Bay Area names top stimulus priorities - Portland Business Journal:

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Projects ranked among the highest in the plan cover a wide range of proposalsincluding high-speed rail construction, extendinb the BART line to San Jose and borinvg another roadway in the East Bay’s Caldecott Together, the highest-priority projects are seekinyg more than $7 billion in stimulus The priority list also includes a new stem cell researcy facility at the in Marin energy efficiency and solar retrofits of publidc and other buildings in San San Francisco and Oakland; energy conversions to LED streetlights; transit-oriented developmenty projects and workforce training and placement for laid-offv employees.
“This plan is designexd to maximizeour region’s share of federaol stimulus funding and otheer state support that will benefit the Bay Area in both the near and said Sean Randolph, CEO of the , which was chargeed with compiling the list. The top 85 projects were classifiedxas “strategic” priorities for the Bay Another 72 projects were considered but given a slightly lowed ranking because they did not have the scale or regionalo impact of the most highluy ranked suggestions.
Those projects include things like a desalination projectg in the Montara Water and Sanitary building a clean technology demonstration manufacturing center in San Jose and outfitting Burlingame city buildings with solar The plan, which can be found onlin e at www.bayareaeconomy.org/recovery, was the culmination of a three-montbh vetting process. The report was sent to the . That stats agency, which requested that other metropolitan regions around the stater submitsimilar plans, will now take all thoses plans and help coordinate with citiees and counties to lobby the federal government on behalf of certainn projects.
“This is to get people on the same page to minimizr the food fight where you have partws of the state compete against one saidDale Bonner, head of the California Business Transportation and Housing “What we’re doing is acting as a facilitatore to help identify the best” The list’s authors said they hoped that rankin g projects would help the region get more stimulud money. “The Bay Area is the only regioh in California that actuallyu attemptedto prioritize,” Randolphh said. “We think that’s important.
We thinkm that will make us more successful ingetting attention, in gettinv those resources for those very high value Projects on the Economic Institute’s wish list could be in for a big About $30 billion in federal stimulus money will be divvied up in Sacramento before goinv to various regions around California. Anotherr $20 billion is expected to be distributee directly in the state by federal officials on a discretionary The chance to get dollard from the federal stimulus program led to a flurruof proposals. Bay Area authorities sifted throughn almost570 suggestions.
To make the cut, projects were supposee to spurjob growth, have regional impact and align with state programe and priorities, among other criteria. The Economic Institute calledc upon local experts in specificf fields to judge proposals that fit at least one ofsevehn categories: transportation, water, energy/climate, workforce trainingg and education, business development, science and innovationb or housing. The vast majority of projects that made it to theEconomidc Institute’s short list were from government agencies. A range of companiezs sought federal stimulus, too, saying that their service woulr help boost thebroader economy.
For a Berkeley-based firm called Picture it Sold soughf stimulus money to franchiseits home-staging “We’re ready to move ahead with this plan the company wrote in its proposal, “and we’ll help thousandsx of families and the whole economy to recover.” The company’ idea did not make the Economic Institute’s highest priority cut. But an appendix to the Economifc Institute’s wish list includes every proposaklit received.