[TLC News & Alerts] Support Downtown Parking Reform * Car-free living blog needs writers

[Tom Radulovich]

SUPPORT DOWNTOWN PARKING REFORM!
Tuesday, January 10, 4:30 PM
City Hall

In December, downtown's pro-parking lobbyists filed an environmental  
appeal of Supervisor Daly's landmark legislation to reform parking  
requirements in the C-3 (downtown) zoning districts. This legislation  
lifts the minimum car parking requirement, and instead mandates a  
maximum parking ratio of one space for every other unit. The  
legislation limits garage entrances and curb cuts on the downtown's  
major bicycle, pedestrian, and transit streets, requires active  
ground-floor uses, and prohibits parking on upper floors. It also  
requires bike parking in all projects regardless of the number of car  
parking spaces, and that the bike parking entrance not be shared with  
cars, as well as car-sharing spaces in all new projects.

The environmental appeal will be heard at the Board of Supervisors on  
Tuesday, January 10th at 4:30 PM. in City Hall. The appellants allege  
that the legislation will limit housing downtown and create  
environmentally significant "parking deficits" in the downtown. The  
Planning department's response, based on a number of cited studies,  
is that this legislation will likely result in greater housing  
affordability with no limit on supply, and will not result in serious  
parking shortages. Please come to the Board of Supervisors meeting  
tomorrow and let them know that the Planning Department's decision is  
thorough, sound, and based on studies and analysis, and urge them to  
reject the appeal and adopt the legislation. If you can't make it,  
please call, fax, or email your supervisors and urge them to reject  
the appeal. A fact sheet on the legislation with the Supervisors'  
contact information can be found on Transportation for a Livable  
City's web site: http://www.livablecity.org/campaigns/c3.html. The  
Planning Department's detailed response (in PDF format) can be found  
at http://www.livablecity.org/campaigns/Appeal_Response.pdf

If the appeal is rejected, the legislation will be heard at the Board  
of Supervisors' Land Use Committee on Wednesday, January 18 at 1pm in  
City Hall. Please plan to show up and speak in support!

LESS CAR MORE LIFE BLOG NEEDS WRITERS

TLC is going to host a new outreach tool in 2006: a web log: Less Car  
More Life!  This blog is designed to show very personally how many  
different San Franciscans survive, thrive, work and play without  
reliance on personal car ownership.

Member Rich Coffin is donating the software and the technical  
expertise. Thanks, Rich! The beta test of the blog will be ready  
soon, but the launch date is not until March so we can get ready  
editorially with a lineup of bloggers. Here's what we're looking for  
in our blogging team:

-> Good writers, able to commit to one piece per week for a year.
-> A team of five to ten people.
-> A group so ethnically diverse that the diversity is a topic of  
conversation: "wow, they got *everyone* to contribute."
-> At least as many women as men.
-> Somebody with a child.

Please help us find this team. We can provide compensation in a  
year's supply of free beer -- hell, we'll throw in burgers and fries  
-- at Zeitgeist on the first Wednesdays of the month! Contact Dave  
Snyder (Dave at livablecity.org) if you are interested.


Tom Radulovich
Executive Director
Transportation for a Livable City
995 Market Street Suite 1550
San Francisco CA 94103
415 344-0489
www.livablecity.org
tom at livablecity.org