He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother
A couple of weeks ago, I visited family out of town. Flying out of Oakland Airport early in the morning and sitting in an window seat, I watched as the greenbelt of the east bay passed by. In recent weeks, I’ve listened to some of the stalwarts from the church of “A” talk about the housing restrictions we have in Alameda, and it’s really jumped out that they only ever talk about “not wanting it here in Alameda.” As if there isn’t life or community on the other side of our bridges and tubes.
Watching the hills pass by, I thought, I guess that’s where they want the houses. Well there and in the farms of the central valley, and the delta, and everywhere in between. Unless we stop all people from moving to the Bay Area, and I don’t know how that would ever come about, there is going to be a need for housing. 2 million new people are expected in the next 25 years (that’s close to 1 million new homes).
These pressures make building housing like whack-a-mole, block development in one place, and it pops up in another. So this story in the Chronicle caught my eye. It’s about a proposal to build houses on 1433 acres of Salt Ponds in the Bay. It’s ironic, in that the leaders of the church of “A,” are pushing a “save the bay” environmentalist position as a major reason that Measure A was passed. (And “the environment” was one of the big arguments for it’s original passage).
As communities like Alameda, Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, etc. continue to fight new housing, the pressure caused by housing need just bubbles up in places like salt ponds and greenbelt and farms. Sprawl.
The effect on the environment caused by this kind of development is ginormous. All the projections for greenhouse gas emissions show that our current growth patterns will undo any benefit that might be gained from higher fuel efficiency and technological progress.
As a part of this discussion, it’s incumbent upon everyone involved in this discussion to recognize that we are all a part of the wider world, and explain how their proposals affect not just the Posey Tube, but the regional roadways, air quality and quality of life of the millions of bay area residents who live around us.
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