The origin of its application to Concord Naval Weapon Station study group by the City Council provides no clues as to the expectation or structure of what is expected at the practical level.

Having attended the meetings and read the thousands of pages of material and footnotes there is NO addressing of the issue of what is World Class.

In two of the last meetings of the Community Action Committee, I spoke to the subject for the first time in the public comment part. Mentioning that it has been ignored and it is a difficult area to address because it has not been defined or touched upon other than as is described above as a Buzz word.

Some ideas of what World Class COULD BE in practical terms as I presented them, though I acknowledge that this is just a start and needs to be refined”

1. Altering the road network to take into account the sunrise and sunset axis during the seasons so as to avoid driving into the blinding sun.

2. Making use of round-abouts rather than stop lighted intersections as a means to keep traffic moving and reduce congestion

3. Establishng bicycle lanes that are separated by a curb and grass/sidewalk area so that the bike riders are protected from the cars and the other way around

4. Using extensive tree planting with the idea of creating an over shadow on the roadways since the second most common destroyer of the roads is the UV rays of the sun. This would mean that the long term cost of the road surface maintenance would be greatly reduced…as well as more pleasing

5. Consideration of a Rainbow approach to arching the development from the Bart station so as to put the start of the various districts *University/residential/commercial and retail
in ever increasing bands that allows for cross connectivity rather than block districts

6. Providing central wide street with the possibility of light rail connections that could swing down to Willow Pass and hook into the existing city.

These ideas were only quick short thoughts on the topic of making something World Class in that others might want to copy the ideas here. Some these ideas may fall short and others can be improved upon in the details of the future development.

However, there was no take up on these ideas or further engagement on the subject which I found disappointing.

Without addressing the challenge of trying to put details to the concept of World Class then we will simply be surrendering to the vogue of Buzzwords rather than rising to the challenge that it should be in practical applications.

Edi Birsan
EdiBirsan at Astound Dot Net