Trader Joe's on University and Martin Luther King
The new Trader Joe’s on University and Martin Luther King will open on June 11, but be prepared to walk rather than drive.
The new store only has 48 parking spaces, and the city council, wary of squeezing out spaces used by nearby residents, voted this week to severely limit street parking in the area.
Shoppers frequenting the popular chain may have to search for parking spaces – and walk further than they might like – because the city is restricting parking on four streets near Trader Joe’s – Berkeley Way, Addison, Bonita, and Grant.
On those streets, people without residential parking permits will only be allowed to park on one side of the street. Those with permits can park on both sides of the street.
The restrictions will be in place from 8 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday.
“Forty-eight parking spaces is probably not sufficient to absorb all the demand,” said Farid Javendel, the transportation manager for the city of Berkeley. “There is some expectation there will be some impact on the neighborhood.”
Patrons of the North Berkeley Senior Center, located nearby at Hearst and Martin Luther King, are worried that shoppers at Trader Joe’s will worsen an already difficult parking situation. Hundreds of seniors come to the center each day for meals, programs, and field trips, and the city routinely holds meetings there in the evening. The center has a small parking lot in the back, which fills up quickly. Seniors can buy a $1 permit that allows them to leave their cars on the street all day, but parking can be difficult.
“It’s bad enough now,” said Allen Stross, a member of the Berkeley Commission on Aging. “It is going to be worse when Trader Joe’s opens.”
While the store does not have much dedicated parking, it is in an area frequented by many pedestrians and they may become customers, said Javendel. It’s near BART, there are numerous bus lines running by the store, and there are a lot of offices, houses, and apartments nearby. The city center complex is just a block away and Berkeley High, with about 3,200 students, is two blocks away.
It costs about $40,000 to build a parking space, said Javendel, and since the parking is on the ground floor each additional space would have cut into the store’s footprint.
On Thursday, workmen were putting final touches on the exterior of the building. Inside, workers were stocking products and getting ready for next Friday’s opening.
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I welcome Trader Joe’s sales tax revenue to Berkeley, but this location is stupid, I feel for the neighbors and the senior center.
I am a neighbor, and I am glad I have a store I can walk to.
This store will help Berkeley shift away from auto-dependency. This sort of pedestrian-oriented development is a vital step toward controlling global warming.
Yes, centrally located at the junction of two main thoroughfares is a ridiculous place to put a grocery store. Okay, I do get the ‘put it downtown’ argument, but, personally, I look forward to the continued revitalization of this stretch of University Avenue. For my household, it means 312 less vehicle miles less per year (6.0 mi. RT to El Cerrito x 52 weeks).
I welcome the new Trader Joe’s tax revenues and I also feel for the neighbors.
I live downtown and I am thrilled that a grocery store is coming downtown.
It seems to me that TJ’s could have been forced to create more parking, even if it does cost them forty thousand per parking space — that seems like their cost of doing busiiness. It doesn’t seem fair to offload the burden to the neighborhood.
As a society, we have to change many habits. A pedestrian oriented development is, as Charles Siegel already pointed out, vital to changing some of our unsustainable habits. Change is challenging.
Quite a lot of people live within walking distance of this store. All those people must be going out of downtown to buy groceries. They can walk to the Berkeley Bowl, which is only about a mile form the downtown BART (to give people a frame of reference). I walk to Berkeley Bowl regularly and people with cars are always amazed. We have to get out of the mindset that thinks walking a mile to buy groceries is unthinkable.
The head-spinning hypocrisy of Berkeley NIMBYs comes to bear. At a time when we should all be hanging out heads in shame at what our addiction to fossil fuel hath wrought, and in a city that prides itself on green values, we still have those whose selfishness seems as boundless as the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
I guess for these NIMBYs, environmentalism ends where their supposed divine right to easy parking begins. Car owners in Berkeley pay nowhere near the true costs of their parking needs, but nonetheless throw a temper tantrum when the parking they aren’t fully paying for becomes any less convenient.
