Mr. Meyers' support of Free Markets is a little...conditional...

Basically, they wish to let the free market operate as it may, which is the right thing to do, when the free market wants to build apartment buildings. But it's the wrong thing to do when it wants to build office buildings.

But is it? Mr. Meyers assumes that Berkeley has a chronic need for housing regardless of Geography. This is certainly true in Southside or North Berkeley. But the proposed office developments are for West Berkeley, a slumming Industrial area.

Here, there's good arguments for office developments. Office parks will turn a poor industrial center into a modernized industrial center. It'll replace job creation centers that produce high pollution with ones that are low pollution. Transit-wise, West Berkeley is a short hop from I-80 already, and will be less of a burden on major Berkeley streets like University and Telegraph. In terms of housing, West Berkeley is already a high-pollution, high-noise industrial area, hardly desirable for housing. Indeed, Progressives opposed the office buildings on fear of gentrification and lack of artist workspace, not really for housing reasons.


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