GOOD:

“Vacancy to Vibrancy: How Pop-Ups Invigorated a San Francisco Neighborhood

Imron Bhatti. April 9, 2013

Despite big names moving into the neighborhood, San Francisco’s Mid-Market—and many neighborhoods across the country—is still full of vacant spaces. Millions of square feet are going unused. SquareFoot is putting that space to use, connecting entrepreneurs to underutilized space, and using pop-ups as a vehicle for neighborhood revitalization.

Photo: Original Image via (cc) flickr user Randolph Gardner

The New York Times: 

“Suburban Disequilibrium

By BECKY M. NICOLAIDES and ANDREW WIESE. April 6, 2013

A little pocket of Los Angeles County tucked into the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains reflects a crucial facet of suburban life. There’s tiny, wealthy Bradbury, a town that prides itself on having one of the richest ZIP codes in Los Angeles, where a house is on the market for $68.8 million. A couple of miles to the east is Azusa. This modest suburb is more than two-thirds Latino, a town of working families whose incomes and home values are a sliver of the wealth nearby.

These towns represent extremes of social inequality, but in Los Angeles and other areas, they reflect a defining pattern of contemporary suburban life. Nationwide, rich and poor neighborhoods like these house a growing proportion of Americans, up to 31 percent compared with 15 percent in 1970, according to a recent study by Sean F. Reardon and Kendra Bischoff. Meanwhile, iconic middle-income suburbs are shrinking in numbers and prospects.

Today’s suburbs provide a map not just to the different worlds of the rich and the poor, which have always been with us, but to the increase in inequality between economic and social classes.”

Photo: Ron Chapple/Corbis

The Architect’s Newspaper:

“ ANYTHING NY CAN DO, LA CAN DO TOO

Sam Lubell asserts that LA’s next mayor must step up with ambitious design plans for the city.

Sam Lubell Feb 6, 2013

Having lived in New York and Los Angeles for more than six years apiece, I’ve learned that while they have plenty in common—they’re obviously both huge cities with a level of cultural dynamism and diversity that dwarfs most American metropolises—they’re also utterly different places.

In the design world perhaps the most important division is this: New York has a number of important, powerful, and effective design champions, among them mayor Michael Bloomberg, planning director Amanda Burden, and transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. The results have been, by all measures, impressive. The city has transformed itself through design, creating an elite new collection of parks, buildings, and master plans, including the High Line, Brooklyn Bridge Park, dedicated bike lanes, and iconic buildings by most of the world’s most celebrated architects, including Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, BIG, DS+R, and so many more.

Los Angeles is sorely lacking any such unifying galvanizers. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, while a stunningly effective promoter of transit, and leader of a recent triumph (despite heavy lobbying) on the Sixth Street Bridge, is still often subservient by legislative design to warring city council members and various agency heads. The planning director, Michael LoGrande, appears to have a rather tepid vision for long term, proactive planning. And few in the community seem to have taken the lead to fill the created vacuum. Instead of true design champions we have Eli Broad, who builds with little regard for public input or (despite hiring the best) even the input of his architects. Another is Metro, which has been enriched through recent measure R. But despite the valiant work of planning director Martha Welborne, the agency has shown little design savvy in its recent transit projects and transit oriented developments.

So who will step up for Los Angeles?”

Photo: Ben K. Adams/Flickr

KCET Departures: 

“Northeast L.A. Communities to be Envisioned as a Riverfront District

by Carren Jao. 

 January 23, 2013 

To most newcomers in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles River is much like a mythical creature—often spoken of, but never actually experienced. That has thankfully changed over the past decade.

With projects large and small, the city has repeatedly rallied in favor of reviving this waterway and, in the process, returning the 51-mile river back to Los Angeles guided by the Los Angeles River Masterplan. The masterplan outlined a 20-year blueprint for the development and management of the river. In it, Angelinos could see a different vision of Los Angeles. As a result, the city has seen a growth of projects around the river and interest especially in theGlendale Narrows.

On January 24, Los Angeles is taking another step forward to take advantage of the growing public interest in the river by launching the Northeast Los Angeles Riverfront Collaborative (NELA RC), a holistic, collaborative urban planning effort to take advantage of the River as an economic development asset. The collaborative takes up the mantle left behind when the state’s Community Redevelopment Agencies were dissolved last year, but with added emphasis on inter-agency cooperation and community-based approaches.”

Photo: KCET Departures

SF Examiner:

San Francisco lays out $200 million in bike projects in next 5 years

Will Reisman.  Jan 27, 2013

The City is proposing $200 million worth of changes to its cycling network in the next five years.

Building 12 new miles of bike lanes, upgrading 50 miles of existing paths and installing more than 20,000 new racks are all part of the plan.

