Parking at BART’s West Oakland Station will become more difficult as spaces will be lost when construction begins on an affordable housing project.
Don Feria/For the S.F. Chronicle
Regarding “BART plans major housing at East Bay station. The trade-off: 400 parking spots lost” (East Bay, SFChronicle.com, April 17): Forgive me for not shedding a tear for commuters from the Oakland hills and elsewhere who will lose access to some parking at the West Oakland BART Station.
To put it in perspective, there are about 440 parking spaces at the station. In March, weekday daily ridership at West Oakland was about 4,200.
Riders who can’t get to BART without a car have plenty of other options. Oakland has seven other BART stations that may be closer to them. For a little more than the price of parking, a resident of the hills can hire a Lyft or an Uber (or other ride service) to a BART station and back home.
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The valuable land in West Oakland will be much better used as apartments. To me, those apartments and the revitalization of the neighborhood outweigh the convenience of a few commuters.
Ilya Gurin, volunteer lead, South Bay YIMBY, Mountain View
Stop vaccine disinformation
Regarding “California hasn’t seen measles numbers like this in years — and cases are still rising” (Health, SFChronicle.com, April 14): California’s historic measles outbreak isn’t an isolated incident. Emergencies like this reflect a wider, more alarming trend: a drop in vaccination rates across the U.S. below the “herd immunity” required for community-wide protection. Misinformation serves as a primary contributor to undervaccination; to overcome it, we need public health officials who can promote trust and directly address vaccine misconceptions with the American public.
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Instead, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to be doing the opposite. He has canceled vaccine-awareness campaigns, stripped funding for new vaccine development and decimated immunization panels of medical experts. It’s not only policy changes either — Kennedy also continues to sow vaccine doubt in hearings and in public. When these sentiments lead to spikes in vaccine skepticism and decreased vaccination, harmful rhetoric becomes just as detrimental as harmful policy.
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The vaccine misinformation outbreak is out of control. If not urgently addressed — by Secretary Kennedy or state health departments — it will lead to many future disease outbreaks for our communities to contend with.
Cheung for school board
Regarding “Endorsement: One candidate clearly stands above the rest for S.F. school board” (Editorials, SFChronicle.com, April 17): The editorial board makes a compelling case for Phil Kim’s experience and steady leadership during a turbulent period for the San Francisco Unified School District. He’s shown discipline and a willingness to confront difficult fiscal realities, and that deserves recognition.
And yet, I’ll cast my vote for Virginia Cheung.
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I’ve worked alongside Cheung in several leadership capacities for more than eight years. I’ve seen her bring together educators, parents and community leaders with uncommon empathy and clarity of purpose.
At a moment when trust in the school district is fragile, her ability to listen and build durable coalitions matters as much as operational fluency.
San Francisco’s schools don’t just need stabilization. They need reconnection to the communities they serve. Cheung offers that bridge, and that’s why she has my vote.
Ian McCuaig, San Francisco
Use better designs
Regarding “New multifamily housing in S.F. is mostly ugly. Here’s how we get better designs” (Opinion, SFChronicle.com, April 19): David Baker is indeed a great architect, and his award-winning single-stair design looks great. However, most developers will not use great architects, and single-stair buildings could simply end up being big, ugly boxes.
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As an apartment developer, I know that great design is possible regardless of the building code standards. Ugly design is equally possible.
Guest opinions in Open Forum and Insight are produced by writers with expertise, personal experience or original insights on a subject of interest to our readers. Their views do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Chronicle editorial board, which is committed to providing a diversity of ideas to our readership.
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If we want high-quality, gentle density that makes our cities better, then cities need to create robust design standards that cannot be subverted by California’s density bonus process, which essentially overrides all local rules.
As California continues to look for ways to create more housing quickly, local governments need the tools to ensure that new development is high quality, or, I’m afraid, the state will see a serious backlash against looser rules.