Blog: March, 2011
How Leftover Urban Spaces Can Fix Big Problems for San Francisco
The City of San Francisco owns 1,625 parcels of unmaintained paved land, odd alley-like spaces behind industrial buildings and beneath overpasses. Most are no wider than a city street, but together they have a combined surface area half the size of Golden Gate Park.
That’s a lot of city-owned land just sitting there collecting plastic bags. Their shape, size and location — often alongside highways or near industry — make these leftover lots unusable for traditional development. But what if there was a way to reclaim them for public use?
That’s the question UC Berkeley architecture professor Nicholas de Monchaux asks with his project “Local Code: Real Estates,” on view at the SPUR Urban Center gallery through April 20. Inspired by the artist Gordon Matta-Clark’s “Fake Estates” project from the 1970s, de Monchaux has proposed a reinvention of these spaces as a hybrid of public park and public infrastructure.
For “Fake Estates,” Matta-Clark spent three years combing public records to find 15 abandoned sites in New York City. Thanks to today’s GIS (geographic information systems) technology, de Monchaux and his students were able to identify a remarkable 1,625 sites in San Francisco using a database maintained by the Department of Public Works. The exhibit lays out a detailed proposal for the adaptive reuse of more than 1,000 of them, each tailored to local conditions. In an interview with the New York Times’ Allison Arieff last year, de Monchaux called the sites “a whole archipelago of city-owned lots lying fallow.”
Though the proposals call for removing pavement and replacing it with vegetation, these aren’t simply parks; they’re primarily a means to improve stormwater retention and air quality and mitigate the heat-island effect, the temperature rise that asphalt and buildings bring to highly developed areas. In a talk at the exhibit opening, de Monchaux pointed out that these abandoned sites appear most frequently in underserved and low-lying areas where asthma and crime rates are high and drainage is poor: exactly the kinds of places that most need intervention.
In the gallery space, de Monchaux represents these plans in two ways. First, 8.5-by-11 reproductions of the 1,000-plus plans paper the walls from floor to ceiling. Second, he has built scale models for more than 200 of them. Carved from salvaged doors by a CNC router and mounted on metal posts, the models describe a landscape of creative reuse that transforms the city’s leftovers into integral parts of a connected whole.
Perhaps the most compelling piece in the exhibit is a map of existing funding that De Monchaux says could be diverted to build out all of the proposals. One of his boldest assertions is that his plan would eliminate the need for new stormwater-retention infrastructure: San Francisco could save more than half a billion dollars by remediating these odd lots instead.
The project was a finalist in the WPA 2.0 competition sponsored by UCLA Citylab and also appeared at the 2010 Biennial of the Americas.
Watch a video of what these reclaimed spaces might look like:
Nicholas de Monchaux’s Local Code: Real Estates
Bay Area Work Trends Lead to Increased Density
Co-working studio [Photo by flickr user ahopsi]
According to a piece in Sunday’s Chronicle, tech employment in San Francisco is approaching its dot-com peak:
"The city had an estimated 32,180 tech jobs last year, compared with 34,116 in 2000, according to an analysis of state employment data by real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSalle. In 2004, the number of tech jobs had fallen to 18,210."
The most interesting thing about the growth in jobs is that it hasn’t been accompanied by proportionate growth in office space; while dot-com companies occupied 325 square feet per worker in 2000, today they occupy about 175, and that number has been falling each year. The Chronicle speculates that this is driven by the relative frugality among today’s dot-coms, which is certainly possible. While there are lots of companies out there, venture capital firms have generally been making smaller investments during this cycle.
But according to analysis we're doing here at SPUR, the increasing density of the workforce could also be due to the following trends in Bay Area work:
More telecommuting: Many more are working from home or at non-traditional offices. This is due to an increase in self-employment and to the rise in telecommuting among tech workers. While San Franciscans aren’t necessarily telecommuting more now than in past years, data from the 2005 and 2009 American Community Surveys do show increases in many other Bay Area cities, like Berkeley (where 12% of residents telecommute), Mountain View (7%) and Oakland (6%).
Mobility strategies: Everyone knows that smartphones make knowledge workers more mobile. This means that a lot of work can, and does, happen outside of the office. It also means that at any given moment during the work day, as few as 30 percent of workers are at their desks. Companies see this low utilization and decide to reduce overall private space for workers. This leads them to move to open-plan layouts and shared offices, as Deloitte did last year. Part of the motivation is to cut costs, but the trend also reflects a re-purposing of space as companies forgo private offices in exchange for more meeting space.
