SUMMARY FOR HEALTHY COMMUNITIES
FORUM–MAKING THE CONNECTION: LIVABLE
DOWNTOWNS AND LOCAL JOBS
With ST Mayer –San Mateo County Health Systems, Egon Terplan–SPUR,
William Nack –San Mateo County Building Trades Council,
and Ariane Hogan–Genentech
ST Mayer Introduction

About 47% of children are obese in South San Francisco. This is considered the largest number out of all the
cities that make up the Counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara
o Obesity is tied to a lifetime of problems that have no cures:
 Heart Disease
 Gall Bladder Disease
 Type II Diabetes
o Immobility is the major cause to
these health problems

Getting out of the car and replacing it
with doing what we can do every day
without thinking is the best solution, such
as walking or biking to work or for
grocery shopping is enough to stay
healthy for a lifetime.

Density is extremely important; it must
be easier for people to get around
between their homes, jobs, and amenities
(should be attractive as well). Further,
people need to be able to afford their
homes in order to live near work. Since South
San Francisco has a wide variety of income
levels, the jobs are diverse as well. This gives
South San Francisco unique character where
jobs, housing, and transit are all interrelated.

In order from left to right: ST Mayer, Egon Terplan,
William Nack, and Ariane Hogan
Photo Credits: Megan Fluke Medeiros
If South San Francisco or any other city considers these recommendations, safety must equally be a topic of
concern.
o Safety needs to be considered for everyday things:
 Width of sidewalks
 Street lighting
 Bicycle lanes
Panel Discussion: 1st QuestionWhat are your thoughts about this concept of Healthy Communities? Do you think it is possible for a city like SSF
to have a resilient local economy, healthy people, fair wages, housing for all workers, and a thriving natural
environment?
Ariane Hogan’s Response:

Ariane is a South San Francisco (SSF) native (born and raised), but now lives in Berkeley.
o Quality of life in SSF is completely different than Berkeley
 In SSF, the closest grocery store to her home was Safeway and she lived on a hill. It took
about three minutes to walk to Safeway, but the way back was dreadful. Therefore, using
the car was efficient and practical –not much time spent without much effort.


When Ms. Hogan attended San Francisco State University, it took her three buses to get
there –the 390, 120, and the 122.

However, in Berkeley
it is extremely easy to
walk around, she’s
able to get groceries,
go to restaurants, find
entertainment, and
access transit with
ease. She would like to
have this in SSF –
especially with local
businesses.
The Genentech Perspective
o Genentech sits east of
Highway 101. This creates a
major disparity for employees
since that general location is
deprived of restaurants, shops,
plazas or entertainment.
Ariane Hogan (orange jacket) responding to ST Mayer’s
(far right) first question
Photo Credits: Megan Fluke Medeiros
o Additionally, no bicycle infrastructure in the “East Side” exists, therefore, this makes it very
difficult and dangerous for employees to bicycle their way around the city.
o Concepts of effective infrastructure that is walkable and bikable to home, entertainment, shops,
and restaurants are all what makes a healthy community.
William Nack’s Response

A Healthy Community is a community offers housing, transportation, jobs and recreational options that
meet the needs of workers and their families.

Housing needs to be affordable for all income levels and there should be a wide range of options –
rental, ownership, single-family, and multi-family units.
o The rebound of the housing market (from the 2008 Great Recession) is good for real-estate, but
not for those who cannot afford houses.

South San Francisco has one of the least amount of affordable homes. This resonates with the entire
Penninsula, where the median home price in San Mateo County rose to $618,000 in November 2012, up
13.9 percent from $542,500 a year earlier. Here in South City, the median home price in March 2013
was $520,000 up by 30% from $400,000 in March 2012.
o Expensive housing forces people to live far away from their jobs.
o People need to be able to work and live close to each other so that they can spend more time
with their families and participate in civic life. Further, the wages of their jobs should be fair so
they can afford their homes and meet everyday needs such as food and recreation.

There needs to be a better connection to Caltrain and Bart, especially for the west area of SSF, the 101
blocks it. The east side benefits from this connection, but it should be like this throughout SSF.

There should be a mix of both
small and big businesses, but not
big box stores which squeeze out a
real grocery store or put the local
drugstore and hardware stores out
of business. All of these businesses
should have fair wages and benefits
and give workers a voice on the job.

Downtown and General Plans lay
out a vision for development—
development of streets and
sidewalks, parking garages and new
buildings for commercial and
housing uses. We want to make
sure that every project creates good
jobs that will pour money back into
the local economy as workers spend
their wages where they live and work.

