Rail~Volution 2008 - San Francisco, CA
Just a quick heads-up about an upcoming conference here in San Francisco which should help keep the Livable Streets fires burning - Rail~Volution 2008. It’ll cost you $475 to get in (unless you can snag a scholarship), and it runs from Sunday, October 26 through Thursday, October 30.
If you care about rail, land use, complete/livable streets, affordable housing/gentrification, financing, green growth, rails-to-trails, you name it - this might be a conference you could be interested in.
Join us this October in San Francisco as we continue to explore what’s possible in shaping the landscape with public transportation and other progressive livability strategies. The Bay Area is one of the most culturally diverse and sustainable areas in the world. This region has identified creative solutions facing all of us – climate change and dwindling resources, sustaining a healthy economy, addressing the needs of diverse cultures, and proactively financing infrastructure that supports livable communities.
Community activists, non-profit organizations, transit leaders, developers and city planners throughout the Bay Area have joined forces to develop creative, adaptable solutions for addressing the transportation and global warming crisis. The creative people in the Bay Area – from the Silicon Valley up through the San Francisco peninsula and Oakland in the East Bay to the vineyards in the North Bay – all have united to shape a meaningful future for our communities. Come to San Francisco this fall to share your experiences, see first hand how a diverse region is collaborating to provide a green and livable future, and take home some innovative new strategies for your community.
Who’s gonna be there? Some of the real doers in the urban design scene:
- Sam Adams, City of Portland, Portland, OR
- Michael Allegra, Utah Transit Authority, Salt Lake City, UT
- GB Arrington, PB PlaceMaking, Portland, OR
- Dena Belzer, Strategic Economics, Berkeley, CA
- Scott Bernstein, Center for Neighborhood Technology, Chicago, IL
- Jeffrey Boothe, Holland & Knight LLP, Washington DC
- Amanda Brown-Stevens, Greenbelt Alliance, San Francisco, CA
- Ann Cheng, Transportation and Land Use Coalition, Oakland, CA
- James Corless, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Oakland, CA
- Harold Dawson, The Dawson Company, Atlanta, GA
- Jessica Diaz, Accountable Development Coalition of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA
- Joni Earl, Sound Transit, Seattle, WA
- Julie Gertler, Consensus Planning Group, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
- Fred Hansen, TriMet, Portland, OR
- Heather Hood, San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, CA
- Diana Mendes, DMJM+Harris, Washington, DC
- Cynthia Nikitin, Project for Public Spaces, New York, NY
- Theresa O’Donnell, City of Dallas, Dallas, TX
- James Richards, Townscape Inc., Dallas, TX
- Martin Robins, Voorhees Transportation Center, Westfield, NJ
- Val Menotti, BART, Oakland, CA
- Shelley Poticha, Reconnecting America, Berkeley, CA
- Bob Ruzzo, MassHousing, Boston, MA
- Bruce Riordan, Bay Area Climate Solutions, Berkeley, CA
- Ernest Tollerson, New York MTA, New York, NY
- Jeff Tumlin, Nelson\Nygaard, San Francisco, CA
- Dara Zycherman, U.S. Green Building Council, Washington, DC
Yes - you read that right - Commissioner Sam Adams, certified bike nut and future mayor of bike-crazy Portland - will be in the house.
I wonder what it’s like to be from Portland and walk into one of these big meetings? Do people just quiet down and stare and point and whisper, ‘Look! There’s the Portland contingent.’? 
Urban planners - the new royalty. Urban planners from Portland - the next heads of state.
We now know that biking can help make someone a mayor in Portland - can we do the same in San Francisco? Maybe we can start with some Supervisors and a State Senator.
At least a few of the workshops and events look particularly interesting for bikey people. Here is one workshop (PDF):
The Last Green Mile: Bike-rentals, Car-sharing and other sustainable ways to get to transit or to just get around (10/29/2008 1:00:00 PM)
Bike rental programs are all the rage in Paris and Barcelona and now gaining a toe-hold in the US. Car-sharing companies are growing and providing the link from transit to home and work. This session will review these and other innovative, sustainable strategies for traveling to transit or just traveling without a car.
For the low-low price of $35 each, you’ll be able to participate in any number of charettes, seminars, and mobile tours - some of which will be conducted by bike.
Conferences for the next two years will be held in Boston, Massachusettes, and Portland, Oregon - so if you’re so inclined (and have the resources), let’s take advantage of this opporunity to collaborate and generate more excitement for livable streets and more and better Bay Area transit.
…I was kidding about the ‘next heads of state’ bit, but the one-time Mayor of Seoul tore down a highway and introduced BRT there, and is now president of Korea (more).
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