Welcome, everyone!

[Taller, Better]

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!!

[arturo]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

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.

[Chadoh25]

Great news! I LOVE SF!

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

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!!

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.

Originally Posted by arturo

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.

[Taller, Better]

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!

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

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:

Originally Posted by krudmonk

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.

[ElDudarinodotcom]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

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

[Animo]

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.

[Taller, Better]

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!

[arturo]

Originally Posted by Animo

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.

Originally Posted by Taller, Better

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!

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

[Animo]

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.

[Animo]

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

[vadin]

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.

[Animo]

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.

Originally Posted by Animo

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

Originally Posted by vadin

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.

[arturo]

Originally Posted by Animo

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

[Animo]

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.

Originally Posted by arturo

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]

Originally Posted by Animo

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.)

[Animo]

One member of the San José thread even suggested it:

Originally Posted by BenjaminGutierrez

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.

[ddxv]

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

[Bond James Bond]

Originally Posted by Animo

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!