The greenest option would have been no parking at TJ’s whatsoever, but there was a generally recognized need for a realistic compromise. Unfortunately, it seems that NIMBYs see no environmental imperative so important that it requires any compromise on their parts.
The City Council debated this for months. I think the location is good for nearby residents and students. The walk-ability factor is very good. Those desiring easy, unlimited parking should move to Pleasanton or someplace less urban. Most Berkeley residents want a village environment, not a super-urban-high rise, or a sprawling big box with acres of parking either. This construction, offering a popular grocery, will also have a locally run cafe with seating for 54 patrons who will vie for the same total parking spaces, with no cafe designated spots. I for one would hope they have ample bike stands, rather than more car spaces. We have to get out of this “drive-thru” mentality.
The economic math is fairly simple: A store needs a certain number of customers buying a certain amount of groceries to cover the payroll and pay the rent. Fewer customers, and the store closes. We used to have corner grocery stores all around Berkeley, but then people wanted the low prices and variety that supermarkets offered. Now a supermarket is no longer special enough: we need the fancy produce provided by Berkeley Bowl or Monterey Market, the organic offered by Berkeley Natural or Whole Foods, or the plastic covered tomatoes of Trader Joes (it’s been a long time since I’ve been in a TJ, but that’s what I remember). Trader Joes has its own niche market, and there are those who will drive to get to it. There are those in the neighborhood who will shop at TJ because it’s close and they find it not worth the drive/bike to another store. In the end, the store will survive if enough people shop at it.
I remember the discussions about TJ going in on this corner, and I think people are overly optimistic about the number of people who will “walk” to this store. If everyone in the neighborhood shopped there, that would probably be enough. But, as looking at EBguy above, he drove to El Cerrito to shop at TJ. Yes, he can now avoid driving, but I suspect there are people half-way between “our” TJ and the El Cerrito TJ who will still want to drive to the store, and they many of them will drive to downtown Berkeley.
We don’t have a supermarket in Downtown Berkeley (I live just north of downtown), but we have Andronicos and Safeways on popular bus and bike routes from downtown. I suspect that TJ will draw as many people (or more) in by car than it reduces those who are currently driving from downtown to other stores.
Get over the parking issue. It will work itself out. Nothings ever perfect but the preemptive “freak out” about parking madness is silly and so NIMBY. Trader Joe’s is in the exact right place for Cal students, local neighbors, residents in the building, BHS and everyone. The “Divine Right to Park” is going to eventually be part of the past when everyone figures out we can walk a little more and bike to the store. All hail to “2 buck chuck” and more stuff happening in downtown!
It will be the angriest Trader Joe’s ever.
As usual, Berkeley Betters start the NIMBY labeling and telling people to just move if you don’t 100% agree with them. A recent study showed the meanest people are those who claim to be the greenest.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/15/green-consumers-more-likely-steal
For the record, my family walks or bikes, we walk far, we do not see that many other people walking especially in the evenings. We have a single car for 4 people, we use it groceries, carrying loads and out of town trips. I could never managed 4-5 bags of groceries walking, I shop for two households most trips.
Whatever traffic and hassles the neighborhoods endures, the city will benefit from increased revenue from parking tickets.
I will continue to go to College Ave TJ, which is a particularly friendly store which is a welcome relief in this intense culture and avoid parking fines or problems.
If a jar in my spice rack has cinnamon in it, I label it cinnamon. If someone throws an irrational and/or disproportionate tantrum over a widely-supported, well-designed, and meritorious mixed-use, urban infill project, I label them a NIMBY. Tough cookies.
Actually, the study you cited and its media coverage have been criticized by several prominent psychological organizations: http://bit.ly/bOv5Nh
Study participants ethical behaviors were examined after they were required by the study to go green. If anything, this study demonstrates that NIMBYs forced to walk or take transit are more likely to lie, cheat and steal.
Funny how New Yorkers survive with no parking at any of the most popular grocery stores such as Fairway, Zabars, Wholefoods. They even shop when the weather is freezing. Berkeleyans stop complaining, you don’t know how lucky you are.
