Bus Drivers Crash Into AC Transit Meeting
Bus Drivers Crash Into AC Transit Meeting
In Which: AC Transit drivers threaten to strike, The Planning Commission is hostile to easing supportive housing development, And the Hayward Animal Shelter gets a cash injection.
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AC Transit Workers Threaten Strike
At the October 9th AC Transit Directors meeting, the AC Transit Realign project was slated to be approved. However, members of the public--especially members of the disabled community--and Amalgamated Transit Union workers showed up in force to oppose the Realign.
The ATU members, overwhelmingly people of color, had a long list of concerns, including a plan to outsource cut routes to microtransit companies like Uber and Lyft, cuts to staffing, cuts to already-impacted routes, and unrealistic scheduling. Dozens of drivers, maintenance workers, and members of the public called in and showed up in person--many in red shirts--to share their stories.
One ATU maintenance worker cited the 2023 Outstanding Public Transportation System Award as evidence of the value that the workers bring to the AC Transit system. He said, “by allowing microtransit in, you are denying our community [our service.]” Other workers cited major disruptions to schedules and justifiable fears that outsourcing to microtransit will cost jobs. “I do not appreciate you disrespecting our work,” said one ATU member, “the way that you have overqualified yourselves to speak for us and your people.” Another said, “AC Transit is trying to outsource my work to microtransit.”
Members of ATU also cited the disproportionate impact the changes would have on seniors and disabled community members. One member of the public said, “I appreciate the drivers because they are the ones who look out for us every day.” A different ATU worker expressed concern about how non-English speaking seniors in areas like Oakland’s Chinatown would be able to navigate microtransit apps. A member of the public said, “You called your plan operator neutral; that’s your problem. You need to add operators.”
The comments also included issues with the work as it is. Multiple ATU drivers shared stories about cuts to breaks, the toll driving takes on their bodies, and the daily stresses that they endure. “I matter and I need a break,” one driver said. “I bring a salad for lunch every day and I bring it home every day. I have three years until I retire… but I don’t know if I’m gonna make it because I can’t work like this.” Another cried out, “It’s not just about juggling figures, you’re juggling people’s lives.”
Long-time workers noticed that the workplace environment has gotten progressively worse for them over the years. “Somebody asked me how I stayed here this long,” one ATU driver said, “I tell them you did not used to treat us like runaway slaves.” ATU drivers stressed the importance of breaks for both their own health and sanity, but also for their riders. “I am the bus,” one driver said, “And if I don’t recover, the bus don’t move.” Another complained about workplace injuries to their shoulders and said, “We can’t even love our family properly because our bodies are hurting because we’re there too long.”
After over an hour of public comment, the mood turned hostile. “Our members feel like you are fucking them,” an ATU representative said. “What if we all decided to leave?” another asked, “How would you feel about [a strike]? Everybody else does it, what if we did it?” Soon afterward, a chant of “Shut it down!” broke out in the crowd. An ATU member then approached the microphone and said, “You know what? We’re all telling you we feel disrespected and we don’t care anymore… Y’all don’t listen to nothin’.”
The public present seemed supportive of the idea of a strike. “The disabled passengers have [driver’s] backs,” one caller said, “just like you’ve always had ours. If you need to shut it down, shut it down.” The ATU member seemed to have a particular issue with Director Dianne Shaw, who could be seen on her zoom screen smiling and laughing during some of the testimony. It is unclear if a strike will be authorized in the future, but the Realign Plan was approved by the AC Transit Board 5-2 with Directors Beckles and Sayed voting “No”.
Planning Commissioners Push Back on Supportive Housing Zoning
The Planning Commission took a second look at proposed rezoning to allow more types of supportive housing in Hayward. Supportive housing is an umbrella term for a range of housing types that help move people along the housing spectrum out of homelessness. They are frequently run by non-profit service providers and, until the zoning changes, are extremely difficult to build because of the long rezoning process.
Due to the City’s Homelessness State of Emergency, declared in 2019, the City is taking steps to rezone select areas of Hayward in order to make developing supportive housing easier. The types of supportive housing are:
Single Room Occupancy (SROs)
Group Homes
Safe Parking Facilities
Shelters and Low-Barrier Navigation Centers
Psychiatric and Rehabilitation Care Facilities
All of these housing types will be restricted to certain areas of the City, mostly along Mission Blvd, Downtown, and the Industrial areas, though each housing type has different needs and allowable areas. “Our goal right now is to create zoning regulations that allow these types of developments,” Staff said, “to make sure our community has the capacity to have these types of things when the needs arise.”
