Please join us in this exciting new forum dedicated to the San Francisco Bay region! I think it is long overdue, and look forward to seeing some news reaching the rest of us on developments there! :cheers:

Yipee! Thanks Jan, Taller, Better & Bond James Bond for making it happen! :)

Animo has kindly offered to help us by moderating the new San Francisco sub forum! The forum has come about from his help and suggestions, and I have confidence that this is going to be an exciting new forum for Bay Area members. Feel free to contact Animo (or myself if you like) at any time with ideas and suggestions. :cheers:

We all look forward to seeing some exciting news from this region! :)

Will the old development news thread move here or do we have to make new threads?

I am going to clean it up since right now the current topics are a mess and too hard to maintain updates since all projects are grouped together in a single thread. Don't worry since it will be all sorted out once Taller, Better and I will be able to fix some issues regarding the new section. :)

Will the old development news thread move here or do we have to make new threads?

Congrats San Francisco!

Always found it strange that there wasn't a San Francisco sub section. This is nice to have.

:banana: :banana:

Yay!

Welcome and congrats Animo! I know your passion for SF will make this forum shine!!

:rock:

Very Cool

This is a joke, right? Why does this "San Francisco" subforum even exist? None of the development threads contained within were that busy to begin with. We'd be better off with a California subforum.

I don't live in San Francisco. Retitle it "Bay Area."

Hmmm, I like the new location of this thread but does the forum have to be titled "San Francisco"?? Will it be changed to "SF Bay Area" with specific threads for SF, SJ and OAK?



This is a joke, right? Why does this "San Francisco" subforum even exist? None of the development threads contained within were that busy to begin with. We'd be better off with a California subforum.

Hi there!

Common guys its only been a day or two and we are still creating the proper sections. I am working with Taller, Better on improving this sub-forum and both of us are new to this so it will take some experimentation and lots of time to do it. :)

Some updates:

Yesterday, I just finished segregating and organizing all thread topics from the West Coast section for transfer to this section (i.e. photo threads, developments, categorizing it by SF vs. other Bay Area cities, etc.). Trust me it took a lot of time and I had 6 pages (Microsoft word) of thread links to be move by the Admin.

Changes will be made but it won't happen overnight. I would appreciate a little patience as this is kinda new to me too.

Thank you and have a good day. :)

I have addressed your concern in the San José thread. :)

I don't live in San Francisco. Retitle it "Bay Area."

I don't live in San Francisco. Retitle it "Bay Area."

Agree, in fairness to Oakland, San Jose, the suburbs, etc.

Its offcial, San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland CSA is now the metropolitan designation for the region, in that order, reflecting the population centers.

As such, the Bay Area is the best, most neutral sounding title.


Otherwise, good work!

^^ I just moved my answer to this topic from the San José thread and I have answered it already. A little patience, please. Thanks. :)

How about migrating or duplicating the San Francisco photo thread in Cityscape/Skyline subform from Photos here in this one?

I will say if it wasn't for San Francisco there wouldn't be a lot of other people living in the Bay Area. As such, this is a unique area in that the most populous city is no where near the most famous, visited or thought of city in this region. But finally the nation's 6th largest area of people in an area of land has its own thread.

Maybe we can start a new one with photos taken from other sources besides from travel photos by SSC members. Also, a sticked thread of this one already exists here now too. Check it out! :wink2:

How about migrating or duplicating the San Francisco photo thread in Cityscape/Skyline subform from Photos here in this one?

Guys, please have a little patience with what Animo is doing here. If you look at the titles of the city subforums here, they are named after the main city of the metropolitan region:
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, etc.... This makes for an instant visibility for SSC viewers around the world. We know that all of those cities are made up of metropolitan regions all around them; New York alone has vast urban areas around it. In my city, Toronto, one of our suburbs called Mississauga is the fifth largest city in Canada, yet the title of the urban sub-forum is Toronto, because that is the urban city name that is most well known for the region.
This is a chance to show off your Bay area development and really make this sub forum shine, so please don't work against it simply because the title is not all-inclusive. If everyone in every city behaved that way, none of our SSC city sub-forums would work. So, please get behind Animo and work for the good of the new subforum. Thanks, all, and a big thanks to Animo for his hard work in getting this off the ground!! :cheers:

Guys, please have a little patience with what Animo is doing here. If you look at the titles of the city subforums here, they are named after the main city of the metropolitan region:
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, etc.... This makes for an instant visibility for SSC viewers around the world.

