That entire thread is killing me.

That the guy from the nimby blog who posts on twitter?

Comments like this offer a wonderful opportunity for interfaith dialogue. In this person’s religion, do used car lots have souls?

What project is he talking about?

The New Californian/Trader Joes

Lol, I mean, I can't say I'm in love with the architecture but (1) who tf cares and (2) I can't get groceries from a used car lot! I am at TJ's 1-3x a week, and it is *busy.* I'd love to see the tax receipts for the city pre- and post-redevelopment.

No one goes to TJ because it’s too crowded

Only during move-in week, when it is indeed unusable.

One use sees literal thousands of people shopping there every day (plus housing for ~300 people). The other use you "almost want to walk into and browse." Who is to say which is better?

🎯

Of all the buildings one could claim are soulless, that’s definitely an odd one to pick on. There is a lot of nice detailing on that development. But also, didn’t it open in 2010 or so? Talk about being stuck in the past…

Yes, as far as the median Berkeley resident is concerned the TJs has "always been there".

The TJs is so old that it is more than 1/3rd of the way to gaining special status such that the Landmarks Preservation Commission would have to adjudicate any proposed demolition of it.

It was at least pre-2013 because the mural inside TJ's has the old Bay Bridge eastern span.

In planning class at Cal (circa 2011 or 2012 I think), we learned how contentious that development was and how the developer really tried to make the building fit in. The building has lots of detail and the back changes architectural style and matches height of adjacent home.

It was incredibly contentious, but the (4000+ pages of) the official records and letters from the public are a gold mine for people who want to catalog and index the past statements of people who continue, to the present day, to oppose new buildings. I am glad they teach it.

My favorite bit is that one well-known local shows up to oppose every new building with the same statement: these apartments will cost $X, nobody can afford that! But in this case, in 2009, he is on the record saying nobody can afford $1000, a rent that everyone would be glad to have now.

Indeed! That would be $1500 in today's dollars!

And about $3000-4000 in today's local rent.

Reminds me of this anti-gentrification video from 2012 criticizing a realtor for claiming that $400k 2 bdrm houses in NW Oakland were “affordable”. Seems extremely quaint now. youtu.be/JneAYdmDGCE?...

he is obsessed with - all together now: “Preserving parking”.

There's a gas station across the street if that's the sort of "character" he seeks. Also, University Avenue itself resembles a used car parking lot whenever the light turns red.

These people are ill. I still struggle to understand what is going on in their minds besides the obvious fear of change.

To them, more development = more people. More people = bad.

people = pollution, except for the special people ("locals") who were here first and therefore co-exist harmoniously within the limits set by the "carrying capacity" of the city

Which is easily nullified by pointing out that these people have children too, and it's not like they're going to tell them not to live there or to move away.

Uh, actually, the zoning board in the city of Berkeley once had a hearing where one of its members said, out loud into a microphone, that it wasn't his job to make sure his kids could live in Berkeley. That was how I got radicalized into YIMBY activism.

Was that Tom Lord? Insane that there are multiple plausible candidates.

Well, I stand corrected then. Some of these people are just insane

I literally just had a long debate with a local NIMBY who said precisely this. He since deleted his posts and I didn't screenshot them.

Back when I lived in San Mateo you saw people simultaneously complaining their kids couldn't afford to live on the Peninsula while also opposing any new developments.

wut

They think no one shops at Trader Joe's?

Trader Joe's means traffic, traffic means they won't be able to get to their destination as fast. This all makes sense when you realize these people are driving through our residential neighborhoods at 35-40 mph.

Ahhh.....

Likewise, a city dump has character. One can visit a city dump for decades, and it's always changing. It's a window into the many facets of a community: its cultures, aspirations, successes and failures. Behold the aroma of community!

casting wards everywhere right now, making the sign of the cross, wearing garlic