Maggy Krell — Assembly Member Maggy Krell is repeatedly acknowledged and thanked for being present, with the chair and a witness offering brief expressions of appreciation.
Maggy Krell — The witness acknowledged Assembly Member Maggy Krell as present and thanked Chair Haney and Assembly Member Krell for being there and for inviting the testimony.
Luz Rivas — Chair Haney was thanked by the witness, indicating the committee chair was addressed.
Luz Rivas — The witness thanked the Assembly generally for support for transit after the pandemic.
Edward Wright — Edward Wright, Vice President of the BART Board of Directors representing downtown San Francisco, introduced himself and began testimony on how transit supports downtown recovery. He then transitioned into a short slide presentation, emphasizing BART’s scale and the broader point that the Bay Area depends on transit.
SB125 — The witness asked the state to honor commitments made in 2023 under SB 125.
SB125 — SB 125 is discussed as promised transit funding that is now at risk, with speakers warning that losing this funding would harm future transit service and projects.
Ray Sosa — The chair introduces Ray Sosa as the next virtual presenter, and Ray Sosa then speaks as Chief Planning Officer at L.A. Metro, thanking the committee and framing his remarks around rebuilding downtown as a way to rebuild ridership.
Greg Fishman — Greg Fishman, the Senior Community Relations Officer with Sacramento Regional Transit, introduces himself and begins a brief overview of the agency and its service area.
Chris Ward — Chris Ward is addressed in the exchange as the discussion transitions into a question-and-answer segment, with a brief acknowledgment of Chair Haney before the question about rider patterns is posed.
Chris Ward — Praised for leadership in shepherding AB 2308 through the legislative process.
Jeff Speck — Jeff Speck delivers a continuous presentation on creating walkable cities and downtowns. After initial technical difficulties with screen sharing, he introduces an edited version of a February talk on walkability and explains his framework that a walk must be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting. He discusses how zoning and land-use separation reduce walkability, argues for mixed use and housing investment, and contrasts neighborhoods with sprawl and car-dependent development. He then shifts to the safety dimension, describing the epidemic of pedestrian and cyclist deaths and showing how street design elements such as lane count, lane width, parking, and street trees can slow traffic. Using examples from Oklahoma City, Cedar Rapids, Louisville, Sacramento, Fort Lauderdale, and New York City, he illustrates low-cost interventions like restriping streets, converting one-way streets to two-way, replacing signals with all-way stops, narrowing travel lanes, adding parking and bike lanes, and using trees and protected bike infrastructure to improve safety, reduce crashes, and make streets more walkable.
Mark Vuksevich — Introduced as the director of state policy for Streets For Us and present in the room.
Mark Vuksevich — Introduces himself as Director of State Policy for Streets for All and praises Jeff Speck's work on walkable cities.
Nick Schultz — A speaker addresses 'Chair Haney,' which likely refers to Assembly Member Matt Haney, but Haney is not in the expected members list as a committee member in this context; no direct member ID can be assigned from the provided list for 'Chair Haney' here.
Nick Schultz — The speaker addresses and thanks Chair Haney, then later refers to Assembly Member Haney in a photo with the mayor and board members at Christmas time, using both mentions as part of the same broader acknowledgment of Haney.
Jesse Arreguín — The witness addresses the chair as Chair Haney.
Jesse Arreguín — The witness continues addressing the chair.
Jesse Arreguín — The witness says California YIMBY is working with Assembly Member Haney on AB 2074.
Aaron Eckhouse — Aaron Eckhouse is introduced as the policy director for California YIMBY, then identifies himself and begins describing California YIMBY’s mission and support for housing near transit.
Adam Vandawater — Introduced as executive director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority.
AB2074 — AB 2074 is discussed as a bill to enable very tall housing in the downtowns of California’s largest transit-rich cities. The speaker highlights a proposed revolving loan fund intended to help finance mixed-income high-rises built with skilled and trained labor and leverage private capital for downtown investment. The discussion then notes that the fund must be removed from the bill and replaced with a study.
Buffy Wicks — Identified as the Assembly Member working with California YIMBY on AB 1903.
AB1903 — Described as a bill to reform construction defect liability standards affecting condo development.
Christopher Ward — Identified as the Assembly Member working with California YIMBY on AB 1406.
AB1406 — Described as a bill that would allow condo builders to make better use of pre-construction sales.
Adam Van Water — Introduces himself as executive director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority.
AB2308 — Referenced as legislation that would allow the agency to capture the value of delayed downtown construction.
AB2308 — Referenced as allowing the project to harness the value of unbuilt parcels and support construction.
Aaron — The committee asks Aaron for his perspective on office-to-housing conversions, including what he is seeing across the state and whether there are additional policies lawmakers should consider to support these conversions.
Adam — Referenced as having mentioned work around impact fees in the Transbay area.