Tom Bates Freeway Fields

Bates Freeway Fields sign	Golden Gate Fields storage	Traffic on Interstate 80.	Interstate 80 looking north.
Freeway Fields parcel	Berkeley Marina	Interstate 80 looking south	Pacific Steel Casting Foundry
Pacific Steel Casting Foundry	Golden Gate Fields	Golden Gate Fields	Golden Gate Fields
The Gilman Street project, like a number of other west Berkeley projects, has raised conflicts about air quality and land use. The city has failed to seriously look at this growing rezoning problem in West Berkeley. The city’s projects come to the zoning process piecemeal. Even when challenged, questions about actual project impacts to the area and their rezoning inconsistencies are never fully addressed. Harrison Skate Park and Soccer Fields and the Ursula Sherman Village transitional housing for the homeless in the middle of Oceanview’s industrial manufacturing sector are prime examples of this. For the record: Freeway emissions are very toxic. The closer one is to Highway 80, the worse the air quality is likely to be. This isn’t rocket science, but health science. Further, in the last decade, numerous freeway studies have confirmed the association between highway auto emissions/traffic density and many respiratory problems including asthma and bronchitis, increased hospitalizations for asthma and the decrease in lung function in some children. These are all potential concerns at the Gilman Street project, especially for those already at risk. <READ MORE>

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