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J. Clarke

On 8/13/2010 9:57 PM, Steve Pope wrote:
> Charlotte L. > wrote:
>
>> Steve > wrote:
>
>>> > wrote:
>
>>>> On Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:53:01 +0000 (UTC),
>
>>>>> If you replaced the parking lots at North Berkeley, Ashby, MacArthur,
>>>>> El Cerrito, etc. with 20-story apartment/condo buildings of
>>>>> the same footprint as the existing parking lot, all the people
>>>>> living in those buildings could then ride BART to work. The
>>>>> system would have the same ridership it does now.
>
>>>> Huh. I would have bet that you'd be in favor of getting as many
>>>> riders as possible off the bridges and onto BART.
>
>>> Yes, and the way to do that is to build high-density housing near
>>> BART stations. That makes people less dependent on their cars.
>>> Building parking lots merely enables that depedency.
>
>> No, it acknowledges realities on the ground in areas served by most BART
> stations in the East Bay: much of the existing housing stock is either
> poorly served by public transit or not served at all since the streetcar
> lines got ripped up and thrown away.
>
> That's an important part of local history, and I agree with what you
> just said; but it is just my opinion that I don't think it argues
> against what I was advocating -- building more high-density housing
> near BART stations. (Which as you point out has been done
> for some stations.)
>
>> Anything I've seen being redeveloped in the general area of a BART station
>> is coming in as high-density and mixed-use. It's not just Berkeley; when
>> I was interviewing out in Deepest Suburbia near the Pleasant Hill station,
>> there were HD condos being built on an adjacent lot.
>
>> I'm just far enough away from a station that I appreciate the "park"
>> option when it's raining, I'm in formal clothing, or my knee is gimpy. It
>> also helps to have the car when I'm pretty tightly scheduled. That is,
>> when my work trip is BART-able; which hasn't been a given. My last 3
>> jobs were decidedly not.
>
> The current development around North Berkeley BART is the exact
> opposite of mixed use: all there is is a parking lot. (The space for
> which they created by bulldozing dozens of historic craftsman
> houses...) There is no reason in my mind there should not be
> residential housing on that site, in my opinion a whole bunch of
> units.
>
> I think drivers should be able to park in parking lots near BART
> stations, but I think they should be paying the market rate for
> a parking space in the area ... $80 to $150/month. Or if it's
> subsidized, the cost should (somehow) not be passed along to riders in
> general.

In other words you want people to drive instead of using BART. You and
Marx would have gotten along just fine--lots of ideas that look real
good until you start trying to get real people to comply with them.