Public Development

To many Californians, the lively, pedestrian-oriented streets and plazas of San Francisco are what make the city so enjoyable. But away from these celebrated areas, San Francisco has many of the same problems with its streets as other aging urban areas. There are countless blocks of treeless roads that are more useful for shuttling speeding cars to freeways, than for providing safe corridors for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The city has set out to improve those streets that don’t match up to the city’s reputation with an ambitious “Better Streets Plan."

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When Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network CEO Russell Hancock talks about transforming El Camino Real into the Northern California version of the Avenues des Champs Elysees, one begins to wonder what color the sky is in his world. » read more | add to cart

State bond money and local tax dollars are flowing into new school construction at record rates, and school officials are learning that a “green” campus is both better for students and teachers and is less expensive to operate.

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The State of California needs a better system for determining how much it pays for resource conservation lands, the Legislative Analyst’s Office concluded in a lengthy report issued in October. Although the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) does not say directly that the state has overpaid when it bought forests, wetlands, beaches, habitat and open space, the implication is easy to draw.

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If anything has become clear during the months since voters approved a $19.9 billion transportation bond last November, it’s that freeways are still king. The first $4.5 billion allocated by the California Transportation Commission (CTC) was aimed solely at roads, mostly for expanding freeway capacity. Another $3 billion for pavement — including $1 billion for Highway 99 — is scheduled for allocation by June.

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Some of the most intense growth battles of the last 20 years have involved development of classrooms, laboratories, housing and other facilities by the University of California (UC). Local government representatives and residents in Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara County and elsewhere have complained that UC shoves development down their throats without considering local impacts or desires.

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Some of the most intense growth battles of the last 20 years have involved development of classrooms, laboratories, housing and other facilities by the University of California (UC). Local government representatives and residents in Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara County and elsewhere have complained that UC shoves development down their throats without considering local impacts or desires.

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San Bernardino County is using redevelopment tools to help a rural community devastated by the Southern California firestorms of 2003 rebuild. The effort is one of the first times a California redevelopment agency has formed a project area specifically to aid recovery from a natural disaster.

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Two ballot measures approved by Santa Cruz voters in November appear to have further strained the already difficult relationship between the city and the University of California.

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Lake Berryessa, a 30-square-mile federal reservoir in the hills northeast of the more famous Napa Valley, may be California’s most secret lake. But a new land use and management plan could change that by promoting a more high-end tourist activity than the lake has seen in the past.

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