Public Comment

I previously served on the Hotel Convention Center Museum Task Force of which Downtown Business Association (DBA), the Convention and Visitors’ Bureau and the Chamber of Commerce were all members. After presentations by all sides, the task force recommended the closure of Center Street to through vehicle traffic. The council adopted the recommendations of that task force. I now serve on the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee (DAPAC). More than any other interest group, over this last year downtown businesses have had the opportunity to and made presentations to the entire DAPAC and to its Center Street Subcommittee. Even at the subcommittee’s last meeting, most of the time was taken with presentations of DBA-solicited models & drawings and the one environmental presentation was severely restricted. DAPAC made no final determination but decided on a preferred study option—determine if a pedestrianized plaza will work on this street. This is the same decision that was previously made by the task force and by council. That’s what DAPAC (nearly two-thirds majority) decided last week.  

Yet Mark McLeod, current president of the Downtown Berkeley Association, has sent a letter attacking that vote. One could conclude that the DBA and other downtown businesses do not want direct access for hotel, convention center and museum patrons directly across Center Street.  

Currently, those few shoppers/restaurant customers who do drive to Center Street, park in a Bank of America parking lot or a few on street spaces. A similar number of spaces will be still be available in a mid block parking garage under the hotel/convention center/museum. Drivers will walk out of the garage mid block onto Center Street. Just think: Is that driver more likely to pick a restaurant or store where 1) as now, the driver is required to walk down the block to the corner, wait for a light, cross in a cross walk breathing car idling smog and then walk back up the block or 2) that driver can walk fewer steps in a more natural environment, without worrying about moving cars, directly across to that restaurant or store? Wouldn’t customers prefer sitting out front looking across strolling people in a car-free public space over a view of asphalt, parking meters and moving cars? Doesn’t seem like a hard choice.  

If moving and parked cars were a key ingredient for successful business, then downtown would be booming—as that is its current environment. But downtown businesses insist they are struggling—so more cars can hardly be the best answer for future business. We definitely know it’s not the best answer for the museum, the convention center, the hotel (and having chosen a public space option, we can ask their help in designing a new Center Street.)  

We already know that a walkable, rather than a car, environment, is preferred by the pedestrian majority of current Center Street and downtown customers (55 percent of all downtown shoppers walk to their shopping/eating destination). A majority of the customers to the hotel, convention center and museum will come by BART not car. (If not so, the complex would be built next to a freeway exit instead a BART station, wouldn’t it?) Since we’re building a new future, let’s explore creating a Center Street public space that embodies the best of Berkeley (a reality of the why we live here dream). As a downtown neighbor, I look forward to working with downtown businesses and many other stakeholders to do just that. 

Wendy Alfsen is a DAPAC member.