Tuesday night’s Council meeting was full of important discussions and decisions. The Council finally voted on the zoning update and the Energy and Climate Action Plan. They also had a somewhat maddening but also very productive discussion on parking. I’ll have a post up sometime in the next week with video, but for now, here are the #oakmtg tweets, courtesy of Ruth Miller and I. And if you’re not already following Ruth @mcplanner on Twitter, follow her already! She’s been doing a fantastic job tweeting Council, committee, and Planning Commission hearings. I hope she keeps it up!
mcplanner Oakland City Hall has free wifi! I love this town! Wired in and ready for the City Council #oakmtg, as soon as Reid’s smoke break is over.
mcplanner “It’s a new Murphy’s Law. Anything that works anywhere will not work in Oakland” Sanjay at #oakmtg
mcplanner The Nigerian delegation just accepted Sister City status with Oakland. I hope this means we get to start wearing sweet tunics.
#oakmtg
mcplanner Wow, Sanjay’s on fire tonight: negligence, cowardice, dishonesty, corruption, oh my! #oakmtg
OaklandBecks I don’t get why Allen Temple hates BRT, even after hearing their testimony. Has anyone talked to them?
#oakmtg
OaklandBecks Also, this item isn’t about BRT, it’s about the International TOD plan, which is awesome: http://wp.me/p55RV-Oj #oakmtg
mcplanner Ok, dear Allen Temple Baptist – TOD is all about making the street safer for older and less agile people. That’s the entire point #oakmtg
mcplanner Yeah, be concerned with the traffic and speed – reduce the traffic lanes and add more buses. Go TOD. #oakmtg
mcplanner I’m having difficulty understanding how any of these arguments against BRT actually work against BRT. #oakmtg#brainexplosion
OaklandBecks @mcplanner Don’t try to understand. It’s not understandable. It will make your head explode.
mcplanner CM Reid: “If the BRT is successful, it will devastate a community.” #oakmtg
OaklandBecks Yay for Pat Kernighan for pointing out the obvious – the International TOD plan is not about BRT, can succeed w/o BRT! #oakmtg
OaklandBecks OMG, could Jane Brunner exaggerate anymore?! BRT will not take out 80% of the parking in North Oakland.#oakmtg
mcplanner CM Brunner: No, BRT will not take out 80% of parking in North Oakland. #notfacts #oakmtg
OaklandBecks If you’re not already, you should be following @mcplanner for excellent #oakmtg tweets. She’s tweeting the Council mtg now.
mcplanner This is only the first of two readings on zoning, next on 3/15. No new Glee either night, so you have no excuses. #oakmtg
mcplanner If zoning weren’t fun enough, each CM can’t vote on the zoning affecting 500′ w/in their house. and Nadel’s is actually complex #oakmtg
mcplanner After 4 calls for Sanjay, on to the 21 speakers for commercial and residential zoning amendments. It’s a who’s who of NCPCs #oakmtg
OaklandBecks I feel bad for not going to #oakmtg to speak on zoning, but considering how sick I feel & how long mtg is taking, it was the right decision.
