The Santa Clara County has a proposition to increase the sales tax by a half cent. Measure B, which will be voted on this November, would raise $6 billion to fund transit and road improvements (news link here). The County’s Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) has an extensive amount of data publicly available. The chart below highlights all of the transit stops in the county and identifies the sidewalk width of each of them. Those that are highlighted in red have sidewalks that are four-feet or less in width. When cities and agencies build more transit, it is imperative that they consider the built environment around this transit. Numerous studies have shown (Cervero’s 3Ds, for example) that the land use design around transit is almost as important as the offering of bus and rail itself. If Measure B passes, it would behoove the County to invest in the pedestrian amenities of their transit system.
Month: October 2016
Business Licenses in the City of Berkeley, CA
The City of Berkeley has an inventory of nearly 12,000 business licenses. As the City contemplates how it would like to expand, it must have a fundamental understanding of the current commercial demographics and location patterns. Forty-one percent of the 11,481 reporting business are female-owned and 28% of the 11,377 reporting business are minority-owned. The first two digits of NAICS codes report on the broadest category of industry. The top five codes are:
53 (Real Estate and Rental and Leasing)
54 (Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services)
62 (Health Care and Social Assistance)
81 (Other Services-except Public Administration)
72 (Accommodation and Food Services)
In recent years, the City has considered developing the waterfront area (specifically near Aquatic Park) and developing the R&D and biotech industries. It is interesting to see that a number of the 54 / Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services buildings are located in North Berkeley. The food industries are primarily located along main streets and clusters by campus.
The data was provided by: https://data.cityofberkeley.info/Business/Business-Licenses/rwnf-bu3w/data