Affordable Housing: "We've written it off"

Also from the current (May 2014) issue of the Marina Times, I interviewed Andre Shashaty, an expert and advocate for affordable housing and sustainable communities (and my former boss).

Andre Shashaty

‘We’ve written it off’
Affordable housing expert Andre Shashaty on the state of housing policy and sustainable communities

BY JOHN ZIPPERER
(May 2014)

As San Francisco residents and their political, business and social leaders try to get a handle on housing affordability in the city, they must do so at a time when governments large and small in this country have largely tried to wash their hands of involvement with the housing problem. Long gone are the days when the federal government partnered with cities to build and manage homes for middle- and low-income citizens. Today, federal monies have gone elsewhere, as has federal interest in even dealing with the challenges. The key federal tool for helping develop affordable housing is the three-decades-old tax credit set up to help private developers — for-profit and nonprofit — do what the government used to do.

This all happens at a time when there are still many people who need affordable housing — rental or ownership. To learn more about the issues involved, we spoke with affordable housing expert and advocate Andre Shashaty. The former editor and publisher of...

Read the entire interview

The Latest Polk Street Redevelopment Develoments

A major component of most of the SFMTA’s plans for Polk Street
is to separate auto and bike traffic (Photo: Earl Adkins)

My article in the current edition of the Marina Times:

NEWS
SFMTA Pushes for Revised Polk Street RenovationBY JOHN ZIPPERER 

Following an at-times contentious round of back-and-forth with community groups regarding a planned remake of Polk Street’s traffic and parking design, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has issued revised proposals for the redo of the busy street and is looking forward to an early fall demonstration project. 

“The thing we had to work hardest on Polk Street was to meet [the] need for everyone to be heard and to be valued,” said Seleta Reynolds, who leads the SFMTA’s ...

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Building up not out

My final article from the May 2013 issue of the Marina Times:

The way forward is up. Photo by John Zipperer

REAL ESTATE
Everybody Can Win the LotteryBy John Zipperer 

One of the laziest and most clichéd phrases in business is when something is called a “win-win solution.” With that caveat, we have a problem in this town that can be solved by investment in lots of new multifamily housing units and produce (ugh) a win-win for everyone.  

Anyone who has ever been stuck in a tenants-in-common (TIC) housing arrangement, forced to wait a decade before converting to a condominium, knows the havoc that can ...

>> Read the entire article 

When Parking Spaces Become Currency

My latest cover article in the Marina Times:

Signs of dissent on Polk Street; photo by Earl Adkins

NEWS
Polk Street back-and-forth intensifies
By John Zipperer 

Concern over plans by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to make major changes to Polk Street has stepped up, with more meetings, petitions, and community organizing taking place to sway opinions in the neighborhood and among city leadership.  

SFMTA is planning to remove potentially hundreds of parking spaces along Polk Street and replace them with ...

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Values in the Sky

Better to build up than over wetlands and forests. (Photo: John Zipperer)

In which I brush off the slow/no-growth crowd. From the April 2013 issue of the Marina Times:

REAL ESTATE INVESTOR
Values in the SkyBy John Zipperer 

Someone commented to me recently that he didn’t see where much more new building could take place in San Francisco. The City, already heavily built up and undergoing still more construction, seemed to be full to bursting. Certainly this city – one of the most densely populated in the country – couldn’t get any more dense, could it?  

It can, it will, and it must ...

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Micro-Apartments Come to the City

38 Harriet's micro-apartments get a lot into a small space. (Image: Panoramic Interests 2011)

In which I let out my inner commercial real estate and urban planning geek. From the April 2013 issue of the Marina Times:

REAL ESTATE INVESTOR
Micro-Apartments Come to the City
By John Zipperer 

Micro-apartments. Twitter-apts. Mini-flats. There are many descriptive names one could come up with for the small apartments that we will soon be seeing more of in San Francisco. But judging from the opposition, you would think they were named like the media names disastrous East Coast storms: Apartmogeddon, Frankenapt, Apocalyptment.  

Scary thoughts aside, in November 2012 the Board of Supervisors passed legislation by Supervisor Scott Weiner ...

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The Latest Site for Parking, Biker Clash

Big changes are in store for Polk Street (Photo: BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons)

In which yours truly reports on a meeting about traffic. Bikes. Shopkeepers. City planning. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll maybe read it.

From the April issue of the Marina Times:

NEWS
Polk Street Latest Site for Parking, Biker Clash
By John Zipperer 

Whether they got there by car, bike, bus, or on foot, locals filled the basement hall of the Old First Presbyterian Church on March 18 to discuss plans to remove parking spaces to make room for expanded bicycle lanes on Polk Street. By the time they were done, the head of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) said his organization is “committed to going back to the drawing board to achieve the goals of the project.” 

The proposal, part of an effort by the SFMTA to use Prop. B money to improve streets and safety, set off a heated debate in and around ...

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A Lot Is for Sale in Downtown Green Bay

Shoppers could always count on finding stuff to buy in downtown Green Bay when I was growing up there. The giant Port Plaza Mall had book stores, music shops, video arcades, restaurants, and a ton of clothing stores. The grand old Prange's (Green Bay's locally owned version of Macy's or Marshall Field's) offered upscale shopping and was later replaced by Younkers and Boston Store. The mall was ringed by the classic shops and offices you'd find in any downtown: barber shops, piano stores, luggage stores, magazine shops, banks, etc.

On my visit to Green Bay last week, I walked downtown and saw there was still a lot of stuff for sale, such as, well, downtown. The mall is closed and partly demolished. "For Sale" signs are to be found on almost every block, and many buildings were empty or at least looked deserted.

The signs of desertion were somewhat misleading. Green Bay isn't one of those dried-up rust-belt cities that started dying out in the 1970s and never recovered. In fact, Green Bay has done fairly well for itself over the years, and there are thriving (and constantly spreading) commercial districts on the city's outskirts. It's downtown is responding by turning into a venue for condos (not sure how big the market is for downtown condos in a city where land is relatively cheap and driving conditions are easy – good luck with that). But I do miss the downtown that was walkable, where you could do your banking, catch a movie, have lunch (probably not in that order), buy a book and get your new pair of pants without getting into your car four different times.