Thread by @mateosfo

Microphones are now open and it’s going to be lit. First guy:

We don’t need housing or transportation because, autonomous vehicles.

Berkeley, California, ladies and gents.

North Berkeley homeowner wants to see max affordable housing in the site.

Another homeowner says more housing leads to higher prices.

Both sides, people.

North Berkeley homeowner again: Feel very strongly that we should build housing there as quickly as possible, parking lot is the worst possible use.

He’s not a young gentrifier (sorry Dan)

Now Friends of Adeline is rambling about how only low rise housing is acceptable because community affordability something something ok she got cut off, phew.

Speaker line status: At least half the SRO crowd of 400 people want to vent.

Looks like the coffee stand is open.

OK another NIMBY says BART is a bad neighbor because of he’s lived here 30 years and BART is bad and all the NIMBYs applaud. I am struggling to avoid describing these people.

Another neighbor: Can’t wait for there to be housing on the site instead of parking.

There are so many more YIMBYs in Berkeley than there used to be.

Here come the car parkers. Woman says three blocks is too far for her to walk in the rain, so OK with housing as long as I can still park there?

In sum: Let’s build housing as long as it isn’t where I currently park my car.

Close neighbor warns BART that he’s an engineer and they don’t understand risk of undercutting surface. BART is run by engineers.

Finishes by saying there are too many jobs and people in Berkeley and that we should do something about that instead.

Here comes the shame again.

Ok shame is followed by rage, here’s an old Berkeley hippie accusing BART of being greedy corporate developers.

“Transit oriented development sounds rational, but something about the gilded age makes this irrational, so save the parking lot!”

Now comes the YIMBY fire: Father of two young kids who owns a home one block from BART wants his kids to be able to stay in Berkeley, “Lets make Berkeley better - there’s no way that a parking lot can do that.”

I know that guy and he’s my friend and I am feeling proud.

There are a lot of people in Berkeley who think it’s still 1968 and they’re still fighting The Man.

Meanwhile too many men live under the freeway and the teachers and nurses are commuting in from Tracy.

Now the neighborhood character defenders are at the mic and I honestly don’t give a crap what they think.

“OMG the parking lot is too full and we also almost get hit by cars all the time because there’s not enough parking and please protect the parking lot!”

These are ... argh biting my tongue. These are human beings and I’ll stop here.

Woman warns that unless we build a lot more housing Berkeley is going to become a boring enclave of old rich white people.

Boring old rich white people look around at each other and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“I like people. I want to make our neighborhood better for myself, my mom and my kid.”

Sorry, I have to say it. This is a generational war. It’s not even close, apologies to the few friendlies of a certain age.

Looks like YIMBYs were stacked at back of line. Here it comes:

“We bought our house because of Berkeley values - inclusivity, multiculturalism, diversity - but we’re losing that. Our block is getting richer and whiter. And that’s troubling for me.” Replace parking with housing.

Ack NIMBY: “Building 700 units of affordable housing won’t help, where am I supposed to park? There are murders, where are people supposed to park?”

North Berkeley is apparently more Republican than I thought.

YIMBY: North Berkeley is low-rise single family housing because it was zoned to keep out black people.

This is a true statement, but crowd boos. I thought these folks were historians

The YIMBYs are asking for an inclusive, walkable, diverse community, a place for their kids to live when they grow up.

We’re going to win on the values, no question. Question is can we win on the politics. 50-50 right now ...

Very sensible woman asks why we can’t also add housing on San Pablo and Sacramento and such, is very pragmatic, let’s find solutions.

She must not know that these people will block all the housing there too. It doesn’t matter where it’s proposed, they don’t want it.

Older neighbor: Is parking the best use of this land? No, housing.

Hmmm let’s do a study

Now an actual affordable housing developer says housing is ideal for the BART lot and strongly supportive of it and everyone cheers? Now I’m confused.

28 year resident, three sons: They’re being priced out of Berkeley. “I’m a city planner and designer and we can get it right. But we have to make it pencil, and that means making it big enough.”

Another local homeowner: Let’s be more creative. We can put housing there. Let’s put our heads together.

Next guy: What about the climate emergency? We need to house millions of people in the Bay Area close to transit if we’re going to address the climate emergency.

RAWRRRRRRR

“My son wants to be a police offficer when he grows up but he won’t be able to live in Berkeley.

“I also have a disease & will be in a wheelchair before long - I need housing I can afford that will accommodate me, my home won’t work anymore.”

Wow.

Young black man: “One of the most disgusting things I see is all the Black Lives Matter signs in North Berkeley, but there’s no black people here and no one wants to build housing here for us.”

😮