From this week’s San Francisco Business Times, “The transit village concept — building residential and commercial units near transit hubs — has been around for 15 years. But just four of BART’s 43 stations and Emeryville’s Amtrak station have completed first-phase projects. The Peninsula is in earlier stages of developing its Caltrain stations.”

“Meanwhile a dozen other stations are in the planning stages, including San Francisco’s Balboa Park. Fremont, San Leandro, South Hayward and Daly City are also being studied for developments, according to Val Menotti, who heads BART’s planning. Phase I developments have been completed at Richmond, Fruitvale, Castro Valley and Hayward. Over the next decade, most major BART and Amtrak stations could have a mixed-use project attached to them, but transit villages are not just relegated to the BART map.”

And the best line of the whole article, “Despite the Bay Area’s current activity, this region was not an early arrival at the transit-village party.” No! Really?!? Why do you think we have such awful traffic and such sprawl everywhere but San Francisco? Why do you think that San Francisco is so much more expensive (with a couple of exceptions, of course)? Because, IMHO, we have the desirable benefit of walkable and transit-friendly neighborhoods. The best example of this is how expensive housing is in Oakland and Berkeley near BART stations. People often move out of the city on the condition that they can be within walking distance of a BART station which will bring them back to their job (or their social scene) in the city.

Let’s hope that this idea actually makes it to reality. If San Francisco can’t get their housing act together, let’s hope that neighboring locales can provide viable (and affordable!) ways for people to stay in the region.

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