Cece Blase

The SustainLane 2008 US City Rankings of the 50 most-populous cities is the nation's most complete report card on urban sustainability. The study's indicators focus on which city's public transit, renewable energy, local food, and development approaches are most likely to limit the impacts of fossil fuel dependence. SustainLane's rankings also reflect tap water and air quality, walkability, park space and roadway congestion. They also factor in the growth of clean technologies that provide jobs and tax base expansion.

This year San Francisco remained in the #2 spot right behind Portland. SustainLane is especially happy with our Energy and Climate Change Policy, our City Innovation, and our Solid Waste Diversion. We ranked #1 in all three categories. SustainLane is not so happy with our Housing Affordability (we ranked 50th), Natural Disaster Risk (47th), and our Metro Street Congestion (45th).

Other interesting findings in the SustainLane study:

The study's least eco-friendly city is Mesa, Arizona, which has poor air quality, a lousy water supply and little local food and agriculture.

Right behind San Francisco is Seattle, followed by Chicago, then New York City.

Among the ‘gotta give ‘em points for trying' cities are: Columbus, Ohio, which moved from #50 to #30 in the last two years; Atlanta, which went from #38 to #19; and Cleveland, Ohio, which went from #28 to #16. In a reverse trend, Las Vegas dropped from #27 to #47; and Colorado Springs went from #26 to #43.

This Chronicle article reports discounts at The Millennium, Cubix, Radiance and One Rincon, and discusses the general tenor around negotiating good deals for new homes.

The Millenium Tower in San Francisco is very high end, with a brand name known for cutting edge, luxury projects. Besides offering a downtown location, and massive square footage, the project also offers a second building with distinctive architecture that's full of loft style 'shells' ready to be finished out by the new owner. I have an associate who is under contract for one of these units. She looks forward to finishing it out exactlly to her own taste-- an advantage over purchasing a resale where you have to rip the whole thing apart and put it all together again.

The price per square foot at the Millennium ran up to $2,000+ when it opened over a year ago, and the project gained immediate notoriety when one of the top floor penthouses sold as raw space for $11M. But last week they slashed prices by 15% across the board, even to buyers already in contract.

Cubix is at the total opposite end of the spectrum from the Millennium. Tiny units (under 400 sf) designed for first time buyers and pied a terre owners who are inclined to San Francisco edgier South of Market location. No parking. The small square footage is offset by super high ceilings, which create the impression that the units are larger than they really are. Starting prices ran from $279K when the project opened a few months ago, but I heard this week that they are slashing prices up to 30%.

One Rincon is the tallest building on the San Francisco skyline. It sits atop Rincon Hill at the end of 1st Street, right next to the Bay Bridge onramp. The finishings are medium-high quality-- it's the views people go for here, which go on forever and ever. Two-plus years ago, when the project first opened, investors and owner-occupants were snatching the units up and anticipating making a quick profit. Now the resales are at prices significantly off the initial pricing (at about 10-15%). Only one resale actually shows as closed in the MLS, although there were likely others that were sold off-market. The new homes office at One Rincon has about 30% of the inventory left with views back to downtown and Southwards towards Twin Peaks.

Radiance is another luxury project. It sits at the edge of the Mission Bay neighborhood. Those who buy here do so because they like the wide-open spaces-- both inside, because they enjoy big square footage, and outside, because of the low rise development that surrounds the project. They also appreciate the luxury finishings, and easy access to the freeway that runs Southward towards Silicon Valley. Radiance was originally scheduled to sell in two phases, but the developer has chosen to abandon construction on the second phase for now because of problems with financing and our softening market. Pricing on the first phase generally ran around $1200/psf, but word is that they are reducing their prices by 10% on selected units.

Our New Homes Group constantly swaps tips and information on what's selling for how much in different projects around the City. We discuss how far below the developers have gone below even reduced list prices developers (sometimes it's up to 20%) on properties We also talk about which units seem to offer the best value and compare one project against another. I love having access to this ‘brain trust' of information. It helps me negotiate the best deals for my buyers and lets me know what the pitfalls are around each project.

Virtually every new condo project in San Francisco has reduced prices. For more information on which ones are going at what kinds of discounts, call me at 415-577-0809.

The San Francisco gay community has its roots in the San Francisco Gold Rush when the emerging city was mostly young males. Newspapers of the day told of the exploits of the "Lavender Cowboys." Military purges of homosexuals during WWII had a profound effect on making San Francisco a destination of gays. Those serving in the South Pacific were dismissed to the port of San Francisco and many opted to stay.

In 1938, the St. Francis hotel began the tradition of coin washing to prevent ladies' white gloves from getting soiled. St. The practice of operating world's only silver coin cleaning operation has continued as a special amenity for its guests. Periodically, the change is collected, washed and polished in a silver-burnishing machine, rinsed off and dried under hot lights, then carried back to the front desk. Today, taxi drivers and cashiers in San Francisco know that if they receive mint-clean money, it's probably from the St. Francis.

Back in the Barbary Coast days, Maiden Lane, just off Union Square, was a violent, hellish red light district that reported a murder a week. Then the 1906 earthquake and fire burned down all the bordellos and the lane was redeveloped with small, charming shops. until 1906. Today it is lined with elegant boutiques. Best known is 140 Maiden Lane, the only building in San Francisco designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Like Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York, the building has a spiral ramp and skylights.

San Francisco has a love/hate relationship with Vaillancort Fountain in the Justin Herman Plaza opposite the Ferry Building. When it was built beneath the raised Embarcadero freeway, it's blocky framework and splashing water sounds complimented the concrete piers and traffic noise. Then the freeway was torn down and the jumble of 100 concrete tubes and boxes has been called "Stonehenge Unhinged" and likened to a deposit left by a dog with square bowels