From MTC-ABAG, October 1, 2021
“Guided by input from more than 20,000 Bay Area residents, nearly four years of planning work [has drawn] to a close with the release of Plan Bay Area 2050.
“The final plan, as well as the associated Implementation Plan, Environmental Impact Report and all supplemental reports, is available to read on planbayarea.org/finalplan2050.
“The heart of Plan Bay Area 2050 is 35 strategies across the four key elements of housing, the economy, transportation, and the environment … Equity is interwoven into each strategy, from housing strategies that would produce more than one million new permanently affordable homes by 2050 to transit-fare reforms that would reduce cost burdens for riders with low incomes.
“Ultimately, Plan Bay Area 2050 reflects a shared vision that cannot be implemented by any single organization or government agency. Only through partnership with local, state, and federal governments, as well as with businesses and non-profit organizations, will the plan’s strategies come to fruition.”
Read the press release here. (~3 min.)
But no plan can satisfy everyone.
In an October 26 opinion piece in the East Bay Times, Bobbi Lopez, a policy director at Build Affordable Faster California, writes:
“Hypothetically, these plans are meant to make the Bay Area more equitable and affordable — the kind of place where people of every race, class, and background can carve out a happy life.
“But in that — and most — regards, the recently-issued PBA 2050 misses the mark.
“If adopted as written, the plan will result in the disappearance of the Bay Area’s working-class communities of color and displace hundreds of thousands of long-term residents.
“Chief among the challenges facing the Bay Area are the twin crises of affordable housing and homelessness. […]
“First, we need a detailed strategy to fund tens of thousands of housing units and temporary facilities that are essential to ending homelessness in the Bay Area within the decade.
“Second, it is imperative that the plan recognize that working-class communities on the front lines of the climate crisis are uniquely vulnerable to displacement sparked by rising sea levels. […]
“Do better. Write a plan for the Bay Area that firmly establishes safe, decent, accessible, and affordable housing as a fundamental right.”