Bay Area Land News - May 24, 2019
US / California / Bay Area News
Jobless rate falls among all Bay Area regions
The Almanac
Over nearly the last two years, unemployment has fallen in the seven urban regions of the Bay Area, according to the latest data released Friday (May 17) by the California Employment Development Department.
Editorial: Dysfunctional SF Bay protection agency failing miserably
The Mercury News
Illegally anchored boats in Richardson Bay near Sausalito often sink, resulting in release of harmful chemicals into San Francisco Bay.
For the wealthy, Bay Area housing costs are actually declining
The Mercury News
While housing costs for some of the Bay Area’s poorest residents skyrocketed far beyond the income they gained over the past decade, the region’s wealthiest households saw their housing costs actually drop as their incomes swelled.
New Gavin Newsom task force to tackle homelessness and housing crisis
The Mercury News
Days after a new survey revealed a troubling spike in the Bay Area’s homeless population, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday unveiled more details behind the task force he’s set up to tackle the crisis.
Supporters unite in last-chance effort to save California’s most controversial housing bill
The Mercury News
In a last-ditch attempt to save the year’s most controversial housing measure, supporters of a stalled bill to overhaul California’s zoning rules are pressuring the state Senate leader to resurrect the legislation.
Bay Area Council survey counters talk of Bay Area exodus
San Francisco Business Times
The Bay Area Council emphasized the positives about Bay Area living, but almost half of survey respondents still said they may leave the region.
Our View: Housing reform is always for thee, but never for me
San Francisco Business Times
Presented with a proposal for bold reform, many of our lawmakers’ default responses seem to be to see if the boldness can be taken out.
Comerica’s new CEO says California's cooling economy isn't dampening his enthusiasm for the state
San Francisco Business Times
The bank has almost every line of business in the Bay Area, including wealth management as well as lending to small and mid-sized companies and real estate investors.
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DMV eases REAL ID rules
The Mercury News
Holders who got their REAL ID cards when rules only required one form of residency instead of two are getting a needed break — and you most likely will not need to go into a DMV office where long lines can take hours to navigate.
Open Forum: How do we solve our housing crisis in California?
San Francisco Chronicle
Within minutes of taking his oath as California’s 40th governor, Gavin Newsom elevated the California housing crisis to the top of his priorities. “In our home, no one should live in constant fear of eviction or spend their whole paycheck to keep a roof overhead. We will launch a Marshall plan for affordable housing and lift up the fight against homelessness from a local matter to a statewide mission,” said Newsom in his inaugural address.
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More Bay Area homes for sale, but still out of reach for most
The Mercury News
Good news for Bay Area home buyers — houses are staying on the market longer, and more houses have ‘for sale’ signs hanging on their front lawn.
San Jose loses residents but one Bay Area city is among country’s fastest growing
The Mercury News
The hottest city in the Bay Area last year wasn’t San Francisco or Oakland or San Jose. It was Dublin, which grew 4.5 percent in 2018, making it the fastest growing city in California and the 11th fastest in the country.
San Francisco News
Transbay Transit Center could get signoff this week for reopen date
San Francisco Chronicle
The beginning of the end of the Transbay Transit Center debacle could finally come this week when engineers and steel experts gather in New York City to decide whether the $2.1 billion transit hub has undergone enough repairs, reviews and inspections to safely reopen.
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SF’s second-tallest tower seeks more cash, big tech lease
San Francisco Chronicle
Two new Transbay towers will further transform San Francisco’s skyline: a 910-foot building that will be the city’s second-tallest and a 605-foot spire alongside it.
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Union vote crucial to Hastings plan for student housing in SF’s Tenderloin
San Francisco Chronicle
UC Hastings College of the Law wants to expand the amount of housing it plans for its Tenderloin campus by more than 30% to 1,500 beds, but the proposal could be shot down by the membership of the labor union that owns the parcels the school hopes to build on.
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Growth projections collide with SF’s goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050
San Francisco Chronicle
The goal is tantalizing: Make San Francisco carbon neutral — meaning no net release of greenhouse gas emissions into the air — by 2050.
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Editorial: San Francisco supervisors should expand options for mentally ill homeless people
San Francisco Chronicle
At the far end of homelessness are the 5150s, the legal term for the out-of-control mentally ill with deep psychiatric and drug problems. Right now the group is given spin-cycle treatment, putting them back on the street without much hope of recovery.
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Invest in teacher housing for our students and communities
San Francisco Examiner
Facing a severe teacher attrition rate, San Francisco must address the housing needs of an educational workforce that is critical to the health and stability of our school communities. Currently, the school district needs to hire 500-700 teachers each year, with 64 percent of its teachers spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent and nearly 15 percent spending more than half of their income on housing.
Magnet for bars and restaurants, Divisadero has seen little new housing — until now
San Francisco Chronicle
The recent transformation of Divisadero Street has brought new restaurants and nightlife venues to the corridor. Bi-Rite ice cream cones, Boba Guys milk tea, Brenda’s award-winning shrimp and grits, and pinball games at Emporium SF have landed over the past few years.
