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Oakland Unwrapped Searching For A Jewel In Oakland By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor There was a time in American politics, not so long ago, when political positions were a little more consistent with one's view of the world. Late in his life, former U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater supported medical marijuana use and a woman's right to choose. Asked if he was betraying his long-held conserv-ative beliefs, Goldwater answered no, he'd always believed that government should assert a mini-mum of intrusion in peoples' lives. He figured that to be true to his convictions he would have to apply that view evenly, across the board. We could have used a little Goldwater consistency out at City Hall the other night when the Council voted to put off an afford-able housing tax on new Oakland commercial development. The city's Community and Economic Development Agency (CEDA) had recommended that the Council adopt a $6 per square foot "linkage fee" for all new office, warehouse, hotel, and retail construction in the city. The money would be set aside to help build housing in the city that Oakland residents could afford to rent or buy. But even after Councilmember Jane Brunner proposed dropping the fee in half, and applying it to office construction only, the Council still voted it down, 4-3. Instead, the Council voted to study the issue for six months. Chamber of Commerce members, developers, and construction union represent-atives were pretty much united in their reasons for opposing the fee: aside from the fact that it might hold down development in the city, they complained that it was unfair to spring this issue on them at the last minute. Almost all of them claimed they had only learned about the "linkage fee" a week or so before, and requested that the Council put off the fee until they could study it and give their input. If I was an owl up on Leona Heights, I'd say "hoot!" Let's leave aside the fact that Brunner has been holding very public task force meetings on affordable housing for the last two years. If the business and construction folk didn't know about what was going on, they should have. But mostly, how many times have business and union leaders and developers met privately over the years to draw up devel-opment plans with Oakland Councilmembers, who then sprung these plans on the Oakland public as done deals? Generally, the public has a couple of minutes at a Council meeting to give their views, and then it's over. What was most interesting, though, was the vote of Council-members Ignacio De La Fuente, Larry Reid, and Moses Mayne, who agreed with Dick Spees's motion that more meetings and discussions and input were nec-essary, city staff needed to do six months more of study on the issue, and another staff report had to be written, before the Council could be ready to discuss and vote on the matter. Fair enough. A couple of months ago, though, the Mayor's plan to do away with individual environ-mental impact reports on down-town development came before Council on a last-minute emer-gency basis. No Council hearings were held. No staff report was done. No Oakland resident had the chance to speak their mind on this issue before any Council committee, or the full Council itself. These same four Council-members ... Spees, De La Fuente, Reid, Mayne ... voted for the Mayor's plan, deciding that public input was not needed. In this case, anyway, the Council has a chance to create some consistency. The Mayor's Oakland downtown development plan died up in the State Legislator, when Assembly members got wor-ried that it weakened important environmental protections. The language got changed around a bit in a new bill written by As-semblymember Wilma Chan, AB 436, and passed in the assembly this fall. It applies only to Oakland, and has to be approved by the Oakland City Council before it can go into effect. The City Council has establish-ed that lots and lots of careful study is needed when the needs of Oakland residents might have an impact on development. Let's see if they think that lots and lots of careful study is needed when the wishes of the Mayor have an impact on Oakland residents. Consistency, thou art a jewel. J. Douglas Allen-Taylor is an author, a journalist, and a graduate of Castlemont High School. He can be reached at www.safero.org and [email protected]. [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]