Thanks Animo!

But Taller, Better I have to respectfully disagree. The SF Bay is more analogous to the DC/Baltimore and Tampa/St Petersburg areas in that there is more than one major metro. And surprise! Both of those aforementioned areas have a thread heading that reflects more than one major metro.

Great news! I LOVE SF!

Guys, please have a little patience with what Animo is doing here. If you look at the titles of the city subforums here, they are named after the main city of the metropolitan region:
New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, etc.... This makes for an instant visibility for SSC viewers around the world. We know that all of those cities are made up of metropolitan regions all around them; New York alone has vast urban areas around it. In my city, Toronto, one of our suburbs called Mississauga is the fifth largest city in Canada, yet the title of the urban sub-forum is Toronto, because that is the urban city name that is most well known for the region.
This is a chance to show off your Bay area development and really make this sub forum shine, so please don't work against it simply because the title is not all-inclusive. If everyone in every city behaved that way, none of our SSC city sub-forums would work. So, please get behind Animo and work for the good of the new subforum. Thanks, all, and a big thanks to Animo for his hard work in getting this off the ground!! :cheers:
With all due respect to Animo and to San Francisco...

Mississauga is a horrible analogy. The fact that you don't even see SJ or Oakland (not sure how Santa Rosa feels about this) as at least as distinct as Hamilton really says something about your knowledge of our region. Frankly, I don't see this as any sort of opportunity to show off my city to a bunch of clueless rubes around the globe who only know the "San Francisco" brand. It's more of a misguided effort to cement the misconception that this is all San Francisco. I find it absurd that you see it necessary to pander on a forum such as this, where people actually have a sense of geography beyond that of the laymen.
Thanks Animo!

But Taller, Better I have to respectfully disagree. The SF Bay is more analogous to the DC/Baltimore and Tampa/St Petersburg areas in that there is more than one major metro. And surprise! Both of those aforementioned areas have a thread heading that reflects more than one major metro.
Indeed, it is such a simple solution and one that has already exists in the cases you cite, so I don't see why this is really such a big deal to fix.

Krudmonk, you seem to have misunderstood my analogy. The Greater Toronto Area is composed of many regions, including such places as Hamilton, Scarborough, Missisauga, etc... I have not forgotten about Hamilton, or any of the others, nor of their distinctive characters (and not only Hamilton has distinct characteristics). My point was the anchor city is Toronto, and that is why the subforum is called "Toronto". What city has more important suburbs than New York City? Yet, being the anchor city that is the basic name the forum is given. It is a tad insulting to refer to the entire SSC membership as "clueless rubes" simply because they know of the name San Francisco moreso than other cities in the region. I am sure those "clueless rubes" know more about their own regions than you do, too. This is an international website, not strictly a local one.

Animo is the moderator here now, and I am sure he will work with all the members to try and make everyone feel comfortable about the new subforum. I know everyone will want to have a say in the direction it goes, and we can iron out details as we go along. I do hope that no one has made up their mind to endlessly fight against the idea of a sub-forum, however, as petty regionalism can sink a forum faster than anything. If changes have to be made, we can work on them, but please give the fledgling forum a chance to sprout!
Thank you, and let's enjoy getting this forum on its feet!

It is a tad insulting to refer to the entire SSC membership as "clueless rubes" simply because they know of the name San Francisco moreso than other cities in the region. I am sure those "clueless rubes" know more about their own regions than you do, too. This is an international website, not strictly a local one.
Yeah, which is why I said this:
I find it absurd that you see it necessary to pander on a forum such as this, where people actually have a sense of geography beyond that of the laymen.

Indeed, it is such a simple solution and one that has already exists in the cases you cite, so I don't see why this is really such a big deal to fix.

