Opening Comments

• I’m John Gatewood a resident of Temescal, nearly 17 year resident of North Oakland and one of the founders of ULTRA (Urbanists for a Livable Rockridge Area.)

• ULTRA formed as a result of the series of meetings held by Councilmember Brunner this past Fall to discuss new zoning for the Temescal neighborhood (especially along Telegraph Avenue)

• A group of residents met during these meetings and found that we shared the same concerns and frustrations about the tone these meetings were taking. Quite frankly we were angry. And we decided to do something positive with this anger and we formed ULTRA.

• We believed then and continue to believe that we as a community need to have a conversation about what our common values are and what are vision for the future of our community is.

• Councilmember Brunner’s meetings were a good start but then the conversation we needed to have as neighbors stopped. Rather than talking to one another as neighbors we began talking at one another as adversaries.

• We put together this forum in hopes of restarting this conversation. ULTRA does not claim to be an expert on development nor do we claim to be facilitators but we think this conversation is so important we have recruited an outside professional facilitator to help this conversation happen, Sabrina Klein. Furthermore we put together this panel of experts in their fields to be a resource for all of us to help us have this conversation.

• ULTRA receives no support from developers nor are any developers members of ULTRA. Furthermore we receive no support from the City. We are a group of neighborhood residents who pooled our resources and our knowledge to rent this space and present this forum. We have members from the Mosswood District, Temescal, Piedmont Avenue neighborhood, Rockridge, Lower Rockridge and Shattuck Corridor.

• We support higher density along transit corridors in our neighborhoods. We think the benefits of higher density along our main avenues outweighs the impact of it. For example:

- Higher density makes sense where the infrastructure already exists to support it. Such as public transit lines and neighborhood commercial shopping districts.

- Higher density could provide more opportunities for affordable housing in that the subsidies for these units can be spread out among more units of market rate housing.

- Higher density could provide more opportunities for a greater mix of housing sizes, such as studios, 1, 2, 3-bedroom units.

- Higher density would bring more residents to our main streets and, we hope, having more residents will help continue the revitalization of our main avenues.

- Higher density could also provide housing at lower cost than what single family homes now sell for in our neighborhoods.

• We think it is important that we acknowledge that we are privileged to live in North Oakland . With privilege come responsibilities, responsibility to our neighbors, to our community, to our City.

The choices that we each make in our respective neighborhoods has a collective impact on available housing and the environment elsewhere, not just in this city, but regionally and more. This is about more than what happens along Telegraph or Broadway or any of the other avenues in Oakland . Collectively, the way we develop our communities impacts our region, our country and the world. We feel that it is important to consider this broader impact as well as the local affects of new development.

• We know not everyone agrees with us about the degree of density that is appropriate in the Temescal Rockridge area. Some of those who disagree are here today and we’re glad that you are here. BECAUSE we all don’t agree it is all the more important that we have this conversation. If we say that we respect diversity as a shared value for our community, we should listen to one another no matter how frustrating or challenging it is to understand the other perspective.

• In the end, whether you agree or disagree with ULTRA about the level of density our neighborhoods should allow, there are a variety of issues that we ALL can agree on; from parking and affordable housing to pedestrian and bike safety and community open space. We need to make sure that those issues don’t get overlooked because of the debate about density. We can do parallel work to address the issues we do agree are important.

• There is value in listening and working together.

• Everyone here is an expert.  We all know what it is like to live in a neighborhood and we all have something to share from our experiences of living in neighborhoods.

• Now I would like to introduce Sabrina Klein who will be facilitating the conversation.