Mid-Week Links: On Tenterhooks

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/25688970 w=400&h=225] NETWORK_LA transit has a wonderful video about moving LA from cars to transit.

Unlike LA, Marin might be stepping back towards the car if the Transportation Authority of Marin reverses last week's vote to transfer $8 million to the SMART project at today's meeting. (Marin IJ, Press Democrat)

The San Rafael mayoral race is already under way.  We’ll be watching this. (San Rafael Patch)

Limiting a parking lot to just the store’s customers is hugely inefficient.  Not only does it encourage people to drive fractions of a mile from lot to lot, but it creates redundant parking spaces, wasting land. (Reinventing Parking)

SMART will be a boon to downtown San Rafael, and that’s good for everyone in Marin. (San Rafael Patch)

Greater Greater Washington found that sometimes, people just don’t realize that bicycles are used for things other than recreation. (Greater Greater Washington)

Novato's Affordable Housing Opportunity

New housing mandates for the City of Novato present a huge opportunity for the city, if only residents can bring themselves to seize the moment.

The big story in Novato this past month has been affordable housing.  The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is mandating new housing the city for the next five years under the “fair share” policy, under which each Bay Area government takes its fair share of the projected regional growth.  There has been a tremendous outpouring against the proposed sites as well as the process in general, leaving affordable housing advocates hopelessly outgunned.

Although ABAG shouldn't be mandating housing to Novato at all (not to say that Novato's government is terribly wise about its zoning policies to begin with), the situation does present an opportunity for the city to address some underlying issues that might otherwise get lost in the debate.  What kind of town ought Novato be?  How can it serve its residents better?  Neither side has been particularly effective in conveying their overall vision for the city, I think the answers can be broken down into three parts: density, transportation, and character.

1. Character
• Suburb.  The suburban character is the model that has been pursued by Novato through most of its modern existence.  It has led to the forms common to the Marin County landscape: long commercial strips dominated by parking, single-family detached homes, auto-centricity, exposure to housing market shifts, strip malls, and the freeway as the primary people mover.  Pedestrian traffic is focused around areas people drive to.
• City.  The form of a city is the model pursued by San Francisco.  It contains few and expensive parking spots, contiguous commercial corridors, multi-family dwellings, insulation from housing market shifts, and transit-centeredness.  Pedestrian traffic is ubiquitous.
• Town.  A hybrid between the suburbs and the city, a town is a small, mixed-density area centered around a central business district.  Housing is single-family outside the core and multi-family within.  Driving is dominant but walking, biking and transit use are common.  Commerce is clustered in the downtown node and radiates out along main thoroughfares.  Pedestrian traffic is moderate.  This is the model that was pursued in the pre-highway era and dominated Marin when the railroad was the primary means of transportation.

It seems to me that Novato is unsure of what character it ought to be.  Many residents have full faith in the surburban form, fighting any attempt to change the character of the town.  The location of SMART’s Novato North station a full mile north of downtown and isolated from most of the city, save for an office park, is testament to this thinking.  Simultaneously, the construction of a large mixed-use development near downtown, as well as efforts to further densify the area, shows a desire to create a town-like character among the more soft-spoken.

2. Transportation
• Auto-centric.  The auto-centric transportation model leads to large amounts of land set aside for car storage, such as parking lots.  Minimum parking requirements proliferate under this model while walking and active living are severely constrained.
• Transit-centric.  Requires a minimum of medium density construction and a safe road network to walk around.  Tends to encourage walking to and from transit, as well as within the town itself.

Novato is unabashedly auto-centric.  The lack of real choice between an effective bus or rail system and the car exposes the city to gas price swings.  Any higher-density development will, by definition, increase traffic congestion, as roads must absorb all the new residents.  To mitigate, Novato would need to work with Golden Gate Transit to improve transit links while making the city pedestrian and bicycle friendly.  So far, there has been no honest attempt to do so, and this exacerbates suburbia's downsides.

3. Density
• Low.  Encourages auto use, increases pollution and environmental footprint, and decreases the efficiency of infrastructure (roads, sewers, etc.).
• Medium.  Increases noise, decreases pollution, increases infrastructure efficiency.
• High.  Increases traffic, transit use, walkability, efficiency, health, and decreases pollution.

