A tiny yawp

[sonia]

There is an alleyway (that used to have trolley tracks) and a defunct cafe and a two story house and an unused warehouse diagonally across the street from me. And two tall glorious redwood trees. When I look in that direction I see dawn light, moon rise, and bits of the east bay hills.

Just before Thanksgiving, a notice went up that all of that was to be torn down to make way for a six story 143 unit apartment building that will fill the block from end to end and side to side, towering over this low-rise neighborhood. Because 15 of those units will be low-income housing, they get waivers on all the height and setback regulations that keep the area around a building livable.

The comment period was two weeks across Thanksgiving. I contacted my councilmember to ask for help around this, but his staff person was deeply unhelpful and said they're in favor of the project. I did write a letter with my concerns, and contacted some of the small neighborhood associations around here.

I felt like I should be organizing neighbors somehow, but I didn't know where to start. Friday, I got an email saying there's a zoom meeting organized by the developer coming up this Wednesday. I printed out 60 flyers with an introduction and the zoom info, with a photo of the concept drawing for the building on the back, and put them in mailboxes up and down my street. I included my email address, but no one has reached out. Maybe some of them will come to the meeting?

It's a small step, but at least it's a step. It felt like writing letters to voters was training for this, in a way. Print them out, send them on their way, expect a very small effect, if any.

I feel powerless and grief-stricken for the spaciousness I've been enjoying. Yes, we need more housing. 100% affordable and 100% in tune with the neighborhood. I can only hope that it will be a long time before they break ground.

Comments

[viggorlijah]

Is six stories very high in your area? I’m truly intrigued by how you perceive this difference because to me six stories feels like a wee little place, almost cozy sized as I’m now used to 20-30 stories tightly packed with green areas desperately set around. I grew up in a sprawling suburb style village with big houses and remember it as lonely and distant, so I feel way more comfortable in very dense areas next to greenery. I would love to read more about how this impacts your neighbourhood because it is conceptually so different:

[sonia]

Suburbs feel lonely and distant to me too. This is urban, but residential - mostly 2-story houses and 4-unit buildings, with the occasional 6-10 unit building. Nothing taller than 3 stories even on the main street that's a block away. That street has a few taller apartment buildings a few blocks away, max 5 stories at the intersection with another major street.

[viggorlijah]

I am sort of picturing Sesame Street now. So the six story building would be like the new tallest block in the area and make it a focal point reshaping the dimensional space of the area - thanks for explaining it, such a different urban experience!

[sonia]

Yes, although that sounds kind of abstract. I thought there would be a wall of windows staring into my windows, but it turns out the building won't fill the nearest angled corner of the lot, so I have a little more breathing room there. More people -- and cars -- in this one building than for several blocks in the surrounding area, with all the traffic and noise that implies. 2 *years* of construction once they start, which they said wouldn't be for at least 2 years.

[amethyst73]

I have some insight as to how you're feeling. There ...was... a meadow not that far from our house, full of grass and some trees and rabbits and quail and undoubtedly other denizens. It wasn't a huge plot, but the local kids had bike trails and jumps they had built, and people walked their dogs (or themselves) on the little trails. It went up for sale not long after we moved here in 2020, and got bought for development last year. I thought I was strongly in favor of new housing, but it really hurt to see the trees torn up and the landscape bulldozed. The birds probably found other homes, but I suspect the rabbits and underground folks had a, um, harder time. :(

[sonia]

Ouch! That's a big loss to the local trees and critters and humans.

And no one seems to talk about the loss of vistas. There was a defunct gas station in Portland near me that got replaced with a six-story building, and I missed the open space there when I biked by. To say nothing of the houses across the street that were suddenly looking across at a huge building. We lose the sky.

Yes, we need housing, and letting more developers make profits on making more buildings isn't solving the underlying problems. As I'm sure you're aware!