SVBC News
Affordable Housing Meets the Bicycle
Before landing my dream job running SVBC, I worked for 14 years as an advocate for affordable housing. In that role, I collaborated with affordable housing developers, an interesting and somewhat masochistic group of people. When I moved over to SVBC, many of these do-gooder developers followed me. At the same time, a new grant program came down from the State called the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities (AHSC) grant program. This program was one more way of implementing the State’s landmark greenhouse gas reductions legislation, Assembly Bill 32, and its companion land use legislation, Senate Bill 375, by linking dollars for affordable housing with sustainability. What better way to create greener housing than to put the infrastructure and programs in place to encourage bicycling over driving?
Sharing Our Notes: Two Conferences Address Equity
As we work more on making our organization more diverse, equitable, and inclusive, staff members are taking the opportunities to learn and understand more of these issues. Last week, we had the chance to attend the Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition's first Complete Streets conference, Street Lights: Illuminating Implementation and Equity in Complete Streets as well as Urban Habitat’s Stage of the Region: Planning for the New Geography of Race and Class.