Matthew Roth

Last week we reported on the proposed 5-story development at 1050 Valencia Street, on the corner of Hill street and the current location of Spork Restaurant, which stimulated a lot of reader comments.

The holy grail for many urbanists contemplating long-term development and growth trends is the transit village. Adding growth adjacent to functional transit has the benefit of making it easier for the new population there to drive less and use transit for a multitude of trips. Likewise, transit villages can add to ridership on the transit lines, no small matter for operators seeking to maintain a consistent customer base.

Berkeley cyclists and BART staff celebrated the grand opening of the new Berkeley Bike Station yesterday at 2208 Shattuck Avenue, one of the largest enclosed bicycle stations in the country and just steps from Downtown Berkeley BART.

Despite the difficult economic times and the large service cuts last December and again in May this year, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) announced that Muni had achieved its best quarterly on-time performance rate ever, or 75 percent, from January through March, 2010.

As California's big four metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) run models to determine how much they can influence California's growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, significant questions remain. The state's Senate Bill 375, typically referred to as the Anti-Sprawl Bill, requires that planners and policy makers develop meaningful solutions to reduce sprawl, reduce vehicle miles traveled and promote growth in areas that will have the least impact on the environment.

At another marathon Planning Commission meeting last week, parking was all the rage. Two projects in particular had community members and housing and transit advocates fired up because of the parking that developers proposed to build, or in one case, to not build.

With the fourth Sunday Streets in the Mission over the past two years recently completed, the verdict is in and the community is very happy with the results. In addition to the tens of thousands of people coming out to enjoy the sun and open streets while pedaling and strolling, the events have had a very positive impact on the bottom line.

Sunday Streets continues to be a huge success in San Francisco, with last month's event bringing out at least 25,000 cyclists, skaters and amblers. Because of the large size of the crowds, organizers have added Harrison Street from 16th to 26th Streets to the route, which provided ample room for learning to ride a bicycle or taking a leisurely spin. 

As I was riding my bicycle on Market Street to City Hall yesterday, I saw another SFPD sting for vehicles violating the mandatory personal vehicle diversion on Market Street north of 10th Street.

In an effort to curb solo commuting and educate employees at various city and county agencies, and at several touchstone regional employers, 511.org and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District are sponsoring the "Great Race for Clean Air" in August and September. The event is similar to TransForm's CarFree Challenge or the SFBC's Gas-Free Fridays, but the focus is more on employers and education in the workplace.