7 ms·

Stopped reading when I saw the name "Carl Guardino" and so should you. Guardino's lobbying has resulted in a litany of pointless and wasteful taxes and fees tha

Stopped reading when I saw the name "Carl Guardino" and so should you. Guardino's lobbying has resulted in a litany of pointless and wasteful taxes and fees that have served to enrich his org while producing nothing of value. Its time Bay Area residents understand that the YIMBY-Industrial Complex exists and is very effective (and not to be confused with legit and effective YIMBY efforts)...SVLG is at the forefront. If you have lived in the Bay Area since the 90s you have probably voted for, and seen approved, literally dozens of transit and housing measures, propositions, and bond floats. Yet the area continues to show dismal progress in infrastructure....maybe its time to start asking where the money is going from the last half-dozen measures before voting for a new one. SVLG benefits from the fact that most residents in the area are relative newcomers so they don't realize most of the goodwill measures they are voting for have been floated and funded many times prior to their arrival. Sure enough in the next election there are even more transit fees on the ballot. Has the money from the recently approved Measure B even been allocated yet?

sjg007 8y ago
It's like one quote. SVLG is not even relevant in the article.
- claydavisss 8y ago
  The rest is the standard new urbanist claptrap written by someone who seems to know nothing of the Bay Area at all. Some gems: - Suggests strip malls replace parking lots with housing...citing the fact that vehicles occupy 8x the space of diners. Its freaking SAN JOSE who is going to eat at a restaurant with NO PARKING? Cue reliable HN responses about public transit...NO people in San Jose do not take their family out to eat by riding the bus. If you remove retail parking you just end up with no tax revenues and blighted plazas. - The suggestion that infill development is cheaper since you don't need to do sewers etc. Wow okay now I know the author is from NYC...99% of San Jose's sewer infrastructure is probably 10 years past its replacement schedule...theres no freaking way the city will let someone increase density but ignore sewer work. In fact, this work will be substantially more expensive than new work in the middle of a field. No different than software folks - upgrading a running working system is much more difficult than greenfield development. - Suggests schools have closed in San Jose due to under-enrollment. Uh no in many cases this is the result of mismanagement of funds sometimes resulting in lawsuits. See Alum Rock for many examples. - Same tired citations of nefarious moustache-twirling NIMBYs...who by now have taken on the aura of a Bond villain. pretty much the whole article is similarly useless
  - CalRobert 8y ago
    "Its freaking SAN JOSE who is going to eat at a restaurant with NO PARKING" When I lived there, near alum rock, I cycled to restaurants. But it was a horrible place to ride and live so I moved to berkeley. There's some question of causality in your statement.
    - claydavisss 8y ago
      Please explain how "cycling to a restaurant" works for a family with young children...don't downvote, explain
      - viraptor 8y ago
        Around where I live, kid trailers for bikes are pretty popular.
      - CalRobert 8y ago
        You put your kids in the bakfiet and go. Done. Also it's getting really freaking old that suburbanites say they should be able to drive fast and park where I and my young daughter might like to cycle around town. You don't magically need a car because you have a kid (I am a parent and we have no car). You do need well designed towns and cities where playing in the street isn't punishable by death, though.
  - sjg007 8y ago
    Metered street parking, city lots and underground parking all suffice. With mixed use you get enough local traffic for restaurants who won’t use up the street parking. Also see uber.
    - jessaustin 8y ago
      I don't live there, but underground parking is almost never the right answer. It's just too expensive.
      - 8y ago

sjg007 8y ago

It's like one quote. SVLG is not even relevant in the article.

claydavisss 8y ago
The rest is the standard new urbanist claptrap written by someone who seems to know nothing of the Bay Area at all. Some gems: - Suggests strip malls replace parking lots with housing...citing the fact that vehicles occupy 8x the space of diners. Its freaking SAN JOSE who is going to eat at a restaurant with NO PARKING? Cue reliable HN responses about public transit...NO people in San Jose do not take their family out to eat by riding the bus. If you remove retail parking you just end up with no tax revenues and blighted plazas. - The suggestion that infill development is cheaper since you don't need to do sewers etc. Wow okay now I know the author is from NYC...99% of San Jose's sewer infrastructure is probably 10 years past its replacement schedule...theres no freaking way the city will let someone increase density but ignore sewer work. In fact, this work will be substantially more expensive than new work in the middle of a field. No different than software folks - upgrading a running working system is much more difficult than greenfield development. - Suggests schools have closed in San Jose due to under-enrollment. Uh no in many cases this is the result of mismanagement of funds sometimes resulting in lawsuits. See Alum Rock for many examples. - Same tired citations of nefarious moustache-twirling NIMBYs...who by now have taken on the aura of a Bond villain. pretty much the whole article is similarly useless
- CalRobert 8y ago
  "Its freaking SAN JOSE who is going to eat at a restaurant with NO PARKING" When I lived there, near alum rock, I cycled to restaurants. But it was a horrible place to ride and live so I moved to berkeley. There's some question of causality in your statement.
  - claydavisss 8y ago
    Please explain how "cycling to a restaurant" works for a family with young children...don't downvote, explain
    - viraptor 8y ago
      Around where I live, kid trailers for bikes are pretty popular.
    - CalRobert 8y ago
      You put your kids in the bakfiet and go. Done. Also it's getting really freaking old that suburbanites say they should be able to drive fast and park where I and my young daughter might like to cycle around town. You don't magically need a car because you have a kid (I am a parent and we have no car). You do need well designed towns and cities where playing in the street isn't punishable by death, though.
- sjg007 8y ago
  Metered street parking, city lots and underground parking all suffice. With mixed use you get enough local traffic for restaurants who won’t use up the street parking. Also see uber.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    I don't live there, but underground parking is almost never the right answer. It's just too expensive.
    - 8y ago