The San Francisco Chronicle

With mounting evidence that the lifestyle promoted by car-oriented suburbia can lead to increased risk of obesity, the idea of people consciously moving to a healthy-oriented, walkable neighborhood isn't so far-fetched.

Recently, a long-standing trend of family-flight from San Francisco seems to be reversing. The city hopes to retain more families in coming years, increasing the population of children and families back to peak amounts from nearly 50 years ago.

Combining Google's satellite mapping technology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's dearth of pollution and contamination data, new web applications let users map out toxic and contaminated sites.

The start of regular service on the city's new light rail line creates major delays for the entire transit system.

After many years of lagging population growth many attribute to the bust of the dot-com boom, the San Francisco Bay Area has shown a positive population growth rate for recent years.

While the "baby bullet" service on the Bay Area Caltrain commuter rail has attracted new riders, the resulting service cuts have also shunned others.

In an effort to woo the city's NHL team back, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced a planned partnership with Lennar Corp. of Miami to turn a blighted and contaminated part of the city into a new mixed-use community.

Architectural critic John King finds 'starchitects' to be great designers, but troubling to cities.

With the end of a federal subsidy intended to soften the blow to rural forest economies, an entire public library system in Oregon is being shut down.

A federal jury sided with Alameda County, California, in a lawsuit brought by a Christian school whose permit was denied, claiming religious discrimination under the Religious Land User and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.

Unpaid riders and broken fares boxes are causing budget woes for San Francisco's bus and rail system, Muni, according to the system's administrators. The agency estimates losses in the tens of millions of dollars.

Long known internationally as America's "Gay Mecca", San Francisco's Castro District is seeing an influx of straight couples who find the district's amenities attractive. A movement is afoot to ensure the district retains its gay identity.

A recent report has revealed some shortcomings of San Francisco's Municipal Railway system: Muni busses and railcars arrive on schedule only 70%of the time. The issue is underlined by a 1999 measure that sought an on-time percentage of 85% by 2004.

President Bush's 2008 budget proposes $2.4 billion for the National Park Service.

Having spent an inordinate amount of time in preliminary engineering, the major transit project for the San Francisco Bay Area is in serious financial trouble, according to the FTA, and could have its $750 million grant withdrawn.

As many communities across Europe and the United States decrease in size, academics ponder just how to plan for for cities with declining populations.

The Jimmy Carter charity, long identified with "sweat equity" and affordable housing, is confronting strong, residential opposition in its application to build four homes to accompany three market-rate homes in affluent Marin County west of Tiburon.

Low parking meter collection rates have shocked public officials in San Francisco, where parking is so valuable people are literally killing for it.

Growing demand for the innovative service is sustaining three competing car-sharing companies.

Gentrification and redevelopment threaten the historic homes and buildings in the former foreign settlement area of China's largest city.