I agree. Sub forum title should be something like SF Bay Area. Santa Rosa and San Jose are nearly 2 hours drive apart

I know everyone is anxious for representation so to those who are complaining right now will have to wait for my detailed PM later in the afternoon. I'll give you guys the details from there and then I'll post a detailed plan here so that we can all get into the program: which is making this forum active and going!

Thanks.

Naturally, we welcome constructive suggestions and criticisms, as any new forum has to start somewhere, and then evolve. For those of you who do not know why I am participating, I'm one of the SSC administrators, and my primary responsibility is the North American forums. Please feel free to pm myself, or animo at any time if you have suggestions, or concerns, and let's look forward to seeing Animo's ideas for this new forum! If we need to make changes, we'll make them. Nothing is set in stone... we are just planting the seeds of a new sub forum! :cheers:

I know everyone is anxious for representation so to those who are complaining right now will have to wait for my detailed PM later in the afternoon. I'll give you guys the details from there and then I'll post a detailed plan here so that we can all get into the program: which is making this forum active and going!

Thanks.

Naturally, we welcome constructive suggestions and criticisms, as any new forum has to start somewhere, and then evolve. For those of you who do not know why I am participating, I'm one of the SSC administrators, and my primary responsibility is the North American forums. Please feel free to pm myself, or animo at any time if you have suggestions, or concerns, and let's look forward to seeing Animo's ideas for this new forum! If we need to make changes, we'll make them. Nothing is set in stone... we are just planting the seeds of a new sub forum! :cheers:

Thanks guys. I know this is still a work in progress.

San Francisco Bay Area

Urban Issues


San Francisco Projects on the Rise

Bay Area Projects on the Rise

Transportation and Infrastructure


MEMO: These would be the following subsections within the San Francisco forum and its purposes.

San Francisco Projects on the Rise

- Proposals and U/C's in San Francisco
- SF Projects in all different phases, proposals, in-progress, completed.

Bay Area Projects on the Rise

- Proposals and U/Cs all around SF Bay Area
- All urban issues outside the SF city limits in all different phases, proposals, in-progress, completed.

The Economy, Transportaton and Infrastructure

- Urban Facilities (highways, bridges, tunnels, mass transit, aviation, maritime, etc.)
- Current news and events with regards to the economy, industry and urban development issues throughout the Bay Area

Main Forum

MEMO: The main forum will serve as our "Skybar" since I believe we all need to get along and start without the regionalism that is very prevalent in many of us. Plus, we need to attract more people and fellow SSC members to this section.

- Cityscapes/Photography threads
- Tourism Q&A's
- Greeting's
- Rules and Regulations
- Out of topic threads: sports, weather, skybar type questions, etc.

Firstly, I would like to thank everyone for being a member in this forum and participating in our section. It is an honour for myself to represent the SF Bay Area since this is where I grew up and I keep on calling as "home".

Secondly, I would like to ask everyone to participate in creating and making this forum alive and interesting since it's not just the job of the Administrators and the Moderators. Also, I know that everyone will like to be represented in here and that is all fine; but you also have to remember that its only been 3 days that this section was created. Plans are being made and ideas are all welcome! It would be great if people create threads that pertains to the proper proposed sections.

Thirdly, we all have individual lives and responsibilities outside this forum and I know that changes can be slow but I promise that its going to happen. We are still in the process of transferring and merging threads from the West Coast section to this forum and this can only be done by the Administrator. We have to give credit for Taller, Better since his going to do it. Also, its not an easy job and it takes up his personal time and let's wait for a couple of days or weeks until it gets done.

Finally, I still plead patience, patience, and more patience to everyone since threads such as "Development News" will be scrap and purge to oblivion to give way to a better format. Our forum is still a work in progress and it will surely be an interesting one when we are done will all the changes.

Thank you,

Animo
San Francisco Moderator

I agree with everyone that this subforum should be called Bay Area. All of the cities in the Bay Area comprise 4000 square miles. Of that, the city of San Francisco takes up less than 50 square miles, or less than 1% of the Bay Area. The total population of the Bay Area is 7.1 million. Of that, San Francisco has 800,000 residents, about 11% of the population. The vast majority of the people taking part in this subforum do not live in San Francisco.

