Where the deer and the antelope play

Former Planning Commissioner Jon Harvey has recently publicly commended Counselor Jennifer Hosterman for her state and federal environmental work. (The deer and the antelope cutouts at the corner of Bernal Avenue and First Street are not what Mr. Harvey is talking about). Plus, Ms. Hosterman is a city councilman.

The Hosterman accomplishments Mr. Harvey points out are extremist. Ms. Hosterman is one of those watermelons who feel that: four legs good, two legs bad. Loggers are bad, hikers good. Recreation is good, commerce bad.

Just what the devil is the Open Space Account Committee and who sits on it and what is its mission? What exactly is an organization that appropriates funds for habitat protection? From top to bottom—state legislatures, county boards of supervisors and city councils—appropriate funds. Committees such as the Open Space Account Committee to mitigate development extort money. For that matter, so do city councils.

Depending on what carbon dating service you believe, the earth has been sustaining itself for billions, millions, thousands of years. Ms. Hosterman will make very little difference in the long haul.

Her goals and accomplishments are not even supported by fact and sound science. She is a pop-culture product who has bought in to fad science, eco fraud, and anti capitalism.
The Spotted Owl chased out of forests in the Northwest found a home in a K-Mart sign. The caribou chased away from the Alaska Pipeline construction returned to the finished pipeline for warmth. Occasionally there are too many deer on our own Angel Island and too many wolves on Wyoming grazing land. Some extinct species are better extinct. Fuel cell cars would not hold up to a T-rex assault.

Ms. Hosterman’s “man needs earth, earth does not need man” pointed out by Mr. Harvey, is a perfect example of how environmental extremists are hurting Pleasanton. Ms. Hosterman is spending time on the state’s land grab, Sierra Club trips to lobby, and the formation of committees and commissions that siphon off staff time and budget and overlap (or should) with the work of our professional staff.

It is apparent that from Mr. Harvey’s letter that he too buys into the new Green agenda.

Of course, many (who remain silent) would prefer that: Stoneridge Drive connect to El Charro; IKEA build on a perfectly suited piece of Pleasanton property and shoot $1 million in sales tax revenue into Pleasanton city coffers; build a $15 million golf course for $15 million and not $35 million; build ACE facilities in a mass-transit village with other governmental and quasi governmental buildings on the Bernal property; get a flood-control program in place; find a way to help PeopleSoft have a soft landing so as not add to our already too high commercial vacancy rate; realign West Las Positas Boulevard at I-680 to four lanes and convert interchange land into a park; finally, reexamine Pleasanton’s role in providing subsidized housing for the middle class and not providing enough subsidized housing for seniors.

News Opinion

Ayala, Brozosky wave the cape at the ACE train

Sure, build a train station in the most remote part of town, requiring miles of automobile commuting on freeways and city streets to reach, and they will come.

Or, so think counselors Kay Ayala and Steve Brozosky.

Ms. Ayala thinks that the ACE train station on Bernal should be scuttled in favor of a station on Stanley Boulevard near the gravel quarries and the water slides. Mr. Brozosky agrees and now thinks it would also be nice to have a transit center.

Both lived briefly in fantasyland just like anyone who thought that ACE could be moved near the current BART station in the Hacienda Business Park.

It is a four-mile drive from Sunol Boulevard and I-680 to the gravel pits. It is a five-mile drive from I-580, over city streets, to the gravel pits. The El Charro interchange road dead-ends only a mile from Stanley but El Charro’s completion is on the environmental extremist hit list. BART at that site on the east side, or any site, is 20 Red-Legged Frog years away at best (“we do things slowly in Pleasanton.”) Because of that, riders in Ruby Hills will not be holding their breath. What is more, BART has a better chance of running a line south to San Jose, stopping at a Bernal ACE station, than it does going to Livermore in any direction. And should BART go south and replace ACE service, we would already have our station in place.

On the Bernal property, the ACE station would be close to downtown, less than a mile from the intersection of I-680 and Sunol Boulevard, near the Alameda County Fairgrounds, short walk away from eight four-story office buildings proposed on the Bernal property, the Koll Center just north of the proposed office park, and just down the hill from Applied BioSystems and their 2600-car parking lot. The only thing missing from the Bernal site is a grand vision in the council chambers and a backbone to make it work.

We are, however, getting closer to a comprehensive plan for Bernal. This new idea and that new idea fit the framework proposed more than two years ago during the race for mayor. That proposal outlined a Civic Center complex that includes a transit village with the ACE station its centerpiece, senior housing, a new City Hall and library, and conference and cultural arts facilities. And, it all works in a park-like setting to meet the desire to keep much of Bernal green and pedestrian friendly. It is not immaterial that all of these facilities can share the same infrastructure—roads, sewer, water, electricity, storm drainage, and most importantly, parking. Likewise, it is not immaterial that some of these uses are income producing.

This approach to ACE (and our civic center needs) makes sense for financing as well. Grants for transportation facilities and cultural arts facilities could be combined with government and private funds to make such a project possible and much more likely than building such facilities in several far-flung locations throughout the city. What’s more, the EIR for the project will point out that the Red-Legged Frog habitat can be mitigated with the ornithological sanctuary for odd birds (City Hall) saving the city from buying more parkland in the East Bay Regional Parks.

The commitment to transportation and to clean air cannot stop with ridership studies as Ms. Ayala has implied on several occasions. ACE service helps with air quality by keeping cars off the freeways. ACE helps with traffic gridlock on the freeways and city streets.