Biking has increased by 71 percent since 2006, and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which manages cycling policies in The City, is hoping to build out its network to meet the demand.

At the board of directors’ annual workshop meeting Tuesday, the agency is expected to discuss potential scenarios for bicycling expansion.

As part of its five-year strategic plan, the agency proposes to upgrade 50 intersections to accommodate bicycles and deploy and maintain 2,750 bikes as part of a grab-and-go bike-sharing network.”

Photo: Anna Latino/ Special to the S.F. Examiner

The Los Angeles Times: 

“First Phase of Glendale Narrow Riverwalks opens

The $2.1-million project includes horse facilities, park areas and a half-mile trail along the Los Angeles River. One resident sees a ‘huge improvement’ over what was there before.

By Brittany Levine, Los Angeles Times. December 15, 2012, 6:55 p.m.

By the time BJ Kincler got her horse, Dusty Roads, the city of Glendale had closed off the horse pen behind her apartment along the Los Angeles River, leaving the equine with nowhere nearby to kick up her heels.

But on Wednesday, Dusty Roads played around in new equestrian facilities open to the public for the first time after city officials unveiled Phase 1 of the Glendale Narrows Riverwalk.

“She’s really happy,” Kincler said as the horse ran in circles, stopping to lick a few apple treats from Kincler’s palm.

It took about a decade to complete the first phase, a $2.1-million project that includes horse facilities, park areas and a half-mile trail along the Los Angeles River that begins near Paula Avenue and Garden Street.”

Photo: Bob Thompson takes a photo while Jeanne LeFever looks around during the grand opening of Phase 1 of the Glendale Narrows Riverwalk in Glendale on Wednesday. (Raul Roa, Glendale News Press / December 12, 2012)

The Global Urbanist: 

In defence of America’s informal settlements: the campers of San Francisco

We tend to believe that wealthy countries like the United States don’t have informal settlements. Not only is this false, but it allows western governments to further marginalise an already misunderstood community. In the first of three articles on America’s informal residents, Martha Bridegam meets two residents of one such harassed community in San Francisco.

In August this year, city and state authorities in San Francisco raided a camp of makeshift homes under a freeway ramp and beside a commuter rail yard near the downtown area, destroying some residents’ property and evicting them from the site.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s Kevin Fagan described the camp this way: ‘a sprawling mini-city of tents, suitcases and makeshift Conestoga wagon-style trailers, and a 50-strong homeless population that had been there for years. It was the biggest street camp in San Francisco.’One resident has denied it was so large, but it was certainly substantial for a town that discourages group camps.”

Photo:  Here, in a scene typical of the city, a small community of informal residents cluster their RVs—recreational vehicles or caravans—discreetly together under a freeway viaduct. Martha Bridegam 

“This Brownfield Could Become a Model of Urban DevelopmentThis Brownfield Could Become a Model of Urban Development

Kaid Benfield. Oct 19, 2012

For nearly a hundred years, the downtown Sacramento Railyard was a lively, prosperous place. At its height, the yard is said to have employed 10,000 workers, providing mechanical support for the entire western rail system. But by the 1970s, the site had become a forgotten, neglected eyesore in the heart of California’s capital city.

That is going to change. Sacramento has initiated what must be one of the nation’s largest brownfield redevelopment projects, transforming 244 acres into a new train and bus station, thousands of new homes, stores, a public market, parks, and a rail technology museum. There was also a plan for a new arena to house the Sacramento Kings of the NBA, but according to press reports that part of the initiative is now in serious doubt.

The apparent loss of the arena may slow the concept somewhat but will not stop it; projects of this scale take years to finance and fully realize in any event. Infrastructure work has already begun. Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee interviewed Jared Ficker of Inland American Real Estate Trust, the Illinois investment company that owns the bulk of the rail yard:

Ficker said company officials were excited about the possibility of an NBA arena next door, but that they still think their 200-plus-acre property remains highly marketable for housing, offices, restaurants, stores and other projects. He said the most important step toward developing the railyard already is well under way. The city and Inland have built two bridges to extend Fifth and Sixth streets over the tracks into the core of the railyard. Those road extensions will be completed next year, connecting the landlocked site to downtown.

A major on-site road, Railyards Boulevard, will be built as well, connecting Bercut Drive on the west with Seventh Street on the east, and linking to extensions of Fifth and Sixth streets from downtown. That will allow the long-empty railyard to ‘go vertical’ as early as next year, Ficker said. He acknowledged last week for the first time that the company is looking for a master developer, and is taking calls from builders interested in buying railyard parcels.”

Bizjak’s story was published in April and updated late last month.          

