A downtown plan created a vision for development in San Francisco, but couldn't guide the social and cultural changes the city would see over the past 25 years.
A new report looks at the impact of the plan, written in 1985.
"The plan was effective at expanding the city's Financial District south of Market Street, while neighborhoods such as Chinatown were shielded from disruptive change. It created fees that, with little subsequent fuss, have generated $200 million for Muni and affordable housing.
But to the extent it tried to micromanage social and cultural issues - a goal of City Hall activists then and now - the Downtown Plan was an exercise in futility. Regional trends in automobile use, job creation and housing prices paid no attention to how San Francisco thought the world should be."
FULL STORY: S.F. Downtown Plan at 25: foresight and futility
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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