Techies fleeing SF zero in on Alameda
the small city on an island across from Oakland, not the county as a whole.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_27111044/rapid-change-and-congestion-roils-cozy-alameda
Drawn by Alameda's good schools, safe streets and trendy shops and restaurants, tech workers and others benefiting from the region's growth have helped drive the city's housing costs up 30 percent in two years, with the typical home fetching more than $766,000 now, according to research firm CoreLogic DataQuick.
But fears of overdevelopment, traffic jams and loss of the town's charm have sparked a backlash at the polls. Voters, in a close race, dumped a pro-growth mayor in November for one firmly in the anti-residential development camp....
In Palo Alto, for example, growth, parking and traffic were issues that helped several candidates in the November elections favoring a moderate approach to development. In Cupertino, a heated council meeting Nov. 10 on the city's housing and development plans ran until 5 a.m., with deputies on hand to manage an overflow crowd of several hundred voicing concerns over growth, traffic congestion, impacts on schools and parking.
There are so many g.d. NIMBYs around here we should call them NIMBAYS.
Oh, and only in California could a city of 75,000 be described as "cozy".
= new reply since forum marked as read
On people with unsteady work, physical and/or mental illness, overwhelmed with bureaucracy and the sort of bullsh*t society puts people at the lowest level through already. Remember that all the conveniences and shortcuts are for the people with money at the top. The people on the bottom may not have a vehicle to be able to move. They may not be able to drive. They may not have friends to help them pack or move stuff. These are the people who "don't have enough bandwidth" to deal already! They are supposed to be spending their time trying to get work, trying to keep up, trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps! And these techie a-holes want them to be using up their bandwidth to find another (rare) low-income hovel and move!!!!!????
Puh-lease!!!! This is getting ridiculous!!! Someone needs to start playing block and tackle on behalf of the poor here!
I mean, everyone around here has a smartphone (except me ). And rather few of them are "Glassholes".
I can't believe we re-elected our pro-displace-the-residents-for-tech-wealth mayor one more time in the last election (especially after he's made specific position statements against low income housing in the past, showing why he's done nothing but stall in the current chaos now).
The current protests in Berkeley picked up a little "social change" energy from this problem - including a specific call to overthrow the mayor (undemocratically!) after protesters were teargassed on Telegraphed avenue (symbolic heart of the Free Speech Movement). While I think there will probably be some reactionary blowback from some of the vandalism and looting that was done in the name of the protest over the last week, I think there's a chance of "the revolution" getting back on its feet thanks to the ongoing success of the #BlackLivesMatter movement (awesome turnout at yesterday's march in Oakland!) and ongoing unrest in Berkeley that demands a response (such as some jackass hanging an effigy in a noose at Sather gate - also a symbolic location of the Free Speech Movement and the Civil Rights Movement in general in Berkeley).
Anyway it's my fondest wish that these protests call attention to the real conditions that people at the "bottom of the heap" are subjected to as the techies stampede over top of them. I will be out there as much as I can.
which, for thoise of you playing along at home, is an accessible office complex in south Berkeley designed for disability-oriented nonprofits, many if not most of whose consumers need the very low-income housing he opposes! 