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Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

medium.com

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Re: Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

#11

Post by [deleted] »

ryguytilidie wrote: post #7
santaclaus wrote: post #4

> In the Bay Area, you’re unlikely to have easy access to San Francisco at all if you’re not in San Francisco proper. Eh? It is pretty easy to get to San Francisco from Oakland or Berkeley. Hell, its easier to get to fidi or soma from Oakland than from parts of San Francisco. Edit: For the downvoters, I’m genuinely curious how BART from Oakland to San Fran is considerd hard? I was simply contesting the point that the…

Yeah, this is bizarre. I used to live near MacArthur BART and my commute into the city took ~20 mins. I could EASILY get to: the ballpark, anywhere along market, anywhere in the mission, SFO. I now live in El Cerrito, which makes people go "Oh god, how long is your commute?". 31 minutes. That's it. People seem to think it's a different planet, but I can't even get through a full podcast on the ride home. Totally agre…

[deleted]

Re: Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

#13

Post by aphextron »

ryguytilidie wrote: post #7
santaclaus wrote: post #4

> In the Bay Area, you’re unlikely to have easy access to San Francisco at all if you’re not in San Francisco proper. Eh? It is pretty easy to get to San Francisco from Oakland or Berkeley. Hell, its easier to get to fidi or soma from Oakland than from parts of San Francisco. Edit: For the downvoters, I’m genuinely curious how BART from Oakland to San Fran is considerd hard? I was simply contesting the point that the…

Yeah, this is bizarre. I used to live near MacArthur BART and my commute into the city took ~20 mins. I could EASILY get to: the ballpark, anywhere along market, anywhere in the mission, SFO. I now live in El Cerrito, which makes people go "Oh god, how long is your commute?". 31 minutes. That's it. People seem to think it's a different planet, but I can't even get through a full podcast on the ride home. Totally agre…

>I now live in El Cerrito, which makes people go "Oh god, how long is your commute?". 31 minutes. That's it. People seem to think it's a different planet, but I can't even get through a full podcast on the ride home

Shhhhhhh... don't let people know about El Cerrito ;)

Re: Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

#14

Post by tmh79 »

krausejj wrote: post #3
0xB31B1B wrote: post #2

If these things interest you, consider learning more about the yimby party (sfyimby.com). We’re a group advocating for these policies at a local and state level. DM me for more details.

I'm definitely interested. The part that I'm curious about though is that your brand is "SF Yimby." Your content looks Bay Area focused though. Have you thought of broadening the scope to be more regional?

There are plenty of ally/partner organizations. "East Bay For Everyone" is the east bay one, and there are a few budding orgs in silicon valley (http://www.sjyimby.org/). We all work on local issues, and partner on big projects. For instance, I live in SF but I have traveled to mountain view to advocate for the north bayshore development. SFYIMBY is the "mothership", is the most mature and has the most power to drive votes at the state level.

Re: Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

#15

Post by bradleyjg »

Veelox wrote: post #12

The idea of having a Bay Area "Mayor" sounds like an idea that could have solve a lot of the problems in the Bay Area. The issue would be trying to make that transition happen, seems almost impossible.

California has a initiative right? Couldn't it be done through a statewide ballot measure?

Re: Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

#16

Post by martian »

ryguytilidie wrote: post #7
santaclaus wrote: post #4

> In the Bay Area, you’re unlikely to have easy access to San Francisco at all if you’re not in San Francisco proper. Eh? It is pretty easy to get to San Francisco from Oakland or Berkeley. Hell, its easier to get to fidi or soma from Oakland than from parts of San Francisco. Edit: For the downvoters, I’m genuinely curious how BART from Oakland to San Fran is considerd hard? I was simply contesting the point that the…

Yeah, this is bizarre. I used to live near MacArthur BART and my commute into the city took ~20 mins. I could EASILY get to: the ballpark, anywhere along market, anywhere in the mission, SFO. I now live in El Cerrito, which makes people go "Oh god, how long is your commute?". 31 minutes. That's it. People seem to think it's a different planet, but I can't even get through a full podcast on the ride home. Totally agre…

I don't disagree with the sentiment here, but want to add a few comments: If you have to walk once you get off of Bart (and let's be honest, the Bart stops are pretty well spaced out), your commute goes up. SF transit (the 38 Geary, the N) might seem slower, but you typically don't have to walk as far when you get off. Also, depending on time of day, Muni runs more frequently than the specific Bart lines. Compared with NY Metro (or most other major cities), Bart stops are spread thin.

And quick nit on the Presidio: it's a lovely place to live and if you live there, there is a free shuttle to downtown called the Presidigo that's easy and efficient.

Re: Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

#18

Post by habosa »

This article really gets it. It's all about transportation. It will never be possible for everyone who wants to be in San Francisco to live downtown, or even adjacent to downtown. Just like the article said, Manhattan is much denser but no more affordable.

But we make it so hard for people to get around. You can take a bus for 45m or take the BART which is overcrowded, unreliable, and has trains that can be as much as 20m apart.

Plus using transit around here requires way too much knowledge. There are so many different major transit agencies that don't make any effort to connect (Caltrain, Muni bus, Muni metro, BART, etc) and they all have different pricing schemes (flat rate, monthly passes, pay by distance, etc).

Living 10 miles from your job shouldn't mean you live an hour from your job. NYC gets that. SF Bay Area does not.

Re: Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

#19

Post by compiler-guy »

"Someone else should make the sacrifice."

There's the problem right there.

From the article:

"Brisbane ... is currently blocking a large housing development for local reasons."

"And we also probably don’t want high rise condos on the edge of Golden Gate Park. San Francisco isn’t New York."

I've voted in favor of every housing initiative available to me, but you can't make your favorite part of the Bay Area sacred and expect everyone else to give up theirs.

Re: Saving San Francisco goes deeper than “build more housing”

#20

Post by santaclaus »

habosa wrote: post #10
santaclaus wrote: post #4

> In the Bay Area, you’re unlikely to have easy access to San Francisco at all if you’re not in San Francisco proper. Eh? It is pretty easy to get to San Francisco from Oakland or Berkeley. Hell, its easier to get to fidi or soma from Oakland than from parts of San Francisco. Edit: For the downvoters, I’m genuinely curious how BART from Oakland to San Fran is considerd hard? I was simply contesting the point that the…

Only if: a) You live near BART b) Your destination is near BART And there's also the fact that even if a+b are true for you it's very expensive (~$4-5 each way compared to $2.25 in NYC), overcrowded, and has horrible latency. The fact that on a Friday night at 9pm the trains are running 20m apart is embarassing.

> $2.25 in NYC

$2.75 now! Depends where you are going on BART on how the fares match up to NYC. I'm often traveling from West Oakland to Downtown Berkeley, which is 2 bucks, and hence cheaper than NYC.

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