It’s at times like this when we need a new version of that old gameshow, “Match Game.”
“The parking at my neighborhood Trader Joe’s is so tight…”
[add joke from Charles Nelson Reilly here]
Hey, Eric Panzer, what do you think of Berkeley Bowl West? Nice addition to the ‘hood, isn’t it?
Lot of plans had to be altered in a contentious process to get it there at all.
Twas a NIMBY action that got it there. And, from the looks of it, a win-win for the objectors and the owners.
NIMBY ain’t an insult. Sure, NIMBY is not automatically right, either, but, you know – it does some substantial good, too. I think that’s the gist of Ms. Menard’s nub of the point there: reflexive NIMBY-as-insult labeling is BS.
I live 2 blocks away and I’ve spent the last year watching this go up and wondering where the parking was going to be. I guess the answer is in front of my house. I’m glad that I can walk to a Trader Joe’s but it’s really going to make a mess of an already messy neighborhood. Too bad.
There are NIMBYs. Then there are Berkeley NIMBYs.
If MLK and University isn’t considered downtown, then Berkeley has no downtown.
What’s most entertaining about all this is that people living near a major commercial street are trying to control the usage of public street space. As long as this sense of entitlement to public street space for personal parking continues, Berkeley will remain a car-first city. It’s really astonishing on a stroll through any neighborhood just how many cars there are.
Moved to Berk after 20 years in the mission. Avid walker. Two things have surprised and disappointed me about this mostly fabulous town: I hardly ever see other pedestrians, and no small markets are open after 7 pm when I get off BART.
I will walk a mile N then some to TJs and enjoy it, but I’d rather shop at Country Cheese around the corner – but the deli closes at 5 pm and they aren’t open on Sundays.
I’m not thrilled by the new structure for a host of smaller reasons… not a huge TJ fan, feel it imposes an undue burden on those who live near it, etc…. but wouldn’t the arrival of TJ’s on University be a great reason to experiment with some transit innovations? Emeryville friends are happy with the Emery-go-round shuttle service from BART to business, shopping, and back. Woudn’t it be cool if we could pilot a Saturday-only shuttle linking BART (all Berkeley stations), Farmer’s Market, Strawberry Canyon Pool (now that parking is obliterated), 4th Street, Marina, the soccer fields …. all those weekend things that would be so great to access?
I don’t mean to be too forward. We’ve never met so far as I know. I’m happily married man so I don’t mean this that way but: I think I love you.
More Shuttles: Yes, please. How can we work this issue?
Is the Emery-go-round publicly or privately funded? Who operates it? What are start-up costs like? What is the experience of other jurisdictions? Can such a shuttle share bus-stop space (and shelters) with AC Transit? Can such shuttles accommodate bike racks (as on buses)? What are the options for cargo carrying (as in bags of groceries and/or business-to-business transport)? What fancy options might be available for on-demand scheduling and routing with high accessibility? Which Council members might be most likely to invest a bit in exploring the options? What do the academic transportation guys up the hill have to say about adding shuttles (other than those already extant for Cal, LBL, etc.) into the mix – can they sanity check the notion? How can local big employers and big retailers help? What, if any, local ordinances or ordinance changes are needed?
I’ve mentioned in passing on this blog and elsewhere a few times my very vague notion that Berkeley should concentrate on having parking at the periphery and a lot of flyweight intracity options like shuttles, indeed with the BART stations as hubs. I’ve just never been in a position to (or at least never quite seen how I’m in a position to) turn the vague notion into something to be studied and perhaps implemented.
Your flyweight pilot project suggestion sounds like a very promising idea.
I suspect the incentives in Berkeley today are far different from the mix of economic interests which first gave rise to Emery-go-round. When nascent biotech companies were first seeking highly-educated, child-free workers, I guess they could put a lot of attention into interesting transit options and ambitious retail/housing projects like BayStreet. I’m sure things must be changing there somewhat. (Although Emeryville can still rent out public school campus space to the Piedmont school district to relocate entire schools to Emeryville so that Piedmont schools can be modernized and renovated, which indicates that kids must not be a big factor in civic planning yet…)
Which is why I raised the notion of a one-day-a-week pilot program. And I don’t know what the economic model might be.
