by Mrs. Richie Smith, Priscilla Hine, Willie Phillips, Tony Wilkinson and Gene Turitz
Part 4: The time is now!
This fourth and final article, about the Ashby BART Development, was published in the Berkeley Times on July 17 by Friends of Adeline, a community advocacy group formed in 2015 after local residents attended a City meeting during which officials proclaimed their goal to fix up the neighborhood and make South Berkeley a colony! Friends of Adeline (FoA) is fighting for all of South Berkeley, a historically mixed race and originally redlined neighborhood, and advocates for its small businesses and nonprofits. Parts 1-3 appeared in the June issue of SF Bay View.
What is most important to our diverse community of South Berkeley? Repairing the harm done by BART in the ‘60s to the Black community. We demand that BART, the City and the developer do something significant about this.
BART took land; as a result, housing and businesses were decimated and generational wealth lost. Redevelopment has a pattern of forcing people of color out of their communities. History shows that it happened to Japanese-American residents and to the Ohlone People. The incoming development will be an enormous opportunity to acknowledge and start to repair the harm done from the construction of the Ashby Station.
South Berkeley has the right to the highest percentage (100 percent) of affordable housing to maximize the right of return for Black families who have been forced out. Units built must be of equal design and construction as market rate units. Green gathering spaces with trees, and community art, will help to balance negative impacts of large concrete buildings. Youth must have opportunities that enable strong, healthy lives.
Employing local businesses and labor every step of the way is vital. Creating space for the flea market and other gatherings will bring the community together. Providing locations to support nonprofits is essential. Funding for all of this could come from the Enhanced Infrastructure Tax District (EIFD) that was created for this site. As referenced in our last article, BART sees the Tax District differently and has claimed it for infrastructure development. This is not what the community wants.
The developer team consists of both market rate and minority architects, builders and city planners. These members are poised to work equally together. However, BART is not committed to ensuring this level of equity in the project. They’ve insisted that the minority developer have 49 percent say in the project decisions. This simply isn’t fair and needs to be rectified. We demand that the developer team members share equal power in this project. By doing so, South Berkeley’s best interest will be included.
This summer the developer team will be selected. The City of Berkeley and the developer are expected to seek input from the community as they craft the Objective Design Standards. We want the City, BART and the developer to pay attention to our demands. It is now time to inform all of them about our needs.
FOA strongly believes that we must make noise and fight back against the forces that refuse to understand the historic uniqueness of South Berkeley. Write letters to anyone or all of the people listed below if you agree. They might listen, but only if we make some noise.
Resources
Healthy Black Family Podcast Episodes 10, 11: https://healthyblackfam.org/podcast
Independent film by Pamela Uzzell: “Welcome to the Neighborhood” (https://www.kqed.org/trulyca/2277/welcome-to-the-neighborhood)
City of Berkeley: search Ashby and North Berkeley Planning
BART: search Ashby TOD
Contact any one or all of these people
Principal Property Development Officer BART Shannon Dodge sdodge@bart.gov
District 3 BART Ashby representative Barnali Ghosh Barnali.Ghosh@bart.gov 510-464-6095
District 7 BART Ashby representative Victor Flores victor.flores@bart.gov
District 3 Councilmember: Ben Bartlett BBartlett@berkeleyca.gov 510-981-7130
City of Berkeley Director of Planning and Development Jordan Klein planning@berkeleyca.gov 510-981-7400
Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii mayor@berkeleyca.gov 510-981-7100
Berkeley City Council Members council@berkeleyca.gov
FriendsofAdeline Facebook, friendsofadeline.org
