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Colleen Edwards interviews Chip Pierson, Dahlin Group Architecture Planning

In today’s interview, Chip Pierson from Dahlin Group Architecture Planning talks about the obstacles in the path of sustainable planning.  With success measured by meeting environmental goals, business goals for viability, and the community’s goals, it is difficult to take a project from the envisioning through entitlements.  The chances of the project getting through all of these steps intact?  Just about impossible.  So who wins and who loses? And when one side wins big, does the whole project go away?

A lot of this discussion has been put on hold for the last couple of years, as the economy has dealt a blow to new development and infill redevelopment.  But the conversation is far from over.

Chip sees an ongoing conflict in mixed-use communities between what the city wants for an area and how its residents are going to live with it.  A grocery store sounds good, but the days of a little Mom-and-Pop operation are long gone.  So the supermarket needs a big footprint, as mandated by the super-chains.  And the back side of the store—home of the garbage cans, grease traps and delivery trucks—makes its immediate neighbors unhappy with its sights, sounds and smells. Planning how to let multiple uses co-exist and thrive is one of the challenges to the planning community.

The Urban Land Institute is a non-partisan research and educational resource in urban planning, land use and development. It studies and interprets real estate trends, publishes papers and holds conferences that discuss raising the bar in communities throughout the world. Although the site has limited public access (it is a membership organization) its goals and history make for interesting reading.

With average home prices dipping below $300,000 for the first time since 1999, many first timers are considering a home purchase.  As tempting as it may seem, there are still important considerations in weighing the buy vs. rent issue.  While there are many advantages to buying a home, it may not be for you at this time in your life.  Here are some questions to ask yourself before you embark on the path to home ownership:

Is your job secure?
Unemployment in California continues to grow.  If you lose your job, it could have a huge impact on your ability to keep up with your mortgage payments.  Unemployment benefits are rarely enough.

Are you likely to relocate for work reasons in the next two to three years?
A good rule of thumb is that your property will need to appreciate 10% to cover the cost of selling.  Otherwise, you will lose money on the deal.  With our economy in its current state and home prices still looking for the bottom, this will be difficult to achieve.  Renting provides both mobility and flexibility.

How much more will your mortgage payment be than your rent?
There are many helpful online calculators that will help you estimate your mortgage payment. Is it substantially more than you pay in rent?  How will this affect your lifestyle?

Once you are through these basic questions, consider the advantages of each.

Advantages of buying:

•    In theory, property builds equity over time.

•    Provides a sense of stability.

•    There are tax benefits for home ownership.

•    You can paint, change décor and landscaping as you please to create the home you want.

•    You are in charge of maintenance on your home.

Advantages of renting:

•    Better mobility; it’s easier to move when you need to.

•    You have little or no responsibility for maintenance of your property.

•    Landlord pays property tax.

•    No huge outlay of cash is required; usually just first and last months rent and perhaps a security deposit.  This is in contrast to a down payment, which is between 3% and 20% of the value of the home.

When you have considered all of the above and are ready to move toward a home purchase, there is a wealth of information online to get you started.  Here are some helpful sites:

www.hud.gov

www.ginniemae.gov

www.homebuying.about.com

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Colleen Edwards interviews Chip Pierson, Dahlin Group Architecture Planning

There’s a lot of press these days about sustainable environments. Green communities.  Smart growth. New Urbanism.  What’s the human-scale proposition behind the planning terms?

Chip Pierson of Dahlin Group Architecture Planning talks to The Real Story about one of the key components to “living green” – how critical the relationship between transportation and schools, work, shopping and home.  In community planning, we see more emphasis on creating destinations that are walkable or in bicycling distance, instead of repeating the heavy reliance on the automobile for major connections—between work and home, as well as the daily trips to schools or running errands.

According to Chip, studies show that 40% of the greenhouse gases come from automobile use.  Community planning that reduces private vehicles as the only means of transportation goes a long way toward creating more sustainable communities

There are a number of groups studying the impact of planning on sustainable living, including the Congress for the New Urbanism.  In its website, the CNU folks identify shared space as the organizing element of a community, where architecture physically defines the street and places of shared use—like plazas, squares, cafes and porches—that promote interaction of people and their neighbors.

The public realm, then, adds character to the neighborhood, promotes security and increases community pride—all of those intangibles that make some neighborhoods feel so good, even when you can’t put your finger on the one key element that drives it.  It is the interweaving of streets, parks, transportation choices, scale of architecture and the sense that whatever you are looking for is within reach that sets these neighborhoods, communities and towns apart.