Maybe get some of the AC transit transbay drivers who only work those weird “am rush hour plus pm rush hour” shifts (per union contract) could trade away one or two of those shifts to do a Saturday shift. (The fact that I’m even posing a suggestion that would require a shift in the union contract is evidence of my obvious idealistic ignorance about these things….)
Maybe experiment with one of those odd taxi-cum-bus jitney systems which thrive in parts of India: the taxi (size of small bus) takes off on a fore-ordained route whenever they get the requisite 8 to 10 passengers who pay a standard fare (which is cheaper than a taxi but more costly than typical India public bus).
The local employers large enough to join in creating the system would probably be Bayer, UC, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, City College, a joint affiliation of Fourth Street merchants, Alta Bates, and the soon-to-be-formed Joint Powers Authority of Berkeleyside commenters.
I am a TJ neighbor and I am thrilled! My life will be improved tremendously now that I can walk to a full service grocery store. June 11 can’t come soon enough.
What’s most entertaining about all this is that people living near a major commercial street are trying to control the usage of public street space.
During the most contentious time when this building was being argued before the City Council, I was tempted to go to one of the meetings and complain about the privatization of the Berkeley Way/Grant block SW of the store due to the addition of the traffic barrier cul-de-sac just south of the TJs entrance. That would have sent the locals into a tizzy. To be fair, though, those folks are still going to get hosed, as their neighborhood seems the most natural to be hit for TJ’s over flow parking (right on MLK, right on University, right on Berkeley Way). While I’m not a great fan of the the single side of the street ‘privatization’, it seems like a decent compromise. More parking fine revenue for the city!
But, as looking at EBguy above, he drove to El Cerrito to shop at TJ.
Honestly, I did try to convince my wife that schlepping 2 kids and groceries six miles in a Burley trailer would be fun; she thinks otherwise.
The Emery Go Round shuttle is a private transportation service, funded solely by commercial property owners in the citywide transportation business improvement district.
Emery Go Round is a service of the Emeryville Transportation Management Association, a non-profit organization whose primary purpose is to increase access and mobility to, from and within Emeryville while alleviating congestion through operati on of the shuttle program. The TMA Board of Directors, which also serves as the official representative of property owners for the Business Improvement District, determines tax assessment rates as well as the level of shuttle service on an annual basis.
We are always interested in your feedback.
Phone: (510)451-3862
Email: info@emerygoround.com
Mailing:
Emeryville TMA
1300 67th St
Emeryville, CA 94608
Peter Oswald, Executive Director
Doug Patterson, Project Manager
Board of Directors (2008)
Denise Pinkston, TMG Partners – President
Bob Cantor, Emeryville Chamber of Commerce – Vice President
Geoff Sears, Wareham Development – Secretary/Treas.
Sandy Brownstone – Hines
Lisa Finnin-Ciccoli – IKEA
Al DeGroot – Novartis
Gerald Hackett – Pixar Animation Studios
Robert Portilla – BRE/Avenue 64
Danelle Roth – Catellus
Ron Weller – MMRS/Bay Street
I am a neighbor and I have been really looking forward to the store opening! My only wish would be that the TJ’s parking lot could stay open after hours so that neighbors or visiting friends could park there… however, I know that it won’t be very likely since homeless people might camp out in there as well.
This location is 10 minutes walking distance from 2 BART stations and I think that it will be great for UC Berkeley students! Even those that don’t have cars since it is near the 51 bus line.
[...] only 48 parking spaces at the store, and neighbors are worried that Trader Joe’s customers will make an already tight parking situation even more difficult. Berkeley is designating some areas around the store as residential parking [...]
Are there bike-racks at this TJ’s? I’ve taken the bus past it four or five times and I either can’t see or forget.. anyone know offhand? Or even better – are there photos of the finished front anywhere I can look at online real quick before I head over that way?