From the Man Himself – Planning Director John Rahaim of San Francisco, California Speaks on the City’s Present State and Future

The following post comes courtesy of Global Site Plans' The Grid. CNU and Global Site Plans recently teamed up to syndicate Grid content, as its contingent of writers presents a view on the opportunities and issues of urbanization all across the world. CNU will carry select posts from the Grid direct on the CNU Salons.

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On the evening of January 29, 2013, roughly 150 people gathered in SPUR’s Urban Centerto listen to San Francisco’s Planning Director speak about the city’s present state and future initiatives in an event contentiously titled “The Meanies and the War Mongers: Recent Planning Lessons from SF.” John Rahaimspoke in a direct manner that leveled with the audience, but his ideas were not nearly as in-your-face as the words in the event’s title.

This piece may already sound critical, but as Rahaim referenced a quote from a neighborhood activist whom he spoke to when he first took on this position, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Early on the speaker addressed San Francisco’s notorious reputation for extensively reviewing projects, which often halts new development. No, urban planners, developers and architects cannot please everyone, but there needs to be a process where neighborhood activists can voice their opinions while still allowing the professionals to do their jobs. Rahaim merely scratched the surface when addressing a solution.

Several interesting ideas were brought up:

• Open up the streets and make the urban space more livable;
• Architects need to design short, fat buildings (as opposed to tall and skinny) that are aesthetically pleasing;
• Think differently on how to manage the historic building stock.

For the future, Rahaim proposed 6 initiatives that should be taken:

To read the original post, written by Robert Poole, visit Global Site Plans.