Quick.  What comes to mind when you hear the words “San Francisco?”  Sourdough bread? Cable cars?  Fog? If it’s the third Sunday in May, San Francisco is all about Bay to Breakers.  This 12K annual foot race epitomizes the energy and creativity of the City.

The 2009 ING Bay to Breakers is scheduled for Sunday, May 17th.  Between 70,000 and 80,000 participants and 110,000 spectators are anticipated.  Early registration (and discounted fees) ends Thursday, April 30.

For all its frivolity and party atmosphere, Bay to Breakers holds some auspicious distinctions.  Started in 1912 as an event to boost civic morale after the 1906 earthquake, it is the longest consecutively running footrace in the world.  Originally called the Cross City Race, the name was changed to Bay to Breakers in 1964.  From 1986 to 1994 it held the Guinness World Record for the highest participation of any footrace (nearly 110,000 participants at its peak). Costumes are traditional, and wearing nothing at all (except running shoes, of course) is not uncommon.  The race is famed for its “centipede” entries, running groups consisting of “13 connected individuals.”

The free-for-all party spirit of Bay-to-Breakers past has prompted new rules aimed at curbing public drunkenness and nudity from the City of San Francisco for this year’s contest.

“We are pleased to have worked with the race organizers, neighborhood leaders, City staff, and supporters of the race to ensure that the fun aspects of the race are preserved while protecting our neighborhoods and ensuring the safety of race participants and citizens of San Francisco,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom.

“We are honored by the widespread support we have received from the City of San Francisco to help us address safety, logistical and trash issues created by the race in years past while preserving the fun and zany character of the race,” said Angela Fang, general manager for AEG, the race organizer of the ING Bay to Breakers race.

The revised policies are available on the ING Bay to Breakers web site at www.ingbaytobreakers.com.

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Colleen Edwards interviews Linda Gates, Landscape Architect

In Linda’s life at Gates + Associates Landscape Architects, she sees a lot of movement within cities to create community gardens.  There are more people willing to actively participate in the process, and some of the results—like the Emeryville Community Organic Garden—is a fantastic example of taking an old underused strip of land, in this case, railroad right-of-way, and creating not one but a series of pocket parks in an urban area.

Schools, too, are looking at ways to better utilize their spaces in urban areas. Grants are now more available than ever before for schools to start their own community gardens.  And the roofs of school buildings are being converted to play areas. Of course, the most wonderful roof in the Bay Area is at the new California Academy of Sciences building in Golden Gate Park, whose 197,000 square foot living roof is home to 1.7 million plants.  The roof reduces energy needs for heating and cooling, and captures rainwater—all part of an overall energy conservation strategy that makes the Academy of Sciences the greenest museum in the world.

The urban streetcape is changing as wider sidewalks are designed to allow for more streetside seating—in cafes or for people watching—and the edge between the retail or restaurant and the outdoors is blurred.  And in private buildings, like condominiums, rooftop gardens are providing shared community areas for their residents.

Photo:  David Wakely

As you walk through the lobby of the Paramount Theatre, every step seems to take you further back in time—some 75 years back to when stars were glamorous and cinemas were palaces.  Designed and built especially as a movie theatre by Paramount-Publix, one of the great studio chains, the Paramount was completed in 1931.  Although the theatre is used today as a performance venue by the likes of Oakland Ballet and the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the theatre also hosts Movie Classics, a series that gives patrons a taste of the movie-going experience of Hollywood’s Golden Age.  And with $5 general admission tickets, it’s one of the great entertainment bargains around.

On Movie Classics nights, doors open 60 minutes before the show and cocktails are available at the downstairs and upstairs bars.  Organist Jim Riggs plays a concert of classic American popular tunes by Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Berlin and others on the Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ.

Next:  a newsreel, vintage cartoons, previews, and the Paramount’s very fun and kitchy give-away game “Dec-O-Win.”  Think Big Spin meets Vanna.  All the excitement.  All the sequins. Plus prizes from local merchants and restaurateurs.

Then, the main event:  a full-length classic.  This month the features are Notorious (May 1), with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, and Auntie Mame (May 8), with Rosalind Russell.

So bring your five bucks and your penchant for everything fabulous.  The Paramout Theatre’s Movie Classics delivers a truly transcendent experience.

For a more up-close and behind-the-curtains look at The Paramount, take a guided tour of the theatre.  Public tours are given the first and third Saturdays of each month.  Just show up at the box office promptly at 10 a.m.  Admission is (again, a bargain) $5 per person.

The Paramount is located on Broadway at 19th Street, convenient to the 19th Street BART station in Oakland.