Your momma wears combat boots…part two

If you missed this episode, Don Roberts announced that this episode is also replaying tonight at 7:00 on AP&T…so set your DVRs, VCRs or just plop yourself in front of the television at 6:30 p.m (DRS with Pat Bail), 7:00 p.m. (DRS with Eugenie Thomson) and 7:30 p.m. (Alameda Currents).

Warning…long post ahead, proceed at your own risk.

Continued from part one…

Eugenie Thomson then says “we don’t have the density, we don’t have the demand and we never will.” She then says that to put a bus stop in front of [insert random person's name here]’s house is just wrong because she’ll lose all her parking.   I found the argument about density particularly intriguing as I remember this particular nugget posted oh so long ago.  And also, I found these minutes from one of the Transportation Commission meetings discussing the bus stop issue where three people actually spoke in support of the Pond Isle location.  Actually the public comment part is sort of interesting about this issue.  I really liked the one about how unhealthy the bus fumes are and how it is a “significant health hazard,” but then suggests that the bus stop be put where there are more people so that even though that resident thinks it is a health hazard it’s okay for the masses of other residents to be exposed to what she considered a “significant health hazard” as long as it’s not a health hazard to her.  Nice.

And as an aside, when did on-street parking become an inherent right?  Isn’t that what your garage is for?  Most (if not all) the houses on Otis have two-car garages, if you aren’t using it to park your car in, you should.  If it’s full of junk, get a storage unit.  On-street parking is not something guaranteed when you sign the contract to purchase your home.  You don’t own the street and therefore you don’t own the parking space.

Oh and just to backtrack one second from part one, Eugenie T. made the reference that it shouldn’t be the Transportation Commission’s responsibility to make decisions on where to put the bus stop, but rather the city staff’s decision.  I guess Eugenie failed to see this packet that was put together for the Tranportation Commission meeting which presented the staff presented proposed bus stop locations…eg. staff making engineering decisions on our roadways.  Now if Eugenie T. wants to compare her resume against the staff’s who made this determination, then I’m sure we would all love ringside seats.

Back to the show…after talking about routing the buses to Shoreline where there are apartments and therefore “density” they move off the topic of Manhattan John for a while and move on to flogging Marie Gilmore (2008 here we come!) who mentioned at the city council that we, Alameda as a city, are concerned with traffic issues and that we should being making mass transit available to help aleviate the traffic problems.

The strangest thing about the recapping of a portion of Councilmember Gilmore’s comments was that Eugenie T. told it in such a way that it made it seem as though that is all Councilmember Gilmore said, rather than laying out a perfectly reasonable argument about the seeming disconnect about the complaints about traffic and the reluctance of residents to fully support transit alternatives. But here is the kicker, Don R. then talks about how he has NEVER seen any of the council people ever take the bus, except for former councilmember Tony Daysog. Eugenie T. chimes in that the council should use the bus first and then they can have the authority to tell others to do it.   You know, I’ve never seen any of the councilpeople taking the bus either, but then again, I’ve never seen Don Roberts taking the bus.  I’ve also never seen Joe Schmoe down the street, or Jane Random from the East End take the bus either.  But then again, I’m not camped out at their homes and places of work in order to make sure that I do a complete inventory of their transit habits.

And in the Alameda Race to 2008, I suspect we are going to be hearing a lot about Marie Gilmore on DRS.  I just wonder who is being groomed to run against her, one of the Fab Four perhaps?  And more importantly, who is the Yoko in the group?

And then Don R. says, “they wouldn’t have a bus stop in front of their home.”  Hmm…this sounds oh so familiar doesn’t it?  It’s as though there was some sort of script folks were working off of…. Point 1: No one uses the bus, it’s not needed.  Point 2: it’s dangerous.  Point 3: people can walk to the next closest bus stop even though I can’t walk a few feet extra because my precious front of my house parking spot might be taken away.  Point 4: you have to ride the bus first to be able to tell other people to put bus stops in the neighborhood.  Point 5: you wouldn’t have a bus stop in front of your house.

Don R. proceeds tells the story about seeing Jon Spangler driving to City Hall that ONE time, again. Maybe when I hear it the third or fourth time it will start getting funny.   Then after ranting about South Shore and regional shopping centers and yadda yadda yadda, they go back to flogging John KW again, but this time it’s Manhattan Knox White, because evidently, Eugenie T. has a direct line into his brain and knows that his perspective is “more and more cars is better so that everybody gets into transit.” And then gives a derisive shrug.  Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but she said it with such conviction and authority, so it must be true!

And Eugenie T. then tells us what she learned from the election from talking to people that “we’re for growth, but not that big.” She goes back to the Lum School bus stop issues and says that the residents there did a better job researching that City Staff. She then says that what the council doesn’t understand that they are “hurting the individual” and then talks about property values lowering with a bus stop in front of their house.  But what about the individuals that need to take the bus, even Doug deHaan admitted at the City Council meeting that maybe a handful of people would use the stop.  So I guess those handful of people are worth less than the dubious claims of loss in property values due to a red curb and a sign in front of someone’s house? 

It’s sad that there is this stigma attached to bus riders and buses in general.  So much so that people see a bus stop in front of their homes as something to be fought tooth and nail.  It’s interesting that when Eugenie T. talks about the proposed Pond Isle stop she doesn’t conclude with safety issues, but rather it is an issue of property values being lowered because it is undesirable to have a bus stop near one’s home.

But this is what I walked away with from watching this episode of DRS.   It’s hard to take someone seriously when they cannot get the basic facts correct (eg. AC Transit policy, City Transit Plan, etc…)  While I am sure the Eugenie T. is a very competent Traffic Engineer, in this case, she got some of her facts just plain wrong.  Maybe it’s the research she was given (fire the researcher) or she just didn’t bother to do any due diligence herself because if she had done a basic search of her nemesis John “Manhattan” Knox White she would have laid off whole “musician” thing.

See, this is why I don’t recap DRS very often, it’s exhausting!

And…sorry for the sheer lengthiness of this post, but Stop, Drop, and Roll posted this entry last night, and it speaks to two items in this posting…(1) Don Roberts/Alameda Daily News and (2) Transportation/Traffic/Musicians playing Traffic Engineer.   First, was the information about Prop 1B and how in order to fund public infrastructure projects (highways, etc…) if the Governor has his druthers, we’ll see a cut of public transit (buses, BART, etc…) funding.  Scary.   Second, was the “scooping” of the newest Alameda addition to the blogosphere in the form of an Alameda Daily News parody: Alameda Daily Noose.  I personally enjoy the black text on yellow background.  I am surprised that Don Roberts didn’t post it on his site, as I know that he got the email too as I did and several other “media” outlets.   Parody is the sincerest form of flattery, oh wait…that’s “imitation”…nevermind.