Aside from that, why was "Santa Clara County" added to the title of the San Jose development thread? There was already a "Silicon Valley Development News" thread, was being used for the Santa Clara County topics. Now, which thread is supposed to be used for what?

Silicon Valley = Santa Clara Valley = Santa Clara County.... FYI.

In lieu of the above, I just explained all my intentions about the original threads. They will be deleted or merge and I renamed those for reference purposes only, since the contents of those threads includes some topics from the West Coast section that has no purpose or already dead.

The name should include San Francisco or be called "San Francisco Bay Area" and not just the "Bay Area" since really this is a regional issue. The main purpose of this forum is to attract more users from SF Bay and not just people from San José.

"Development News" will be scrap and purge to oblivion to give way to a better format.

I agree with everyone that this subforum should be called Bay Area. All of the cities in the Bay Area comprise 4000 square miles. Of that, the city of San Francisco takes up less than 50 square miles, or less than 1% of the Bay Area. The total population of the Bay Area is 7.1 million. Of that, San Francisco has 800,000 residents, about 11% of the population. The vast majority of the people taking part in this subforum do not live in San Francisco.

Aside from that, why was "Santa Clara County" added to the title of the San Jose development thread? There was already a "Silicon Valley Development News" thread, was being used for the Santa Clara County topics. Now, which thread is supposed to be used for what?

Silicon Valley = Santa Clara Valley = Santa Clara County.... FYI.

San Francisco Bay Area

Urban Issues


San Francisco Projects on the Rise

Bay Area Projects on the Rise

Transportation and Infrastructure


MEMO: These would be the following subsections within the San Francisco forum and its purposes.

San Francisco Projects on the Rise

- Proposals and U/C's in San Francisco
- SF Projects in all different phases, proposals, in-progress, completed.

Bay Area Projects on the Rise

- Proposals and U/Cs all around SF Bay Area
- All urban issues outside the SF city limits in all different phases, proposals, in-progress, completed.



Am I to understand that there will only be two main threads for construction updates: One for SF and one for everyone else? If so will we have to create a new "San Jose" or "Oakland" thread within the "Bay Area Projects"?

URBAN ISSUES
-->SF Projects
-->Bay Area Projects
---->San Jose Projects
---->Oakland Projects
---->Santa Rosa Projects

If so this is a bad idea and I'll tell you why: I had the West Coast Dev thread as a favorite on my browser so I could easily access the SJ thread. Under this new scenario I will now favorite the Bay Area thread and completely bypass SF rather than clicking on "Bay Area" and "San Jose" to access the thread I want.

It should look like this:

URBAN ISSUES
-->SF Projects
-->San Jose Projects
-->Oakland Projects
-->Santa Rosa Projects
-->Other Bay Area Projects

Arturo, what you are suggesting is no different than the current set-up where everything is lumped into a single topic: One project, one thread. The main purpose is organization and segregation of projects. It is way easier to update, read, and be moderated.


If so this is a bad idea and I'll tell you why: I had the West Coast Dev thread as a favorite on my browser so I could easily access the SJ thread. Under this new scenario I will now favorite the Bay Area thread and completely bypass SF rather than clicking on "Bay Area" and "San Jose" to access the thread I want.

Arturo, what you are suggesting is no different than the current set-up where everything is lumped into a single topic: One project, one thread. The main purpose is organization and segregation of projects. It is way easier to update, read, and be moderated.


What you're doing may be okay for the SF thread since their projects are likely to be more high-profile and thus attract the occasional visitor looking for a specific project.

But...
Speaking for the San Jose thread only, I like that everything construction-related is together. We never have to many projects going on at once and we often ask questions and comment about multiple projects in the same post.


I'd like to hear from the other South Bay people since we collectively represent the most active thread in the SF Bay Area (and maybe the state.)

One member of the San José thread even suggested it:

someone should make forums for the earthquakes stadium, convention center expansion, and the Diridon station... having all this stuff in one forum makes things boring and difficult to find information about projects....