Co-working: Particularly among the startups that are adding to that tech-job number in SF, co-working arrangements are popular: firms (or individuals) join together to share office amenities like conference rooms and kitchens. These setups cut down significantly on space needs.
Whatever the reasons, the move to smaller office footprints should play to San Francisco’s strengths. Working in San Francisco usually means being able to commute without a car, which means firms don't have to build the amount of parking needed in places like Silicon Valley. San Francisco also has dense urban districts packed with amenities, which can complement a scaled-down workplace. In some ways, San Francisco makes life hard for a growing firm. But while addressing those challenges, the city should not lose focus on what it has to offer. After all, these young tech firms are in the city for a reason — and it’s not because it’s cheap.
View From the Kaiser Center: Oakland's Original Roof Garden
In the 1920s, European architects proposed a new city. The chaos of industrial civilization would be redeemed by a stupendous landscape of skyscraper towers rising out of a park-like setting. Nature would ameliorate the tall buildings, adorning their abrupt and jarring artificiality with dewy grass and leafy canopies. Alas, in American cities, crisscrossed by grids and streets and their streams of vehicles and pedestrians, this dream of architecture rising directly from nature was all but impossible.
Then, in 1959, the new Kaiser Center complex at the edge of downtown Oakland came up with a solution. Atop a five-story parking garage that abutted a 28-story office tower, landscape architects Osmundson & Staley erected a bucolic perch for skyscraper observation.
Visitors originally entered the garden from the top floor of the White House department store. Now, they walk through the parking garage and ascend an elevator to experience the startling sight of trees rooted in building; trees rising atop the concrete slab that underlies the breadth of the three-and-a-half-acre garden. Six inches of soil are all that separate the garden from a four-inch layer of aggregate rock, and then the slab. Here and there mounds extend the soil a few precious feet to allow for shrubs, and trees like olives, magnolias, and holly oaks.
On gray walkways, I lope around green lawns and a dark amoeboid pool. Raising my eyes, I see the rectilinear towers, but I read them not as volumes containing innumerable, invisible worker drones. My sight today is painterly, and so the Kaiser Tower and the later Ordway Building (1970) flatten into framed pictures in the sky that track its atmospheres and luminosities.
Photo courtesy Kaiser Corporation
Aerial view. The biomorphic shapes of the pool and lawns follow the precedent of Thomas Church’s groundbreaking Donnell Garden (1948) in Sonoma. Here, five stories in the air, the landscape architects massed vegetation along the perimeter in order to encourage garden-level views up toward the office towers. To the right of the garden is the roof of the former White House department store.
Pool. Looking east toward the hills, the pool’s dark waters pretend great depths. Looking closely, though, one can discern the black painted bottom sixteen inches down. Three fountains function as vertical focal points, much like the garden’s mounds of flax and 42 specimen trees.
Walkway. A path winds through the shade of bamboo and groupings of birds of paradise.
Kaiser Tower. The principal volume of the 390-foot tower, designed by Welton Beckett, gently curves in harmony with the lake beyond. Its solid ends are clad in pre-cast panels of dolomite. The tower is enlivened here by a gingko tree in autumnal glory.
Kaiser Tower (detail). In concert with a projecting wing, the bent curtain wall oscillates in and out of its frame — what amounts to a skyscraper self-portrait. The façade composition is enhanced by the variety of materials — black steel lines, gray glass, rectangles of anodized gold and naturally colored aluminum.
Ordway Building. Designed by Chuck Bassett of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the 28-story tower is sheathed in anodized aluminum and features an H-shaped plan that doubles the number of corner offices. At 404 feet in height, it is Oakland’s tallest building.
Ordway Building (detail). Spandrel panels bend and reflect shadows. A grid of windows captures clouds gliding through the sky. And like the garden’s tree canopy, those panels and windows flutter in flashes of sunlight.
Mitchell Schwarzer is Professor of Visual Studies at California College of the Arts. He is the author of Architecture of the San Francisco Bay Area: History and Guide (2007), among other writings on the architectural and urban history of California, the United States, and beyond.
All photos by Pad McLaughlin, except where noted.
