View photos from the most recent America 2050 Forum in Sacramento, California on December 2, 2008, featuring speakers Darrell Steinberg, Rep. Matsui, Rep. Blumenauer and Paul Rosenstiel.

California Senate President pro Tempore-Elect Darrell Steinberg will headline America 2050's regional infrastructure forum in Sacramento on December 2, 2008. Steinberg authored the groundbreaking new California law, SB-375, which provides incentives to regions who produce integrated land use and transportation plans to cut carbon emissions.

The forum, titled, "Investing in America's Competitiveness: An Infrastructure Strategy for the Nation and the Megaregion," will bring together 100 leaders from the business, civic, government, and academic communities in the Northern California megaregion to discuss a national and megaregional agenda for infrastructure investment that could shape the economic recovery plans of the Obama Administration and the new U.S. Congress in 2009.

The forum is hosted by a collaboration of Northern California civic and government organizations including the Bay Area Council, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR), Sacramento Council of Governments, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the San Joaquin Council of Governments, in conjunction with New York's Regional Plan Association.  It will contribute to an ongoing effort to create a national infrastructure plan that could shape an economic stimulus bill and economic recovery plan next year.  Leaders from the Northern California business, civic, government, and academic communities are encouraged to attend and help define this emerging federal-megaregion agenda. 

Download the Agenda.

For more information, please contact Lauren Straub at the Bay Area Council at (415) 946-8727 or lstraub@bayareacouncil.org.

"Gas is $4 a gallon and we still have congestion" said Jim Spering, Solano County Supervisor in California recognizing that clogged roadways and reduced productivity must be addressed at a much larger scale.  More than one hundred leading transportation experts from the Bay and Sacramento corridor gathered on Thursday, April 10th, to explore the possibility of coordinating transportation plans at the megaregion scale in an attempt to attract funding for projects.

In a parallel effort, the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation and Imperial Valley EDC received a $225,000 grant to spearhead a study that aims to develop a megaregion framework for global competition.  The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration awarded the grant, which will cover the two southern California counties and the Northern Baja California, Mexico region.

Click below for the articles:

'Mega-region touted for transit - TheReporter.Com

"EDCs Receive $225,000 Grant for Mega-Region Initiative - International Business Times

March 19-21: Healdsburg, CA: Regional Plan Association and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy gathered planners and scholars from the U.S. and China for a two-day retreat to foster academic dialogue on megaregion planning.  RPA and Lincoln commissioned four papers on two topics: (1) comparative studies of Asian megaregions and (2) social equity implications of megaregion planning.  The forum featured presentations from the authors, followed by responses and discussions.  Read more about the papers and download the PowerPoint presentations in the extended entry.

March 19: San Francisco - The Bay Area Council, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) and Regional Plan Association (RPA) convened a public panel discussion at SPUR on the emergence of the Northern California megaregion. Panelists reacted to a recent report by SPUR describing the Northern California megaregion and discussed collaborative solutions to challenges at this emerging scale. Panelists agreed: the report had heightened awareness to the economic, ecological and cultural connections across Northern California region.  Moderated by Bob Yaro, co-chairman of America 2050 and president of RPA, panelists included Angela-Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, Hon. Christopher Cabaldon, Mayor of West Sacramento, Carol Whiteside, Founder of Great Valley Center, Jim Wunderman, President and CEO of Bay Area Council, and Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director of SPUR. Read the extended entry for more information on the event and to download the Northern California Megaregion Report by SPUR. 

On March 19, SPUR, the Bay Area Council and Regional Plan Association of New York will host a public panel discussion at SPUR in San Francisco on the Northern California megaregion. Building on the work of these three organizations, there has been increasing awareness about the economic, cultural, and ecological connections across Northern California. What does this awareness mean practically? What are the pressing challenges at the megaregion scale and what are the opportunities to form political alliances and cooperate on key issues such as land use, air quality, and housing policies? Panelists will discuss policy implications and responses to this emerging geography, with time for audience questions and discussion.

Panelists include: Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director of SPUR; Jim Wunderman, President & CEO of the Bay Area Council; Carol Whiteside, Founder of the Great Valley Center; Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO of PolicyLink; and the Honorable Christopher Cabaldon, Mayor of West Sacramento. The panel will be moderated by Robert Yaro, President of Regional Plan Association.

