meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Bay Curious

Could Creating One Bay Area City Solve the Housing Crisis?

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9999 Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2018

⏱️ 10 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If all the nine Bay Area counties merged, would that result in a more cohesive approach to the regional housing crisis? Reported by Jessica Placzek. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Jessica Placzek, Paul Lancour, Ryan Levi and Suzie Racho. Additional support from Julia McEvoy, Ethan Lindsey, Erika Kelly, Julie Caine, David Weir, Amanda Font, Carly Severn and Katie McMurran. Holly Kernan is Vice President for News. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller. Ask us a question or sign up for our newsletter at BayCurious.org. Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

From K-Q-QED.

0:03.0

You're listening to Bay Curious.

0:05.0

I'm Olivia Allen Price.

0:06.0

And I'm Jessica Plachik.

0:08.0

And we're in downtown Redwood City, just a couple blocks from where the Cal train drops off

0:12.0

and Samtrans buses and there's lots of

0:14.8

restaurants and bars and just activity happening all around. Seems like a

0:19.2

pretty nice place to put some housing. Clearly there's demand. Kitty Corner from us, one bedrooms

0:24.8

are renting for over three grand. And where we're standing, Habitat for Humanity

0:29.2

had huge affordable housing plans.

0:31.3

Originally it was zoned for a 46 unit and nine stories.

0:36.3

This is Marine Sedon from Habitat for Humanity.

0:39.3

She says building affordable housing here has been a challenge. To an approval from the city she

0:44.0

had to shrink her project to half its original size.

0:47.0

We got down to five stories on top of a podium on a parking garage with 20 units.

0:54.0

And a neighbor was able to halt the project for more than a year.

0:57.0

So here we are three years later and the project has yet to be built. A lot of people in the Bay Area, particularly

1:09.8

those that have stable housing are very comfortable.

1:13.3

They like what they have.

1:14.9

When they see something new, they see only the downsides of the new.

1:19.0

This is Agan Turplin, the Regional Planning Director at Spur, a Bay Area Civic Organization.

1:25.0

We in California have turned over the idea of how much housing effectively to allow to the smallest

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.