OK, Old Guy you’ve lost your mind. This is supposed to be a bicycle blog. One that occasionally discusses transportation. Why are you talking about housing and bond elections? Might be a stretch but stay with me for a few paragraphs.
The 2012 bond election includes proposition 15 on housing. $78 million for rental housing development, transitional and supportive housing, home ownership, etc. The operative phrase in many of these efforts is “affordable.” It’s not just finding adequate housing that one can afford, it’s finding that housing within reasonable distance to work, school, groceries, etc. For people in lower-income brackets, finding an apartment or house that one can afford often means moving further and further away from employment and services. This can make one dependent on the automobile for transport because of the double whammy of inadequate public mass transportation (especially in the lower cost fringes of the city). Not only is this an additional fiscal burden but it impacts road/street demand.
Sane housing patterns can lead to sane choices in transport. Less demand on our crowded roads. More choice in transport mode because walking, cycling and bus/rail become viable options.
Twisted logic perhaps. But I see Prop 15 as both a way to provide a hand-up to those of us who aren’t as fortunate and a way to ease congestion/improve safety.
I think I’ll be a yes on this one.
Exactly. This is a huge one. The City did a Housing Bond initiative in 2006 for $55M. All of those funds have been spent resulting the the creation of over 3,090 high-quality affordable units (homeownership, home repair, rental housing). In addition, developers using these funds leveraged 4:1 resulting in around $220M in outside funding coming to the City (using a City commitment of bond funds to then secure private or federal financing for the remaining cost of the project, etc.). This is a win/win for the environment, urban schools, congestion mitigation, and it’s just the right thing to do for our low-income workforce. Thanks, AOGOTW
Thanks for making the point.
People tend to forget the cycle of poverty-commute distance-inescapable car ownership-poverty that sprawling perpetuates.