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If people love Berkeley, let them create new cities like it - don’t overcrowd this one

Drew Keeling
Friday April 26, 2002

To the Editor: 

I write in dissent from what seems to be a growing bipartisan chorus favoring high-rise redevelopment as a means to increased amounts of affordable housing, reduced traffic congestion, greater social diversity, etc. 

The April 24 letter by Steve Geller is only the most recently presented of many recent arguments along such lines. 

In theory, more density might produce the benefits so frequently touted of late, but has it worked that way in actual practice elsewhere, and if so, how readily might such experiences be replicated in Berkeley? 

I am skeptical, to say the least. 

It seems to me that if more people want to live in Berkeley than the city can accommodate, the solution should be to build more new communities like Berkeley, not to alter the one we already have.  

To even consider building new Berkeleys probably requires some long and hard thinking about many other matters including Alaskan oil, SUVs, gasoline taxes and railroad infrastructure. 

To devote more attention to broad issues which are both outside Berkeley but also relevant to Berkeley's future would probably be worthwhile, before rushing to flood our downtown with cranes and construction crews. 

 

- Drew Keeling 

Berkeley