Density can be done in a auto-centric way, yielding Los Angeles-style problems, or in a transit-centric way, yielding Seattle-style problems.  Density must be paired with mixed-use development to encourage walking, and with transit to keep cars off the road and parking lots from hogging all the land.  However, while you can have density without walking and without transit, you cannot have walking and transit without density.

Ultimately, Novato will become more dense.  Under the current legal regime, Sacramento and ABAG will ensure that this occurs.  Luckily, Novato can turn its situation into an opportunity instead of a tragedy.  Novato cannot maintain a purely suburban character, but few want it to.  Residents love their downtown, and the city provides incentives to start businesses – these are the marks of a town that wants to be more than San Francisco’s bedroom.

The developments being considered by Novato should be used to satisfy requirements for all income levels, diluting the problems of concentrated poverty, increasing the customer base for businesses downtown, and making that northern SMART station more than just the Fireman’s Insurance commuter shuttle.  For a long time, Novatans have looked to South Marin's bucolic, centralized communities with envy.  There is no reason why South Marin shouldn't look north and feel the same.

Mid-Week Links: Coming to Earth

San Anselmo-Fairfax Patch reports that the Fairfax Council has approved Good Earth's plans to move to the abandoned supermarket at the east end of town. It's a great use of a dilapidated space, but couldn't they have done something about that sea of parking? (Patch)

The IJ reports on the bizarre Transportation Authority of Marin meeting that first rejected, then accepted, the SMART fund bailout. Given that the public went home thinking the proposal failed, TAM will hold the meeting again and take a revote.  (Marin IJ)

The Washington, DC, Metrorail system is looking at expansion.  Local blog Greater Greater Washington argues that it should stay in the core.  BART, meanwhile, continues to push out into the suburbs. (Greater Greater Washington)

While Novato stews over its affordable housing mandates, the County is looking for affordable housing locations in its unincorporated areas.  A shame transit access and mixed-use development doesn't play into much of the discussions. (Novato Advance, Marin IJ)

Be prepared: most of Marin's first responders live hours from the County, meaning that, in the event of a major disaster, Marinites will be without aid for three to seven days.  Better be ready to hunker down for a while after the Big One. (Pacific Sun)

In a blast from the past, Fortune republished an article from 1958 detailing the politics and looming problems of the then-under-construction Interstate Highway System.  Most of the problems we deal with now were foreseen even then. (CNN/Forbes)

Housing in Marin Part 1: Transit

While Novato is in the throes of a major debate on affordable housing brought on by the Association of Bay Area

Governments’ mandates, it is important to take a 30,000-foot look at Marin County’s urban character, which contributes so much to the appeal – and cost – of the county.  An excellent case is the Fairfax-San Rafael corridor.

Most of the cities in Marin advocate for improved density around transit centers.  There is a problem with this, however: the transit sucks.  In the Fairfax-San Rafael corridor, the lynchpin is San Anselmo’s Hub.  The Hub is served by six bus routes going east, west, and south, and about a third of town is within a half-mile radius.

San Anselmo-San Rafael

The basis of effective TOD is simple and easy to understand transit routes.  It should not be necessary for riders to memorize multiple schedules in order to use the system.  One of the great things about a car is that it gives the rider the capability to leave when they want; one isn’t beholden to a timetable, as one might be with a bus or train.

Increased frequency is one solution to the problem, as anyone who has ridden on New York’s subway can attest.  Show up, wait five minutes, and catch the train as it comes by.  If you missed it, there’s another one not so far behind.  Buses can function like this, too, with headways on certain MUNI routes approaching that of a subway.  In suburban environments, where such frequencies are uneconomical, creating a reliably consistent schedule is a good second-best option.

Unfortunately, the existing bus system from the Hub doesn’t cut it.  Headways alternate between 15 and 45 minutes for most of the day, forcing passengers to know not just one bus schedule but three, with each changing throughout the day.  This is no way to run a bus system.

There is, however, a better way.

