Date: 04/21/2010

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » Streetsblog · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » science

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Source: Chicago's Green Alleys Handbook During the heavy rainfall season, San Francisco faces some daunting challenges: Draining the water, keeping the roads from getting slippery, and containing and treating the runoff. Some storms are so severe that the city can't keep pace. That's when we see flooding in the Muni tunnels and sewage discharges into the bay. But the solution -- or at least part of the solution --... [Read more...]

Date: 09/02/2009

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » NBC Bay Area · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » misc

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Recent reports that San Francisco's Muni is "more reliable than ever" are a real headscratcher to anyone who was caught in Monday's subway meltdown. Despite Muni trapping passengers with no explanation on Monday, Gavin Newsom's mayoral office/gubernatorial campaign just sent out a press release touting the agency's on-time performance. How could the Gavinator be so out of touch? Maybe it's because Muni's keeping the mayor's office in the dark,... [Read more...]

Date: 08/11/2009

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » Curbed · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » science

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Can we revive the recent conversation about faster Muni and growing population in the Richmond one more time? We'd like to point out this post about Transit-Oriented Design (TOD) on the blog of the same name. In a nutshell: Faster transit and denser populations go hand-in-hand: more space for people equals less space for cars, which equals more need for transit, traffic calming, and pedestrian amenities. Or you can... [Read more...]

Date: 07/27/2009

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » Curbed · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » science

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San Francisco City Hall is an inescapable black hole! Okay, so everybody knows that already. But we're talking about electricity: every day, the building consumes power several hundreds of times greater than that of a residential building. Several HUNDRED times? How is that even possible? What is Mister Green Mayor DOING over there, splitting the atom? Fortunately, the Public Utilities Commission is working on cleaning up City Hall's act,... [Read more...]

Date: 07/15/2009

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » Curbed · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » misc

No big surprise: the great new pedestrian plaza at Market and Castro has been extended for four more months. Well of course. Streetsblog reports "surprise and pleasure at how well the plaza is functioning" but who the hell is surprised that people would rather have a nice sit-down than dodge cars amongst baffling traffic lights? The conversation is now turning to making the plaza permanent -- it's still a... [Read more...]

Date: 07/06/2009

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » Curbed · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » science

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California recently tried to take away $1 billion (billion!) in gas-tax funds from transit -- but no, the 3rd district court of appeal just ruled, the state can't do that. Voters approved the gas tax specifically to fund buses and trains, but so far Arnold's stolen $152 million from Muni, and $30 million from BART last year alone. The governor plans to appeal the ruling; so when fares to go... [Read more...]

Date: 02/29/2008

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » SFist · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » science

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Good news: Translink will be up and running on Muni in the late fall/early winter of 2007. Or at least, that's what Muni said last year, and surprise! It's still not working. (And before that, it was January of 2007.) Translink is the work of a company called ERG, Ltd (emphasis on the "limited"); and in the decades (decades!) that it's been bandied about, lots of other cities have... [Read more...]

Date: 02/08/2008

Category: · Writing » Op-Ed · Writing  » News Coverage  » SFist · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » misc

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Well, whaddya know. No sooner did we lavish praise upon the SF County Transportation Authority than Nat Ford, head of Muni, decided that he might be interested in committing a hostile takeover of the SFCTA... thereby making the TA as flawless as Muni. Good idea! If our agency was melting down, and there was another one making us look bad, we might want to buy it and run it... [Read more...]

Date: 06/27/2007

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » SFist · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » misc

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Say hello to your new next door neighbor: a parking garage. Petitioners are currently collecting signatures for a "build more parking" petition, but the terms are insane: it wouldn't just allow developers to install big garages, it would require that all new homes build on extra parking, at the expense of living space. Require! As in, the government says that you don't have a choice! More room for cars means... [Read more...]

Date: 01/26/2007

Category: · Writing  » News Coverage  » SFist · Writing  » Op-Ed  » Urban Planning · Writing  » Topic  » misc

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We don't have anything funny to say about this one -- we're simply at a loss. Rumor had it yesterday that Gavin picked Stuart Sunshine to be his new Deputy Chief of Staff, and now the mayor's Director of Communications Peter Ragone (not to be confused with houseguest John Nelson) has confirmed it. Stuart will be leaving the MTA and moving to the mayor's administration, where he'll be "focusing on... [Read more...]