This is exactly the kind of nonsprawling development that ca help fulfill the considerable promise of Sacramento’s sustainable communities strategy, which my colleagues in the Natural Resources Defense Council praised in a report last month. The plan was adopted pursuant to SB375, the state’s smart growth planning law.”

“For Cleantech Companies, Land Is a Problem

Ryan Vaillancourt. Oct 15, 2012

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - City officials and business leaders for years have been pushing the idea to transform the eastern edge of Downtown into a hub for green jobs and clean technology companies.

But there’s a problem. Today, if someone wanted to bring a manufacturing operation to the area to build, say, extra efficient batteries, it would be nearly impossible to find space.

The vacancy rate among the industrial properties in and around the Arts District has long hovered at about 2%. The tight market stems in part from the robust cold storage, produce and garment-related businesses that have long anchored the area.

There is, however, a significant stock of old warehouses and factory buildings that haven’t seen heavy manufacturing operations in decades. Instead, they are used for storage or shipping and receiving — operations that involve relatively few jobs.

Local leaders believe those buildings are ideal candidates for green or tech-related companies. Bringing those century-old industrial edifices up to current codes, however, looms over property owners like a dollar sign-shaped storm cloud.

“That’s the biggest challenge,” said Erik Johnson, president and CEO of Greneker Solutions, which makes mannequins out of soy-based urethane in a facility near Soto Street and Olympic Boulevard.

In 2010, Greneker was looking to start a new business manufacturing countertops out of recycled materials. They planned to invest about $1 million in a facility. They found candidates in empty or underused industrial buildings in Downtown, but none made financial sense, Johnson recently told 14th District City Councilman José Huizar and a room of developers.

“The sheer labor and cost it would take to go ahead and repurpose those buildings, to bring them up to current codes and adaptability to the type of machinery we were looking at, didn’t make sense,” Johnson said during an afternoon meeting at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, a city-funded Arts District entity that aims to nurture fledgling companies. “I ended up doing it in Ohio.”

The Downtown meeting may have spurred what Johnson and other area business leaders believe could be a solution — an adaptive reuse ordinance for industrial properties. The term comes from the 1999 law that made it easier and less expensive for developers to turn old commercial buildings into housing. It directly led to the Historic Core residential boom.”

Via: Los Angeles Downtown News

Photo: Fred Walti is among a group of area advocates trying to make Downtown a better place for future clean technology companies. photo by Gary Leonard

“Low-Income Housing That Anyone Would Love To Live In

Ariel Schwartz. September 25, 2012

Housing for the poor doesn’t need to be horrible. The Richardson apartments in San Francisco are offering up high-class digs in the hopes of helping to lift its residents out of poverty

Low-income housing generally isn’t all that nice; stories like this about single-room occupancy buildings (SROs) with infestations, leaking pipes, and overflowing toilets aren’t uncommon. That’s starting to change, however, now that cities are realizing that quality low-income housing can provide a stepping stone to stability for residents. In San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, the recently completed Richardson Apartments provide formerly homeless residents (many with physical and mental disabilities) with beautiful living spaces and social services. 

The SRO, a project of David Baker and Partners Architects, is part of a larger neighborhood redevelopment. After the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, a freeway that ran through the city became structurally unstable and collapsed. Now, decades later, projects like the Richardson Apartments are popping up below the site of the former freeway. The Richardson building was completed in September 2011.

The 120-unit, five-story building is the kind of place that most city-dwellers would love to live in: It features sustainably harvested wood (including redwood and elm), a landscaped courtyard, a green roof, sunshades outside the apartment windows, solar hot water heating, solar panels, intelligent lighting controls, and low-VOC paints. The apartments also have amenities tailored to the population, including abuse-resistant drywall and cabinets, grab bars everywhere, and wheelchair-accessible showers. The building doesn’t have car parking, but it does have parking for bikes—not that tenants would be likely to have a vehicle or even need one in this transit-rich neighborhood.

With an average of 300 square feet per apartment, the living spaces in the building aren’t huge. But “all the things a formerly homeless person would need are right on site,” explains Amit Price Patel, the project architect. That includes a counseling center, a medical suite, a community room, and a residents’ lounge. There are also retail spaces on the ground floor: a Vietnamese sandwich shop, a picture frame shop, and most importantly for residents, a bakery and cafe that provides a “paid learning experience” for people who are disabled and homeless or at risk of becoming so.

The apartments are affordable for all who live there—residents pay 30% of their income as rent, up to a maximum of $870. And the building is saving money for the city, too. The 120 apartment residents used $2.4 million in city and medical services in the year before moving in. It’s a cost that is being dramatically cut with the onsite medical clinic.”

Via: Fast Company