International Transport Forum | Corporate Partnership Board Report | posted: 4/23/2015 What if all trips in a city were carried out by a fleet of self-driving cars shared by users? This study explores the potential outcomes of such a radical upgrade in an urban mobility system. It concludes that up…
Condo protesters keep Oakland City Council from meeting
SFGate | Rachel Swan | posted: 5/5/2015 Members of the Oakland City Council had to stall a long-anticipated meeting Tuesday when protesters stormed the dais, unfurling a banner with the slogan “The People’s City Council.” Dozens of protesters gathered outside City Hall as Mayor Libby Schaaf presented her first budget…
Dublin City Council rejects Dublin Green project
Contra Costa Times | Jeremy Thomas | posted: 4/22/2015 DUBLIN — Marking a dramatic shift in policy, the City Council on Tuesday did something this city hasn’t seen in quite some time: It rejected a large development. Citing concerns over building more houses and further burdening overcrowded schools, council members…
California Supreme Court to Decide Major CEQA, Climate Change Case
LegalPlanet | Richard Frank | posted: 3/12/2015 Justices’ Latest Grant of Review Continues Supreme Court’s Focus on Environmental Law. To paraphrase former President Ronald Reagan, there they go again. The California Supreme Court on Wednesday granted review in an important case at the intersection of the California Environmental Quality Act…
The Future of SB 375 Implementation and Regional Planning
Western City Magazine | Julie Pierce | posted: March 2015 edition I am a city council member, but I am also a regionalist. These are not mutually exclusive titles — each needs the other. Regional governments are built with and depend on the expertise of local officials. Because local government…
Here’s what the private housing market creates
48 hills | posted: 2/26/2015 Turn 12 high-end units into two billionaire penthouses? Sure — that’s what the “market” wants. While we continue to fight over whether there ought to be more “market-rate” (read: luxury) housing in the Mission, and whether there is any rational supply-and-demand element in the equation,…
San Rafael residents voicing concerns over SMART’s wood railroad ties
Marin IJ | Mark Prado | posted: 2/20/2015 Several residents who live near Los Ranchitos Road in San Rafael are asking that work on the SMART rail project stop until the agency can address why wood ties thought to be filled with creosote are being stacked and used in their…
SMART Board Gets an Earful: Citizens confront SMART Board over environmental toxins
WeAreSanRafael.com | posted: 2/19/2015 Is SMART using toxic creosote ties in San Rafael? 12 residents showed up at today’s SMART Board meeting in Petaluma armed with photos of creosote timber ties stacked on Los Ranchitos, ties that are being installed at our grade crossings, and timber ties lying in rainwater…
How many bicyclists will ride across Richmond bridge?
Marin IJ | Dick Spotswood | posted: 2/17/2015 The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Caltrans are determined to proceed with plans for a hugely expensive bike path on the upper deck of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. What they will not do until forced is authorize a “demand study.” That’s an analysis…
Driving us up the wall — Will new funding restrictions affect transportation in Marin?
Pacific Sun | Peter Seidman | posted: 2/13/2015 Most Marin cities and the county face restrictions on the amount of federal gas tax money they can spend. The cause: Rejecting the Plan Bay Area concept of priority development areas. When motorists fill their gas tanks in Marin, they pay 18.4…