Bay Area

Oakland skyline and San Francisco Bay

The Many Ongoing Public Transportation Projects of the Bay Area

The San Francisco Chronicle offers a round-up of 11 big transit projects, by Caltrans, BART, SFMTA, and others, making progress around the bay.

March 25, 2019 - San Francisco Chronicle

California

Legislation Introduced to Enable the Bay Area to Tackle Housing Crisis as a Region

A new bill would grant the Housing Alliance for the Bay Area taxing authority to raise revenue in the nine-county region to find solutions to the housing crisis. Another bill would reduce the voter threshold below two-thirds for eligible taxes.

March 11, 2019 - KQED News

Cupertino

Cupertino Mayor's 'Wall Joke' Gets Lots of Negative Feedback

Cupertino Mayor Steven Scharf, a fervent opponent of a new Bay Area housing initiative, opened his Jan. 29 state-of-the-city address with a short joke about "building a wall around Cupertino and making San Jose pay for it" that didn't go over well.

February 8, 2019 - East Bay Times

Downtown Redwood City

Housing Politics: Think Regionally, Lose Locally

Two Bay Area city council members serving on a regional commission suffered the political consequences of supporting a controversial regional housing initiative, not from their constituents, but from their colleagues.

February 1, 2019 - San Francisco Chronicle

The Peninsula

Regional Attempt to Address Housing Crisis Advances in Bay Area

A regional, comprehensive, and controversial approach to tackling the housing affordability crisis in the nine-county Bay Area, including strategies to render renter protections and new housing production, has cleared three major hurdles.

January 25, 2019 - KQED: California Report

Self-Driving Car

Autonomous Driving Technology Might Have Saved Lives

It could have been a multiple-vehicle fatal car crash—a driver fell asleep at the wheel driving 70 mph—but the outcome was two DUI charges.

January 9, 2019 - SFBay

Bay Area Multi-Modal Infrastructure

Planning Underway for New Bay Bridge Bike Path, and a Second Transbay BART Tube

In a distant and expensive future, there are two new ways to get across the San Francisco Bay without a car. One will have a much better view.

November 19, 2018 - The Mercury News

San Francisco

Idea Competition for Solving Bay Area Traffic Names Finalists

Twelve finalists have been picked for their ideas about how to spend $1 billion in funding to fix transportation in the Bay Area.

November 5, 2018 - The Mercury News

San Francisco Homeless

Will More Money Solve San Francisco's Homelessness Problem?

San Francisco voters will decide on Proposition C, a business tax based on gross receipts levied on large employers, the most contentious of five local measures.

October 31, 2018 - Curbed SF

Gabriel Metcalf Reflects On 20 Years Of Change In Bay Area

For over 20 years, few people have understood or influenced the Bay Area like Gabriel Metcalf, president of San Francisco Planning and Urban Research. Metcalf recently announced a move to Sydney, Australia, and reflected the past two decades.

August 24, 2018 - California Planning & Development Report

Antioch, California

Antioch, California BART Extension So Popular There's No Place to Park

The new Antioch station is seeing ridership well over predictions, and some think there would be even more riders if there were more parking.

August 6, 2018 - The San Francisco Chronicle

Brisbane, CA

San Francisco Suburb to Vote on Massive Project to Double Population

Brisbane, a city of about 4,700 on the southern border of San Francisco, will vote on a controversial ballot measure in November to approve or reject a mixed-use development including up to 2,200 residential units on a 660-acre vacant brownfield.

July 24, 2018 - San Mateo Daily Journal

Bay Bridge

Taxpayer Group's Lawsuit Could Repeal Toll Hike on Bay Area Bridges

A California taxpayers association has challenged the June passage of a regional ballot measure because it didn't receive two-thirds support from voters, although two prior voter-approved bridge toll increases also fell short of a super-majority.

July 12, 2018 - The Mercury News

Subway Turnstiles

Means-Based, Transit-Fare Discounts Take a Leap Forward in the Big Apple

The 2019 New York City budget includes $106 million to subsidize half the transit fare for qualified residents for six months. The city joins the ranks of Seattle, Toronto, and the Bay Area that offer income-based discounts for transit fares.

June 13, 2018 - The New York Times

Bay Area Highway

Winners and Losers of the California Primary

With national media focused on individual candidates, propositions that dealt with park and water bonds, transportation spending, cap-and-trade, and rainwater may have been overlooked. Plus, a measure to increase bridge tolls in the Bay Area.

June 7, 2018 - The Sacramento Bee

Water Emergency Transportation Authority

Dismal Poll Findings for Bay Area: Half the Respondents Want to Leave

To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it's the housing, stupid! In addition to the troubling findings of the Bay Area Council poll, a California housing report found that Silicon Valley had the highest percentage of residents leaving their counties.

June 6, 2018 - The Mercury News

Citi Bike Rack

Lyft to Buy Motivate, One of America's Largest Bike Share Providers

Motivate operates Ford Gobike in the Bay Area, Citi Bike in New York and Divvy in Chicago among other bike share fleets.

June 4, 2018 - CNET

Floating Village Proposed for Protection Against Floods and Quakes

A "floating village" has been proposed for a San Jose neighborhood, with building riding on pontoons as a safeguard against repeated flooding.

May 25, 2018 - San Jose Mercury News

San Francisco

Bay Area Home Prices Rise Despite Out-Migration

Kathleen Pender, business columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, points to two reasons why home prices rise amidst a Bay Area exodus to other states. On a state level, out-migration shows California's strong but dysfunctional economy.

May 13, 2018 - San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Skyline

The One Tech Company That's Engaging In California's Housing Debate

While tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple have approached the Bay Area's housing crisis gingerly the CEO of Yelp has thrown himself into the YIMBY movement. His activism says a lot about the real world and the virtual world.

May 3, 2018 - California Planning & Development Report

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.