Tonight’s meeting, as I mentioned yesterday, will be a big one. Two of the agenda items I wrote about yesterday, the other two, just as big are scheduled for this massive joint meeting between the Transportation Commission and Planning Board. The meeting was also noticed as one where, potentially, the entire City Council should show up to. Trish Spencer has been showing up everywhere lately, including the Planning Board’s regular meeting on Monday night.
I thought these tweets were particularly entertaining about Trish Spencer’s appearance at said Planning Board meeting:
Of course the idea of Universal Design in Alameda is not new in Alameda and has been championed by Alameda’s Commission on Disability Issues for a while now and they have successfully encouraged recent developments to include Universal Design elements into the buildings. But, I guess if Trish Spencer is just learning about it then it must not have existed prior to her being elected as Mayor.
I imagine that, given the subject matter of this particular meeting, most — if not all — of the City Council will show up. Whether or not they will speak during public comment is another matter. I’m guessing Tony Daysog will probably chime in on the agenda item that his referral was the genesis for.
But I digress.
Anyway another big agenda item for the joint meeting is the City of Alameda going for a grant from the Department of Transportation for multi-modal improvements in and around the Alameda Point area, specifically:
1. RAMP Improvements
· Multimodal trails and dedicated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lanes on RAMP between Webster Street and Orion Street in Alameda Point
· Signal improvements and transit priority at RAMP and Webster Street
· Intersection modifications and signal improvements at RAMP and Main Street
2. Stargell Avenue Improvements
· Stargell Avenue Class I trail between Main Street and Fifth Street
· Stargell Avenue queue jump lanes at Main Street and Fifth Street
3. Main Street and Central Avenue Improvements
· Reconstruction of Main Street between Pacific Avenue and RAMP, adding rain gardens and multimodal trails
· Realignment of Central Avenue
· Central Avenue bicycle improvements between Pacific Avenue and Crown Drive
The next agenda item will be about specific discussion moving forward regarding the Transportation Demand Management compliance strategy for Site A and the general Site A proposal in general at Alameda Point. Of course the Planning Board has already given its comments for the Site A proposal at Alameda Point so, hopefully, this will be a chance for both of these commission to talk in more detail about the transportation demand management program and what the expectations will be for Day one service for this small portion of the overall Alameda Point development.
Blogging Bayport Alameda 
Those tweets seem unnecessarily snarky and kinda mean, what a jerk.
Comment by BMac — February 25, 2015 @ 9:47 am
I’m a little concerned about what our mayor actually thinks “we need to be doing.” BMac, what sort of views was she expressing?
Comment by BC — February 25, 2015 @ 9:50 am
There were the comments that PB really needs to consider Universal Design for development at The Point. Also, there was a nebulous set of comments about transparency that I can’t really remember because they never quite make sense to me.
Andrew Thomas also essentially confirmed the tl:dr analysis from the long winded blog about how the density bonus law would be the vehicle for getting a waiver for multi-family housing at site A, even though they won’t be asking for more units. It was all very transparent and not some secret process that we are all in the dark over.
Comment by BMac — February 25, 2015 @ 10:55 am
Thanks. I guess I’m stating the obvious but transparent is not identical with Citizen Spencer being involved.
Comment by BC — February 25, 2015 @ 11:57 am
Sounds like there is a failure in communication if Citizen Spencer has to give advice to Mayor Spencer, as that is the role of the boards and commissions.
Comment by Alan — February 25, 2015 @ 2:18 pm
Who the hell is Brian McGuire? [besides clueless and snarky?]. Would he be an Ambitious Urbanite, or maybe a Young Brainiac (nope, couldn’t be that one0. Maybe part of an Urban DINK? (These terms defined in the TDM presented at the joint meeting tonight)
All of you seem to be clueless regarding Universal Access in Alameda.. But that doesn’t stop you from commenting. Here’s what you should know: Just before and overlapping onto the PlBd meeting, the CDI meeting is going on next door. CDI has never been televised, so all you armchair quarterbacks wouldn’t know what goes on there.unless.you physically show up at such a meeting. This has always made no sense to me…why doesn’t the CDI have its own meeting time that doesn’t overlap with PlBd, so it can be televised too? There are probably many disabled Alamedans who would be well served by being able to watch the Commission on Disability Issues meetings from home. Over the past year, several CDI meetings have been cancelled without notice which was a royal pain in the ass for several disabled people who showed up to participate. Trish is trying to change all that. She was at the CDI meeting first, for about an hour, listening to Stuart James, the executive director of CIL, give a presentation. But that was after a big apology had been made to the Commission by Andrew Thomas, for the fact that Alameda doesn’t have a Universal Access policy in place yet. This year will be the 25th Anniversary of the ADA becoming law.
Since the CDI was created in the 1990s, I have never heard of any other Mayor attending a regular CDI meeting before. It is fantastic to finally have a Mayor who cares about every voice in the city, no matter how small… not just PABA, GABA, and WABA and the Chamber of Commerce.
Comment by vigi — February 25, 2015 @ 4:11 pm
OK, to be precise I should have said Universal Design (not access…wrong word). The point is, the CDI can’t accomplish much in the way of lobbying for Universal Design in Alameda if its members cannot attend the Planning Board meetings, which are held at the same time, and speak! Trish gets this, so maybe now it will happen.
Comment by vigi — February 25, 2015 @ 4:19 pm
I’m Batman.
Comment by BMac — February 25, 2015 @ 5:06 pm
6: Vigi, I agree completely with you about the need to bring the Committee ion Disability Issues out of the shadows and into the light of day–as well as onto video. I also agree with you that Alameda is 25 years late in having a Universal Design policy and construction standards in place. If Trish Spencer is the one who makes this happen, more power to her–and more power to you for pushing the process.
I think you are out of line for attacking Brian McGuire, though: he is speaking his mind and voicing his opinion, just as you and I do. You are free to disagree with what he says–and his comments may or may not have been out of line themselves–but personal attacks are still out of place.
I was in the middle of the flu or I would have been at this meeting myself–I had been looking forward to it but was running a fever and had to stay home. (Thank God for Tamiflu ®…)
I hope the PB and TC do this again soon–with or without Citizen/Mayor Spencer.
Comment by Jon Spangler — February 28, 2015 @ 10:43 pm
Jon, the whole point of my tweets was to point out the irony of our new Mayor coming to Planning Board and telling them how they need to consider Universal Design principles for Site A and beyond. Anybody who paid any attention to PB meetings in 2014 would know that PB is well aware and that the last major project to go through (Del Monte) has some of the most aggressive/progressive Universal Design principles one could hope for.
As for the “attacks,” I’ve been called worse than a DINK, even if I’m a SIWK.
Comment by BMac — March 1, 2015 @ 7:33 pm