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Post-pandemic planning, Part 1: Optimizing transportation networks

By Alan Hoffman, March 17, 2021. Planners can give the public an idea of what optimized regional transportation networks can look like and what’s possible. (A version of this article appeared in Meeting of the Minds, November 2020.)

Transit agencies praise Covid-19 relief bill

By Sandy Smith, March 10, 2021. Because of Covid-induced funding shortfalls, many public transit agencies have been facing doomsday scenarios:…

Meet a Local Planner: Miroo Desai, AICP

Interviewed by Catarina Kidd, AICP. Desai is Vice President for Diversity and Equity for APA California and serves on the…

The spatial heterogeneity of gentrification

Takeaways from a Feb. 12 webinar by Hyojung Lee and Kristin L. Perkins, HUD USER, March 9, 2021. Gentrification affects…

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Not even San Francisco city departments can agree on neighborhood boundaries

By Nami Sumida, San Francisco Chronicle, February 24, 2022. The city also found that each department used different boundaries when…

Americans used to move a lot; now they don’t. It could be causing a social crisis

By Jerusalem Demsas, Vox, February 24, 2022. At the heart of America is a packed bag. But what happens when…

‘Greening’ cities can make gentrification worse – and often doesn’t help the environment either

By Laura Kiesel, Salon, February 26, 2022. Parks and greenways, as well as other green features linked with density plans,…

To fix its housing crisis, California must unleash the duplex

Mercatus Center scholar Emily Hamilton argues SB9 will have far more impact if local leaders cooperate with the spirit of…

San Francisco businesses confront many office workers never returning

By Romy Varghese, Bloomberg CityLab, March 3, 2022. San Francisco’s downtown recovery is among the slowest nationally, but the state’s…

New research: The ‘hidden toll’ of having more parking spaces than people

By Benjamin Schneider, San Francisco Examiner, March 3, 2022. The study found that parking and roadways make up 20 percent…

Lake Powell is about to drop below a critical level never reached before

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN, March 3, 2022. If the nation’s second largest reservoir passes the emergency drought threshold, it would…

Dublin scraps 573-home development over referendum threat

By Joseph Geha, East Bay Times, March 3, 2022. The developers are already prepared to propose a project that would…

Caltrain approves governance reform plan, but member agencies still must adopt it

By Curtis Driscoll, San Mateo Daily Journal, March 4, 2022. According to various board members, the contentious governance talks have…

Subdivision consistent with approved specific plan did not need further environmental review

By Kaela Shiigi, Perkins Coie LLP Land Use & Development Law Report, March 7, 2022. Court of Appeal found development…

San Jose City Council unanimously accepts recommendations on overcoming barriers to affordable housing

By Jana Kadah, San Jose Spotlight, March 8, 2022. Recommendations addressed three key barriers: construction costs, delays in permitting, and…

Legislature passes reprieve for UC Berkeley’s enrollment cap

By Maria Dinzeo, Courthouse News Service, March 14, 2022. The new amendment, signed by Gov. Newsom, now specifies that changes…

Gas prices bring riders back to BART, Caltrain, and VTA

By Eliyahu Kamisher, The Mercury News, March 14, 2022. For now, BART ridership, for example, is still hovering around 30…

Northern News April 2021