East Bay

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor

By Meera Pal

The California Court of Appeal has reinstated a 2006 lawsuit claiming the city of Pleasanton has failed to meet its affordable housing obligations due to exclusionary policies and practices.

The ruling allows the group Urban Habitat and Pleasanton resident Sandra De Gregorio to pursue their challenge to the city's voter-approved housing cap and growth management program, as well as ask the court to require the city to rezone land for affordable housing.

By Paul Burgarino

Though a long voyage to completion remains, plans to bring a ferry terminal to the Antioch waterfront are starting to move forward at a good clip.

Last week, the San Francisco Bay Water Emergency Transportation Authority picked consulting firm ESA to conduct an environmental study looking at three possible sites along Antioch's shoreline that could serve as a ferry harbor.

By George Avalos

The East Bay has lost nearly 12,000 jobs so far in 2008 — including thousands more last month — in an ominous indication that an employment recession has descended on the region's struggling economy.

In recent years, the East Bay was an economic engine that helped power California's growth. But during the past 12 months, the East Bay accounted for two out of every three jobs lost in the Golden State, according to a report released Friday by the state's Employment Development Department.

By Richard Brenneman

The ongoing battle over bus rapid transit (BRT) smoldered anew when Berkeley’s planning and transportation commissions took their second joint look at the concept last week.

Ultimately it will be up to city councilmembers to choose the locally preferred alternative (LPA) for the city’s portion of a bus corridor that will run from downtown Berkeley to the San Leandro BART station.

AC Transit’s proposals to halve the number of traffic lanes along Telegraph Avenue, eliminate on-avenue parking spots and severely restrict options for left turns from side streets onto the heavily traveled avenue have generated the greatest heat.

SAN LEANDRO --  The San Leandro City Council has declared today and Thursday as "Dump the Pump" days in the city, joining public agencies in the Bay Area and nationwide.

The campaign, sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association, strives to educate residents about how riding public transportation can save money, conserve gasoline and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The nationwide Dump the Pump day is Thursday and more than 125 public transit agencies, including many from the Bay Area, are on board.

The City Council decided to expand the effort beyond the national campaign to include today, said city spokeswoman Jan McCrea.

has been in development since the early 1990s.

Just last year, TransLink began full-fledged service on AC Transit and Golden Gate Transit.

But various complications and disagreements between agencies — BART in particular — have long delayed making the system capable of taking riders on the area's other major systems.

While MTC officials had expected to add BART to the system this spring, they're now predicting a launch sometime before the end of the year. Caltrain and Muni, which already accepts TransLink for its Metro trains, are expected to begin this summer.

BERKELEY, CA (KGO) -- The city of Berkeley and AC Transit are launching a pilot project to see how easy it is to get people out of their cars and onto mass transit. They're offering a year of free rides to nearly 2,000 East Bay residents.

On Tuesday, Berkeley's mayor is unveiling a pilot program that will give people in select communities Translink passes for a year's worth of free rides on MTC and AC Transit buses that will work on local and transbay buses. While this is something that a lot of people would like to get in on, its all in a push for transit oriented development - communities built around the theory that people who live there will take a bus instead of driving their cars.

Directors for the East Bay's largest bus agency will meet at 5 p.m. today to consider a new $48-a-year parcel tax increase aimed at staving off fare increases.

AC Transit's board of directors had been scheduled to consider a fare increase, including raising base fares from $1.75 to $2 and a highly controversial youth pass boost from $15 to $28 a month.

A recent poll commissioned by AC Transit showed that the required two-thirds majority of residents of the district it serves, in western Alameda and Contra Costa counties from Richmond to Fremont, would support a parcel tax increase of $4 a month. Agency officials estimate the tax would raise an estimated $14 million a year.