2022
"Why America Can’t Build"
The goal of the 2009 Sepulveda Pass Freeway Expansion Project seemed simple. A carpool lane was to be added to reduce congestion on a 10-mile stretch of Los Angeles’s I-405 freeway, the second most congested road in the U.S.
...More"A changing Berkeley: 6 maps show how the past decade has remade the city"
Berkeley is adding people faster than housing units
Across the Bay Area, there are reports of overcrowding forced by sky-high rents. And in Berkeley, population growth outpaced housing growth in the last decade: On average, a single census block in Berkeley added about six people and one new housing unit.
...More"Thinking Inside the Box: Why Virtual Meetings Generate Fewer Ideas"
For creative collaboration, sometimes you can’t beat a face-to-face meeting.
...More"Affordable housing in California now routinely tops $1 million per apartment to build"
More than half a dozen affordable housing projects in California are costing more than $1 million per apartment to build, a record-breaking sum that makes it harder to house the growing numbers of low-income Californians who need help paying rent, a Times review of state data found.
...More"Can America’s Cities Make a Post-Pandemic Comeback?"
America’s leading economist of urban life says a return to the workplace is crucial, especially for the young.
“And then you go to San Francisco,” Mr. Glaeser says with an almost unseemly gusto. “San Francisco is still down 52%. The tech hub is the most extreme.”
...More"The People Who Hate People"
“We have, of course, discovered an elusive technology to allow more people to live on less land: It’s called an apartment building. And if people would like fewer neighbors competing for parking spaces, then they should rest assured that buses, trains, protected bike lanes, and maintained sidewalks are effective, cutting-edge inventions available to all.”
...More"Former Panoramic Development In SoMa Reborn as 160 Units of Supportive Housing"
“We have really little opportunity to get these kinds of buildings where we have multiple bedrooms where we can serve families,” said Coalition on Homelessness executive director Jennifer Friedenbach during a public meeting last year. “We have thousands of children in San Francisco that are experiencing homelessness, but we have very few large units. Three bedrooms. It makes a huge difference for large families, [there are] very few options for them.”
...More"New York banished cars during Covid – could its open streets be preserved?"
As an emergency measure for the pandemic, New York City’s banishment of cars from certain streets saw unexpected space open up for pedestrians, restaurant tables and playing children.
...More"SF to purchase another homeless hotel at 12th and Folsom, this one for families"
Tuesday night was District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney’s final Board of Supervisors meeting, as he just won a state Assembly seat and is off to Sacramento. But one of his final votes late Tuesday night was the unanimous approval of a $145 million purchase of the Common City Gardens Apartments at 333 12th Street (at Folsom Street), a facility with 200 family-friendly, multi-room units that will be used to house families experiencing homelessness.
...More"How Green Is Your Metropolis?"
Normally, a special election for California’s State Assembly wouldn’t have much national significance — especially not an election in San Francisco, a liberal, Democratic city that’s the opposite of a swing district.
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