Touch of elegance

On Tuesday night the City Council voted unanimously to move forward with the preferred cycle track for Clement Avenue.  But not after some interesting public comment.

I honestly don’t know how you can get up and say that a cycle track is not needed after someone gets up before to talk about how he was hit on a bicycle on Clement with his child on the back of his bike.   The child exited the collision unharmed, thankfully, but the father broke a ton of bones in his body.

But, in grand Alameda fashion, there were arguments that Clement was safe enough and that cyclists should just move to an even narrower street, Buena Vista, to cross Alameda and take the whole lane even though a lot of cyclists wouldn’t necessarily feel comfortable about that.

Show your work, part 2

As part of the endless Harbor Bay hotel saga on Tuesday night Tony “stanning for Bay Farm” Daysog was trying one last effort to help derail the project.  From #alamtg Twitter:

Daysog is concerned about the combining of the parcels. I don’t think his train of thought has a particular destination in mind. #alamtg

— steve cortez (@longhornsteve) September 18, 2019

Daysog mentions @laurendo‘s Blogging Bayport’s past discussions re the parcels (will have to go look for those comments myself) #alamtg

— steve cortez (@longhornsteve) September 18, 2019

It took me a hot minute to remember what that could be referencing and then it hit me: Tony Daysog’s insistence that the owner of three contiguous parcels shouldn’t be able to combine those parcels because Tony Daysog says so.

Pushing buttons

Last Friday I was out on Park Street to celebrate #2 son’s birthday.  He’s fancy so he chose Pappo’s for dinner.  But then he opted to go to Tuckers for ice cream for dessert.  He’s a slow eater so while he was enjoying his ice cream very very slowly I snuck into the candy store for a peek.

There was a lot of soda there my friends.  Like an overwhelming selection of soda.  I don’t think I ever realized that there were that many soda options before in my life.  Please keep this wonderful store in business and buy their candy and soda.  I don’t think I’ve ever paid $10 for a single bottle of root beer in my life but I did.  It was a big bottle and no I have not had it yet.

Anyway, as we were approaching the intersection to cross the street, me with my abnormally large root beer bottle in my arms the light had just turned green for cars, but for some reason the pedestrian sign stayed lit with the little stop hand.  This seemed odd because Park Street is a commercial district and I shouldn’t have to ask a button to cross the street in a COMMERCIAL DISTRICT.

Exhausting

I finally had the opportunity to listen to the Planning Board meeting on the whole Spinning Bones patio use permit.  While I got the idea that the neighbors were not fans of the use permit I thought they would be okay with a limit on the patio space use (which resulted in the 3:00 pm end time approved by the Planning Board for the patio space).

Turns out, not so much.

In fact the neighbors turned out to vehemently tell the Planning Board that they should deny the patio use permit altogether because of reasons.  Apparently there is a dispute between the existing residential tenants and the landlord as to the use of the patio space. According to Spinning Bones the landlord has written into their lease exclusive use of a portion of that patio space and they’re paying additional money for that space.   It’s not clear if use of the patio space is detailed in the residential tenants’ contracts but they seem to be under the perception that they have a right to the space.  There is some sort of action to adjudicate this, so it will be interesting to see how that shakes out.

Third time’s the charm

So this is, at least, the third appeal of the hotel on Harbor Bay (the one closest to residential homes) that we’ve seen come to the City.   From the staff report:

In December 2018, the City of Alameda (City) Planning Board approved Design Review and a Final Development Plan for a 172-room hotel and restaurant located at 2900 Harbor Bay Parkway in the Harbor Bay Business Park (project). The Planning Board Resolution PB18-23 (Exhibit 1) included Condition No. 6, which required that the applicant return at a later date for Planning Board review and approval of the final architectural details, colors and material selections, and landscape materials. On February 5, 2019, the City Council considered an appeal of the Planning Board’s decision and upheld Resolution PB18-23 approving the Design Review and Development Plan for the project. The City Council also asked that the Planning Board consider the building setback when the applicant returned to fulfill the requirements of Condition No. 6.

