TALC's Vision

A century ago, Bay Area communities were oriented around downtowns and transit corridors. Today, many of the region’s most desirable places to live – from San Francisco’s neighborhoods to Palo Alto and Petaluma – are communities that were originally planned with pedestrian-friendly streets and flexible designs that accommodate a diverse mix of homes, shops and offices, parks and open space.

But planning and development began to change in the 1950s when the region –- like the rest of the nation -– shifted towards low-density development that turned our hillsides and farmland into endless subdivisions and strip malls. Today, the impacts of poorly-planned growth surround us. We sit in traffic jams on billion-dollar highways while we have less public transit service because of state budget cuts. We see bulldozers carving up the foothills of Mount Diablo. Our youth have lost the opportunity to walk and bike safely and suffer from record levels of asthma. And we witness widening health and income disparities between communities, in part because low-income families don’t share the same level of access to jobs, education, and health services.

The member and affiliate groups of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC) believe that these trends do not need to be our destiny. Instead, we envision a Bay Area with vibrant neighborhoods, a healthy environment, and a strong economy that benefits all communities. We believe that effective regional government and engaged residents will support development where it makes the most sense: in compact, walkable neighborhoods near high-quality transit.

Improving the way we grow and invest public funds can have substantial benefits for all of us. By 2030, better planning will allow all Bay Area workers to live in the region – rather than enduring grinding long-distance commutes – and will protect our remaining open space and farms. As a region, we will be healthier by walking and bicycling twice as much as we do now. We will double our use of transit, ensuring that our highways do not turn into virtual parking lots as is currently predicted. Great public transit and town centers rich with services will ensure that all residents can easily reach job centers, schools, health care, child care, parks, and grocery stores. This will restore and maintain mobility for many youth, seniors, persons with disabilities, very low-income residents, and others who may not have access to a car. The $1.8 billion per year that residents save by reducing their transportation costs can instead be used for home ownership, higher education, and other purposes. (The specific outcomes we anticipate, based on models by regional agencies, are described on pages 17 and 18.)

Members of the coalition strongly believe that if Bay Area residents are effectively engaged in shaping their communities, then they will create great places to live, work, and play; places that meet our needs and help create a sustainable region for our children and grandchildren.

Fulfilling TALC’s vision will require a fundamental shift in public policies and investments, but we believe that shift has already begun.

TALC’s Effectiveness

In 1997, groups from throughout the Bay Area realized that only by working together could they overcome the powerful forces and institutional inertia that prevent effective regional planning. They formed the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, which has grown to include over 90 environmental, social justice, and community groups.

TALC members work together to analyze county and regional policies and investments, and develop effective, implementable alternatives. These alternatives form the primary recommendations in TALC’s highly-regarded reports. For example, the 120-page World Class Transit for the Bay Area, developed after a year of analysis and consultation with coalition members, offers a bold new approach to fixing our transportation system. The report identified $12 billion of projects that can create a fast, convenient, and affordable transit system by maximizing the potential of our existing road and rail network. World Class Transit and other TALC reports generate headlines, raise public awareness, and lay the groundwork for the coalition’s long-term initiatives.

TALC has won substantial victories by uniting diverse constituencies behind policies that promote both environmental sustainability and social equity, and by coordinating community outreach and strategic media campaigns. From 2000 to 2004, voters in the Bay Area approved 11 transportation initiatives that collectively allocate $12 billion, or three-quarters of their funding, for public transit expansion and operations. These measures also contain over $800 million for other programs initially proposed in the coalition’s platform, such as safe transportation for children, incentives to build affordable homes near transit, and funding to connect low-income communities with jobs and services. TALC played a central role in developing and building support for a number of these initiatives, including four county sales tax renewals and Regional Measure 2, the one-dollar bridge toll increase to fund public transit.

TALC is now recognized nationally as one of the most effective regional coalitions working on transportation and growth issues. The coalition’s success has garnered awards from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, Senator Barbara Boxer, the National Neighborhood Coalition, and the California Association of Nonprofits, among others.

Creating a Sustainable Future

TALC’s 2005-2008 Strategic Plan was developed with our coalition partners over the course of a year. It identifies new opportunities and proposes specific goals and objectives on two of our long-standing initiatives: Transportation Equity and Community Health (TEACH) and World Class Transportation.

This plan also launches the new Great Communities Initiative, an unprecedented partnership of leading regional nonprofits. This initiative seeks to capitalize on the window of opportunity that will open as the region begins planning for over 100 new transit stations.

These new transit investments, combined with the financial viability of developing near the 305 existing stations and transit corridors, offers the Bay Area a unique opportunity to grow smarter. The Great Communities Initiative will provide residents with tools to engage in planning for neighborhoods near transit, so that development improves the quality of life for existing residents while providing great places for our children to live. The initiative will also meet head-on the challenge posed by potential displacement of existing residents and prioritize the development of homes that are affordable to people of all incomes.

Working together over the past eight years, TALC and its members helped to fundamentally shift regional transportation priorities – but creating a framework for growth that focuses on long-term sustainability is an even greater challenge.

To meet it we will need to develop and communicate a vision of great communities as the fundamental component of a sustainable region. Of course it will take more than a vision; to overcome long-standing obstacles it will take well-developed strategies that unite instead of divide us and it will require giving residents and community leaders the tools to effectively engage in local and regional decisions.

We invite you to read on, to contact TALC’s staff and Board of Directors with questions or suggestions, and to join us in our efforts to create a healthy, accessible, environmentally sustainable, and socially just Bay Area.