Rents may be falling, but the Bay Area is still unaffordable and has for years fallen short of its housing construction goals. The construction shortfall is particularly pronounced in subsidized housing. While the pandemic is changing the way people work and socialize and has resulted in economic downturn, acquiring land and building remain expensive. Sarah Karlinsky, senior advisor at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association, a public policy think tank better known as SPUR, has published a report indicating that Bay Area municipalities should be constructing 45,000 units of housing per year.
Category: Land use
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Coronavirus, Land use, Parks & Open Space
Imagining an Eco-Friendly Post-Pandemic Downtown
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for space in San Francisco’s office towers seemed insatiable. But with no end to the pandemic in sight and the prospect that many employers will allow their people to continue to work from home after the crisis, it’s possible that at least some of those gleaming office towers will […]
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Health, Land use, News
Toxins Measured in Bodies Raise Stakes for Hunters Point Shipyard Cleanup
Researchers are hoping to learn whether and how the health of people who live and work near the old Hunters Point Shipyard, which was used as a toxic and radioactive waste dump, may have been affected by toxic materials. Journalist Chris Roberts reported for the Public Press that nearly all participants in a recent community health biomonitoring survey had elevated levels of toxic heavy metals that are “contaminants of concern” at the shipyard.
Posted inCoronavirus, Homelessness, Land use
Tenderloin Service Providers Push Street Closure to Thin Crowded Sidewalks
Soup kitchens and homeless service centers are pushing San Francisco officials to shut down a Tenderloin street to through traffic so their clients can maintain social distance from one another as lines wrap around the block and tent dwellers crowd the sidewalks.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, California, Education, Elections, Land use, San Francisco March 2020 Nonpartisan Election Guide
March 2020 Election Guide: Prop 13
Facilities Construction at Public Schools — Proposition 13 would authorize a $15 billion state bond measure to provide matching funding to districts for renovation and construction of facilities. $9 billion are slated for K-12 schools, and $6 billion for public higher education institutions. The measure prioritizes districts that have health and safety needs, like lead in their water, or that are too small to raise adequate funds through taxes.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Housing, Land use, News, Social Justice
Regional Leaders Want to Use CA Fair Housing Law to Undo Segregation
Decades of explicitly and implicitly racist policies have left the Bay Area not just unaffordable, but also deeply segregated, panelists told a conference in San Francisco last week.
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Arts & Culture, Land use, Neighborhoods
Documentary Explores What Shaped Mid-Market Street, Past and Present
The documentary “5 Blocks,” by Robert Cortlandt and Dan Goldes, explores the history, economic downturn and efforts to revitalize San Francisco’s mid-Market Street neighborhood, an area whose focal point is just five blocks. Goldes discusses what he learned in his conversations with neighborhood residents from different backgrounds, including an SRO dweller and a tech worker. […]
Posted inCommunity, Land use, Neighborhoods, Social Justice
Fillmore Revisited — How Redevelopment Tore Through the Western Addition
An excerpt from the book, “Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978” — about how so-called urban renewal displaced African Americans from their enclave in the city.
Posted inHousing, Land use
Construction Worker Looks Hopefully to $600 Million Housing Bond’s Passage
A segment from our radio show, “Civic.” Listen daily at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on 102.5 FM, available in San Francisco.