From: Cyndy Johnsen
To: CityCouncil-List
Cc: City Clerk; Jennifer Ott; BWA Board
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Comments for Items 7-B, 7-C, 5-E
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2023 8:43:12 AM
Attachments: 5_2_23 CC Comments Budget and Estuary Park.pdf Dear Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft, Vice Mayor Daysog, and Members of the City Council, We hope you will consider our comments regarding items on tonight's City Council agenda, attached.
Thank you,
Bike Walk Alameda
(510) 516-0497
P.O. BOX 2732
ALAMEDA, CA 94501
www.bikewalkalameda.org
Board of
Directors
Denyse Trepanier
President
Brian Fowler
Treasurer
Tim Beloney
Secretary
Cyndy Johnsen
Board Member
Maria Piper
Board Member
Lucy Gigli
Founder,
non-voting
May 2, 2023
RE: Agenda Items 7-B, 7-C, and 5-E
Dear Mayor Ezzy Ashcraft, Vice Mayor Daysog, and Members of the City Council,
We hope you will consider our thoughts on the following agenda items.
Items 7-B and 7-C
We’re keenly aware of how very important street safety projects frequently get delayed, and the number of complex and important projects ahead of us, so we urge you to take this opportunity to commit additional budget to bolster our resources and keep projects on track.
Traffic violence is our biggest public safety issue, and the climate emergency is an existential threat that won’t wait. Please budget for them as such.
Item 5-E
It’s exciting to see Estuary Park expand. We noted the plans propose a new parking lot with EV charging stations, and in the spirit of incentivizing climate-friendly transportation, we wanted to call out an oversight with the current park: it lacks easily-accessible bike parking.
The only bike racks here are behind a locked gate accessible only to field permit holders.
There are an increasing number of families biking around town for everyday transportation and recreation. This site can be reached from the north by safe, mostly off-street facilities and the Bay Trail, and makes a great destination for biking families. Please direct staff and consultants to include plenty of easily-accessible bike parking in the plans for the next phase, and expedite the installation of more easily-accessible bike parking for the existing park.
More generally, we wanted to convey concern about building new parking lots in Alameda. We’re learning more and more about their many negative impacts, from the obvious (they consume a lot of valuable
space that in this case could mean more green space; they induce more driving, particularly if they’re free), to the abstract (urban heat island effect; drainage and water and air pollution issues; expense). Much of Alameda is already paved over, so we hope our city will carefully weigh impacts and evaluate all of our options before paving any new parking lots, and when we do, to carefully design them to minimize negative impacts. Our General Plan offers some guidance in LU-34:
It might be good to consider alternative, greener, and more permeable surfaces, like pavers or gravel, instead of asphalt. Perhaps these ideas are already being considered, but we wanted to surface them to be sure. .
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Bike Walk Alameda