Unelected swarms of bureaucrats hope to harass Bay Area citizens

by Richard Colman : halfwaytoconcord – excerpt

A brilliant American leader once wrote: “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” That brilliant American was Thomas Jefferson, as he refered to King George III of England, in the Declaration of independence, which he authored.

Something similar to the autocracy of King George III is coming to the Bay Area. What is arriving is Plan Bay Area, a long document that will, if enacted, irreversibly transform the Bay Area’s land-use patterns.

Plan Bay Area’s goal is to curtail the use of cars and push Bay Area residents into high-rise, high-density housing. The housing, often called “stack and pack” housing, is to be located near such transit hubs as BART stations. In theory, stack-and-pack housing will lead to less carbon dioxide pollution, and — again in theory — keep the planet from becoming too warm.

Two main forces behind Plan Bay Area are the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC).

ABAG and MTC respectively have boards of directors who have never been elected directly by voters. Thus, ABAG and MTC are similar to King George III, an unelected ruler who told the American colonies how to behave.

To help these ABAG and MTC rulers achieve their goals of having Bay Area residents ditch their cars and live in stack-and-pack housing, urgent legislation needs to be passed immediately by the California Legislature.

The legislation must require all ABAG and MTC directors and all ABAG and MTC employees to surrender their driver’s licenses and move into stack-and-pack housing.

If less driving and more stack-and-pack housing are such good ideas, let those bureaucrats who want to implement Plan Bay Area be examples for the rest of us… (more)

RELATED:
Supervisor Sears Responds to Tam Junction’s Plan Bay Area Concerns
I have asked both Brian Crawford, Director of our Community Development Agency (land use planning staff), and Diane Steinhauser, Director of the Transportation Authority of Marin, to analyze (1) whether removing Tam Valley/Almonte from the 101 transit corridor PDA would result in loss of the $175,000 OBAG grant and other potential sources of funding for transportation and bike/ped needs; and (2) whether removing only the Manzanita area from the PDA would result in retaining that grant and other sources of funding… (more)