San Francisco Bracing for 1 Million Residents by 2032

Whether they’re all “rich techies” or not, people are moving to San Francisco in droves. After a decade in which the city added 28,500 new residents, "20,600 folks wedged themselves into The City's superlatively expensive living space” between 2011-2012, reports Dan Schreiber. And by 2032, today's population of roughly 825,000 will grow to the milestone of a million residents. San Francisco will have grown in population by 35 percent between 2010 and 2040—"the fastest 30-year rate of increase in nearly a century."

"'The Bay Area job creation engine is the envy of the entire world,' said Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of SPUR, the region's most active urbanist think tank. 'But it has created its own set of problems for us -- problems that don't solve themselves.'"

The challenges that follow in the wake of the population boom are more numerous than the well-documented struggle to deliver and maintain affordable housing stock in the city. The Examiner's five-part series will analyze less conspicuous challenges that will follow the growing population: public transit, waste management, expanding city budgets, and inadequate school facilities are just some of the anticipated pressure points.