The Week Ahead
Robert Adams: The Asclepius Machine: Genetic Diversity and Extreme Urban Euphoria
When: March 14–April 22, 2011 Mon.–Fri., 10am–5pm
Where: 108 Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley
Robert Adams is an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Michigan. The Asclepius Machine: Genetic Diversity and Extreme Urban Euphoria, a unique study, was a finalist in the Seoul International Design Competition, Design For All. “The Asclepius Machine explores the relationship of genetic diversity and architecture as a means to re-think contemporary design methodologies and the rich vitality of disability culture. The research seeks to extend the range of architecture’s capacity to enroll a more intricate understanding of the public sphere regardless of bodily ability. The objective of the project is to reconfigure cultural codes through architecture in response to a wider distribution of the social body and interactive structures for people across diverse abilities.”
http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/events/exhibitions
Picturing Modernity
When: February 26 - June 07, 2011
Where: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
“Organized in conjunction with Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of Change, this installation of the SFMOMA collection and Sack Photographic Trust examines the American West through the lens of 19th-century photography. Highlights include mammoth-plate photographs of Yosemite Valley by Carleton Watkins, pictures of Yellowstone by Frank Jay Haynes, William Henry Jackson’s panoramic Pike's Peak from the Garden of the Gods, and early stereoviews of San Francisco.”
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/12#ixzz1HBlvilvf
ParaDesign
When: February 25 - June 19, 2011
Where: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
“ParaDesign gathers objects from SFMOMA's architecture and design collection that question the norms, habits, and conventions of design. The prefix para (whose meanings include "beyond" and "abnormal") has not previously been applied to design, yet marks a central focus of the museum's architecture and design collection. Exhibition highlights include Diller + Scofidio's His/Hers, bath towels embroidered with cheeky aphorisms; and James Welling's 0469, a colorized photograph of Philip Johnson's iconic Glass House.”
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/427#ixzz1HBlf1Gqv
Song Dong: Dad and Mom, Don't Worry About Us, We Are All Well
When: Feb 26, 2011 – Jun 12, 2011
Where: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission St., SF
“Song Dong is known for his innovative conceptual videos and photography that quietly reveal the societal implications of modern China. They also express how he personally copes with his country's rapid development, while retaining a spiritual connection to the past. The centerpiece of Song Dong: Dad and Mom, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well is the much heralded, large-scale installation Waste Not comprised of over 10,000 items ranging from pots and basins to...stuffed animals collected by the artist's mother over the course of more than five decades.”
http://www.ybca.org/calendar
Suburbia and the Future of Federal Transportation Policy
When: Wed., Mar. 23, 6– 8pm (with time for networking after)
Where: The EBMUD Board Room, 375 11th St., 2nd Floor, Oakland.
“Suburbia started as a bucolic vision of the American dream, but as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are emerging about the sustainability of this way of life. The film, The End of Suburbia explores this vision and its prospects as the planet begins to experience climate change and approaches peak oil.
After we screen the film, Transportation for America organizer, Shannon Tracey, will lead a lively discussion on how past federal transportation bills led us towards suburbia and now the upcoming new bill could turn the tide on sprawl in favor of public transportation, walking, and biking.”
Refreshments will be served.
*Register online: http://www.transformca.org/events/transforum-beyond-suburbia
SFBC Valet Bicycle Parking at Disposable Film Festival
When: Thu., Mar. 24, 8pm
Where: Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street, SF
“The SFBC will be parking bikes for the third year at this collection of the best disposable films made on everyday devices like cell phones, pocket cameras, and webcams. Rated one of America's "coolest film festivals," San Francisco is the first stop on its world tour.”
http://www.sfbike.org/?chain
The Weekly Snapshot
Teaching Urban Design
This year, Parsons will offer the nation's first ever undergraduate degree in Urban Design. Urban Omnibus talks with Victoria Marshall, the program's director, about her goal of teaching "how to see the city as a designer."
http://urbanomnibus.net/2011/
A 2001 study found that building fuel-efficient cars would save more oil than land and ocean drilling could ever hope to gain. On the heels of these findings, author Deron Lovaas suggests that our next move should be to create more oil-saving opportunities in cities and suburbs.
