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…
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…
1955: San Francisco established its first residential parking space requirements of one space for each newly created dwelling unit. 1960: Revisions to the Planning Code were adopted which continued the residential requirement but allowed one of the required spaces to be a tandem space, and added requirements for commercial and industrial off street parking and…
San Francisco has about 850 miles of streets, in 12,500 street segments, covering about a quarter of San Francisco’s land area. 2,224 of those street segments are “unaccepted streets” – streets that are not maintained by SF’s Department of Public Works. Over half of those streets are paved, but often one or more features – sidewalks,…
Public rights-of-way – streets and alleyways – make up about a quarter of San Francisco’s land area. Projects that reclaim alleyways as neighborhood-serving public places with greening, traffic-calming, and pedestrianization are moving forward in 2015. Living Alleys, also known as woonerfs, are shared space alleyways that prioritize pedestrian use and open space, using special paving, traffic calming, lighting, seating, green landscaping, and…
2014 saw progress towards complete streets and a greenway network for San Francisco – and also showed that the city’s projects and practices are still falling far short of its standards, policies, and goals. Vision Zero Vision Zero – the goal of eliminating traffic deaths within a decade – made progress in 2014. Various city agencies adopted…
As San Francisco’s Downtown gets denser, and increasingly mixed-use – housing, retail, hotels, entertainment, and cultural institutions along with offices – it needs better public amenities – better streets, greenery, and usable and appealing public open spaces. The Downtown Plan, adopted in 1985, emerged from the ‘Planning Wars’ of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Downtown Plan’s intent…
On November 27, Mayor Lee signed an ordinance creating San Francisco’s newest Neighborhood Commercial zoning district – and the latest to drop minimum parking requirements. The Outer Mission – Excelsior Neighborhood Commercial District includes the commercial area along Mission Street from Silver Avenue to the Daly City line. The district was previously zoned NC-2 and…
One of the most effective ways to reduce traffic congestion and pollution, and encourage a shift to sustainable transportation modes, is through parking reform – smarter pricing and management of available parking, and reducing parking subsidies and requirements. Livable City’s parking reform strategy seeks to harness the power of markets and technology to further social,…
Livable City is working to ensure that city streets, which cover over 25% of San Francisco’s land area, are designed and maintained as a safe and attractive public spaces that support walking, bicycling, and public transit. Our current efforts are to improve the City’s designs and standards to improve the appearance, safety and accessibility of…
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Staff Directory
Darin Ow-Wing, Executive Director
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Jessica Tovar, Program Director
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Sally Chen, Deputy Director
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Tom Radulovich, Senior Policy Fellow
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Isaac Santiago, Sunday Streets Program Manager [email protected]
Reina Terry, Program & Development Associate, reina@livablecity.org
