1) People are angry that Mayor Lockhart has emphasized higher-density housing, i.e., condominums. People want to see a lot more SFRs built instead.

2) One of the perceived drawbacks to condos and other forms of higher-density housing is that they introduce a criminal element, if I am not mistaken.

3) BART is apparently in some way bad for the city, because it too introduces a criminal element (again, if I am interpreting these comments correctly).

Now, my responses:

1) It's understandable that some people might object to the apparent urbanizing of some parts of Dublin. Higher profiles means views impaired for many people, particularly in single-family residences. However, some factors suggest that this was inevitable. For one, Dublin is situated right at the intersection of two busy freeways. It's kind of hard not to notice the flyover connecting South 680 to East 580, even from a few miles away. The high-density areas aren't significantly taller than that span. Also, BART arrived here a few years back, and some people like the idea of using their cars a little less. Higher-density residential areas and transit villages help make this possible. Being close to BART is a real selling point for many people, and higher-density units near BART means more people can enjoy that flexibility. My wife rode BART to the A's game last night. This is not a bad thing.

2) In the condos where we live (Elan), there isn't any more crime than anywhere else in Dublin. In fact, there is probably a bit less. No one here is getting mugged. Everyone we have met here has been friendly and courteous. We are a couple of teachers who probably would have been priced out of the market if we had wanted a home at any time other than this recession. The biggest problem we have to worry about is people not knowing which way the garage doors open. We've had to replace two so far.

3) As I mentioned before, the presence of BART is not a bad thing. Many cities in the Bay Area have access to BART without attracting the criminal element. Do you hear about crime waves in Orinda and Lafayette? No, not exactly, and yet they've had BART since the beginning. There is no reason why Dublin has to be any different. The bank robberies in fact tend to be committed by people in cars, and from out of town. I recently heard of a drug addict from San Jose who was caught after holding up a bank here in Dublin. Again, not caused by BART.

I will readily agree that this city needs to do a better job of attracting businesses that are not merely retail-based. There is a lot of that space already (though I do think we need a cafe or a pizza place in our neck of the woods). But at the same time, is it really so terrible that some condos have been built here? This is the trend in cities that already have BART stations, and it makes sense on a number of levels. Look at the Pleasant Hill station, for example. There is some huge development going on right next to the station–because the station is already there, and that's a big selling point for businesses and homeowners. It's expensive to expand BART to places like Tracy and Brentwood. It's a lot less expensive to just build up where the existing system already is. Walnut Creek has suffered no loss of prestige because of mass transit; on the contrary, it has probably attracted more shoppers because of it.

I for one would rather live here than in Windemere. My wife and I used to live in the Cornerstone apartments (near Gayle Ranch) which were far from everything, and the area was clearly overbuilt. We can keep digging into hillsides and sprawling our suburbs out over distant horizons, or we can build a little more intelligently within the lines that are already drawn. It's a pretty simple decision.

Sabranti: “Mayor Elect” for his open mind and similiar concerns about High Density Housing and the need for SFR neighborhoods and Balance.

Hildenbrand: “Council Re-elect” for her open mind and similiar concerns about High Density Housing and the need for SFR Neighborhood and Balance.

Zukoski: “Council Elect to replace Oravetz” for his open mind and similiar concerns about High Density Housing and the need for SFR Neighborhoods and Balance.

Abulencia: “Council Elect to fill Sabranti’s seat” for his views of a need for smart and responsible land use planning.

NO to Hart (no need for redux as former school board member along with Lockhart that was part of the land to housing developer decision which equals an Absolute NO 2nd H.S.. If you are a parent in E. Dublin you know what a burning issue this today due to their decision. A Lockhart groupie or minion whatever you want to call it). Made no statement about High Density Housing.

NO to Boboc (unknown as have not made any tangible statements about the issues facing Dublin)

Do your own research and decide for yourself, be careful as we do not want status quo on our current path of high density housing.

Wonderful response, it is reassuring that there are so many who cares about the community and share similiar thoughts on this topic. I know some politicians have chose to ignore, dismiss or even chastise this blog. Too bad for them, their lost as they would be out of touch with the pulse of the City.

Many posts, whether anonymous or not, presented valid opinions and either with correct or incorrect facts. There is no denying though the central theme of opposition to the continued path of building High Density Housing. If you read each and every post, regardless if you agree with the opionion or the facts presented, it all said one thing, enough now with the High Density. Time to start a new and more prosperous, balanced era.

Now we have a sounding board to keep a close eye on City Hall, hold our elected officials to their words. Be on them to get us back on track to a better balance of our housing stock (Low vs High). Unlike from 2000-2008, with the exception of Mr. Firenze City Hall operated automnymously (is this a word?) without Citizen involvement. That is how we got to this point in the first place. During these past 8 years unfortunately a lot of Dubliners were new to town and really didn’t get involved. Now we are becoming more seasoned with the town we’ll hopefully see more involvement to help re-shape this town to what we had originally thought it would be when we decided to invest in it.

We handed the Benz keys to City Hall in 2000 and got a Hyundai back in 2008, no offense to Hyundai owners, it is a good car but not quite a Benz. We won’t let that happen again and allow City Hall to go unchecked. Together Dubliners and City Hall can turn this around and get us our Benz back.

I am confident that the Candidates we have now for City Hall will finally be advocates of its shareholders (Dublin Residents) instead of advocates of Developer Shareholders, County, State and Feds.

Stay involved!! Don’t let your eye off the ball again as we did the last 8 years.