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/
In order to investigate how information technology could improve experiences of public transit, Latitude Research and Next American City followed eighteen drivers for one week as they went car free. Their findings suggest that although car-owners value the freedom driving provides, mobile information solutions could replicate this sense of autonomy.
http://americancity.org/buzz/
In hopes of expanding its stores into large U.S. cities, Walmart is embracing mixed-use, pedestrian friendly and transit-oriented development for the design of its proposed Washington D.C. location.
http://newurbannetwork.com/
A photo series reveals the often overlooked beauty that can be found in our everyday infrastructure.
http://www.pictorymag.com/
Budget Update--High Speed Rail Funding In Jeopardy
If the Fiscal Year 2011 budget debate in Washington has been dramatic, it has also unfolded utterly predictably. But though threats to HSR funding were foreseeable, their ultimate effect is still highly uncertain.
The GOP-controlled House proposes cuts to HSR that do three things:
1. Eliminate all 2011 funding for high speed rail projects
2. Rescind unobligated funds for high speed rail appropriated in 2010 and 2009
3. Bar other states from using the $2.4 billion in high speed rail funds rejected by Florida, as well as the $614 million passed up by Wisconsin and Ohio.
According to Californians For High Speed Rail, if these cuts pass, they could jeopardize “$2.3 – $3 billion in expected federal funds” for California’s HSR project alone.
But can the unobligated funds be rescinded? The answer is unclear. Most reside in a legal grey area were they have been “committed” but not “obligated.” And as has already been the case with questions about high speed rail funding (ie. the legal right of Florida Governor Scott to reject federal HSR funds), the answer might require a court ruling.
All this might be avoided however, if a more moderate appropriations bill than the House proposal is ultimately passed. An alternative taking form in the Democrat-controlled Senate is expected to preserve high speed rail funding.
Within the next week a conference committee will convene to hash out a compromise appropriations bill that both houses of Congress can approve. While the committee hasn’t yet been announced, certain to play a key role are the senior members of the House and Senate appropriations committees, including:
Daniel Inouye, Democratic Senator of Hawaii and Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee
Patty Murray, Democratic Senator of Washington
Norm Dicks, Democratic Congressman of Pennsylvania, Ranking Member, House Appropriations
Thad Cochran, Republican Senator of Mississippi, Vice Chairman, Senate Appropriations
Mitch McConnell, Republican Minority Leader, Senator of Kentucky
Harold Rogers, Republican Congressman of Kentucky, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee
If you have a stake in the fight, these are the people to call. Their decision in conference is the one that matters.
An Update on Van Ness BRT
Several weeks ago, I attended a briefing at the SFCTA on the progress of the Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit project. BRT along Van Ness is currently in the midst of final environmental studies and preliminary engineering. Public comment will be solicited this spring on the Environmental Impact Report, after which the project team will recommend a preferred alternative for adoption by the Authority and SFMTA boards.
The Van Ness BRT project is true Bus Rapid Transit – it is not a simple rebranding of an existing line with a new paint scheme and logo. Van Ness BRT calls for the conversion of one lane in each direction to a dedicated bus lane, with overhead wire to power clean electric buses. The project will feature all-door, level boarding and proof of payment to speed up passenger boarding and drop-off. Buses will get transit signal priority for green lights at intersections, and traffic signal optimization will be implemented along the corridor to time all traffic lights.
A review of the three design alternatives can be found on this fact sheet. Alternative 2 converts the rightmost lanes to bus-only lanes while retaining the existing center landscaped median. Alternative 3 is a center-lane dual median option that creates two dedicated bus lanes completely separated from traffic. Alternative 4 converts the inside traffic lanes to dedicated bus lanes, and places BRT stations on the center median.
Van Ness BRT is expected to yield a multitude of benefits. The BRT project is expected to decrease transit delay by 33-43%, compared to no project at all. Travel time for transit will decrease 18-32%, and transit reliability is expected to improve as well due to stop consolidation.
The Authority's study shows how corridor-wide performance will increase with the implementation of BRT. Person-throughput, the volume of people traveling through Van Ness Avenue, will see an improvement by up to 12% according to the SFCTA. BRT will provide time-savings and better performance for transit riders at the same operating cost. With projected increased transit ridership, the transit lane would carry more than each auto lane, and at some areas would carry more than the two auto lanes combined.
Overall safety on Van Ness is expected to improve with BRT implementation. The project will bring features to reduce the types of collisions most often observed on Van Ness Avenue. Broadside collisions will be reduced by eliminating most left-turn pockets and installing a protected signal phase for the remaining left turns. Rear-end collisions will be addressed by reduced stop-and-go auto traffic and more visible traffic signals on mast arms. Pedestrian-auto collisions will be reduced with pedestrian countdown signals, wider pedestrian refuges and corner bulbs at crossing locations. Finally, sideswipe collisions will be reduced by separating the buses into their own lanes from mixed-flow traffic.
