Student Housing in Oaklands

Can you tell us what the status of the petition is and the plan going forward?

I agree. They have already started to develop it. But I think we need to be really careful here. A lot of the development in recent years has been done in car-oriented ways that favors students owning cars and this makes traffic worse and then we get noise, pollution, and congestion. And Newark becomes a sea of asphault, no greenspace, and more of a runoff problem. Look at Amstel Way, Smyth Ct, and Cochran Way as examples. Garage-on-street, one-way-in one-way-out developments. We need a traditional development structure with a grid of through streets, built around foot traffic, but also lots of trees and greenspace. Crosswalks, light timing that favors pedestrians. Remove mandatory parking minimums. Better public transit. Shade everywhere so that it's pleasant to walk even in summer. Make it more pleasant to live without a car, and more expensive and more difficult to use a car, especially in the downtown. Attract and reward students who come to campus without a car. Also make it more realistic for low-income people to live car-free in Newark.

I recently bought a house in Oakland, and I share your concerns with the housing shortage and rising housing prices, and with noise and traffic, but I'm not comfortable signing this petition as-is. I think you are blaming students unfairly. My big complaint about noise is not student parties, it's landscaping noise. The noise ordinance is very strict on parties, and the police are good at shutting down any party if you call. But they do nothing about landscaping noise, because the ordinance is written to give it a full exception. I also share your concern with traffic and students choosing to bring cars to campus. But I don't think students are the problem, nor do I think favoring single-family housing is a good idea here. Favoring single-family housing will contribute to the housing shortage. We need to allow more density, and we need to remove parking minimums. And I know this is a tough pill for some people to swallow but we need to allow parking prices in the downtown to increase. Overall I think we need to stop favoring cars over pedestrians. We need to start favoring pedestrians. We need better public transit, we need traffic signals that favor pedestrians over cars. We need to stop prioritizing driver speed and comfort over pedestrian safety and convenience.

1 year ago Featured

As a 50 year resident, I too have been concerned about this recent trend in the Oaklands. Hopefully the City will support our concerns.

I recently bought a home in Oaklands. I agree there is a housing shortage and housing has become unaffordable in Newark for many people. I also share concerns about traffic and increased car ownership. However, I am not comfortable signing this petition. I think it unfairly targets students, and does not correctly identify the causes of the traffic problem. I also disagree about students being the biggest problem as far as noise is concerned. I AM concerned about noise, but Newark already has an effective noise ordinance for late-night parties. Any time you call Newark police about a party, they come out and shut it down. There are steep fines and a threat of eviction for multiple offenses. Because of this, at worst, there will be a one-time party from one house and usually once the police shut it down, people will be quieter from then on. However, I have a frequent and persistent complaint about noise from landscaping equipment, like ride-on mowers, and gas-powered leafblowers. A lot of these operate at levels that are high enough to cause hearing damage, and that would be illegal for motor vehicles on roads, or for any other type of equipment. Whereas cars have noise and emission regulations, there are weak or no regulations on the pollution and noise emitted by landscaping equipment. Recently there has also been a troubling trend of people cutting down trees and mulching them on-site. Mulching takes hours and is incredibly loud. I work from home and the noise disrupts my ability to do my work, and is a source of stress and majorly affects my quality of life. The noise ordinance does nothing to stop this noise. If I call the police, they cannot take any action because of the ordinance gives an unconditional exception to landscaping equipment. There is no decibel limit, no duration limit, and landscaping noise is allowed as early as 7AM. I cannot count how many times I've been woken up by landscaping noise. Landscaping equipment even drives on roads e

2 years ago Featured

The university has hundreds of acres of undeveloped land on the campus. If they don't want to build student housing they can instead sell some of that property contiguous to the campus to private developers.

Please protect our young children

Please listen to these voices.

2 years ago Featured

The parking situation is already a total disaster with all these extra cars crammed into driveways and on the street. Something needs to change before it gets even worse.