Over 1.5 million families in California spend over 50 percent of their monthly income on rent, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development. All around the country, many Americans deand more affordable housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
California is the US state with the highest number of people experiencing homelessness. While Berkeley has tried to implement various solutions, some argue that the main issue is simply that housing is not being built fast, or affordably enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In July, California Governor Gavin Newsom passed Assembly Bill 179, which essentially removed guardrails for building more housing and incentivized cities to build more. In recent years Berkeley has seen a wave of planning for the construction of large residential buildings, falling in line with this new state bill and long-standing demand. However, there are two sides to every city construction proposal: although many Berkeley residents are in favor of new building plans, many have taken issues with certain developments. In the past few years, new construction plans have become a particularly controversial topic in Berkeley city politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people who don\u2019t want the neighborhoods to change at all are going to be disappointed,\u201d Shoshana O\u2019Keefe, a Berkeley High School computer science teacher and Berkeley City Council member, said,\u201cI believe that they have to change. The city has to grow and has to evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the city changes, residents grapple with balancing preserving the old and embracing the new.<\/p>\n
Upzoning in the Elmwood District<\/p>\n
Elmwood, or more specifically College Avenue, is one of many popular places that BHS students hang out. For Berkeley City Council District 8 representative candidate Michael Wallman, the charming and almost small town feel of College Avenue comes from the independent establishments. \u201cKeeping small businesses thriving (matters), because that\u2019s kind of the heartbeat of the economy,\u201d Wallman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Elmwood upzoning plan would add housing above many of the shops that are currently only two stories, with some proposed additions reaching as high as seven stories. Save Berkeley Shops \u2014 a nonprofit organization built by residents and shop owners from around Berkeley \u2014 gives out posters and yard signs opposing upzoning in the Elmwood. Many community members, including Save Berkeley Shops, believe that in the time it takes to do this construction, the atmosphere of the neighborhood would completely change. Some shop owners fear they would go out of business as a result of upzoning in the neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This fear is partially due to a previous instance of construction promises in Downtown Berkeley on Center St. in 2024. Shops were bought by a Chicago-based developer, but due to high inflation rates and other factors, the project was abandoned. Since then, the spaces for those shops have been boarded up. Some residents are worried that a similar situation could happen in the Elmwood.<\/p>\n
Throughout Berkeley there are contradicting opinions on what should be done. \u201cI don\u2019t want to live in a city where there are seven-story apartments that are spun up everywhere,\u201d Wallman said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Others, like O\u2019Keefe, argue that there needs to be efforts to create more housing in Berkeley. \u201cI am definitely eager for creative solutions that can allow for the added housing, which I do support, and make sure that the shop owners are protected,\u201d O\u2019Keefe said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
600 apartments near Ashby BART<\/p>\n
Renderings of the planned housing development on Ashby Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr Way \u2014 in the current Ashby BART parking lot \u2014 were presented to the public in July, and developers plan to break ground in 2029. The new building plan has \u201ctransit-oriented development\u201d in mind, meaning that in addition to 600 apartments, the building\u2019s first floor will have retail space incorporated in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Initial public concerns were raised about the housing development\u2019s potential impact on the Berkeley Flea Market, which is held in the Ashby BART parking lot every week on Saturday and Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people told us that (the flea market) is a really important asset in the community,\u201d Shannon Dodge, BART\u2019s Principal Property Development Officer, said, \u201cIt\u2019s not as big as it used to be, but it\u2019s still a destination and culturally important, especially in the Black community of Berkeley.\u201d The developers plan to extend out a portion of sidewalk out to create a dedicated spot where the flea market could be held.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many hope that the implementation of increased housing, as well as new space for retail, will bring consistent foot traffic into the Ashby-Adeline area. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the BART was developed, it kind of broke the community,\u201d Teresa Clarke, one of the founders and organizers of South Berkeley Now, a volunteer group that advocates for the economic development and preservation of South Berkeley, said. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping that (the new housing) will repair some of the damage that was done to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over 1.5 million families in California spend over 50 percent of their monthly income on rent, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-461297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}