This will make everyone participate in other projects and explore the rest of the Bay Area. :wink2:

I agree that "San Francisco Bay Area" sounds better.

Yipee! Thanks Jan, Taller, Better & Bond James Bond for making it happen! :)
LOL, this has been here 3 days now and I didn't even notice! :lol:

LOL, this has been here 3 days now and I didn't even notice! :lol:

You never came to visit! :tongue2:

LOL, this has been here 3 days now and I didn't even notice! :lol:

The way this has exploded only shows that it is long overdue and should have always been in the first place. As I said in the NASF mods, I always thought it was strange that San Francisco didn't have its own subforum. :lol::cheers:

Ok, folks! San Francisco Bay Area it is! Hopefully this compromise will satisfy most of the members, and we can go on to building a strong sub forum.
Let's all pull together to showcase the region to the world! :)

Thanks for setting this up, folks! I like the idea of an expanded Bay Area sub-forum.

Maybe we can start a new one with photos taken from other sources besides from travel photos by SSC members. Also, a sticked thread of this one already exists here now too. Check it out! :wink2:

yeah, it's just that the pictures in that thread are pretty amazing as well.

OK, folks I will be closing the Development News threads to start anew and this time create threads for bigger projects in your respective places. I will be creating a general development thread for smaller scale developments where you can post the news or anything related to your cities.

Updates

I am going to merge the San Francisco Districts since it will just clutter the forum and will put it all in one News and Development thread. I will be making separate threads for other Bay Area counties so we can post development news from other smaller cities too.

It's all taking shape nicely, Animo! Well done!! :applause:

Your welcome! I am trying my best to bring more traffic here. I will make an Apple thread to attract more visitors. :lol:

It's all taking shape nicely, Animo! Well done!! :applause:

Animo, I appreciate all the hard work that you have put into building and activating this forum.

All that I ask is that you sticky one of the San Jose forums.

Hi there!

The only threads that will be on the top will be photo and tourism threads. Also, please use the new designated thread for San Jose since the reason I locked the old one was because it's being ruined by trolls and recent projects were transferred to the new one. It's way easier to start anew and posting or viewing counts shouldn't be a priority anyway.

Thank you

Animo, I appreciate all the hard work that you have put into building and activating this forum.

All that I ask is that you sticky one of the San Jose forums.

Is the new thread "San José Infrastructure and Urban Planning"? If so you should really change the message that pops up when you roll over the link or create some sort of new thread from scratch.

Also the old thread was amazing for about 5 years and was only ruined by a single troll, Durf2. Banning him from that section of the site would have allowed it to keep going. That thread had almost a quarter million views.

I've also noticed you stickied like 4 SF photo threads. How about including a photo thread that could be inclusive of the entire bay area?

Hi there!

The only threads that will be on the top will be photo and tourism threads. Also, please use the new designated thread for San Jose since the reason I locked the old one was because it's being ruined by trolls and recent projects were transferred to the new one. It's way easier to start anew and posting or viewing counts shouldn't be a priority anyway.

Thank you

Also, if you look at the Baltimore/Washington DC forum, the Los Angeles forum, the Seattle forum, and the LA forum, they all have places to sticky development new for major cities and none have 4 separate sticky threads for photos.

Did you checked the thread called San Francisco Bay Area? It has pictures from Oakland, Alameda, San Jose and Marin county. Also, this is the SF Bay Area forum and we don't have to follow other forum norms. You are always welcome to post more photos there and the vintage thread since those are not exclusive to San Francisco.

To have photos or tourism topics only to be stickied would let other members to actually participate in other threads. Thus, making our forum the priority and not just our individual cities. One of our purposes here is to establish an active Bay Area forum.

P.S.

Having the most post or viewing counts does not matter. It's actually the content that matters the most and having to start over would be ideal for cleaning up.



I've also noticed you stickied like 4 SF photo threads. How about including a photo thread that could be inclusive of the entire bay area?

