Comments on: Oakland Zoning Update: Used to be uses

By: Crimson

Crimson — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:12:18 +0000

When in doubt, turn to The Wire.

I was just at the East Oakland Boxing Association about a week ago. They have a garden they’ve been putting together, with a greenhouse and everything. Pretty cool. I wonder what kind of hoops they have to jump through with the city for it to be legit.

By: V Smoothe

V Smoothe — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:37:16 +0000

And the park Max is talking about is on the list for sites that will receive no maintenance!

By: Max Allstadt

Max Allstadt — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:35:49 +0000

Crimson,

I wholeheartedly agree. Overregulation is a hideous problem. Right now, in my neighborhood, there is a proposal before the planning commission which requires a conditional use permit… the city is making the city get a CUP to turn a disused park into a renovated park!

In part of the video V posted, I see Jane Brunner bringing up a point that I think is somewhat valid in terms of a need to control uses. Certain uses, like nail salons, fast food, surface parking… these are easy, cookie cutter ways for investors to make money off of space, but because of this, they can saturate or oversaturate an area. It makes some sense to curb uses that grow like weeds in the interest of keeping space open for more diverse mixed use.

On the other hand, the fact that you need a CUP to open a cafe in a commercial district is just crazy. And it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Oakland doesn’t have nearly the red-tape problems of Berkeley, but America as a whole has onerous barriers to small business creation.

Want to see a dramatization? Watch the episode of the Wire (Season 3) where Dennis “Cutty” Wise goes to Baltimore City Hall to try to get the legal documentation needed to open an after school boxing program like the one Frank Rose runs in Oakland. The scene isn’t overblown, it’s true.

My experience with Oakland planning reminds me of what Frank Zappa said when David Letterman asked him if he thought the world would end in fire or end in ice…

By: Crimson

Crimson — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:08:37 +0000

I really don’t understand why we need to regulate activities so much. Certain regulations make sense–industrial polluters shouldn’t be concentrated in high-density neighborhoods, for example. But why should the city be involved in deciding whether a building is used as a flower shop or a restaurant or a butcher’s market? It seems to defeat the spirit of mixed use if the city is micromanaging the uses.

By: Becks

Becks — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 04:03:40 +0000

Council frustrations aside, this post was incredibly informative. I just watched the council discussion on this item and would have been entirely lost without this post. So thanks!

By: livegreen

livegreen — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:37:41 +0000

Well your City Councilpeople don’t want more towers, because they don’t give you cancer. So forget about it. Or call them and let them know you DO want them…

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:25:51 +0000

There’s poor cell service on Embarcadero West and just south of the warehouse district (Oak St. area). If you look at service maps of carriers, you’ll see that it’s not great. I’d love more towers down here.

By: dto510

dto510 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:11:29 +0000

Max, I get bad cell-phone reception (I live downtown next to West O), as do friends nearby in Alameda. AT&T told me that there’s a cell-phone hole over West Oakland and Alameda, and other waterfront parts of the Bay Area, because there are no towers in the bay, and you want antennas in multiple directions for optimal reception. Ghost Town is more central than Old Oakland, Prescott, and West Alameda, where I’ve observed reception problems, so that could be why you don’t have the problem. Montclair could have a similar problem because of a lack of antennas in the regional park that border the area.

By: livegreen

livegreen — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:36:35 +0000

JB: “Isn’t a use permit less than a CUP?”
MW: “It’s the same thing.”

OMG, and these are our city councilpeople? Apparently PK was the only one who did her homework & read the changes…

By: Max Allstadt

Max Allstadt — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:22:54 +0000

dto,

I’ve lived in West Oakland for going on 6 years, and I’ve never had trouble with reception, other than inside heavy steel buildings.

I work in Montclair often and experience horrendous coverage up there.