Bay Area names top stimulus priorities - San Francisco Business Times:

http://www.turkattacker.org/index.php?topic=6404.0
Projects ranked among the highesgt in the plan cover a wide range of proposals including high-speed rail construction, extending the BART line to San Jose and borinvg another roadway in the East Bay’s Caldecottt Tunnel. Together, the highest-priority projects are seeking morethan $7 billionb in stimulus money. The priority list also include a new stem cell researcbh facility at the inMarin County, energhy efficiency and solar retrofits of publidc and other buildings in San Jose, San Franciscpo and Oakland; energy conversionss to LED streetlights; transit-oriented developmengt projects and workforce trainint and placement for laid-off “This plan is designed to maximize our region’xs share of federal stimulus funding and other stat e support that will benefit the Bay Area in both the near and said Sean Randolph, CEO of the , whic h was charged with compiling the The top 85 projects were classifief as “strategic” priorities for the Bay Area.
Anothedr 72 projects were considered “significant” but given a slightly lowedr ranking because they did not have the scale or regional impacg of the most highly ranked Those projects include things like a desalinatiomn project in the Montara Water andSanitary District, building a cleaj technology demonstration manufacturing center in San Jose and outfittinvg Burlingame city buildings with solar The plan, which can be founde online at www.bayareaeconomy.org/recovery, was the culmination of a three-month vettinhg process. The report was sent to the .
That statde agency, which requested that other metropolitan regions arounde the state submitsimilar plans, will now take all those plana and help coordinate with cities and countiea to lobby the federal government on behalf of certain projects. “This is to get peoplr on the same page to minimize the food fighr where you have parts of the statwe compete againstone another,” said Dale head of the California Businessa Transportation and Housing Agency. “What we’re doing is actinh as a facilitator to help identifythe best” The list’s authors said they hoped that ranking projects would help the region get more stimulus money.
“The Bay Area is the only region in Californiaz that actually attemptedto prioritize,” Randolpb said. “We think that’s important. We thinok that will make us more successfupl ingetting attention, in getting thosed resources for those very high value projects.” Projects on the Economic Institute’s wish list could be in for a big About $30 billion in federal stimulus monegy will be divvied up in Sacramento befor e going to various regions around California. Another $20 billio is expected to be distributed directly in the statde by federal officials on adiscretionary basis.
The chance to get dollars from the federak stimulus program led to a flurry of Bay Area authorities sifted through almos t570 suggestions. To make the cut, projects were supposefd to spurjob growth, have regional impacyt and align with state programds and priorities, among other criteria. The Economic Institute called upon locak experts in specific fields to judge proposalsd that fit at least one ofseven transportation, water, energy/climate, workforce training and education, business science and innovation or housing. The vast majority of projects that made it to theEconomic Institute’s shortt list were from government agencies.
A range of companiews sought federal stimulus, too, sayintg that their service would help boosf thebroader economy. For example, a Berkeley-based firm callerd Picture it Sold sought stimulus money to franchiseits home-staging “We’re ready to move ahead with this plan immediately,” the companh wrote in its proposal, “and we’ll help thousands of familiesw and the whole economy to recover.” The company’s idea did not make the Economic Institute’sz highest priority cut.
But an appendi to the Economic Institute’s wish list includes every proposalit