San Francisco

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee took drastic measures to initiate a turnaround of the city's troubled Housing Authority on Friday by replacing all but one member of the city's Housing Authority Commission.

February 10, 2013 - San Francisco Chronicle

Planning for the $350 million Better Market Street project, which aims to transform downtown's main thoroughfare into a transit and people-oriented place, has expanded to encompass surrounding streets.

February 6, 2013 - San Francisco Chronicle

Mike Senese spotlights a new television program on the Science Channel that uses innovative graphics to examine how the world's cities have been built to overcome the challenges of their natural environments and serve their citizens.

February 5, 2013 - Wired

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) would like to spend $200 million on improving the city's bike infrastructure over the next 5 years. How many miles of green paint can you get with all that green?

January 30, 2013 - The San Francisco Examiner

During his first State of the City address, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee put reforming MUNI - the city's "notoriously late and overcrowded public transit system" - at the top of his agenda.

January 29, 2013 - San Francisco Chronicle

From a giant dam across the Golden Gate to a dozen "ventilated levees," the options proposed for protecting San Francisco Bay from rising seas are neither cheap nor subtle. But with sea level rise "around the corner," hard choices must be made.

January 28, 2013 - San Francisco Chronicle

One of the cities that's led the growing trend in urban freeway removal is considering another tear down, report Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross.

January 21, 2013 - San Francisco Chronicle

Yosh Asato compares the current dot-com and housing boom around South of Market (SoMA), the heart of San Francisco's tech industry, to previous booms that resulted in inevitable crashes. Is there an optimistic future for the city this time around?

January 17, 2013 - Metropolis Magazine

Ryan Holeywell discusses a new report from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley that examines the top reasons people stop using public transit. Frequent, consistent service is most important to riders.

January 16, 2013 - Governing

Dozens of transit expansion projects will start, continue, or complete construction this year across America. Yonah Freemark delivers a thorough rundown of the exciting year ahead in transit construction and makes note of a dark cloud on the horizon.

January 2, 2013 - the transport politic

What a difference a year makes! In 2011, 269 new housing units were added while over 4,220 new housing units are now under construction. Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the San Francisco Planning + Urban Research Association (SPUR), explains.

December 21, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

San Francisco's 1985 downtown plan required large new office and hotel developments to incorporate public spaces, but the city is only now updating the requirements and reinforcing the initial goal of opening up privately owned public spaces (POPOS).

December 20, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Does your town have sensors embedded in the pavement of parking stalls that signal when one becomes available? D.C. and N.Y.C. do - and now Streetline's parking app will allow motorists in San Mateo, pop. 97K and San Carlos, pop. 28K to find parking.

December 10, 2012 - The (San Mateo County) Daily Journal

Although the landmark but now controversial environmental law, the CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is state law, it is implemented by the 'lead agency' of a project which can be a city. S.F. Supervisor Scott Wiener hopes to reform that process.

December 8, 2012 - San Francisco Chronicle

Transportation officials in the greater San Francisco area have been debating a proposal to provide free public transit for low-income youth. They are now considering the possibility of basing fares on income, rather than age or disability.

December 4, 2012 - San Francisco Examiner

For those of you who've been anxiously waiting since Boyd Cohen published his list of Europe's smartest cities last month...wait no longer, North America's top 10 smartest cities have been revealed.

December 3, 2012 - Fast Company Co.Exist

Don't call these modern apartments SROs - they go by 'micro-apartments', and they just received a significant approval, 375 of them, that is. One more step awaits: Mayor Ed Lee must give his blessing, and he appears rather non-committal.

December 1, 2012 - San Francisco Chronicle

Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley tour the "otherwise nondescript brick building" on San Francisco's Mason Street that houses the machines running the "Endless Wire Ropeway" that hums beneath the city's streets and pulls its famous cable cars.

November 28, 2012 - The Atlantic

Martha Bridegam investigates the aftermath of a forced eviction at a homeless encampment in San Francisco. Do the homeless deserve to be criminalized?

November 24, 2012 - The Global Urbanist

Completed in 1791, the Mission Dolores is the oldest building in San Francisco. It has survived major earthquakes in the past, writes Alexis Coe, but preservationists are worried about its fate and have begun digitally preserving the landmark.

November 22, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities