Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Bad Employment Location Decisions

Annoying me to no end are decisions to locate major new employment opportunities in areas that have no access to regional rapid transit.  The most recent of these is the idea that Berkeley Labs would take the Golden Gate Fields horse racing track and redevelop it to bring all the employees together that were once in different places. 


This is a laudable goal however it's right next to a major freeway and will basically add more transportation costs to the University, AC Transit district while also increasing auto traffic (A mention of 2,500 cars).  I'm sure my taxes will have to pay for that stupidity.  Apparently downtown Oakland isn't good enough. 

I think Auto Row might be a good location for this campus, right next to Pill Hill and Kaiser hospital.  There's plenty of space for a few tall buildings, its ripe for redevelopment because of all the parking lots, and its on a major transit route, and fairly close to BART.  Another good place would be downtown Oakland.  There's plenty of space if they really took a look.  People seem to be lazy and look for what amounts to an urban greenfield.  They really need to get an imagination. 

3 comments:

Hannah Amick said...

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The show aired last night!

Here is the scoop on the show and to listen live: http://sidewalkradio.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/show-10-marta-art-architecture-history/

Thoughts on posting this info for your Marta lovin' readers? Sidewalk Radio is a great local listen.

Mikesonn said...

Falling into this same pit would be Facebook and their plans for a new campus on the old Cisco site in Menlo Park at the foot of the Dumbarton Bridge.

Marc said...

An urban site is not going to be chosen for LBL, as the University wants open space to expand in the future. The transit situation is not quite as bad as it might appear, as they will run frequent shuttle buses to the nearest BART station, as they do elsewhere.

As an Oakland resident, it was obvious that only a half-hearted effort was being made to attract LBL. Whatever prestige value may have come from having the LBL site, in reality, the city can't afford to give up more commercial real estate to a not for profit (non-tax paying) institution...