Much has been written about the housing affordability problem in California, and across the country. I’m going to offer a local perspective of how we continue to fail to address barriers to developing more housing, which is the core of the issue. I live and work as an architect in
I participated in the Sebastopol City Council Housing Subcommittee as a Planning Commission liason last summer. We had a series of meetings discussing how to create more affordable housing in Sebastopol. There are many reasons for the lack of affordable housing in Sebastopol, and many other places in California, but
The Parklet Project was a success! We set up 3 parklets on Main Street and blocked a section of street to create a pop-up plaza last Saturday. The 3 Main Street parklets were all of the same design; plywood floors on sleepers to align with the sidewalk, and OSB walls
The Core Project and the City of Sebastopol are sponsoring The Parklet Project, tomorrow, Saturday, April 29th. The Core Project has been working to bring parklets to Sebastopol and was instrumental in getting the city to adopt an ordinance to allow their development. We have participated in PARK(ing) day several times
(For background on this issue, see these previous posts: Smart School Siting, Smart School Siting – 2, Smart School Siting – 3, Smart School Siting – 4, Smart School Siting – 5, Charter School Proximity to Residential Neighborhoods.) It’s taken me awhile to get to writing this, but the long-playing saga of my
This post in in the response to the following comment from the Press Democrat Close to Home published by advocates of the Charter School. Paul, I read your opinions as being very much centered on your own neightborhood. Not very many people live in walking distance of the current campus.
The end is near. After many years of working with and against the Sebastopol Charter School on a new facility a final decision from the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors is scheduled for October 25th for a proposed new campus for the school. I have been encouraging the school to
I am often troubled by the complete disregard many drivers have for pedestrians. A situation I encounter on a regular basis is vehicles parking on the sidewalk. On my route between home and work, I walk by The Grateful Bagle, a bagel shop on Main Street. Given the form of
I went to a conference recently and participated in a tour and session on ‘Missing Middle Housing.’ Missing Middle housing is a term coined by Dan Parolek of Opticos Design, Inc. Missing Middle refers to housing types between a single-family home and multi-family apartments that are compatible in scale to
Chuck Marohn of Strong Towns was in Santa Rosa last week. During one of our conversations he told me about this meme and I had to share it. I have been feeling this way for years. One of the biggest complaints about the state of our town is traffic and
urban design thoughts through the filter of
living in a small town
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