What are the priorities for spending City revenues?

By James E. Peterson

With 31,300 UC Berkeley students and the planned accommodation of many more in the years to come, the economics and demographic landscape will undoubtedly change. The discussions of a proposed AC Transit corridor on San Pablo will reshape the streetscape and landscape of the West Berkeley community. There is a need to revitalize the economics of South Berkeley with retail/commercial and mixed-use residential housing. The support I will continue to provide to the development of downtown projects presented with character, design and mixed-use facilities will increase the tax base. I would support and encourage the import of a moderate to high-end nationwide affiliated department store that can provide a variety of consumer goods and services. I support the City's effort to coordinate a civil climate between the School District, Students, City and businesses in the downtown community.

I believe it is possible to have density within the city with dignity. If we are to prepare not for ourselves, but for newcomers and future generations alike, we must look beyond our immediate backyards and front porches to the surrounding community and determine what resources will be required and how as a City can we work to foster an open-door policy to long-term residents and students alike. Berkeley is not the same as it was in 1901, it is more diverse and cosmopolitan and consequently, both residents and students demand grander technological housing wired for computers and conferences. Vertical and infill developments, refurbishing of existing structures and creation of new buildings, are both options that need careful consideration and implementation.

I truly believe that city subsidy of affordable housing in mixed-use environments is a right as well as a privilege. There are certain moral obligations that a society has and one of those is to care for the less fortunate and those who are disenfranchised. In general, city subsidies for housing are always accompanied with federal dollars or other incentives; they are seldom stand-alone funds. For example, the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee's low-income housing tax credit program encourages city subsidies which are used as leveraging funds to show that the city is committed to the overall project's development. However, the permanent and construction loans required for the project are provided by underwriting syndicators who purchase the tax credits from the sponsor and developer and in turn issue equity cash investment.

I believe that the City must intervene to effect traffic volume, flow and patterns. Whether one is walking, bicycling, motorcycling. mopeding, razor wheeling, wheelchair traveling, street scootering, electric scootering, skateboarding, bus shuttling, or car driving it is visually evident that there is a shortage of parking in the City of Berkeley. We cannot create Berkeley "Berlin Walls" to traffic; we must accommodate the guests and residents of Berkeley with adequate and sensible parking options. I would support a Golden Gate Fields shuttling service. In addition, I would support and encourage a proposed downtown parking structure to be paid with a combination of City general funds for traffic studies, and benefit assessment proceedings and bond financing for parking construction. Overall, the City has a public obligation to effect traffic volume, flow and patterns.