Re: The Opposite of TOD -meets- A Suspicious Package at the Sunnyvale
parking g
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Pau-@enet.com
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Aug 08, 2008 13:25 PDT
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This is a classic example of politics at work!
There was once a little man named Manny Valerio who got himself elected to
the Sunnyvale city council, and became mayor. He then got himself
appointed to the VTA board, and from there got a seat on the Caltrain JPB.
The Sunnyvale Caltrain station is adjacent to an old core of downtown with
many now-trendy restaurants, with surface parking lots adjacent which used
to fill up, causing "parking problems" for those wishing to drive and dine
at the trendy restaurants.
The solution?...build a massive parking structure across the street at the
Caltrain station, so there'd be plenty of parking for the trendy
restaurants. Of course, since the primary beneficiaries were the downtown
merchants and their customers, the fair solution would be to charge a
property assessment for the cost of the garage, and the merchants pass
their costs to their customers with higher prices. But of course, that
might drive the customers elsewhere, so is unacceptable.
But...if this could be sold as a "Caltrain" and "transit" project, then the
costs could be borne by someone else!
It's been a number of years now and I don't remember all the details, but
the garage cost many millions, and Caltrain kicked in a sizable percentage,
as well as the VTA, IIRC.
Those of us in Peninsula Rail 2000/BayRail Alliance fought hard against
this misappropriation of public funds, but we lost, and it went through.
(Not to say that there's NO benefit to Caltrain customers...obviously many
drive-to-Caltrain people use this during the day, while the merchants'
customers use it mainly in the evenings and on weekends...hey!...a win-win
scenario!... whoopee!)
Thankfully, Manny Valerio seems to have retired from politics after this,
and is apparently now some kind of PR manager at Fry's Electronics, so we
are spared his rise to national politics where political deals and
kickbacks measure in the billions instead of millions.
Paul Wendt
Jym Dyer
<jy-@econet.org>
To
08/08/2008 09:26 caltrai-@topica.com
AM cc
Subject
Please respond to The Opposite of TOD -meets- A
jy-@econet.org Suspicious Package
=v= All Caltrain service was suspended Wednesday night because
of a "suspicious package" at the Sunnyvale parking garage:
http://cbs5.com/localwire/22.0.html?type=bcn&item=SUNNYVALE-PACKAGE-bagm-
They said they would deploy shuttle buses, though room for
bikes was not mentioned. (I pedaled home instead.)
=v= Some folks at Caltrain pay lip service to transit-oriented
design (TOD), but in practice TOD has taken a back seat to the
#1 priority of protecting motorists from having to walk much.
That's why we've got all these massive parking structures right
at the train stations -- right up against the tracks -- where
it would be much better to have amenities for people on foot.
=v= But hey, the _Chronicle_'s urban design writer likes how
the Sunnyvale station looks:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/16/MNOA11F1NC.DTL
<_Jym_>
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