The event will take place March 19, 2008 from 8:30 AM - 10:30 a.m. At SPUR, 312 Sutter St. (at Grant), 2nd Floor, San Francisco.

SPUR is located close to the Powell St. BART station and several Muni lines.
The forum is open to the public, free for members and $5 for non-members.
RSVP to info@SPUR.org

Download the Brochure.

The Contra Costa Times, a daily paper covering the fast-growing suburbs of Contra Costa county in Northern California, ran a lengthy article following SPUR's November newsletter and study of the Northern California megaregion. The article is interesting in that it highlights both the advantages and disadvantages of the emerging megaregion identity and reality in Northern California.

On the positive side, reporter Erik Nelson describes how transportation officials recently used the Northern California megaregion identity to secure more transportation funding from the California Transportation Commission -- as much as $840 million -- to address the megaregion's freight needs, including a growing export economy. He writes,

At a recent meeting of the MTC, its executive director, Steve Heminger, unveiled San Francisco Planning and Urban Research's map of the Northern California megaregion and credited the concept with the funding coup that would pay for major freight rail improvements and other aids to easing the area's flow of cargo.
...

One of Northern California's key selling points was that it "could show more bang for the buck, a greater return for the infrastructure bond investment up here, based on a variety of projects and a variety of benefits," said Steve Gregory, senior port strategic planner for the Port of Oakland.
...
The megaregion has another advantage over Southern California, O'Connor said. The area has prodigious political clout, from San Francisco's House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling the shots in Washington to Oakland's Sen. Don Perata running the state Senate.

But on the downside are the forces giving rise to the sprawling megaregion: longer and longer commutes by people in search of affordable housing who are priced out of San Francisco and Bay Area communities. Nelson describes one commuter, Jon Rubin, who seems to typify the pressures faced by millions of families in Northern California.

A San Jose native, Rubin found buying a townhouse in Silicon Valley out of reach and extended his family's search as far south as Morgan Hill, even though he was working in Pleasanton at the time.
....
"We saw how big the homes were and they had front and backyards," he recalled. "So then we thought, 'Wow, for less money we can actually buy a detached home with a yard.'"
...
Four years later, Rubin, a software test engineer, is commuting 124 miles round trip each day to Palo Alto.

Gabriel Metcalf, co-author of the SPUR study attributes the growth of the megaregion to the failure of coastal communities to accept their share of the housing growth.

"The existing cities of Northern California have been unwilling to grow," Metcalf said. "They have, for the most part, decided they are perfect as they are. That doesn't mean that the area stops growing. It's pushed out."

This sentiment is echoed with frustration by those working for economic development and sustainability in the Central Valley.  Carol Whiteside, founder of the Great Valley Center, is quoted in the article,

"Most people are increasingly frustrated with the (Central) Valley providing cheap housing for people who work in the Bay Area," she said.

This snapshot of the dynamics in the Northern California megaregion encapsulates the opportunities and challenges presented at the megaregion scale. By finding common cause around issues that connect adjacent regions, communities can gain mutual benefit, as demonstrated in the increased funding obtained for the megaregion from the State.

But the forces of sprawl and lengthening commutes between the coast and Central Valley in Northern California -- with negative impacts in both regions -- highlight the fact that growth in California has outgrown the "metropolitan" approach. However resistant the regions may be to a shared identity, the need for a planning process that includes a much larger area (and proactive strategies to create more employment in the Valley itself) is underscored by the spillover growth that is threatening quality of life and the environment in Northern California. 

 

The latest "Urbanist", a monthly news publication by San Francisco Planning & Urban Research (SPUR), discusses in length the concept of megaregion planning and the Northern California megaregion.  Specifically, the article examines the consequences of an emerging megaregion that is expected to add 10 million people by mid-century.  SPUR, a research and advocacy organization, suggests megaregion planning is critical to addressing some of the most pressing issues for northern California - "how should human settlement be arranged over the land? And what kind of infrastructure is necessary to support those land use patterns?"

The article provides several recommendations for the Northern California megaregion: 1) a northern California rail network to facilitate daily commutes and reduce pollution from driving; 2) protecting natural landscapes in the Central Valley; 3) promoting equity by creating "good jobs and affordable housing throughout the megaregion" and more.

 

Click here to access the report. 

For additional SPUR publications, click here.