Transbay Blog
Eric
Governor Will Veto Gas Tax Swap Legislation
Governor Schwarzenegger has indicated he will veto the legislative measures that would have executed the gas tax swap mechanism, while restoring some of the funding that transit agencies lost when the State zeroed out State Transit Assistance (STA) funds. Agencies throughout California had previously relied on STA to fund transit operations. The Legislature made a … Continue reading
Court Invalidates the Pleasanton Housing Cap
In 1996, the City of Pleasanton adopted Measure GG, which set a strict housing cap. Under Measure GG, no more than 29,000 units could be built within the city. Although it took awhile, fourteen years later, Pleasanton’s housing cap has finally been ruled to be illegal. Judge Frank Roesch, of Alameda County Superior Court, issued … Continue reading
555 Fulton: When Parking By-Right Just Isn’t Enough
The San Francisco Planning Department has prepared an environmental document (mitigated negative declaration) for 555 Fulton (link to off-site 2.3 MB PDF). 555 Fulton is a five-story mixed-use residential and commercial project to be constructed on Fulton between Octavia and Laguna, in Hayes Valley. In terms of zones, the project site is in the Hayes-Gough … Continue reading
California Legislature Passes Legislation to Restore STA Funding
Actually encouraging news … from Sacramento? Could it be? Dare we hope? The State Legislature, as part of the ongoing state budget effort, has passed a pair of bills, AB X8 6 and AB X8 9, which would establish a tax swap and restore State Transit Assistance (STA) funding, a critical source of money that … Continue reading
Killing Muni Softly: Foreseeable Emergency
“Killing Muni Softly” is the sort of post title one would rather use at most once, preferably not at all — but certainly not as the headnote of an occasional series. No such luck in San Francisco, where transit is caught in a death cycle that may be on course to spiral out of control. And while … Continue reading
SFMTA Weighs Proposals To Close FY11-12 Budget Gap
Since we last wrote about the year-end FY10 budget, MTA adjusted the amount of savings that would result from certain measures and incorporated $6 million of funding from the Oakland Airport Connector’s ARRA component to be applied toward operations and preventive maintenance. The MTA Board has since confirmed its desire to move forward with the … Continue reading
Is the Oakland Airport Connector Dead?
Last week brought the great news that FTA refused to disburse $70 million of ARRA federal stimulus dollars to the BART Oakland Airport Connector. The natural follow-up question is one I have now been asked numerous times by friends and blog readers: is the Connector dead? Have we at last melted the Wicked Witch of the West? … Continue reading
Chipping Away at the Garage Problem
Take a stroll around North Beach or Chinatown in San Francisco, and you’ll see many of the characteristics you would expect to see in two of the densest urban districts in America’s second densest city — well-traveled sidewalks, mixed-use structures with ground-floor retail, buildings built to the sidewalk and property lines, a streetscape activated by … Continue reading
FTA Rejects Federal Stimulus Funding for BART Oakland Airport Connector
The big news from the day: even though BART and FTA have been working the past couple weeks on a plan to correct the Title VI deficiencies in BART’s Oakland Airport Connector project, today Peter Rogoff sent a letter (PDF) to BART and MTC announcing that BART’s corrective action plan for the OAC has been … Continue reading
Obama FY 2011 Budget Includes Transit Funding for the Bay Area
The Obama Administration has released its proposed budget for FY 2011. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s portion of the budget, which accounts for $78.8 billion, mostly perpetuates the status quo approach to transportation spending. In particular, it includes requests for FHWA ($42.1 billion), FAA ($16.5 billion), FTA ($10.8 billion), the National Infrastructure Innovation and Finance … Continue reading
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