, Columnist
What Happened When the Bay Area Rejected Growth
In the 1960s and 1970s, the region went from welcoming development to opposing it at every turn. How has that worked out?
"Not in my backyard" may be giving way to yes.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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From 1940 to 1960, the population of the nine counties surrounding the San Francisco Bay more than doubled to 3.6 million. In a 1959 report, the US Commerce Department’s Office of Area Development projected that it would double again by 1990, and yet again by 2020, when the region was expected to house 14.4 million people.
That’s not what happened. As of the April 2020 US Census, the population of the nine counties was 7.8 million, and according to Census Bureau estimates it has fallen by about 200,000 since then.