GCC All-Sites meeting

Last Friday I spent all day at the Great Communities Collaborative (GCC) All-Sites meeting with my colleague Michele Beasley of Greenbelt Alliance. The meeting took place up at the San Francisco Foundation and included systems-change workers from all across the Bay Area who are focused on planning projects in areas chosen by the GCC. Michele and I are working on San Jose's Diridon Station--one of the most important planning processes currently under way in the bay area.

The GCC funders, which include the San Francisco Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, described their new five year strategic plan with us on Friday, after nearly a year of in-depth discussions. Here is their reformulated primary mission:

"The Great Communities Collaborative is a group of organizations dedicated to ensuring that the San Francisco Bay Area is made up of healthy, thriving neighborhoods that are affordable to all and linked to regional opportunities by a premier transit network. We connect local residents with the tools and resources they need to influence decision making, forge diverse partnerships to craft lasting strategies and harness the means to help move visions to reality."

SVBC really appreciates the great work of the GCC and looks forward to our continued participation in these significant planning projects.