Commissioner Questions
Commissioners Stevens and Meyers asked clarifying questions about two different kinds of development: by-right and Administrative Use Permit (AUP). By-right means the development can just be built, no questions asked. Requiring an AUP means the development needs a permit, which is approved by Staff, to “minimize nuisances,” as Staff put it. Crucially an AUP requires neighbors within 300 feet to be notified of the development and, if any neighbors have an issue with it, they can appeal to the Planning Commission.
Commissioner Haman seemed unaware of the City’s State of Emergency. “Are the five resolutions adopted by the City Council such a height of emergency that we need to remove existing barriers?” he asked. He then asked questions about the Safe Parking zoning, which limits operation to between 5pm and 10am, and asked where people would go between those hours. Staff explained that the expectation is that the vehicles would leave every day and would only serve operable vehicles. His other questions about reservations and length of stay would all be addressed in each individual site’s management plan, which is outside of the Planning Commission’s purview.
Commissioner Meyers asked about the prohibition of portable toilets at safe parking sites, which was added at the request of Maintenance Services, Water Control, and other infrastructural agencies. Commissioner Meyers suggested making an exception for toilet trailers over porta potties, which could be easier to maintain and prove less troublesome for City services.
Commissioner Patterson asked why the psychiatric facilities were exclusively pushed to the industrial zones. Staff explained that the facilities are usually locked-door and most patients were dropped off. They also admitted that, “We felt that, um, certain communities may not want these immediately in their backyard,” and so felt that the industrial area was a more appropriate place.
Blaming Those Trying To Help
Commissioner Meyers started the comments by seemingly reversing his previous support of the Supportive Housing Zoning. Presumably citing the Depot Road Community Apartments development, he stressed the need for “embracing” community feedback and the importance of “getting it right.” He mentioned his time as a union electrician and compared the planning commission to a Shop Steward.
“The Planning Commission exists, in part, to represent the community of Hayward as a whole,” Commissioner Meyers said, “at a very intimate neighborhood level.” After lamenting the loss of Planning Commission control over these projects, he pushed to eliminate by-right development of Supportive Housing projects. “I vehemently oppose the verbage of by-right,” he said. “I’m the only one with real firsthand knowledge of one of these projects that was [by-right]... by-rights eliminated our voice 100%.”
While he was initially supportive of these projects, Commissioner Meyers seemed to push for the very thing that is preventing Supportive Housing projects from being built. Requiring additional time and resources to get a permit and potentially go before the Planning Commission causes costs to skyrocket and funding to be lost. Angry residents have abused the process in the past, similar to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which is why by-right development has been pushed by the Governor.
There are reports that Commissioner Meyers was a part of a community group opposing the development of the Depot Road Community Apartments which include Cronin House, a transitional care facility. He alleged that the community brought forward seven pages of recommendations and that none of them were listened to, though he did not elaborate on what those changes may have been.
Commissioner Meyers then mentioned again that his son is unhoused, but blamed a lack of Supportive Housing on the City and developers for not working more closely with hostile neighborhood residents. “When I see us forcing projects like [this] I realize that we are failing my son because more and more neighbors don’t want this.”
It felt troubling for someone with a generous Union pension to blame the City for “failing” their son. Not only was he advocating for more barriers to the kinds of housing that could help, Commissioner Meyers likely has the financial resources to get his son any help he needs. There are doubtless many reasons he hasn’t been able to and I want to recognize that. But using your unhoused son to shame the City into putting more barriers to supportive housing feels problematic.
Staff responded to Commissioner Meyers’s comments by saying, “Those actions are all already adopted.”
Cost Concerns, Justified Or Not
Commissioner Stevens, who was against the rezoning last time, was still upset that nobody was attending the meeting and that City resources were being used for this project. “I see this costing a ton of money,” he said, “and I see this costing those of us that live here to have to fund this and I think this is inconsistent with what I think a lot of people expect from city leadership.”