SPUR’s analysis of Van Ness BRT as part of our Critical Cooling report suggests that the project will have obvious benefits on the city’s transportation network, and will also have a potential carbon savings of 600 metric tons a year. Additionally, Van Ness BRT plays a key role in helping to build out San Francisco’s Rapid Transit Network. Creating a rapid transit network is critical to reversing Muni’s downward spiral.
The whole project is expected to cost $118 million. 64% of the total is derived from Small Starts and anticipated funding, while the rest will come from Prop K and other federal and local dollars. Construction on Van Ness BRT is expected to begin in mid to late 2013, with revenue service slated for mid 2014.
For more information, visit http://www.sfcta.org/content/
The Week Ahead
CED Lecture Series: Kathryn Gustafson: Contemporary Landscape in the Urban Environment
When: Tues., Mar. 15, 7-8pm
Where: 112 Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley
“Kathryn Gustafson will provide a glimpse into the methodology of her work... Gustafson's award-winning landscapes and structures can be found throughout Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Her diverse span of prominent works, ranging from one acre to 500 acres in size, are known as ground-breaking, contemporary designs that intuitively incorporate the sculptural, sensual qualities that are fundamental to the human experience of landscape.”
More Info: http://www.kathryngustafson.com/
http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,0/&Itemid=/extmode,view/extid,1502/
ADPSR Building Ecology Lecture Series Presents: Bry Sarte: Sustainable Infrastructure and Regenerative Water Design
When: Tues., Mar. 15, Reception: 6:00pm, Lecture: 6:30-9pm
Where: AIA San Francisco, 130 Sutter, Suite 600, San Francisco
“Using his recently published book, Sustainable Infrastructure: The Guide to Green Engineering and Design, as a platform, author Bry Sarté will discuss regenerative water cycles, systems and buildings that teach, and the water energy-nexus. Looking at case studies from around the world, the talk will focus on the latest innovations in sustainable design and where the field is headed as we look to the future.”
Tickets at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/164304.
$8-10 Donation; no one turned away for lack of funds.
Info: ADSPR lecture@adpsr-norcal.org
http://www.aiasf.org/calendar/cal_detail.cfm?cid=7258
Jessica Ludy: Before the Levees Break: Lessons Learned Abroad in Flood Risk Perception, Management, and Risk Communication
When: Wed., Mar. 16, 1- 2pm
Where: 315A Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley
Jessica Ludy
M.E.P., Scott Fellow, American Rivers
http://americanrivers.org/
“Despite a national policy aimed at reducing risk, flood damages and loss of life in the United States are ever-increasing. In California, we encounter the precarious situation where residents living in sub-sea-level developments behind certified levees are "removed" from the official regulatory floodplain and subsequently unaware of and unprepared for the residual risks of living there. What can we learn for managing risk from countries where people have been settling on floodplains for hundreds or thousands of years?” Speakers will focus on current research, theory, planning practice, and design concepts related to this real and important issue.
http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,0/&Itemid=/extmode,view/extid,1541/
CED Lecture Series: Patsy Healey, O.B.E.: Circuits of Knowledge and Techniques: The Transnational Flow of Planning Ideas and Practices
When: Wed., Mar. 16, 5- 6:30pm
Where: 106 Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley
“Author of the book Collaborative Planning, Professor Healey was awarded the Order of the British Empire and the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Gold Medal for her contributions to the field. Her talk will explore actor-network theory, policy ‘discourse analysis,’ hegemonic projects, the origin and traveling stories of ideas, and the ‘translation experiences’ through which the ideas and practices get ‘localised.’”
More Info: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/staff/profile/patsy.healey
http://www.ced.berkeley.edu/events/calendar/lectures
TransportationCamp
When: Sat., Mar. 19 and Sun., Mar. 20
Where: Public Works SF. 161 Erie Street (off Mission Street between Duboce and 14th Street), San Francisco, CA 94103
“TransportationCamp is a free, weekend-long unconference bringing together transportation professionals, technologists, and others interested in the intersection of urban transportation and technology.”
RSVP: transportationcampwest.eventbrite.com
More Info: http://transportationcamp.org/about/
http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/03/14/transportationcamp-2/
Sunday Streets
When: Sun., Mar. 20, 11am - 4pm
Where: Embarcadero, from Mariposa Street to Fisherman's Wharf
Sunday Streets is a place where the streets are blocked of from car access so that visitors can explore neighborhoods, mingle, and be active. At Sunday Streets you can rent bikes, take bike maintenance and education classes, and skate around at roller disco.
