Paper ideas

Our group began by focusing on two main topics, CEQA litigation and
homelessness. We decided that while CEQA was an important topic both for
developers and those seeking to oppose development, it might be a hard paper
topic to tackle. We moved on to talking about homelessness and what can be
done to make downtown more attractive. We decided that it would be
interesting to research the number of shelters downtown and where they are
located to find out if at least some of the homeless presence could be due
to the fact that there isn't enough shelter room for those who want it. We
also thought that it might make sense to require developers or others who
want to relocate to downtown Berkeley to fund some of the cost of increasing
shelters and services, if that is indeed part of the problem.
We talked a lot about other ways in which downtown is currently not
drawing a lot of people and ways in which it might. It was suggested that
placing shopping near the BART may or may not actually draw shoppers there,
depending on how many options were available and what type of retail went in
there. We discussed how people might stop by a shop to pick something up on
their way home or to school, but that it still made sense to do big shopping
trips by car or to places where retail was less expensive. One idea we had
was of relocating the football stadium to the corner of Fulton and Bancroft,
which is currently being discussed. We think that this would draw a huge
number of people into downtown on football weekends and would concentrate
them there, instead of being spread out in the eastern part of Berkeley.
Once downtown, these people would go to bars and restaurants before and
after games. Also, that stadium would be much more accessible by BART,
enabling more people to get there by public transportation and requiring
fewer cars. We also discussed ways to incentivize public transportation,
such as running free shuttles and closing the streets leading to the stadium
to cars. Finally, we began talking about other uses the stadium could have,
such as for events and concerts. This could lead to a continued use of the
stadium and make downtown Berkeley more of a destination city.