Alameda Climate Plan Citizen Input Day

    Approximately 100 islanders, including Vice-Mayor John White, and city council member Tony Daysog, gathered at Alameda High this morning to provide their input to the city's Climate Action and Resiliency Plan.  Alameda Commissioned the Eastern Research Group (ERG) to create the plan, which is slated to be completed by April.  Whether or not you were present today, you have until Feb. 8 to provide your input to ERG at https://opentownhall.com/7127.

    ERG divided us into groups, which rotated through discussions of three challenges: how to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions; how to prepare for Sea-level rise; and how to prepare for drought, heat waves, and wildfire smoke.  In each session we were asked for our opinions lists of possible responses.

    In the GHG reduction session, ERG presented with lists of possible approaches divided into four cost/benefit categories.  Electric vehicles (EVs) were popular in our group, with possible approaches ranging from standardized charging stations (low cost, high benefit), to incentivizing ownership with tax credits and reduced electricity rates from Alameda Power and Telecom (high cost, high benefit).  It's worth mentioning that transportation is responsible for one half of all GHG emissions in Alameda.  Adding 1,500 street trees to the "urban forest" (low cost, low benefit) was popular too.  Surprisingly, ERG placed a new BART tube in the high cost, low benefit category.  Apparently they felt that the tube would lead to more housing on the island, and no net decrease in traffic.  But I don't agree, since commuting to/from the island by bicycle is a major nuisance; and the high cost of housing, and the tragedy of the homeless, are regional disgraces.

    Participants in the sea-level rise session had a marked preference for natural solutions, such as mud flat augmentation, as opposed to more engineering heavy solutions like building sea walls.

    In my group, the favorite approach to preparing for wildfire smoke was a public awareness campaign, including informative articles on the web; but my opinion was that the best public awareness campaign would be to pass out masks the next time disaster strikes.

    One final note about transportation.  On Feb. 27, the city council will consider the Transportation Choices Plan.  I just received the .pdfs today and have not had the time to read them yet.  Please tell if you would like a copy.  More bike lanes are part of the plan, although I'm not sure if it calls for completion of the cross Alameda East-West bicycle trail.  And it would be ambitious indeed if it called for a bicycle/pedestrian bridge to Jack London square, so that bikers would not need to chose between riding through the filthy tube, or the lengthy, dangerous ride to Fruitvale BART station.  But if does appear in the report now, this could be a good time to raise the issue.

References:

This interactive map shows the effect of sea-level rise in the San Francisco Bay Area. Type in your home address, select a scenario, and see how your neighborhood will be impacted by one consequence of climate change.
https://explorer.adaptingtorisingtides.org/home

The State of California has published a 2018 edition of its Sea-Level Rise (SLR) Guidance report for the San Francisco Bay Area. Pages 19 and 20 have tables showing projected sea-level rise under conditions of low and high emission. In 2100, these will likely be 1+ ft. and 2+ ft. respectively. Of course calculating flooding risk also entails considering storm surges. 
http://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/agenda_items/20180314/Item3_Exhibit-A_OPC_SLR_Guidance-rd3.pdf