Attending an Environmental Impact Report Hearing: One Bay Area
by
Andrew Saephan - Oakland High School
As
soon as I stepped into the conference room (with Kasey, Arnold, Emily, Thanh,
Leah, and Jill), I realized that I was going to participate in something really
important in my community. This public
bearing was about a proposed plan to redesign the neighborhood and
transportation to make the community and surrounding metropolitan areas more
'sustainable'. This public hearing sparked quite a few interests in me. First
the plan has to do a lot about public
transportation
which I take often because I cannot
drive. Another reason was that it was proposed with the main intention to make
things more sustainable. Moreover, I was interested because my intended major in
college is environmental planning.
There
were not many people there, I was surprised because on a pamphlet it said it
notified 7 million people about the hearings all over the bay. However in
Oakland (representing Alameda County), only about 40 people showed up. That
really surprised me, especially when the committee stated that it basically
notified the entire Bay Area! I thought there were going to hundreds of people
there. Either I'm wrong or only .00000571(40/7million) percent of people care
about their future. Thus this claim made by the plan committee is very
debatable.
Another
point that was very interesting to me is that, if the plan were to be
initiated, then it would displace thousands of families so that it could
attract richer people. This struck sympathy in me and I felt for the low income
that would be displaced. The committee seemed to have taken this advice in
particularly well taking note on that to address that in their revision of the
proposed planning.
One
thing that shocked me was that Kasey went up in from of the board and public to
share her opinions on public transportation. She advocated that this plan
should incorporate more hydrogen fuel-cell buses and having the bus increase
their service to make it more friendly to the people who rely on them as their
means of transportation. For example she touched base on how the on hydrogen
fuel
cell bus was amazing and that despite its awesomeness, there needs to be more
buses during time of rush hour and mass commute.
In
the end, a man thanked all of the youth for attending the meeting because we
really struck him with the fact that youth still actually cared about how
policies will affect our lives and our environment. All in all, it was great to
have witnessed how our system of government works. This plan is required and
inevitable but to know about it is another thing. I believe that with my
knowledge the changes that are about to occur will not be too much a shock for
me. and who knows, I may even partake in it after I successfully get through
college. --- Andrew Saephan
