San Francisco Walking Tour: Edge cities: redefining suburbia

Edge cities: redefining suburbia
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:30pm

In the 1980s, edge cities pulled jobs from the central cities and remade the suburbs as car-oriented employment centers. Today, those edge cities are in the middle of the region and often have major transit lines running through them. What happens next to remake suburbia and the transit stations within it? Leading this tour along the Pittsburgh/Baypoint BART line are John Rennels from BART; Gary Craft, principal and founder of Craft Consulting Group and a Contra Costa Council board member; and Jim Kennedy, redevelopment director for Contra Costa County, who will explore transit-oriented development in the county and assess the future of suburbia – for both jobs and housing.

San Francisco, CA 94105-4015
Free to membersRSVP to tours@spur.org
Okay to bring lunch

Sunnyvale Interactive Bike Map

Here are some routes and notes in the Sunnyvale Area.  If you would like to help and contribute 

some current data just let me know.  Hope this is useful.

View Sunnyvale Bicycle Map in a larger map

Population and Vehicle Density Correlation

This was a little fun I had playing with a graphical representation of the amount of land converted to parking; assuming a density of 6,000 residents per square mile (Sunnyvale, CA). I came up with just under 25% of the land would be needed to park cars, on average. This does not assume land needed to move those cars. I haven't gotten there yet.

The land here in the Silicon Valley only 50 years ago used to be full of orchards now parking lots have taken there place.

Parking Requirement Calculations (Google Docs)

The larger square represents one mile square. Notice how the old orchard roads were one mile distant. Now these "one mile roads" make for perfect suburban arterial roads. The smaller red square represents one quarter of a square mile.




View Asphalt Jungle in a larger map

Caltrans Forced to reduce Oil and Toxic Waste from California's Highways

Another cost of the primacy of the automobile, toxic sludge draining into Southern California's waterways was highlighted yesterday in federal district when Caltrans and the National Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper reached an agreement to limit pollution to the southland's watershed. The agreement calls for a reduction of pollution to 20% below 1994's levels. According to David S. Beckman a Defense Council attorney, This represents a major step forward in the control of storm water runoff -- the largest source of water pollution in the state."
LA Times "State to Curb Toxic Runoff" Dan Weikle January 19, 2008.

The state's Environmental Protection Agency reports that runoff oil alone accounts for 6 million gallons of oil from roads and sidewalks. Compare this with the recent headlines of an oil tanker spill in the San Francisco by which spilled 58,000 gallons of oil from a point source. Most of the oil combines with rubber, metal bits, human waste, solvents, pesticides, fertilizers, and brake dust. All of this combines to form a toxic sludge that effects birds, fish, shrimp, and other marine life.

How this all started. - Part I

After living in the valley for ten years now; I have contemplated going without a car for several years now. After reading a couple of very good books by James Kuntsler; first "The Geography of Nowhere; the Rise and Decline of Americas Man Made Landscape" and "Home from Nowhere" my eyes were opened to how American cities used to be and how they are now. My mother told me of growing up in San Diego and using the trolley to go the 2-3 miles downtown to go shopping or see a movie. They lived above the family business just as described in Kuntsler's books with a very tight knit fabric of families.

As for myself I grew up loving bikes, bike rides, bike races and any other thing having to do with bikes. At 14 I had a paper route or sub for others with a paper route. Having to get up at 4:00 in the morning wasn't so bad. I got to ride when no one was out and I still remember the smells at the time of the morning when there were no cars out and no winds or breezes. I used to ride or walk to school. In fact I had a friend and classmate who lived on the other side of town (back then in San Diego, the other side could have been 10 miles) and bike to school everyday.

In high school I met a friend of mine at a street corner early one morning with our bikes and crude panniers and headed north to Los Angles. We camped on the beach in San Clemente right next to the Western White House; President Nixon's old summer home. We got as far as Long Beach before heading back but we were hooked.

My next big ride wouldn't be until 1984, to ride north to Los Angles again to see the Olympic Bicycle Road race which was open to everyone. We rode up the day before putting in about 120 miles to get to our night's lodgings. The next day we rode to the venue to see the men's road race and watch Alexi Grewal win the U.S.'s first ever cycling gold medal.

After this I rode for fun and fitness but it wasn't until I took a two week bicycling trip around British Columbia, Canada that I really got into it again. I don't know what it is but the feeling of making my way around on a trip under my own power is intoxicating as it is practical.

How All This Started - Part III

How All This Started - Part II