2000
Walnut Creek 4.86%
Richmond 4.38%
Orinda 4.15%
San Leandro 3.79%
Alameda 3.68%
Concord 3.13%
Pleasant Hill 2.79%
Berkeley 2.49%
Oakland 1.79%
El Cerrito 1.46%
Moraga 1.28%
Lafayette 0.69%
Piedmont 0.29%
San Pablo -0.82%
Albany -2.95%
Over the past 30 years, cities like Berkeley, who supposedly encourage housing, had negative housing growth while Alameda’s grew. San Leandro, a comparable, yet admittedly non-island, city had similar growth as Alameda, without ever banning multiple unit dwellings.
While thinking about this, I came upon a history of Mountain View which caught my eye:
Towards the end of the 1960s, widening of streets like Bailey Avenue (now Shoreline Boulevard) and California Street displaced dozens of families and rezoning neighborhoods to higher densities saw the loss of many of the city’s original historic homes. Many residents in older lower income neighborhoods were displaced as their neighborhoods were marked for redevelopment.
But before the plans from the 1960s could be fully implemented, the city changed its attitude toward the revitalization of the older portion of the city. Apartment construction slowed down and the remaining historic single-family neighborhoods were protected from further apartment development.
…..
At the end of the 1970s, Proposition 13 forced the city to rethink its plans to devote the area to housing. The city could no longer rely on property taxes to maintain and expand services.
It looks a lot like statewide issues, such as Prop 13, had more to do with housing and number of units, than did the only multiple unit ban in the Bay Area.
It makes one wonder what all the fuss is about.
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