Commissioner Stevens also felt that more barriers were needed for Safe Parking sites. “At least two [potential safe parking locations] are very close to residences. People are going to experience this… I think it has to go through a higher level of public scrutiny in a forum such as this or a council.” He seemed unmoved by the idea that Hayward is the only city in the region that doesn’t have a Safe Parking program--both Union City and Fremont have them--or that this could solve issues homeowners already have with RVs being parked on residential streets.
Finally, Commissioner Stevens took issue with the idea of converting hotels to SROs because of the potential loss of tax revenue from the Transient Occupancy Tax. “We do not want to convert revenue-producing assets into things that don’t make money,” he said. He seemed to not consider the current cost in staff time and resources in responding to unhoused residents and that any lost tax revenue may be offset by saved staff resources.
Underinformed About Supportive Housing
Commissioner Haman seemed swayed by the idea of more public input. “I’d like to see the public have more of a say,” he said, “and also would have expected that there would’ve been more people here to say their point of view.” Staff explained that many service providers were notified of the meeting, but opted to wait until the item goes before the full City Council.
In response to Single Room Occupancy [SRO] projects, Commissioner Haman said, “I was wondering if there was any consideration to converting St. Regis [to SROs].” He seemed unaware of the St. Regis project which has been underway since 2022. He also seemed confused about how the rezoning worked. “I did have a question of who is going to pay for all of this.” As Staff had explained earlier, the rezoning merely makes it easier for non-profits to develop specific kinds of supportive housing--it costs the City nothing.
Vice Chair Patterson said, “I appreciate how [the other commissioners are] representing the varying views of the residents of Hayward.” But she also seemed to have difficulty with the array of different housing types. “It’s hard to consider this all at once,” she said. She then asked if there was more time to consider the different types separately, but Staff explained that they had a statutory deadline of January 31st and could not take more time.
Before closing, Staff responded to the assertion that there wasn’t enough community input in the process. “I want to take exception a little bit,” Staff said, “to the fact that there was not significant community outreach because there actually was.” They explained that this was a part of the larger Housing Element which underwent multiple rounds of community outreach over several years. “I wanted to correct some of the comments I heard from the Commissioners this evening.”
Quick Consent Item Rundown
Community Based Transportation Plan
The City will award $250,000 in grant funding to Placeworks to develop a Community Based Transportation Plan (CBTP). According to the staff report, the objective “is to improve transportation accessibility, safety, and sustainability while addressing local concerns in an equitable way. CBTPs consider all transportation modes, including walking, biking, public transit, and others to create a comprehensive and integrated transportation network effectively serving community needs.”
Grants For Animal Shelter
The Keith Lacey Trust is donating $500,000 to the Hayward Animal Shelter for the following projects:
The City’s Spay/Neuter Program
Low-Income Community Based Vet Care Assistance Program
Shelter Animal Vet Care
Shelter Improvement Projects (notably the flooring)
The Shelter Transportation Van
The Hayward Animal Services Bureau also received $100,000 from the UC Davis Koret Shelter Medicine Program for the Trap, Neuter, and Return (TNR) Program for stray neighborhood cats.
Orchard Avenue Traffic Calming Funded
Almost $160,000 will be approved for traffic calming efforts on Orchard Avenue, where Chris Pena was struck and killed in 2023. The projects include removing a travel lane, restriping crosswalks, adding signage, and other low-cost high-impact measures.
More Money On Cop Recruiting
The City is set to spend an additional $168,000 on HPD Recruitment efforts to fill the 26 sworn officer vacancies, 6 Communication Officer vacancies, and 5 Call-Taker vacancies. This is in addition to the $10,000 signing bonus for Sworn Officers and the generous 5% per year raise their union negotiated this year.
Projects Hoping For Funding
Finally, the City is hoping to get funding from the Alameda County Transportation Commission for three transportation projects.
A Downtown Bike Network—focusing on 2nd Street, City Center Drive, C Street, D Street, Watkins Street, and B Street.
Pedestrian and bicycle safety enhancements along D Street between 2nd Street and the eastern City limits—including an uphill bike lane and traffic circles.
Advanced communications infrastructure on Jackson Street (from Santa Clara Street to Mission Boulevard)—including active traffic management and emergency vehicle preemption.