2015 in Review: The Year in Livability
San Francisco faced big challenges with equity and affordability in 2015. Still, the city made major progress by building and preserving affordable housing, planning better neighborhoods, reclaiming streets for people, making room for nature, lessening automobile dependence, and fostering a shift towards sustainable transportation. Let’s take a look at the year in livability: San Francisco’s Voice for…
Curbing the Caltrain Cluster
Livable City is proud to announce it is a recipient of the Just Transit SF grant. The grant was administered by the 11th Hour Project, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation. Livable City, in partnership with Lyft, and in coordination with SFMTA, Caltrain, and other agencies and stakeholders, will immediately begin work to reduce…
Streets as Public Spaces: A Resource Guide
Our December 10 Forum on Streets as Public Spaces features the foremost leaders in reclaiming streets as public spaces. Here’s Livable City’s resource guide to reshaping our urban landscape. San Francisco Resources Sunday Streets, a program of Livable City, is San Francisco’s pre-eminent program reclaiming streets as community public spaces. The Stormwater Design Guidelines, published by the San…
The Perils of Planning by Exception
Two big private developments won important approvals in the last month – one from the voters, and the other from the Board of Supervisors. Voters approved Proposition D, approving a height limit increase for the Mission Rock Development on San Francisco’s waterfront, as well as a host of policies related to the development. The Board of Supervisors approved…
Reshaping the Urban Landscape
City Streets comprise 25% of San Francisco’s land area. Most of San Francisco’s street area is used for the movement and storage of private autos, but there is a growing movement to unlock City streets’ potential as temporary and permanent spaces for active transportation, meeting, play, community, greenery, nature, and managing urban waters. This moderated…
Livable City Recommends
Livable City’s recommendations for San Francisco’s November 3, 2015 election Yes on Prop A, Affordable Housing Bond No on Prop D, Mission Rock Development Yes on Prop F, Short-term rental regulation No on G/Yes on H, Clean energy Yes on Prop J, Legacy Business fund Yes on Prop K, Surplus land for Affordable Housing Yes on A…
Transformative Transbay
The Transbay Transit Center project, along with Caltrain’s planned modernization, promises to be one of the most transformative infrastructure projects for San Francisco and the region in both the near term and for years to come. Phase One of the Transbay Transit Center project is scheduled to open in 2017. It includes an elevated regional bus terminal, connected…
Rethinking Downtown: San Francisco’s Downtown Plan at 30
San Francisco’s Downtown Plan turned 30 this year. The plan came about in the midst of the 1980s “Planning Wars,” when battles over density, building height, and office uses were fought in City Hall and the ballot box. The Downtown Plan attempted two reconcile two contending visions of the city – that of postwar Modernism, which had transformed…
It’s Time to Rethink Downtown
Livable City will host the second of three free forums at the San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium on Thursday, October 15, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. 2015 is the 30th anniversary of the Downtown Plan. Our City is vastly different than it was in 1985, but our plan for the downtown community remains a generation behind. Join us as we…
Supervisors Support New Accessory Units in More SF Neighborhoods
San Francisco’s growing acceptance of accessory units – new units in existing buildings – reached another milestone this week as two ordinances permitting new units within existing buildings were unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors on first reading. Supervisor Wiener’s ordinance permitted new units in his Supervisorial District (District 8), which includes the Castro, Mission Dolores,…
