In much the same way as they annually transform a desolate stretch of the Nevada desert into a week-long countercultural art festival, the organizers of Burning Man are now hoping to transform a desolate stretch of San Francisco’s Market Street.
Category: Land use
Posted inEnvironment, Labor, Land use, Transportation
Treasure Island building plans draw fire
Foes say development would choke bridge traffic and worsen air
Proposed redevelopment on Treasure Island would increase traffic jams on the Bay Bridge, lengthening commute times and exacerbating Bay Area air pollution, critics say.
Residents, environmental organizations and local agencies voiced those concerns this fall in almost 700 written comments on proposed new residential and commercial development that planners have said would make the island a world-class green neighborhood.
Comments about the project’s draft environmental impact report submitted by the September deadline expressed deep misgivings with the plan by the city and the developer to limit driving on and off the island.
Posted inCity Hall, Land use
Mayor shakes up Treasure Island development board, ousts only resident
Mayor Gavin Newsom’s decision to replace three or possibly four members of the Treasure Island Development Authority board of directors has sparked protests from some residents of the island and a few San Francisco supervisors. The critics point out that one of the ousted board members is the only member who lives on either Treasure Island or Yerba Buena Island and represents the interests of island residents — though the mayor vows to find a replacement.
Posted inCommunity, Economy & Business, Land use, Technology
Small loans having big impact on local businesses
Financial crisis leading to an increased demand on microlenders for start-up capital
In the community acupuncture room at Bu Tong Clinic, patients wait in silence away from the bustle of traffic and hawkers on Mission Street. The clinic owner, Julie Baumhofer, has seen her clientele grow as word about her low-fee acupuncture treatment continues to spread.
The clinic wouldn’t have happened without a microlender.
“If they didn’t do what they do, I wouldn’t be here now,” she says. “You don’t have to be born rich and know the right people, and you can be a business owner.”
Posted inElections, Land use, Neighborhoods
Choose your own Pier 70
You have 85 acres on the waterfront and two billion dollars … what would you build?
A once-bustling industrial site that has fallen into decay on San Francisco’s waterfront, Pier 70 is facing a dramatic transformation. And in the next year, the Port of San Francisco will ask the public for feedback on as-yet unwritten development plans.
The Port has been keen to redevelop the site for years. Though the agency has been consulting neighbors at every step, most San Franciscans would be hard pressed to find it on a map. (It’s just north of Warm Water Cove, at the eastern end of 20th Street.)
Posted inEnvironment, Land use
Huge development on fringe of Bay sparks debate over ‘smart growth’
New community of up to 12,000 homes, offices and schools would be built on site of Cargill Saltworks in Redwood City.
A wide dirt road cuts through the middle of the large, multi-hued salt harvesting ponds that stretch as far as the eye can see. Except for a few heavy trucks that trundle past, and a couple of ramshackle buildings, not much sign of human activity is visible on this stark, sweeping landscape in Redwood City, on the southern fringe of the San Francisco Bay.
Posted inBay Area, Environment, Government & Politics, Housing, Land use, Media, Parks & Open Space
Story in progress: Veteran smart growth group wary of rushing to judgment
The other day we had a chance to chat over the phone with Jeremy Madsen, executive director of Greenbelt Alliance. This much-respected nonprofit has been advocating smart growth and open spaces in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1958. In 2008 the outfit published Smart Infill, a 80-page report that recommends infill development — building on vacant lots and redeveloping blighted urban areas — as a way of accommodating the Bay Area’s growing population without paving the region’s farms and natural areas.
Posted inHealth, Land use, Parks & Open Space
Unveiling the Presidio’s new green neighborhood
The Presidio will open a green chapter in its storied existence this weekend when it invites the public to explore the restored and sustainably upgraded Public Health Service District. The Marine Hospital and a handful of residences near 15th Avenue and Lake Street on the southern edge of the Presidio have been converted into a residential neighborhood after decades of debate about the district’s future.
Posted inBay Area, Environment, Land use, Media
Story in progress: ‘Smart growth’ or bay fill in Redwood City? ABAG has the numbers
The Bay Area needs more homes for its growing population, but does it make sense to house 30,000 people on unstable land, in earthquake country, that’s also at high risk of inundation by rising sea waters? A massive development proposal on the fringes of the San Francisco Bay, in one of the last potentially developable areas in the region, is raising questions about the definition of smart growth. [The Public Press is developing an in-depth report for the fall print edition and the website. We are raising funds on the journalism micro-funding site Spot.us to pay for the reporting and photography on the story.]
Posted inBay Area, Labor, Land use, Open Government
Judge orders release of documents in failed CalPERS real estate investment
A judge has ordered the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to release key documents related to a failed $100 million real estate investment in East Palo Alto. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Charlotte Wollard wrote in her ruling in the lawsuit by the First Amendment Coalition that public interest in the documents “far outweighs any asserted interest in non-disclosure” given the amount of public money lost.