William Nack (middle) responding to ST Mayer’s first
question
Photo Credits: Megan Fluke Medeiros
Every construction worker generates
five additional jobs. Every dollar spent for construction enhances the local economy overall.
o A “multiplier effect” occurs from construction jobs. For example, The Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) estimates jobs supported by federal highway investments of $1 billion
expenditure on highway construction in 2007 supported a total of 30,000 jobs. There were
10,300 construction-oriented jobs (i.e., jobs at construction firms working on the projects and at
firms providing direct inputs to the projects, such as guard rails); 4,675 jobs in supporting
industries (i.e., jobs at companies providing inputs to the firms directly supplying materials and
equipment used in highway construction, such as sheet metal producers who supply guard rail
manufacturers); and 15,094 induced jobs (i.e., jobs dependent on consumer expenditures from
the wages of workers in “construction-oriented” and “industry-supporting” jobs).
o Thus, there is a connection to the local economy when construction directly utilizes hardware
supply stores and manufacturers and future developments such as restaurants, retail, and offices.
Egon Terplan’s Response:

A healthy community is when the interest of one group is not pushed at the expense of others. An
example of this is when some business owners prefer to build surface-space parking lots for their
customers’ cars over public areas such as a plaza. Another example is car drivers over everyone else
(pedestrians, bikers, skaters) –what we need is “Complete Streets.”

Downtowns are where cities first began, where civic engagement and public art was abundant. It created
the “bones” of the city along with it being walkable. It is where everything happens: entertainment,
shopping, and dialogue.

The San Francisco Bay Area Region as a whole is not building enough housing, which is why prices are
increasing and does not meet the needs of the workforce.
o There needs to be more tax
credits and subsidies that go
towards housing. They must:
 Incorporate housing
for all income levels
 Include more multifamily units
 Integrate more walk
traffic (shopping
which increases
business, more jobs,
and overall prosperity
in the local
economy).
Panel Discussion: 2nd Question:
Just as many cities in our region, South San
Francisco has a lot of strengths with many jobs and
Egon Terplan (left) responding to ST Mayer’s first
good bones for a vibrant downtown. As SSF grows
question
Photo Credits: Megan Fluke Medeiros
over the next 30 years, what are the policies that
can be put in place today to ensure SSF’s downtown
will meet the needs of its workforce, people of all ages including seniors and young adults, and today’s SSF
residents?
William Nack’s Response

Fair wages and pensions need to be considered on a regional scale in order to keep people in cities. This
would be great for local economies since cities would not be competing for lowest paying jobs.

There should be policies business sourcing so that people and materials used in the construction
developments come from the local area and the dollars spent on projects get reinvested into the local
economy.

We need policies that encourage construction companies to hire local apprentices. The policies need to
specify that the company needs a certain percentage of apprentices on the job and they need to be
enrolled in a State certified apprenticeship program. These apprenticeship programs can provide the
youth with hands-on training, the acquisition of a skill, and a salary while they are learning that can go
into creating “career ladders” for mixed-use and high density housing that pay fair wages and pensions
o While these wage and training policies are the law for projects that are built with our federal tax
dollars, we need to make sure that they are written into the plan so that they will also be the
standard for privately developed multi-unit housing, commercial and real estate projects.

There should be policies in the plan that encourage the use of a local workforce and local

When we talk about new commercial and retail projects, we need policies to make sure that new
businesses don’t destroy the character of our historic downtowns by squeezing out existing small
businesses. There should be a proposal made for the right to reject a big-box company.
o We all know that big box stores kill local businesses. So we want policies in place that either
prohibit retail operations over a certain size, or we want permitting policies that will give the
local approving authorities the
right to reject a retail store
proposal that doesn’t ensure
that the workers have decent
wages and benefits by giving
them a right to a “voice at
work”—the right to organize
into a union if the majority of
workers want one.

We want to enhance the climate for
our existing bio-tech companies and
create an attractive home for new
companies in this sector. So our plans
should encourage companies, workers,
unions and the public workforce
development partners to create and
View of the audience attentively listening to William Nack’s
participate in job training programs
response to ST Mayer’s second question.
that will create inter-firm and crossfirm career ladders for existing
employees and new entry-level positions for local residents.
o We can leverage our public programs like the federally funded job training programs to make
sure that we have the best trained workforce in the country. This happens by policies that
encourage collaboration and coordination between businesses, training agencies like the County
Workforce Investment Board, community colleges, non-profit training centers and unions.
Egon Terplan’s Response

When rent increases, people move out. There are four ways to deal with this, they are:
1) Rent control, which are laws that control the price on the renting of residential housing. The
loophole of this policy is it does nothing about the need for more affordable housing. However,
if affordable housing is put into place, a rent control policy would be ideal.
2) Fees on market rate housing that go towards an affordable housing “pot.” This policy would
work well with rent control since it would supply more affordable housing and keep prices low.
3) Allow more incentives for multi-family dwelling units and attachments of extra stories on
existing buildings. It does not have to be eight stories, but three or four.
4) Zoning ordinances must be flexible to allow any or a mixture) of these policies to go through.
Ariane Hogan’s Response

Businesses need to have the ability (through zoning codes) to have an affordable housing stock(s) near
their facility(ies) so they can get to work on time. Incentives for carpooling, low-cost multi-transit
passes, and Transportation Demand Measures/Management (TDMs) in general need to be integrated
into the policy. Tenants/workers also need to have access to entertainment, shopping, and restaurants as
a revitalization effort for downtown.

There is a movement of artists and small businesses who want to move to tech industrial facilities –this
is worth researching.

The City of South San Francisco (SSF) needs to identify their strengths and weaknesses and turn their
negatives to positives. SFF needs to be themselves, they need an identity, and not be anyone else.