The city of Santa Rosa, California, has “cut against the trend” by implementing a safe parking program at the county fairgrounds lot. What has your surface parking lot done for you lately?
Lee Romney reports on Santa Rosa’s safe parking program, which allows homeless individuals with cars—which amounts to an estimated 20 percent of the 3,300 homeless residents of Sonoma County, where Santa Rosa is located.
“The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors created the safe parking program in late January as an emergency response to freezing weather, making it one of just a handful on the West Coast. (Similar programs operate in Santa Barbara County, San Luis Obispo and San Diego County.)”
“But lawmakers here went one step further. In what Sonoma County advocates for the homeless called a "pinch me" moment and a "watershed," supervisors removed a ban on the "use of vehicles for human habitation" from the county's anti-camping ordinance.”
FULL STORY: In Sonoma County, a heartwarming safe-parking program for the homeless
Denver Suburb Bans RVs From Parking on Streets Citywide
Lakewood is taking an aggressive approach to homeless people sleeping in cars on public streets.
Wine Country Wildfires Put Spotlight on Transmission Lines
No cause has yet been attributed to California's deadliest wildfires, but the connections to fallen power lines and exploding transformers, maintained by PG&E, have been exposed in a series of reports by the Bay Area News Group.
New Commuter Train Comes Through for Fire-Ravaged Santa Rosa
Sonoma-Marin Rail Transit (SMART) has been operating almost continuously at full schedule, collecting no fares since the epic wildfires began in Sonoma County on Oct. 8. Two stations in the fire-zone are shut down due to lack of access.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Congressman Proposes Bill to Rename DC Metro “Trump Train”
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The States Losing Rural Delivery Rooms at an Alarming Pace
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The Small South Asian Republic Going all in on EVs
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DC Backpedals on Bike Lane Protection, Swaps Barriers for Paint
Citing aesthetic concerns, the city is removing the concrete barriers and flexposts that once separated Arizona Avenue cyclists from motor vehicles.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
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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