For a concert hall, Los Angeles requires, at a minimum, 50 times more parking spaces than San Francisco allows as the maximum. This difference in planning helps explain why downtown San Francisco is much more exciting and livable than downtown Los Angeles.
Twitter is moving from Silicon Valley to San Francisco. They offer their employees free lunches at their cafeteria. Will this inhibit the propagation of street life nearby?
This is interesting. Researchers countered the idea that land conservation in the Bay Area was causing high housing prices. They found that most of the land in conservation wasn’t prime residential real estate; the land was often too hilly. While the terrain was one of the major reasons why land conservation wasn’t to blame, I kind of hope this research has applications in Oregon. Oregon’s cities all have urban growth boundaries, and developers have long fought for expanding the boundary, citing rising home costs.
NYC right on top of Houston makes for quite a comparison. Great graphic.
Via Infrastructurist.
San Francisco cable cars are still made by hand by six craftsmen. Awesome.
(Old) article from SF Gate via urbanophile.
San Francisco is planning a large (and tall) development around the Transbay Terminal, future home of commuter rail service and high-speed rail. On top of that, they’re narrowing streets in the area, adding pedestrian-only mid-block access, and widening sidewalks. Downsides include eliminating sunlight from nearby parks (the buildings will be quite tall — nearly 1000 feet at the tallest). Article at SF Gate.
