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By Steve Levy
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved ...
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved downtown in 2006 and enjoy being able to walk to activities. I do not drive and being downtown where I work and close to the CalTrain station and downtown amenities makes my life more independent. I have worked all my life as an economist focusing on the California economy. My work centers around two main activities. The first is helping regional planning agencies such as ABAG understand their long-term growth outlook. I do this for several regional planning agencies in northern, southern and central coast California. My other main activity is studying workforce trends and policy implications both as a professional and as a volunteer member of the NOVA (Silicon Valley) and state workforce boards. The title of the blog is Invest and Innovate and that is what I believe is the imperative for our local area, region, state and nation. That includes investing in people, in infrastructure and in making our communities great places to live and work. I served on the recent Palo Alto Infrastructure Commission. I also believe that our local and state economy benefits from being a welcoming community, which mostly we are a leader in, for people of all religions, sexual preferences and places of birth.
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Should We Plan for Some Bay Area Workers to Live Outside the Region
Uploaded: Feb 14, 2016
SB 375 and current regional policy supports the idea that regions should plan for all workers to be able to live within the region.
I support this goal in theory but expect it will be difficult to completely achieve. I worry especially about providing housing that is affordable to all families within the region,
In addition some locations outside of the region, like Tracy for example, are as close or closer to job centers as locations within the region.
The main rationale for housing all within the region is to reduce commuting time and environmental impacts. I support this goal also.
But what if some housing just outside the region were combined with transportation investments that reduced single occupancy driving and the time for commuting?
What if for example, we could run shorter commute high speed rail trains to connect at San Jose to CalTrain and VTA and at Pleasanton to BART? Or extend BART and CalTrain?
It is certainly true that locations outside the region can provide types and costs for housing that are difficult to achieve within the region.
I see this as a both/and approach and have suggested to the Governor and HSR Authority that this is worth exploring.
This is NOT a blog on the merits of the main HSR proposal so please do not repeat that discussion.
Community.
What is it worth to you?
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