Is the Project Financially Responsible?
The City of El Cerrito is pursuing the Richmond Street Complete Streets Improvement Project despite significant financial concerns. The cost of implementation and future maintenance far outweighs the projected benefits. Many cities across California, such as San Mateo, have reversed similar bike lane projects due to overwhelming community pushback and unforeseen expenses—at great cost. Furthermore, this project relies on grant funding which, while beneficial, does not justify imposing a plan that negatively impacts the majority of taxpaying residents. At a time when City resources should be allocated toward pressing infrastructure needs, this project represents financial irresponsibility that will burden El Cerrito residents for years to come.
The Richmond Street Complete Streets Improvement Project
As proposed is based upon
FAULTY FINANCING!
The Richmond Street Complete Streets Improvement Project, as proposed, is not a good investment now or in the long term. In fact, it is a malinvestment—resources wasted in inefficient ways and on low-priority efforts. It is a typical project that gets approved for political reasons, while most of the proposed measures are either unnecessary or corrupted by special interest groups (a small 0.3 % minority of bicyclists) that harm the local community.
Did the City officials ask: “Is this the right project right now?” Did they ask the right questions of the residents—the real experts—who live on Richmond Street? Did they research the root cause of the perceived problems?
Or was the City so blinded by the prospect of receiving an $8 million grant that it got approval and funding for a solution that is all wrong, on so many levels?
Unfortunately, the political process in general is biased against dull but valuable projects, such as basic road maintenance, and biased in favor of more flashy or grandiose projects, such as a “safer” and “greener” El Cerrito. This may look good in the media, but the City overestimates the minimal benefits and underestimates the mountain of serious disadvantages of the plans.
At 10.25%, the El Cerrito sales tax is among the highest in the country.
The median property tax rate in El Cerrito is 1.50%, considerably higher than the national average of 0.99%
In 2008 we approved ballot Measure A to establish “a dedicated one-half cent sales tax to be used exclusively for street improvements.”
El Cerrito taxpayers foot the bill for street improvements with property and sales taxes. Their concerns should be seriously addressed. While a grant may relieve some of the budget shortfalls, it does not mean the City can arbitrarily impose a plan on taxpayers who are negatively impacted by this measure and who are against it! The majority of residents (90%) oppose the plan.
In October 2024, the Larkspur Chamber of Commerce reported that only 20 bikers cross the Richmond-San Rafael bridge every morning. That’s 0.11% of the 18,000 commuters. They are now in the process of converting the bike lanes to an HOV/Transit lane.
In February 2025, the San Mateo City Council unanimously supported restoring the majority of the parking spaces the City removed on Humboldt Street to make room for bike lanes that were installed just a couple years ago. The City did not heed vehement pushback from the community prior to moving ahead on the project and is now looking at a $2 million reversal cost. “These bike lanes are a classic example of the city doing something to the North Central residents. Not with them, but to them”, said council member Nicole Fernandez.
The City of El Cerrito’s engineering guidance shows that approximately 8,400 drivers use Richmond Street, but it does not provide the number of bicyclists using Richmond Street.
In our Richmond Street Neighbors Association meeting with the City Engineer Yvetteh Ortiz and Sustainable Transportation Program Manager Jarrett Mullen in February 2025, we were told that unlike car traffic, it was not possible to research bicycle traffic numbers on Richmond Street.
On two clear-weather weekdays in January 2025, we did our own research. We monitored the 1400 block of Richmond Street starting at 7:00 AM until after dark, recording 27 bicycle passings on January 28 and 24 bicycle passings on January 29. Compared to 8,400 daily car trips, those bicyclists accounted for an average of 0.3 %—three-tenths of one percent—of traffic, not counting pedestrians, scooters or motorcycles. Including the number of pedestrians and other traffic participants lowers the percentage of bicyclists using Richmond Street further.
One wonders if the City of El Cerrito is there to serve the interest of taxpayers who actually live on Richmond Street 100% of the time, or is it beholden to the less than 0.3%—three-tenths of one percent—of bicyclists in the name of what their website calls “bicyclist comfort?”
Conclusion: The expense to build and maintain bike paths in lieu of street parking is not in the best interest of the residents of Richmond Street nor cost efficient relative to the number of bicyclists using them. It is a very flawed plan and simply not the best use of our tax dollars.