mcplanner Rockridge: thanks for tossing out the recommendations of your staff. There’s still 1 side of 1 block of Broadway I’m not happy with. #oakmtg
OaklandBecks Wow. A speaker just claimed that tall buildings cause crime. That’s a new one. #oakmtg
chucklessmith @OaklandBecks Hey, you ever been mugged by a skyscraper? It ain’t fun🙂
mcplanner Right. Buildings over four stories the reason for social breakdown. #blerg #oakmtg
mcplanner Oh Joyce Roy, here to make my brain feel better. “Broadway is an 8 lane street, and 45′ buildings do not make sense.” #oakmtg
mcplanner Joyce Roy on the fact checking! Love it! Stop using building bonuses as a scare tactic. #oakmtg
mcplanner Preach it – “making it smaller, means making it wider” dense development on transit is greener, cheaper, and better for business #oakmtg
OaklandBecks What is this speaker talking about? Stores on Broadway closing down? Just the opposite – more & more are opening. #oakmtg
mcplanner Property owner on Bway wants higher heights, followed by person that wants buildings capped at 30 feet to support small businesses #oakmtg
OaklandBecks Also, note to speaker – stores closing down is an argument for more density, and more customers, not lower heights.#oakmtg
mcplanner Also, 60′ buildings on 8 lane broadway will not make a wind tunnel #scienceitworksbitches #oakmtg
mcplanner Building height and HBX getting mixed up. Residents want businesses out of their neighborhoods, blame people that want pockets lined #oakmtg
mcplanner Count at 7:57 – 9 NIMBYS, 3 YIMBYs #oakmtg
mcplanner “If Oakland has a high density corridor, it’s Broadway.” Short and sweet! #oakmtg
OaklandBecks Speaker – a vote for higher density is a vote to support low income communities and affordable housing. #oakmtg
mcplanner @OaklandBecks Plus a vote for people that rent, use transit, or want econ opportunity #oakmtg
mcplanner We’re at 9 NIMBYs and 5 YIMBYs. Wait, can McDonald’s really not profit in Downtown Oakland? That’s awesome! Can Burger King go too? #oakmtg
mcplanner CM Brunner: This zoning gives us enough housing for ABAG for the next 10 years. Really? @OaklandBecks? #oakmtg
mcplanner If zoning was held down because of fear of bonuses, isn’t there some way to just have a singular comprehensive height policy? #oakmtg
mcplanner OH SNAP! Kaplan calls it – no height bonus has ever been implemented! #oakmtg
mcplanner One request for a 5-10 height increase was made, and the project wasn’t built. WHOA. #oakmtg
OaklandBecks CM Kaplan points out density bonus never been used in Oakland. So not fair for us to say that people can just apply for extra height #oakmtg
mcplanner @OaklandBecks Yeah, but there’s been a lot of fear mongering about height bonus monsters#mynexthalloweencostume #oakmtg
reubenduarte @OaklandBecks Have projects asked for it or have they just always been denied?
OaklandBecks @reubenduarte One project asked for it and got 5 or 10 extra feet, but then the economy tanked and it never was built.
mcplanner Next 20 year plan starts in 2014? Well, that caused a noticeable sigh #oakmtg
mcplanner bummer, parkings up, but I’m due @foxoakland for trivia. Hopefully zoning will be covered. g’night! #oakmtg
OaklandBecks Yay for Kaplan! She says what I tweeted – need to upzone to have more density to have more customers to increase econ growth. #oakmtg
OaklandBecks Surreal. CM Nadel addressing Council as resident, about zoning in her neighborhood, which she can’t vote on (conflict of interest). #oakmtg
OaklandBecks CM Schaaf – amending zoning that was passed in ’65 when she was born & process started in ’99, when started working for City.#oakmtg
reubenduarte @OaklandBecks Oakland definitely needs to update its zoning code if it hasn’t been updated since ’65!
OaklandBecks Council passes zoning as proposed by staff unanimously. Huge achievement, considering this process took more than a decade. #oakmtg
Kaplan4Oakland @OaklandBecks thanks for the shoutout re:#oakmtg🙂
OaklandBecks Wow. CM Schaaf just gave the most awesome speech on parking meters & how they shouldn’t just be used for revenue generation. #oakmtg
OaklandBecks Schaaf urges Mayor to move parking dep out of Finance into Public Works or CEDA. CM Kaplan agrees. I’m reminded – elections matter. #oakmtg
Kaplan4Oakland Great hearing from everyone at tonight’s Council#oakmtg
Slimysalamander Not sure how I feel about councilmemebers tweeting and reading twitter during #oakmtg
OaklandBecks @Slimysalamander Is reading twitter during#oakmtg different or worse than reading text messages? Emails? Blogs? CMs do that too.
Yeah, it was a substantive meeting, and we didn’t even tweet about the Energy and Climate Action Plan! I don’t plan to write about the ECAP so I hope someone else does, but I will post a blog soon with video of the parking discussion.
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