"Outsiders" not the problem in Alameda

Freelance writer and local resident of Alameda resident, Ralph Jennings, penned an article for East Bay Express entitled “Life on the Fast Lane: Outside drivers shop and speed in once placid Alameda”.

I can’t disagree more with the premise and narrative of this whole article. Even the title referencing to Alameda as “once placid” as if Alameda’s is no longer a calm place. The article draws a comparison between Alameda as it was in 2015 to that of today.

Before diving in the article two much we have to go back to November 28th. Before, writing this article, Mr. Jennings had posted on Nextdoor saying he was writing an article for the EBX and had few questions that he wanted to get comment on. From the jump, the questions were slightly leading.

Seeking comment for East Bay Express story on traffic in Alameda.
Hi Alameda neighbors,

I'm a freelance East Bay Express writer working on a story about Oakland's influence on traffic in Alameda.

I'm looking for a few good comments from residents of Alameda.

Questions are:

1. Where do you see traffic getting heavier around Alameda and since about when did it increase?

2. From your personal observations, why do people from Oakland visit Alameda? What activities are most popular?

3. If you believe Oakland is a source of extra-heavy traffic, please say what might be a good solution.

4. If you're from Oakland and reading this, what are your motivations for visiting Alameda and how do you find the traffic here?

It was clear that Mr. Jennings had a goal in mind to paint “outsiders” visiting Alameda as the problem.

I was the first to respond to Mr. Jennings Nextdoor post where I pointed out that the only traffic is traffic backing up from Oakland’s highways during early commute hours and on the rare first Sunday when thousands flock to the Alameda Point Antique Faire. Andy Murdock followed up and also made a similar point that traffic only exists once leaving the island but not much traffic within the island.

There were only four comments left on the Nextdoor request and my comments were not included in the final story and it seems that Mr. Jennings did selectively quote Mr. Murdock’s comment but seems to have completely glossed over or missed the point of his comments.

Get back to the article, right out of the gate, Mr. Jennings quotes Tracy Roberts, a resident that seemly distains the drivers who come from Oakland. She has even goes so far to follow these people off the island. Making bold claims that some have paper plates or no license plates at all. Mr. Jennings backs Tracy Robert’s comments up with non-specific complaints he as also seen on Nextdoor about “speeders, drivers who do donuts in intersections and unprecedented traffic gridlock.”

I will agree that speeders are legitimate issue but there evidence of that being non-residents. Complaints about about folks doing donuts were more an issue out on the excessively wide roads and parking lots of Alameda Point’s former navel infrastructure and less so within Alameda itself and more recently was remedied with recently installed break walls to shrink the usable areas of the roads out there. But “unprecedented traffic gridlock”? No. The only “gridlock” have is when a drawbridge is lifted to let a boat through which typically lasts 10 minutes.

One nit here is Mr. Jennings claims that Alameda has a uniform 25 mph speed limit. This is not actually entirely accurate. Webster and Pose tubes are 45 mph, Doolittle Drive is also 45mph. We also have several roads that allow for 35 mph including Main Street, Tilden Way, Webster (north of Atlantic), Harbor Bay Parkway, South Loop, and North Loop Roads. Residential streets are generally limited to 25 mph.

He goes on to quote the Books’ Inc owner who speaks about a lack of parking on Park Street at 5:30 during commute hours and opines that this likely people from Oakland and San Leandro coming to Alameda to eat dinner. This doesn’t track with my experience as Park Street has a multistory parking structure and two surface level public parking lots, and having been to Park Street quite frequently around that time, I never seen the city parking garage completely full once.

I will say that, yes, we have measurable but not terrible amount of traffic leaving the island through the Posey tube but only regularly on one Sunday a month during the Antique Faire and during pre-pandemic during morning commute hours.

I completely disagree with how Mr. Jenning’s inflates this when asserts:

“Traffic backs up a quarter mile some weekend days, through the Posey and Webster Street tubes from Alameda to Oakland Chinatown, all the worse if it’s congested already on the Oakland side or someone crashes in a tube.”

Only Posey, which is the tube that leaves the island, that sees traffic. The Webster tube entering the city, is never backed up with any regularity.

On the East End he claims:

“Commuters, parents picking up school children and food grab-and-goers congest Park Street on a typical late afternoon. Each car waits two turns and maybe more at a single red light, especially near the drawbridge to Oakland.”

This doesn’t track with my experience. Yes there is more traffic but it remans moving. It’s gridlock or overwhelming congestion. He also doesn’t qualify this to say which of our 3 drawbridges (or 4 if you include to Bay Farm) we have into Alameda. I’m assuming he must be referring to the Park Street bridge. I don’t think I’ve waited more than a single light at any hour include commute hours in the afternoon.

Among the aggravations: Parking in [near Park Street] or near Webster Street in West Alameda can be as competitive as parking in downtown Berkeley.

What? Is this satire? Am I getting punked? No it’s not. Like ever.

The article goes to paint Alameda the place people come because Oakland and San Leandro are not as good because we have a couple nice restaurants and shops, a bowling alley, and a movie theatre. Maybe this is based on inherit bias of Mr. Jennings, a local resident, and the Alameda business owners and residents he interviewed (or maybe simply how they are being quoted) playing up that that Alameda is better. Oakland has theatres, bowling allies, and cute shops. Some even better than ours.

He claims:

Now, nearby parts of Oakland, such as downtown and Chinatown, lack Main Street business districts with “cute little restaurants” and locally owned merchants, to use Fisher’s words.

I can name more “cute little restaurants” in Oakland’s Chinatown, Downtown, Old Oakland, Jack London, and Lake Merritt areas. Old Oakland, Grand Lake, Jack London, and Temescal have total Main Street business vibes too.

Yes, some folks might be coming to Alameda for variety, but this narrative that it’s because we are better or they don’t have anything nice is just elitist bullshit.

He goes on to use as one bit of data to try show this is outsiders causing all these undesirable effects is because “police data shows that 64.7% of total arrests were made against city residents in 2015, whereas just half were made against residents in 2019.” I don’t even know where to start on this. Correlation is not causation comes to mind. Especially when we have had a long history of Alameda Police targeting people of color we can’t simply assume that there isn’t some bias to who is being targeted for arrest and who is being let go. There is a lot could be at play with this stat. He mentions that city officials declined to explain the data he requested. Probably because of the issues where is drawing this supposition from.

But the cars keep coming. A deficiency plan to mitigate traffic near the 215-acre Catellus Mixed Use Development that includes the ever-popular Alameda Landing mall near the two tubes indicates that as many as 1,000 more cars would come and go from Oakland. It suggests that “improvements” on the Oakland side could accommodate that traffic.

Cherry picking one development here but these homes do not encouraging cars like older developments did. We have data that shows the folks living in these housing developments are using the ferry more, they live on high frequency bus lines, and they have less parking per unit that older homes.

This second point about “improvements” on the Oakland side, he must be alluding to the massive Alameda Oakland Access Project which reroute traffic out of Alameda’s Posey tube to give more direct access to 880 without going through Oakland’s Chinatown.

I don’t want to critique every part of this but it’s hard not to, like the calls for more police and more tiresome Nextdoor complaints, often from the same folks that trump of traffic complaints to use as an excuse to try and deny housing.