John Rahaim, San Francisco’s Planning Director; Jose Luis californiaMoscovich, Director of the San Francisco Transportation Authority; and Melanie Nutter, Director of the Department of the Environment hosted a “Director’s Forum” last week as part of San Francisco’s mission to align the environmental priorities behind Senate Bill 375 (SB375) and the Bay Area Sustainable Community Strategy.

Crowdsourcing Solutions for a Greener Bay Area

What brought Reset to the meeting is both the topic – more sustainable communities – and the tactic – crowdsourcing.

Director Rahaim stressed that the point of the meeting was to launch the process of crowdsourcing solutions to meet the requirements of SB375. He promised that the San Francisco County Transportation Authority website will have a “How to Get Involved” section around the middle of July and that a follow-up meeting will be scheduled sometime in late August, or early September. We’ll watch to see if these deadlines are met.

An Introduction to Senate Bill 375

SB375, which passed in the state legislature in 2008, requires each of California’s 18 regions to develop a Sustainable Community Strategy that integrates land use, housing and transportation planning with the ultimate goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from private automobile use. It accomplishes this by reducing vehicle miles traveled and creating a strategy to adequately house the projected growth of the region.

This task falls to the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. But ultimately – if the pledges made at this meeting are kept – the task falls to us.

Lowering carbon emissions, creating sustainable communities, building affordable housing near jobs, finding attractive alternatives to driving – these are big issues. And the solutions proposed and implemented will affect our families and our neighborhoods.

Many of the proposed solutions to creating sustainable communities are controversial – like congestion fees that would charge drivers in private autos coming into many parts of San Francisco.

So if you have an opinion – and idea – a vision or a complaint, the crowdtime to speak up as part of the “crowd” is coming soon. So stay tuned on Reset San Francisco as we follow this story and bring you the links and the tools we will all need to get involved.