Bay Area Burden: What Experts Are Saying About the Report
“When it comes to fighting climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, California has set the standard. We were first to tackle vehicle emissions, first to tackle low-carbon fuels and first-in-the-nation to tackle land-use planning. The landmark legislation we enacted last year put California at the forefront of creating more sustainable communities through coordinating land use, housing and transportation. And, while this effort is leading to smarter development, healthier communities and greater mobility with more transportation options, this report highlights that more work remains to be done. But with the continued commitment and leadership in both the public and private sectors, I am confident California will remain a leader in protecting the environment and creating a high quality of life for future generations through better land-use planning.”
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
“California is the international leader in combating greenhouse gas emissions. The report, Bay Area Burden, helps to reinforce the importance of planning for transportation, housing and the environment. I was proud to author SB 375 in 2008 to be used as framework for fighting sprawl and transforming inevitable growth into smart growth. This report demonstrates the need for development efforts that will transform urban planning decisions about the availability of workforce housing in high-cost communities.”
California Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
“By examining the costs and impacts of housing and transportation on residents, their neighborhoods and the environment, the Bay Area Burden report offers the opportunity to better understand the true cost of limited workforce housing. San Francisco proudly understands and continues to work towards building sustainable communities where its workers have a reduced commute with housing options that fit their needs – all of this is of course to ensure they live comfortably with their families.“
Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco
“To provide a sustainable quality of life that will ensure that the Bay Area continues to attract the best and brightest workers – and the companies who employ them – we must accept and embrace the idea that land use, housing and transportation are one issue, not three. Only the regions that grasp this nexus, and act on it, will succeed in the new era.”
Jim Wunderman, President & CEO, Bay Area Council
“The cost of living, in particular housing, continues to be a top impediment to living and doing business in Silicon Valley and across the Bay Area. This new report and cost calculator tool from the Terwilliger Center puts a spotlight on the impact of these costs and will help drive planning policies that encourage sustainable communities, lessen gridlock and start to minimize the burdens felt by working families today.”
Carl Guardino, President & CEO, Silicon Valley Leadership Group
“Housing that appears affordable based solely on housing costs may not be truly affordable when it is located far from transit, jobs and services. This report underscores the importance of broadening the understanding of housing affordability challenges to also include transportation costs, time and the environmental impacts of commuting.”
Henry Cisneros, Board Member, ULI Terwilliger Center Advisory Board
Former Secretary, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
“This heavy burden forces residents to make extremely difficult decisions that pit housing and transportation choices against other basic needs such as health care, education and food. These findings reinforce that years of ever-sprawling development have resulted in a growing gap between where people live and where they work.”
J. Ronald Terwillliger, Chairman, ULI Terwilliger Center
“California has been leading the nation in environmental policies since Governor Schwarzenegger signed landmark global warming legislation in 2006, which requires California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Reports, like the Bay Area Burden, and tools, like the Terwilliger Cost Calculator, provide us with the knowledge and tools we need to reach our goals. Furthermore it will help us better understand the correlation between land use planning and reduced vehicle miles traveled.”
Linda Adams, Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency
“Bay Area Burden brings to light the challenges people throughout California are facing everyday regarding rising housing and transportation costs. It’s critically important that we continue to build housing for the future, but it has to be the right kind of housing in the right places. This Administration has helped lead those efforts but more must be done to raise awareness of these planning issues so we can address future population increases and fix the burdens and gridlock that exist today. Creating the simple, easy to use cost calculator is a great way to reignite the education process that will lead to policy solutions.”
Lynn L. Jacobs, Director, California Department of Housing and Community Development
“This study reinforces the importance of planning for transportation, housing and the environment. The cost calculator provides real people here in the Bay Area with a valuable tool to determine their real costs. Given the importance of these issues and the need to develop local solutions the calculator is a vital step towards empowering residents to call upon policy makers to affect change.”
Steve Preston, Board Member, ULI Terwilliger Center Advisory Board
Former Secretary, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
“Families in the Bay Area experience one of the most extreme housing and transportation cost burdens in the nation. And with the population expected to grow by 22 percent in the next 25 years, the situation is likely to get worse. This report should serve as an important wake-up call to accelerate the policy changes needed to meet the housing and transportation challenges of Bay Area families.”
Jeffrey Lubell, Executive Director, Center for Housing Policy
“Finally we have a clear way of understanding the household savings that come from efficient land use. The Bay Area has the highest housings costs in the country. But the parts of the Bay Area that are dense enough to have good transit and local stores allow households to save so much money on transportation that the overall cost of living isn’t quite as bad. This opens up two fronts for advocates of sustainable communities: in addition to trying to build housing for all income levels, we can focus on getting the right land uses to enable low-cost transportation.
Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director, San Francisco Planning + Urban Research
No longer will the true cost of a house be hidden in the Bay Area– this calculator is an insurance policy against the rising and chaotic costs for transportation and fuel and will help homeseekers, both owners and renters, know what it’s worth to take advantage of the region’s mass transportation and local amenities, and in the process, avoid locations that are too financially risky. The calculator makes a seemingly complex set of choices seem easy — a couple of clicks makes regional location costs transparent and legible.
Scott Bernstein, Executive Director, Center for Neighborhood Technology
