Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

Ok. A lot of people have been writing that they don't want to see surface parking at the lot next to the Fox Theater in the Uptown District. The tower Forest City Development was to build is going to be stalled in this economy for a good, long time. So we have a lot. Yuck. But the reason we have that, and not an alternative plan beyond it, and a lot of "stuff" from staff is that we don't have an overall development plan and regulations specifically for the entire Uptown Area; regulations that could govern signage, sidewalk design, and transportation. We've allowed the area to just sort of grow with piecemeal development projects as opposed to a full, overall plan. Don't blame me folks; I pushed for one long ago, but lost that battle too. What to do about the lot? Well, we could have a party on it! Seriously. Why not have a good, old fashioned Saturday public potluck right out there on that land, just to show that people will actually walk to s