Planning a sustainable downtown in the global era: a case study of San Franciso

Abstract

Sustainability has been a buzzword of urban planning for the past two decades. This is particularly true in the discourse of planning effort specifically focused on the downtown area. In the downtown discourse, the concept of sustainability is more comprehensive than it is generally understood as of ecological and environmental implications only. The essence of planning a sustainable downtown is how to combine the downtown’s economic competitiveness with its social and environmental scenarios and make them mutually supportive.