Stuck in a Twilight Zone

I don't know John McDowell--never heard of him before today--but he is right on the money with his Stuck in the Zone opinion piece in today's DJ.

Imagine, if you will, a democracy where your voice doesn’t count, where regional unelected bureaucrats make decisions for you, and where your city is shaped by Sacramento and not your city council.

He goes into detail

That’s because Plan Bay Area lays out what can and cannot be built and where that building must occur. The glossy brochures make that plain to those who take the time to read them. Essentially, the plan divides the nine Bay Area counties into Priority Development Areas, or PDAs, and Priority Conservation Areas, or PCAs. The plan mandates that development take place in the narrowly prescribed PDAs, which include city centers, mixed-use corridors and transit town centers.

In San Mateo County, that means a narrow strip around El Camino Real and the Caltrain tracks will be expected to absorb almost 94,000 new households in the next 25 years. No wonder they are stack and pack.

You really must click through and read the whole piece.  I'll get more info on the Nine-County Coalition he refers to at the end.

Comments

[hillsider]

So depressing.

[Joanne]

Time for greener pastures!

[Ian]

Interesting article Joe - I'd like to see what you're able to learn about this coalition. Despite the article's repeated references to "unelected bureaucrats", it seems the coalition is really just against planning at the regional level. The groups they mention (ABAG, MTC, BAAQMD, BCDC) certainly constitute an alphabet soup of agencies, but they're mostly governed by elected members of various city and county governments from around the bay area. They also appear pretty transparent about who's on them and what they're up to, which (and I'm no expert in these) seems to be mostly research, coordination, planning - I can't see for instance where they have the legal authority to override local land-use decision-making. It's not as clear (at least to me) who the coalition represents.

[Joe]

From today's DJ:

The San Francisco Bay Area’s Peninsula region is short tens of thousands of housing units because of strong job and population growth over the last nine years, according to an economic report released Thursday.

The report by the Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s Institute for Regional Studies said the region including San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties is short 60,000 housing units, a problem exacerbated in the last year by the addition of 65,600 jobs and 39,800 residents.

The unemployment rate in the region has also declined, according to the report. In September in San Mateo County, the unemployment rate was 3.1 percent, well below the state and nationwide averages of 5.5 and 5 percent.

- See more at: http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/lnews/2016-11-04/report-60k-more-housing-units-needed-on-peninsula/1776425170870.html#sthash.XtrpRb7l.dpuf

Not a word about where the water would come from. Must not be much of an institute for regional studies...............

[[email protected]]

There is an easy solution to housing shortage.
FEMA has a very detailed plan for responding to a major Bay Area earthquake effecting Silicon Valley.
Major Community Recourse's- The Peninsula, will be routed toward supporting Oracle, etc.
Instead of waiting for a major earthquake to hit the SF Bay Area, house "those people" in the FEMA "Homes" stationed at local Military Bases@ the SF Bay.
$3000.00 for a studio in Mountain View, CA. is a "Homeland Security Issue."

[[email protected]]

PS Joe,
Are you for or against City of Burlingame subsidies, for First Responders, School Teachers, or any other City of Burlingame employee's who are necessary for infrastructure operation?