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.
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. 