On May 28, 2019, the Planning Board reconsidered and reaffirmed the building setback for the project. On June 6, Brian Tremper (appellant) filed a Petition for Appeal of the Planning Board’s decision on behalf of the Freeport Homeowners Association (Exhibit 2).

On July 22, the Planning Board approved the final architectural details, colors and material selections, and landscape materials for the project, as required by Condition No. 6. On August 19, the appellant supplemented the Petition for Appeal by electronic mail to reflect the Planning Board’s July 22 decision (Exhibit 3, and together with Exhibit 2, the “appeal”).

Look at the camera

Not much for today, it’s too hot to write anything, just want to share this hilarious tweet:

A quick tip for all you budding politicians. Figure out what to do with your complimentary event headwear before heading up for the photo op. https://t.co/Wo1fioGIEb

— John Knox White (Alameda Vice Mayor) (@JKW4Alameda) September 13, 2019

 

One ADU at a time

San Jose has done it and should be a model for other cities looking to provide some real relief to the housing crisis.  They’ve pre-approved one accessory dwelling unit model from builder Abodu.

From ABC 7:

City officials believe these granny lists could go a long way in helping to ease the Bay Area’s housing crunch and they hope the pre-approved plans will speed things up for potential builders.

“You’re shaving off all that decision-making time that would go into a custom-built ADU, you know, how big is it going to be, where do the rooms go, what kind of kitchen is it, all of those decisions are already made,” said Cheryl Wessling with the city’s planning, building, and code enforcement department.

On Tuesday afternoon, the city council will consider a loan forgiveness program worth up to $20,000 for residents who are willing to rent out their backyard homes as affordable housing for five years.

 

And speaking of 9/11

While I’m not displeased about anyone who leaves this administration, it’s just further proof of the major dysfunction that exists at the highest level of this government:

“Bolton thought a meeting on U.S. soil would legitimize the Taliban and considered it tone deaf to schedule the summit so close to the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The meeting was Trump’s idea, and he bristled that Bolton objected to it…” https://t.co/HbG5EHT4Ij

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 10, 2019

Throw a (spinning) bone

In a short: where we are now roundup.

Apparently the president of the United States started a Twitter fight with Chrissy Teigan and John Legend.  If you do not follow Chrissy Teigan on Twitter you should.

Then we found out over the weekend that members of the Taliban were invited and then uninvited to Camp David.

Then we found out that Secretary of Commerce threatened to fire NOAA employees who contradicted Donald Trump’s Alabama and Hurricane fixation.

It’s only Tuesday people.

The British Parliament has started the prorogation process in some strange ceremony including a person called “Black Rod” escorting the speaker of the Commons to the House of Lords.

“This is not a standard or normal porogation” – Commons Speaker John Bercow says the suspension of parliament is “an act of executive fiat”.

Follow live here: https://t.co/OPHSadUnxI pic.twitter.com/yzzZgQMshI

— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 10, 2019

Make no Spinning Bones about it

It always amazes me to read complaints from folks about the proliferation of too many nail salons and too many Boba places and bemoan the fact that we don’t have enough unique establishments in Alameda.   Then when an interesting concept does try to open in Alameda (and establish business practices to make sure they can stay in business) there are others (maybe the same people) who then attempt to either stop the business from opening or severely limit the ability of that business to do business to stay in business.

A quick aside: you can be happy about neat new places opening in the City without crapping all over the concept of a bubble tea joint or a nail salon.  Because, look, if those businesses weren’t making money and providing income for their owners, they’d be closed down by now.  Perhaps we should be marveling at the entrepreneurial spirit of these small business owners rather than assuming an air of superiority because you, personally, have no idea who drinks bubble tea or gets their nails done so you can’t fathom how there are so many of these joints are open.

Anyway, the latest Planning Board brouhaha comes in the form of a new proposed barbecue restaurant on Park Street: Spinning Bones.   The brouhaha is over a small patio area in the back of the space. which was used by the bar that existed there without proper permits.  The restaurant is trying to get the proper use permit to use the space but it appears that residents who have suffered through the rowdy, drunk bar patrons at a bar down the street are attempting to punish the new restaurant tenants because of bad behavior from a previous and different use location.