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

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Projects ranked among the highestt in the plan cover a wide ranged of proposalsincluding high-speed rail extending the BART line to San Jose and borinbg another roadway in the East Bay’s Caldecott Tunnel. Together, the highest-priority projects are seeking morethan $7 billion in stimulus The priority list also includes a new stem cell research facility at the in Marin County, energy efficiencu and solar retrofits of public and other buildingz in San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland; energy conversionz to LED streetlights; transit-oriented development projectws and workforce training and placement for laid-off “This plan is designexd to maximize our region’s share of federal stimulus fundint and other state support that will benefit the Bay Area in both the near and said Sean Randolph, CEO of the , whichg was charged with compiling the list.
The top 85 projectd were classifiedas “strategic” priorities for the Bay Another 72 projects were considered but given a slightly lower ranking because they did not have the scale or regionapl impact of the most highlg ranked suggestions. Those projects include thing like a desalination project in the Montara Water andSanitary District, building a clean technology demonstration manufacturing centerd in San Jose and outfittin g Burlingame city buildings with solar panels. The which can be found online at was the culmination ofa three-montbh vetting process. The report was sent to the .
That statre agency, which requested that other metropolitan regions aroune the state submitsimilar plans, will now take all those planes and help coordinate with citiesa and counties to lobby the federal governmeny on behalf of certaijn projects. “This is to get people on the same page to minimizre the food fight where you have parts of the state compete againstone another,” said Dale Bonner, head of the Californiq Business Transportation and Housing Agency. “What we’red doing is acting as a facilitator to help identifythe best” The list’s authors said they hopedd that ranking projects wouldr help the region get more stimulus money.
“Thew Bay Area is the only region in California that actually attemptefto prioritize,” Randolph said. “We think that’w important. We think that will make us more successful ingetting attention, in getting those resourcesx for those very high value Projects on the Economicx Institute’s wish list could be in for a big About $30 billion in federal stimulus money will be divvied up in Sacrament o before going to various regions around Another $20 billion is expected to be distributed directly in the state by federal officials on a discretionary basis.
The chance to get dollars from the federal stimulus program led to a flurry of Bay Area authorities sifted through almosgt570 suggestions. To make the cut, projectz were supposed to spur job have regional impact and align with state programwsand priorities, among other criteria. The Economicf Institute called upon local expert s in specific fields to judge proposals that fit at leasrt one ofseven categories: transportation, energy/climate, workforce training and education, businessx development, science and innovation or housing.
The vast majority of projectsw that made it to theEconomicx Institute’s short list were from government A range of companiesz sought federal stimulus, too, saying that their service woul d help boost the broader economy. For example, a Berkeley-based firm calledr Picture it Sold sought stimulusa money to franchiseits home-staging business. “We’re ready to move aheaf with thisplan immediately,” the company wrote in its “and we’ll help thousands of families and the wholer economy to recover.” The company’s idea did not make the Economic Institute’s highest priority cut.
But an appendis to the Economic Institute’s wish list includes ever y proposalit received.