Smart Urban Planning

Scott believes that we need to be smart and savvy in planning for San Francisco’s future.

Transportation is key: Transportation is probably the city service that affects the most people on the most frequent basis. It is also at the heart of our economic growth and environmental sustainability. Whether you take Muni, drive, bike, or walk, the quality of our transportation systems affects you. Scott believes that adequately funding Muni must be one of our top priorities. When Muni service suffers, it effects everyone, including those who take Muni and those who drive, bike, or walk and have to deal with increased traffic congestion. Scott supports implementation of the Transit Effectiveness Project, which would make the system more efficient, as well as more effective measures against fare evasion so that Muni does not continue to lose significant amounts of money because of lax enforcement. He also supports aggressive capital spending to upgrade and expand the system, as well as high-speed rail that connects to the future Transbay Transit Center. Scott supports completion of the bike network in a collaborative way that takes into account neighborhood needs, as well as reforming our taxi system so that we have more cabs and more cab availability throughout the city, not just downtown and at the airport.

Housing of all kinds: San Francisco needs more housing opportunities of all forms, including market-rate housing, affordable housing, and rental housing. Scott supports smart transit-oriented growth, particularly building housing along corridors with access to public transportation so that people do not have to rely on cars as much. Scott supports investing in affordable housing opportunities at all levels and particularly for middle income people who are increasingly being priced out of the city. Scott supports rent control and also creation of homeownership opportunities for those seeking to own their own homes. Scott favors “affordability by design,” which encourages development of housing units that cost less because of smart design choices.

Infrastructure matters: Strong and well-maintained infrastructure is what allows San Francisco to function. Yet, until recently, the city has not done a good job maintaining and planning for its infrastructure needs. Scott supports prioritizing long-term smart planning for our infrastructure, including transportation, roads and sidewalks, our water delivery system, our sewers, public safety infrastructure, and so forth. The City’s infrastructure has been neglected, with hundreds of millions of dollars of deferred maintenance. We cannot allow this to continue, and we need to find innovative solutions to address this problem.

Emergency preparedness: Whether it’s a major earthquake or some other catastrophe, we need to plan for it. We must ensure that our transportation, utility, public health, and public safety systems are up and running quickly. We also need to make sure that we have enough first responders. Scott supports making sure our building codes are sufficient for a major earthquake, that our fire and police departments are adequately staffed to meet the challenge, and that we have enough trained volunteers in every neighborhood, through the fire department’s Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) and other forms of community involvement (like trained neighborhood watches) to fill in the gaps.