New City Council Grand Bargain: Barnes' Towers and Pleistocene Rewilding

As we wait for compromise and progress on the national scene, we wonder about our new Albany City Council. One block is beholden to the Sierra Club, the other to the University of California and its cadre of developers. What sort of compromises might they make?

I have illustrated the most likely outcome: After they demolish all of our cute cottages, we will be relocated into a walled compound surrounding the huge residential towers that Michael Barnes has outlined in his plan to increase Albany's population density. U.C. will be freed from any aesthetic or size constraints on its Gill Tract development plans, and, in exchange, the Sierra Club will use Albany as a demonstration project for bringing back Pleistocene megafauna to North America. In my illustration, the Golden Gate has also been rewilded by removing that pesky bridge.

The newly rearranged Albany will be much more efficient, greener, and walkable. Win, win, win!