Redwood City Forward

If democratic strongholds lived up to their professed values, California would be the happiest place on earth. But blue states are the most inequitable on housing policy, education funding and segregation (which is a direct product of housing policy) and progressive taxation. Let’s walk our talk.

Housing law vs. local control news:

Land use policy is energy policy, climate policy , transportation policy, equity policy and health policy. Compact cities with bountiful housing, centered on people rather than cars are better on every possible metric. Except maybe free/cheap parking.

Running a bus down a big wide road doesn’t make it transit centric. Wide, multi-lane roads like Woodside, El Camino Real and Veterans are designed for maximum automobile throughput and speed. This means that people living along them are exposed to higher levels of air and noise pollution and that these streets are less pleasant and more dangerous for anyone outside of a car. If we want equity, we can either make these streets truly transit centric (eg, restrict automobile traffic and widen and improve sidewalks, bike lanes and e-transit service) or we can concetrate new housing away from these hazards.

Land use policy is energy policy, climate policy , transportation policy, equity policy and health policy. Compact cities with bountiful housing, centered on people rather than cars are better on every possible metric. Except maybe free/cheap parking.

Running a bus down a big wide road doesn’t make it transit centric. Wide, multi-lane roads like Woodside, El Camino Real and Veterans are designed for maximum automobile throughput and speed. This means that people living along them are exposed to higher levels of air and noise pollution and that these streets are less pleasant and more dangerous for anyone outside of a car. If we want equity, we can either make these streets truly transit centric (eg, restrict automobile traffic and widen and improve sidewalks, bike lanes and e-transit service) or we can concetrate new housing away from these hazards.

Small, inexpensive changes make a huge difference in safety. Especially for people who are harder to see, like children or those walking at night. Safety for all road users should be the design standard for our streets.

Small, inexpensive changes make a huge difference in safety. Especially for people who are harder to see, like children or those walking at night. Safety for all road users should be the design standard for our streets.

On the failed promise of ridesharing

For decades, our transportation system has prioritized the convenience of people driving over the lives of people walking, biking or on transit. We are all pedestrians at some point, either at the beginning and end of life or going from a bus, train or car to our destination. Redwood City can be a child first, people first city.

As droughts become more frequent and more severe, it's probably worth considering what types of housing use the most water. Multi-family housing uses a fraction of the water per household that a single family home uses and the denser the housing the less water per household we use.

Join a virtual conversation about the future of our housing

SB9 and SB10 have passed the California Assembly with strong margins.

As droughts become more frequent and more severe, it's probably worth considering what types of housing use the most water. Multi-family housing uses a fraction of the water per household that a single family home uses and the denser the housing the less water per household we use.

It really can’t be repeated enough that the YIMBY position is that it should be legal to build hous[ing]. Say you own some property and you would like to build some houses on it. My position is that it should be legal. - Wayne Burkett

SB9 and SB10 have passed the California Assembly with strong margins.

Mobility in cities is about space. - Brent Toderian

It really can’t be repeated enough that the YIMBY position is that it should be legal to build hous[ing]. Say you own some property and you would like to build some houses on it. My position is that it should be legal. - Wayne Burkett

When real estate speculators like Blackstone tells the government and investors how to beat them like a video game villain. Link to largest private equity owners of single family homes' 2021 SEC filing below. - Darryl Owens https://www.sec.gov///000119312517029042/d260125d424b4.htm

America has spent the last century centering our transportation system, and even our cities on the car. Beyond the environmental and health impacts (which are huge), it makes streets loud, ugly, unpleasant and boring. Compare the car centered street to the person centered street below.

No malarkey. The White House is not messing around.

There is a place for cars and planes in the transportation system. It’s not at the top.

The costs of a transportation system centered on the private car are huge whether you own a car or don’t. These estimates from Hawaii put the infrastructure costs at about $24,000/household. Add to that car payments, gas and insurance. And there are the other costs too. Automobile crashes are the leading cause of air and noise pollution and a major source of water pollution. They are the leading cause of child death in the United States and in the top three for young adults into people’s 40s. We cannot ever reach health, equity, sustainability or climate goals - or even stasis - while continuing to prioritize driving over every other mode of transportation.

Universal integration of schools didn’t happen naturally or voluntarily. The worst offenders had to be forced to share. And even after it became the law of the land, many of regions giving the loudest lip service to integration (eg, NY City) had the most segregated schools decades later. They still do. When we look at the impact of policy and how it shapes our cities, don’t just listen to what people say. Watch what they do.

Berkeley has just voted unanimously (9-0) to end single family zoning city wide and to allow four-plexes throughout the city. Huuuuuge.

This is an image of space lost to parking lots and highways in Detroit. At some point, it’s become more of a place for cars than for people. Where on this map would Redwood City fall?

Happy New Year! Zoning from the 1940s makes it hard for young families to find housing. But it can also make it hard to find child care. There are many reasons its hard to find child care, but zoning should not be one of them. Let’s make it as easy as possible to own and operate safe, high quality child care.

More genius from Alfred Twu.

Allowing a greater variety of housing types means more economically diverse and integrated neighborhoods. Things like row houses, town houses and three and four plexes. These homes types are attractive and affordable to a larger share of the population.

By replacing just one house with a small apartment building with retail on the ground floor and the addition of a bike lane, the neighborhood is more walkable, bikeable and convenient and can make home for almost twice as many families. This image also shows the absence of parking. By eliminating parking minimums, the land can be put to productive use and residents are not forced to subsidize parking they don’t want or need.

It’s hard to overstate how much mid-century zoning and automobile centrism, a top down massive social experiment, has entrenched wealth inequality, segregation and consumption. Exclusionary, auto-dependent zoning is a policy choice, and we can make different choices. A root cause for the degradation of cities, landscapes and built environment since WWII are the territorial mono-functional zoning ordinances, a planetary tragedy w/o precedent. They drive the daily mobilization... of the whole of mankind in accomplishing even the most basic tasks. They have reordered the social fabric of national economies and physical reality of settlements and thus have ensured the maximum consumption of units of time, energy and land per individual and per performance. - Leon Krier

As clicking this image graphically shows: cars regardless of how they’re powered, whether parked or on our congested roads & highways, just take up too much valuable space.

Not a single California city made this list. Not. Even. One. Despite a vast coastline, booming economy, access to fresh foods year round and a progressive legislature. California has built the wall. It’s called NIMBYism.