More Info: sundaystreetssf.com
http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/03/08/sunday-streets
The Future of Redevelopment Debate
Early this year Governor Jerry Brown shocked state and local leaders with his proposal to eliminate all of California’s 425 redevelopment agencies. Since then, debate has raged in the press over the ramifications of shuttering these agencies. While the future of San Francisco’s own redevelopment areas is in question (Transbay, Treasure Island, Hunters Point), similar questions arise across the state.
On Thursday, March 3, SPUR and the Bay Citizen brought together Fred Blackwell of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and Karen Chapple of UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning to argue the merits and liabilities of eliminating redevelopment agencies.
Fred Blackwell began by acknowledging redevelopment’s contentious history and mixed-record of achievement, but he insisted that well-functioning redevelopment agencies are essential to economic growth, sustainable development and social justice, pointing to successful projects in San Francisco’s Mission Bay, Yerba Buena and Hunter’s Point. Blackwell maintained redevelopment funds have been crucial in convincing developers to take on the steeper costs of building in those areas, and the payoff has been revitalization, job creation and the redirection of suburban sprawl back into the urban core.
Karen Chapple commended Blackwell for his effectiveness in leading the San Francisco Redevelopment agency, but speculated that “San Francisco’s may be the only good redevelopment agency out there.” By contrast, she said, most redevelopment agencies lack oversight and are riddled with redundancies, inefficiency and corruption. Many spend public funds overwhelmingly on administrative and planning and personnel salaries without showing results. Even agencies with the best of intentions don’t generally pay for themselves, Chapple argued. They don’t spur sustained growth and end up, in effect, simply subsidizing developers—“the last group that needs the aid of public funds.” Chapple concluded that there are much stronger economic arguments for investing in education and social programs.
In one of the most emotional moments of the night, Blackwell lamented that the statewide debate “has been framed as redevelopment vs. social services, while the jails remain fully funded.”
Ironically, earlier in the day on March 3, the conference committee in Sacramento had voted 6-4 to eliminate redevelopment agencies. The fate of redevelopment is now part of the negotiations between Governor Brown and Republicans over the entire budget package.
Note: “The Future of Development” was the first in an ongoing series of “Debates Worth Having” hosted jointly by SPUR and the Bay Citizen. Register here for the next debate “The Pros and Cons of Saltworks ” to be held at the SPUR Urban Center on March 29.
Update:
Karen Chapple posted her summary of the event here.
Initial Vision Scenario Released for the Bay Area
ABAG and MTC released their Initial Vision Scenario at a meeting in Oakland today (http://apps.mtc.ca.gov/events/agendaView.akt?p=1629) . By 2035, the scenario assumes the Bay Area will grow by 2 million people (to 9.4 million) and 1.2 million jobs (to 4.5 million). The scenario is the first major milestone in the development of the Bay Area’s Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS), which is part of the implementation of SB 375.
To review the presentation of the Initial Vision Scenario, click here (http://apps.mtc.ca.gov/meeting_packet_documents/agenda_1629/04_IVS__final_final031011.pdf). To review the more detailed report, click here http://apps.mtc.ca.gov/meeting_packet_documents/agenda_1629/Initial_Vision_Scenario_Report_-_FINAL.pdf
Highlights of the scenario’s assumptions:
- 97% of new household growth is on existing urbanized land.
- 60 miles of dedicated bus lines in San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties
- San Francisco adds 90,000 households (26% growth rate)
- San Francisco’s jobs grow from 545,000 to 714,000 (31% growth rate).
- Achieves a region-wide 12% per capita reduction in greenhouse gases. (Note: This is short of the 15% per capita goal. But most of the reduction is from the assumption of slow economic growth, not an urbanist land use vision).
This scenario is a good start but doesn’t get us towards a truly sustainable vision for the Bay Area. SPUR is interested in subsequent scenarios testing a much more transit-oriented growth pattern for jobs and houses. To get residents out of the cars, many more jobs have to be located within a quarter mile of regional rail and many more households within a half mile of any transit.
To review the San Francisco local government response (including several excellent comment letters), click here (http://www.sf-planning.org/index.aspx?page=2655).
Stay tuned here for more updates.
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