Plaza 16 - REAL Accountability to Society - we need your help

[Jon Schwark]

I'd like to hold "Plaza negative309"

(309=how many units you want to kill) 

members accountable for something,

and at the same time, invite you to collaborate with SFBARF and the many lurkers on this list. 

We need you to testify in the interest of housing everyone.

This is your chance to advocate for something positive, and big picture, not just in your neighborhood, where you can only be reactive to forces that are beyond your control, not just in the city, but in... 

******  The ENTIRE REGION ******

You always say you don't want tech people moving into your neighborhood, right? So you would really like it if all "those people" stayed in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, right? Do you know why they cant? Because your neighborhood is actually cheaper, because rich homeowners in those counties are VERY VOCAL in not letting sufficient housing be built for the jobs they create. Why doesn't every Caltrain station have it's own credible downtown with lots of multifamily housing? Why doesn't every tech campus have dozens of high-rise condos where their parking lots are? Because existing zoning in the cities there prohibits it, and they keep adding more jobs anyway.

Don't like the Tech Busses? ABAG is where you actually need to be.

ABAG, the regional group of city governments, is intricately tied with housing elements, regional funding and planning for affordable housing, and letting Bay Area cities off the hook for their state mandated requirement to house their population, and not push it off on other cities.

They even had an executive embezzle $1.3 million in developer collected affordable housing funds. Was he serious about affordable and abundant housing? Are any of them?

ABAG is having a meeting April 1st at 12:30PM right by the Lake Merritt BART station. There is a time for public testimony at the beginning of the meeting.

This should be fairly easy for you Mission-based Plaza 16 folks, since you do have 2 gentrification wormholes (erh, I mean BART stations) right in the middle of your neighborhood. (well, the ones of you who live in Berkeley will probably drive anyway, amairight?)

PLEASE GO AND ADVOCATE FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING. Talk about the affordable housing bond proposition and how ABAG should do something like that on the regional level. Talk about how Silicon Valley cities need to do their part. Talk about whatever you want, as long as it's about adding more housing. Even if all you talk about is affordable. We don't care. We're happy if you're happy.

If you need us, or want to collaborate, we will be meeting at 11:30 for lunch to divide up topics. https://www.facebook.com/events/876326502413803/

So seriously, prove to us you actually have something to say but NO.

I'll now hand the microphone back to Michael Petralis, your resident professional agitator, who you evicted into our forum apparently? We don't really get that whole story, but whatever. Gentrification happens, right? :)

[Michael Petrelis]

Um, I injected myself into this forum _totally_ independent of the Plaza 16 ruling politburo, er, steering committee. Glad to see you, Jon, joining my lonely ranks of pushing Plaza 16 to do something, _anything_ positive for the neighborhood or City beyond keeping the paid community "organizers" of Mission and Latino nonprofits building their resumes. 

Lemme know if ABAG meeting will air on the web somewhere and if you and others will provide us with a report back. Good luck with a decent turnout. The mic is now back in front of your lips, Jon.

[Jon Schwark]

We will be providing a report back. My assumption is that we will get a lot of blank stares and some complaining about us behind our backs, but maybe a few local people from every city around the Bay will see that NIMBY's aren't the only ones concerned about housing policy - that it can no longer be a "my back yard is all I care about" issue.

[Michael Petrelis]

Good to know. I'm a big believer in and practitioner of reports back. It's one of many faults of Plaza 16 that the steering committee is so clueless about ongoing communication with the troops. So, any chance the ABAG is streamed or aired? I'm curious about it, as it's new on my radar and would watch the panel in action if given the chance on the web or SF Comcast cable that we have. 

If I wanted to submit written testimony w/o attending the meeting, where would I send my comments?