In my scenario, I've averaged the headways to a maximum of 30 minutes all day.  Even with the variations from afternoon rush hour, a rider always knows that a bus will come in 30 minutes at most.  To create this scheme, I shifted the entire 23 schedule back by 15 minutes as well as a selection of the 22 departures.  Departures from the Fairfax Parkade to the Hub also become more regular, with headways declining from a maximum of 48 minutes to 35 minutes.

Similar patterns emerge for southbound routes.  Buses bound to the College of Marin – the last common stop between routes 22, 24, and 29 – have headways that vary between 20 and 40 minutes.  Although the 29 is well-timed with the ferry, such variations are unacceptable for travel within the corridor.

Balancing bus schedules is not easy: what’s been proposed here is only one option for one corridor.  Tackling this problem, however, is well worth the effort.  The constant push from the Association of Bay Area Governments for more housing under the “fair share” doctrine means that every town must look at places to build.  If Fairfax and San Anselmo want this housing to be a benefit rather than a sprawl-making burden, developing reliable and effective links to the rest of the County is imperative.  The cheapest way to start is through making the most of the transit we already have.

Mid-Week Links: Theatrical Edition

Pressure is building for a theater in San Anselmo.  Do we have the density for it? (San Anselmo-Fairfax Patch) The first real trains on the SMART tracks will be freight trains, as long as the Novato Council approves of the plan. (Marin IJ)

The anti-SMART rail lobby is getting restless thanks to the ongoing money issues on the trouble rail line. Although their open reason is one of fiscal responsibility, spokesman Clay Mitchell says on conservative blog NorCalCrush: "[Proponents of SMART] place a very low value on human quality of life, putting perceived value of “mother nature” above that of the human race." (Marin IJ, NorCalCrush)

Another legislative recall is in motion, this one against San Rafael's recently approved Target store. Organizing group Keep it Local San Rafael is forcing the city council to either rescind the store's approval or put it to a general vote at the next election. (Pacific Sun)

Novato debates where they should put new affordable housing. New affordable housing units are required by the Association of Bay Area Governments under the Bay Area's "fair share" laws. Of the proposed parcels for development, the Wood Hollow & Redwood Boulevard parcel is most promising, as it is adjacent to the North Novato SMART station, although far from downtown. Residents spoke passionately on the subject, with the issue of crime coming from low-income, high-density housing a frequent point of contention. Video of the meeting will be available at the city website. (Marin IJ)

Across the street from the Wood Hollow parcel, Fireman's Insurance is aiming to green its campus through the use of fuel-cell generators. Their location at the very edge of town forces its employees to drive, spewing carbon into the air. Hopefully, they'll aim to leverage their transit access once the SMART station is built. (Novato Patch)

On the issue of affordable housing, New York is looking to strengthen their already-tight rent control laws. Some people feel this will just make housing in the state even more expensive. (Reuters, Market Urbanism)

A Different Marin

I want a different Marin County.  Don’t get me wrong: I am utterly in love with the one that exists today.  I suppose a more precise phrase is, I want a better Marin County.  Often, Marinites point to the fair landscape and bucolic towns as evidence that we are forging a better way forward that the rest of the country.  In doing so, however, we ignore the problems right in front of us: car dependency, incoherent master plans, and the acres of parking that rob otherwise quaint downtowns of valuable space. I write here to point out these flaws.

I want a Marin County where owning a car is optional, where the village character of our towns is maintained and not marred by traffic.  I dream of a Marin County where Novato’s downtown is vibrant and alive, where the Civic Center is a walkable destination, Fairfax isn’t anchored by a supermarket parking lot, and the Village really is a village center.  We are an example for the nation is conservation and growth boundaries; it’s time we became an example to the nation for land use and transportation, too.

My name is David Edmondson.  Three years ago I moved to Washington, DC and became enamored with urban living, transit, and the power it has to transform communities.  My interest returned to my hometown, San Anselmo, and the unique problems faced by the town and its neighbors as they begin to move towards a more sustainable future.  This blog is a place for me and my readers to explore the wide world of transit in Marin and, occasionally, further afield.

My goal is to update with a major article every Monday morning and link rundown every Wednesday, so as to better distract you at work.  Still, this is principally a work of advocacy: these are not idle musings.  I will always push for a healthier, safer, more livable Marin, no matter how far removed I am from her golden hills.  Welcome to The Greater Marin.