Please note that this opinion piece is not intended to weigh in on any of the controversial construction projects currently being considered in Rockridge. It is merely sharing the perspective I gained by living in a European City.
After spending my first couple of years studying in San Francisco, I was lucky enough to spend a year in Paris during my junior year of college. I loved both cities. Recently, I was surprised to learn that Paris has a smaller footprint than San Francisco (41 versus 49 square miles) and houses 2.6 times more residents (2.1 million versus 800,000). Both cities are beautiful, walkable, and easy to get around. But Paris felt so much larger to me.
It turns out that most of Paris was rebuilt between 1853 and 1870 to replace overcrowded, medieval neighborhoods. The city created six-story Haussmann-style apartment buildings using uniform limestone facades, 45-degree-angled gray zinc roofs, and wrought-iron balconies. Wide boulevards and large parks brought air and light to the City of Love, with the Seine River flowing through its heart.
A French friend of mine visited our two-story Rockridge Craftsman home in the 1980s and asked me what suburb we lived in. When I told her we lived in the City of Oakland, she didn’t believe me. She said our neighborhood was a suburb, not a city! And in fact, many people around the world would not understand why we in the Bay Area are upset that the new height limits for buildings within half a mile of major transit stops in cities will soon be six, seven, or eight stories—depending on their proximity to transit stops. After all, we live in cities. The height limit for most new buildings in Paris is now 12 stories.
Similar, But Different
Yet, Rockridge has a different history from Paris. It was largely built in the 1910s and 1920s with one- or two-story Craftsman homes, mostly single-family. It’s a charming neighborhood, which I sometimes refer to as Shangri-La. Those of us who have owned homes here for decades can often sell them for 10 times their original price.
Not only can Rockridge residents walk to BART and the bus, but we can also walk to buy groceries, maintain our cars, dry-clean our clothes, buy books and household items, and eat at dozens of restaurants. Many people would like to live in Rockridge, but there hasn’t been much new housing other than ADUs. What does come on the market is far more expensive than it was in the 1980s, when my husband and I moved in.
To address the housing crisis, last year Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law SB 79 (the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act). Since July 2026, SB 79 has permitted both residential and commercial buildings within half a mile of Rockridge BART to go up a few more stories. (Note: I understand this law to allow buildings between five and eight stories, so I am somewhat confused by other laws that seem to allow taller buildings for luxury senior residences.)
Overall, my husband leans NIMBY, while I lean YIMBY, but we’ve both been trying to clarify what these new laws mean for our neighborhood, and how we can all make the best of it. I don’t know how much influence neighbors will have on what developers decide to do. For now, I’ve come up with three wishes:
- I’d like any new five- to eight-story apartment buildings to be built on main avenues, such as College, Claremont, and Broadway, rather than on the residential blocks. Let’s keep as many Craftsman and other historic homes as we possibly can!
- I’d like the taller buildings to have retail on the ground floor as well as greenery and flowers, in keeping with the many gardens found in the area. They should add to the walkability of the neighborhood. They should also have enough parking for the residents of the building.
- I’d like the designs of these buildings to be aesthetically pleasing and have some common theme, such as the Haussmann buildings in Paris. I know it might be a pipe dream to expect developers to work together, but it would be great if the new buildings brought the neighborhood together the way the Craftsman homes have. Perhaps our neighborhood needs someone like Baron Haussmann, the French official who supervised the radical new programs of boulevards, parks, and buildings in Paris in the 1800s? Or, perhaps we could create a new position called Director of New Housing with enough power to keep new buildings to an aesthetic code that’s compatible with the Craftsman style.
