Research and Activist Projects for Livable City
Do a comparative study of residential density and parking provision.
The current plans for the Transbay and Rincon Hill areas will eventually create a neighborhood with the highest residential density in the United States. (That's right: denser than Manhattan.) If done correctly, it could help create a more livable city. Tall, slender towers tucked among the existing towers will preserve views while added pedestrian life will enliven the sidewalks 24 hours/day. Increased housing supply (if the bulk of the new units are offered at the low end for rent and purchase alike) will reduce prices somewhat throughout the city. However, what is the transportation impact of this plan? If these high residential densities are accompanied by high automobile densities, we'll have a miserable street life and the new residents will find themselves preferring to stay isolated from their neighbors except in the elevator on the way to the garage. TLC needs a researcher to review the proposed desnities, and compare the proposed neighborhoods with similar ones around the world, in terms of transit access and automobile dependence.
Assess effect of San Francisco traffic cordon.
This is a really fun project that might get legs. I've discovered a great deal of interest in copying the successful London downtown congestion charge zone, so the release of this report would get press.
- Review existing congestion charge cordon areas (London, Singapore are two) to identify key characteristics. (rate, technology, area, use of funds, etc.)
- Consider two or more options for SF congestion zone charges: a downtown area or areas, to be defined; the city entirely (obviously it's easy to north, east, and west; at the south this proposal would end up setting up tolls on 280, 101, and a few roads)
- Comparing a feasible SF scenario to the scenario in London and elsewhere, project the amount of money that would be raised by the various options and the effect on transit times, etc. throughout S.F.
Survey work: compare travel and spending habits of of shoppers at neighborhood shops and SF small businesses with shoppers at big box stores.
This project would be intended to support the notion that SF residents benefit more from pedestrian-dependent neighborhood-serving retail than they do from parking-dependent big box retail.
Design and conduct a survey to determine the percentage of sales and/or percentage of customers who shop by foot, bike, or transit. And of those who came by car, where did they park?
Survey work: investigate claims of parking supporters through surveys (e.g. is the Asian Arts Museum really suffering due to a lack of parking?)
This project would be intended to investigate how much SF's major institutions really need parking.
Facilitate car-free, off-site affordable housing.
In San Francisco, all housing projects of 10 units or more must subsidize some of their units or provide more below-market rate units offsite. This project would identify sites where developers could provide off-site housing without parking.
- Come up with a list of site where people could do off-site (but in-district) affordable housing without parking, to make it easier on developers to build car-free housing.
Study socioeconomic effects of Livable City's various parking proposals.
Who benefits, who loses, as a result of Livable City's various parking proposals.
- Identify which proposals to study: e.g. reduced parking in housing, increased cost in parking garages,
- Analyze which groups end up paying more for parking, getting more housing for less money, getting better transit service for less money.
Research car ownership rates, simple version.
- Use U.S. Census figures from 2000 to get neighborhood level car ownership stats, factored by income level and housing tenure.
- Compare to 1990 figures.
Research car ownership rates relative to parking availability.
The point of this research is to show that people who live in housing without parking do not own cars at the same rate as people
- Use U.S. Census figures from 2000 to get neighborhood level car ownership stats, factored by income level and housing tenure.
- Compare to 1990 figures.
Activist Projects:
Communications project.
Webmaster:
- design and promotion of various campaign sites
- Html-izing the path brochure
Misc. Volunteer projects:
Clean up database of old emails.