I hope you can see our perspective as well. For 5 years, that was the most active forum for San Jose development anywhere on the internet, and for what it's worth I thought we did have quality content in there. People from the forum even met up for beers in real life. It's a lot of work that you just killed.

I also hope you can also understand the fact that the people of San Jose feel like they are their own city, not a suburb of San Francisco... which really seems like the way you're treating us in these forums. Every other city anywhere close to the size of San Jose has their own sticky thread somewhere in SSC, I can't understand why you can't offer this to us as well. Are any other administrators reading this? San Jose has a million people, is one sticky really too much to ask for?

Did you checked the thread called San Francisco Bay Area? It has pictures from Oakland, Alameda, San Jose and Marin county. Also, this is the SF Bay Area forum and we don't have to follow other forum norms. You are always welcome to post more photos there and the vintage thread since those are not exclusive to San Francisco.

To have photos or tourism topics only to be stickied would let other members to actually participate in other threads. Thus, making our forum the priority and not just our individual cities. One of our purposes here is to establish an active Bay Area forum.

P.S.

Having the most post or viewing counts does not matter. It's actually the content that matters the most and having to start over would be ideal for cleaning up.

Like I have said prior to this its easier to manage and to start anew. If you have not seen the difference with the current organization:

Cities threads: named with "Infrastructure and Urban Planning"

Counties threads: named with "Development News"

I haven't finish making proper and specific threads because I was busy during the weekend. I'll let your thread to be as it is, but I am just telling you that its was easier to update and actually talk issues in those formats.

Santa Rosa, Oakland, San Francisco, and San José will be the dominant cities in this section. Also, no specific city should be given "special" privileges because its simply not fair. I really doubt I killed anything, but just made our lives easier to manage topics.

I hope you can see our perspective as well. For 5 years, that was the most active forum for San Jose development anywhere on the internet, and for what it's worth I thought we did have quality content in there. People from the forum even met up for beers in real life. It's a lot of work that you just killed.

I also hope you can also understand the fact that the people of San Jose feel like they are their own city, not a suburb of San Francisco... which really seems like the way you're treating us in these forums. Every other city anywhere close to the size of San Jose has their own sticky thread somewhere in SSC, I can't understand why you can't offer this to us as well. Are any other administrators reading this? San Jose has a million people, is one sticky really too much to ask for?

Just be patient. This sub forum was only created a few days ago. It does feel a bit chaotic at the moment but let Animo do his/her thing. This is not gonna happen over night.

Also, no specific city should be given "special" privileges because its simply not fair.

I couldn't agree more, which is why I'm providing all this feedback.

I know this forum was just recently created, but why not a California forum instead? California forum for weather, economy, earthquake, politics talk and both a San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles sub-forum that can be entered from the main North America forum.

I know this forum was just recently created, but why not a California forum instead? California forum for weather, economy, earthquake, politics talk and both a San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles sub-forum that can be entered from the main North America forum.

Sounds better than the existing setup.

It's probably because LA has one and that is already an active forum. Plus, we don't have a lot of posters that can contribute updates and projects like most NA sub-forums which are dead. Also, Jan already did thought about having a San Francisco forum and he is the owner so he over rules all of us. :wink2:

I know this forum was just recently created, but why not a California forum instead? California forum for weather, economy, earthquake, politics talk and both a San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles sub-forum that can be entered from the main North America forum.

Congratulations on your own subforum. :P

Animo, where can I find the old San Jose Development News thread? I need some images from there and when I run a search it shows the thread pages as invalid links. Thanks.

Animo, where can I find the old San Jose Development News thread? I need some images from there and when I run a search it shows the thread pages as invalid links. Thanks.

Check your inbox. :)

I always thought there was an SF section but never seemed to find it... long overdue.

Hi, just dropping by to say hello and enjoy the nice threads....thanks.:cheers1:

Hello everyone!

We have our new sections for projects and proposal around the Bay Area. I would like for everyone to participate and put up individual projects in your cities so that it would encompass a larger section and its not just for San Francisco projects.

Thanks,

Animo
Forum moderator

You are doing a great job, Animo! Let's all have some fun with the new subforums! :cheers: