Just because we hear you …

Thursday night I attended a Planning Commission “Study Session” on the BART Transit Village.  OK, I know that only wackos who like to hear themselves talk into a microphone go to Public Meetings, but I don’t sing well enough to try karaoke.

I’m fortunate - I can walk to the Walnut Creek BART station.  But I feel sorry for all of those BART riders and freeway commuters who drive up and down Ygnacio Valley Road every weekday.

Construction of the BART Transit Village will make their lives miserable for years to come.  When the new garage is being constructed, the 225 parking spaces on the southwest corner of the BART lot will be unavailable – patrons will have to park somewhere blocks away.  And I’ve never seen a construction project yet that doesn’t block sidewalks, and sometimes a lane or two of traffic.  Construction companies love to send flagmen out into the roadway to halt everything while large trucks pull on and off the site.  And the roads around the BART station are already a mess

All in favor, say aye ...

The members of the Citizen’s Advisory Committee to the West Downtown Specific Plan have been announced.  A solid majority of the members, seven of the thirteen, have close ties to the City Council.  Three are current or former City Council members (Simmons, Skrel, Abrams), and four are current or former City Commission appointees (Darling, Fotheringham, Lucas, Gorny).  For a process which advertises broad-based community involvement, this certainly sounds a lot like Politburo-style central planning.

A taxing situation ...

If the City’s hotel owners got together and agreed to all raise their rates by $2.00 per night - that might be viewed as collusion and price fixing.  It’s apparently a different matter altogether when they all agree to be taxed $2.00 per night.