Bay Space Leaders Push Again On Local weather Plan’s 60% Work From House Mandate – CBS San Francisco
(CBS SF) – San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo joined with Bay Area leaders on Wednesday to raise concerns about the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Bay Area 2050 plan, a comprehensive plan for the United States Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the region.
MTC officials approved the final plan late last month, including a mandate that all large offices with 25 or more employees require at least 60 percent of employees to work from home on any given day.
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According to MTC officials, the move would drastically reduce traffic and cut greenhouse gas emissions significantly.
On Wednesday, the 15 members of the Bay Area delegation to California Legislation sent a letter to the MTC expressing concerns about working from home.
“While it makes sense to work from home or fund from home during the pandemic, we disagree that a work-from-home mandate is a viable or appropriate long-term strategy for the Bay Area,” reads in Haggerty letter to MTC Chairman Scott.
According to the legislature, which includes Senators Scott Wiener and Nancy Skinner, the mandate could lead to a loss of revenue for the Bay Area’s public transport systems. This would disproportionately affect senior citizens, young people and others who rely on public transport.
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In addition, the mandate undermines the goals of walkable neighborhoods and housing density.
“This mandate would likely result in people leaving the region or farther away from their jobs or from the transit that can transport them to their workplaces,” the letter continued. “Policies that MTC follows to enable employees to work from home must be designed to ensure that such policies do not lead to an increase in (greenhouse gas) emissions, a reduction in transit driving and transit financing or lead to unequal results. “
According to Liccardo and Breed, the two mayors share the legislature’s views, although both cities worked with the MTC on the proposal. In a joint statement on Wednesday, the couple said: “As mayors of the two largest cities in the Bay Area, we appreciate the work that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission staff have done to develop and finalize the Bay Area 2050 Blueprint Plan that will bring us will help achieve our collective climate goals. We also recognize Plan Bay Area’s responsibility to meet government emission reduction targets with a fiscally constrained transportation investment plan – especially given the recent impact of COVID-19 on our respective communities.
“While we support many of the innovative and bold strategies MTC has developed to address our shared transportation challenges and meet our emissions reduction goals, we remain concerned about the telework mandate and cannot currently support it,” the joint statement said. “We look forward to working with MTC staff and our colleagues to refine this strategy and consider alternatives that will enable us to fairly achieve our goal of reducing (greenhouse gases) and support the vitality of our inner cities.”
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