DRIVING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR THE CITY’s TOP ISSUES

1. CREATING AMERICA’S BEST TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM 

1. Problem: 
   • Our transportation system is outdated and oversaturated. Traffic is as congested as ever. Barely over 30% of citizens use public transit, and its performance and reliability is at very low levels. Daily accidents have created a safety and financial crisis. And we have practically no bicycle lanes. 
   • We can’t afford any more incremental solutions. We need a system that is 100% better – and we need it quickly. 
2. Innovative solutions:
   • Create an accelerated transportation-funding program, JOLT, applied to all transit modes. (Beyond Props A and B.) Vastly improve all transit modes: public transit, pedestrian and bicycle safety, and road quality.
   • Apply innovative partnerships: Transit stop naming rights, adjacent retail and office partnerships, adaptive vehicle fees, congestion pricing, commuter bus adoption of feeder public vehicles. Create symbiotic relationships all across the city.
   • Use novel adaptive technology: sidewalk sensors, vehicle data crowdsourcing, traffic light optimization, vertical lane building. 
   • Double transit ridership over 4 years, to 60%. Generate $100M-$200M in new fare revenue in the process. Naturally reduce car use, improving traffic circulation, safety for all, and even parking. 
3. Results for our citizens
   • End-to-end city travel time reduced by 50% in average, for all.
   • Traffic fatalities will essentially end by 2018.
   • A sustainable, green, equal, self-funded system for the 21^st century.

2. TRANSFORMING CITY HALL FOR THE 21^ST CENTURY

1. Problem: 
   • Despite having the largest per-capital budget in America, our City Hall runs on very outdated processes and very little modern technology. Simple government services take intense paperwork, many months to process, in-person visits, and unreasonable fees.  Renovate a home, paint a driveway, and apply for government programs can be a very frustrating exercise. Critical city issues, such as housing, transportation, and job creation are tragically affected. 
   • We sit on the world’s innovation hotbed. We need our city government to become the nation’s most innovative. 
2. Innovative solutions:
   • Set a goal for zero-paperwork by 2020 in all work at City Hall.
   • Challenge innovation community to provide ideas, resources, open-source software, Intellectual Property, and equity. Leverage crowdsourcing and incubation techniques for this purpose. Create shared-benefit partnerships where cost savings are shared.
   • Create SmartSFLab, our first in-house Innovation Laboratory, entirely focused on creating and testing new approaches for the city’s hardest problems with the use of innovation and technology.
   • Save $100-200M in tax dollars, which can then be used for underfunded programs for disadvantages communities. 
3. Results for our citizens
   • All essential city services mobile accessible by 2020. In-person and paper-based processing completely voluntary.
   • Minimum $100M yearly operational savings by 2020.
   • Reduce processing time for 100 services by at least 50%.

3. BOOSTING AFFORDABILITY AND HOUSING

1. Problem: 
   • The cost of living in our city, especially housing, is as high as ever, and inequality is growing faster than anywhere else in the Western world. If this trend continues, we will lose the very essence of our city, and all of us, including the ones who stay, will be affected.
   • Current efforts to mitigate our housing shortage, and enable medium and low-income citizens to stay in our borders are valuable but insufficient. We need additional solutions. 
2. Innovative solutions:
   • Create innovative public-private partnerships to enable more housing for medium and low-income citizens. Apply solutions such as naming rights, building branding, embedded retail and offices.
   • Challenge the innovation community to create new types of green, connected, ultra-efficient housing. New materials, new layouts, new ways to move in and out of buildings, built-in integrated services that save $ with extreme energy efficient designs, and full integration with retail, offices, and transportation.
   • Modernize the process of approving home building, via information technology and actual process improvements. Keep the benefits of community review, but will be much faster by optimizing process and technology underneath, i.e “greasing” it. 
   • Create more vertical building in selected parts of the city, under the appropriate programs and reviews. Re-assess the amount of hotels.
3. Results for our citizens
   • A city that maintains its character and sustains a healthy percentage of medium and low-income population via innovation.