South Bay News
This man is spending as much as Google on downtown San Jose
The Mercury News
Everyone knows Google, the internet giant that has spent more than $300 million buying up property on the edge of downtown San Jose to build a colossal campus.But Gary? By the end of June, he, too, will have spent about $300 million on properties downtown — scooping up 21 separate parcels in two years — including the historic-but-neglected Bank of Italy building that he has been lighting up to celebrate the Sharks’ run in the National Hockey League playoffs.
Google set to pay San Jose millions for Diridon Station planning
The Mercury News
As San Jose moves forward with redeveloping the area around Diridon Station, Google has agreed to pay the city about $4.5 million to help with the planning process and a review of the massive campus the tech giant is set to build nearby.
On these housing vs. jobs choices, San Jose went with housing
Silicon Valley Business Journal
Leading both efforts was Mayor Liccardo, who rarely makes a public speech in which he doesn’t bemoan San Jose’s jobs-housing imbalance, which he blames for a city budget that’s light on business-generated tax revenue and heavy on municipal service-consuming neighborhoods.
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Opportunity Zone investor Urban Catalyst buys its first slice of downtown San Jose
Silicon Valley Business Journal
Friday’s buy, though expected for more than a month, marks a milestone for Urban Catalyst. The group launched in late January to take advantage of a new federal law offering tax breaks to developers and business investors that invest in specific neighborhoods around the country considered disadvantaged or in need of a boost.
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Related Cos. prepares to dig in on massive Santa Clara project, unveiling new details
Silicon Valley Business Journal
The 9.2 million-square-foot development on the edge of Santa Clara and San Jose will include office, retail and entertainment space, hotel rooms, residential units and park space.
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San Jose’s 374-Unit 27West Project Faces Development Snag
The Registry
One of the largest development projects planned for downtown San Jose has hit a snag...
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Lumentum buys big north San Jose office park where it will move HQ
The Mercury News
Lumentum, a telecommunications equipment company, has bought a big office park in north San Jose that will become the company’s new headquarters.
Everything we know about the Berryessa and Milpitas BART stations that are set to open this year
SF Gate
The long-awaited BART extension to Milpitas and North San Jose is supposedly just around the corner from opening up to commuters. The project has been mired by funding issues, equipment breakdowns, and delay after delay.
Peninsula News
Massive housing, office development officially coming to Redwood City
The Mercury News
A massive development project featuring housing, office buildings and retail space is expected to soon transform an underutilized strip mall into the cornerstone of a new, vibrant district in Redwood City.
Editorial: Time for City Council to show it's serious about housing
Mountain View Voice
It's abundantly clear there's a housing crisis in Mountain View and the Bay Area at large. What isn't clear is what the Mountain View City Council plans to do about it.
It’s a vacant Palo Alto lot. But who can afford it?
The Mercury News
On some blocks in Old Palo Alto, $9 million doesn’t even buy a roof.
Broadway Plaza gets final OK in Redwood City
The Daily Journal
An aging Redwood City strip mall in a largely industrial area will be redeveloped with hundreds of homes, office buildings, retail and a child care facility after the City Council unanimously approved the Broadway Plaza development Monday.
Redwood City OKs Sobrato housing, office project to accommodate thousands
San Francisco Business Times
The large, multi-use development that will house around 1,400 residents and accommodate 1,720 workers got the unanimous approval of Redwood City leaders Monday night.
World-famous architect Frank Gehry helps East Palo Alto students imagine future cities
Palo Alto Online
World-famous architect Frank Gehry brought the same concepts he has used with teams to design renowned buildings, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Facebook campus in Menlo Park, to an East Palo Alto classroom on Tuesday afternoon.
Menlo Park: Expert says paying for train tunnel would require 'significant' new development
The Almanac
About a week after the Palo Alto City Council scrapped plans to tunnel Caltrain beneath its city, the Menlo Park City Council last night (May 21) heard a presentation by Professor Michael Bennon, managing director at Stanford's Global Projects Center, to discuss the feasibility of an underground Caltrain line through Menlo Park.
Despite Stanford objections, county calls for more housing in campus expansion
Palo Alto Online
Stanford University would have to build more than 2,000 housing units for staff and faculty, and to offer nearly half of them at below market rate, to secure permission for its ambitious campus-expansion plan under conditions that Santa Clara County released Wednesday afternoon and that Stanford is vigorously challenging.
Stanford, county supervisors give conflicting accounts of talks to restart negotiations
Palo Alto Online
Stanford University has disputed the accounts of two Santa Clara County supervisors that the university's top executives offered lesser benefits to the Palo Alto school district in order to restart suspended negotiations with the county on a development agreement that would govern its campus expansion.
East Bay News
Wealthy Bay Area suburb gets housing religion: It’s allowing 11 affordable units
San Francisco Chronicle
All the town leaders in Danville and its state assemblywoman gathered the other day to eat cake and celebrate something that rarely happens in the wealthy Contra Costa County suburb: There’s an apartment building going up, one that will include units for lower-income tenants.
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28 affordable rentals just hit the market in Oakland. 4,000 people applied.
SF Gate
Redwood Hill Townhomes sits on a 0.71-acre lot on a stretch of Calaveras Avenue near Oakland's Redwood Heights neighborhood. The apartment building is close to public transit, shops and restaurants, and includes covetable amenities like parking spaces, on-site laundry and a courtyard with a playground and gathering areas.