"Walking Shed"

This cool coffee shop walking shed map from MIT (which you should check out) was the first place I saw the term "Walking shed" used, though I've certainly rambled on about Walkability, here , here, and here.

Apparently Walking Shed is a thing already, also referred to as "ped shed" which makes sense, because duh, it just seems so obviously something we operate within. Though car dominated lifestyles have held sway during the past century, there is clearly a shift going on.

SFPUD

Until fairly recently in human history the draw for settlement orientation has been water, but now priorities are transportation, coffee, schools, restaurants, yoga studios... Where a property is within a walking shed has a huge effect on it's real estate value these days, with jobs,transportation portals, (including especially tech bus stops) at the top of the list right now.

Neighborland

and when you look objectively at how long it will take to walk vs. drive plus park...

Mission Creek

I'll be holding open a junior 1 bedroom condo at 888 7th Street on Sunday, 2-4. Since a segment of the Mission Creek Greenway and Bikeway is located on the site, and just for the sake of watershed awareness, I took a look at site on the super cool watershed finder put together by the Oakland Museum. 

Oakland Museum

DeeDee posted this about the new park, under some of which the creek still flows. Here is the big picture to come, and if the freeway actually comes down, wow! The unit I'll be holding open faces the big curve with the mural on the Cal Train tracks. You've gotta like trains, and I do. It's a cool curvaceous industrial view, sparkly at night with the Bay Bridge view. Come by and see me Sunday, and then take a walk in the park.

True Mosaics

Postscript: In chatting with my sister, who works at Adobe, whose SF headquarters is right next door, we got curious about the Baker and Hamilton building.  She came up with this this link, which has lots of fun links, explaining, for example, why the train track curve is there.

Walk Appeal

This terrific blog post from Better Cities and Towns, illustrates so well the truth that distance is less important than high levels of "walk appeal", such as we have in so many San Francisco and Marin neighborhoods. Streetsblog also addresses this. We know this intuitively, and walk appeal is fueling higher real estate values in walkable neighborhoods. People who live in places they are drawn to walk are generally healthier.  If you are new to San Francisco, or even if you're not, check out City Guides, they do free and awesome walking tours.

CityGuides

We will walk for miles if the experience is interesting, dynamic, and human scaled.  Also, we will walk for miles on lovely trails, which SF and Marin have in abundance. OK, time to get away from the computer and go for a walk!

Tom Killion

"New Urbanism" Awesomeness in the City

CurbedSF

So much of what makes San Francisco (and Marin) wonderful can be filed under "New Urbanism,"  which is quite often the resurrection of old urbanism, before cars took over the universe. Now of course, as a realtor, I have and use a car, but I'm also a pedestrian and cyclist and plant lover, and a big fan of making cities more livable. Cities around the world are revitalizing using these principles, and San Francisco is definitely on the vanguard.

Cycle Chic

Today's San Francisco examples: here and here. Copenhagen has been at this for decades.  Marin, while not quite urban, does have concentrated town centers, often surrounded by protected wildlands, more on Marin in another post.

StreetsBlog

Why It's Chilly in San Francisco

KQED News

Driving back from Tahoe on Sunday, I looked longingly at the cloud wall over our fair city, so happy to be heading into the cool fog. Once here though, I felt like in the Wizard of Oz, only in reverse, from color to black and white. Unloading the car in the freezing wind in my summer clothes I felt more compassion for the underdressed tourists I passed on the way off the bridge.Oh boy, time to layer up and find some socks and some hot tea.

SFGate

Though I have lived with the fog phenomenon all my life, it never fails to shock me how quickly and dramatically the temperature can change. Thank heaven I had a t-shirt with me today, when my turtleneck sweater went from cozy to suffocating in about 5 minutes. KQED recently summed up the reasons for this, rather succinctly, but no matter how much I understand it, nor how familiar it becomes, it's still pretty nuts. Still, I'll take it over the heat elsewhere. and now, for the next twenty minutes at least, it's clear. and cool. Blessed be the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area.

Build It Green - Community Design

OK, our final component of a green home, Community Design, and then we can get back to microclimate and trees.  While improving the efficiency and health of a tract home in a large suburban sprawl development is a good thing, even better is good community design in the first place, or adaptation of less efficient community structure to concentrate services, improve pedestrian access and expand open space.

SFStreetsBlog

"Livable communities enhance the quality of life while reducing impact on the environment. Pedestrian and bicycle friendly neighborhoods provide opportunities for exercising and meeting neighbors.  High density areas where work, shopping and school are all close by allow for less time driving and fewer greenhouse gas emissions from cars." The "new urbanism" everyone's transforming old cities with these days is our 5th green home component. There are multiple benefits to human and environmental health, not to mention enhanced real estate values.

SafeRoutesToSchools

 One of the major attractions of Marin and San Francisco is the abundance of open space adjacent to wonderful walkable communities. While a Google search will turn up conflicting rankings of healthiest cities, our fair metropolis is often touted as the "most walkable".  Preservation efforts, both of wildlands and historic character, by many valiant individuals over the years, have enhanced the quality of life here immeasurably. Worthy organizations such as SPUR, the Marin and San Francisco Bicycle Coalitions, Safe Routes to Schools and many others, continue to work to improve our communities usability and quality of life.

Livablecities.org