Who Are We
Catalyze SV engages community members, developers, and city leaders to envision and create sustainable, equitable, and vibrant places for people in Silicon Valley.
Our Values
What makes a place sustainable, equitable, and vibrant.
Inclusive, diverse communities
We believe deeply in neighborhoods that include folks of different races, cultures, languages, ages, physical abilities, income levels, and family types. Allowing a diverse array of people to live in the same neighborhood can encourage social harmony and combat discrimination and prejudice. We strive for communities in which anyone who currently lives or works there can continue to do so and where all newcomers are welcome. Everyone deserves the chance to call this wonderful place Silicon Valley home.
Vibrant places for people
For centuries, cities have thrived by having homes, businesses, services, public plazas, & open space near each other. Who doesn’t want to get easily from our homes to a favorite restaurant, grocery store, shop, art exhibit, park, or even to work? Yet in many Silicon Valley communities, these different types of spaces are segregated far apart, separated by roads mainly for speeding cars. We believe in the model of cities that creates enticing, enlivening public places where people can spend time & build community. Simply put, placemaking. This can increase our sense of pride in our community, raise property values, enhance our reputation elsewhere, & most crucially, improve our quality of life.
Housing solutions for all
Silicon Valley is one of the nation's most expensive real estate markets. To ensure everyone has a chance to live and work here and no one is displaced, Catalyze SV advocates for increasing the number of housing units built both at market-rate and as affordable housing below the area median income. If we don’t make our community more affordable, people will choose, or be forced to, live elsewhere. That would be crippling for our region's economy and its long-term fiscal health. We're building a community where everyone can afford to live. It’s as simple as that.
Healthy, sustainable development
The most livable communities come from development that improves people’s health and safety, as well as the well-being of the environment around them. We believe in making developments as environmentally sustainable as possible. New and refurbished projects should incorporate “green features” into how projects are built and function. Green buildings can provide huge energy savings for the companies building them, as well as the people occupying them. Click here for leading examples of sustainable features that developers and cities can include in projects.
Convenient transportation choices
On a day-to-day basis, we all get around using a variety of ways. So why does so much development primarily plan around an automobile with only one person in it? To reduce the traffic clogging our roads and improve the environment, we believe projects should provide transportation choices including public transit, walking, biking, scooters & car-sharing. Great projects will locate along or near transit corridors. With technology changing rapidly, projects should also prepare for the transportation possibilities of the future.
Equitable community engagement
From the moment a project is conceived to once it’s built, our diverse community should be at the table to shape it. We deserve access to easy-to-understand info about how our neighborhoods develop & productive ways of advocating to city staff & developers. Community meetings about development should be welcoming from the moment one arrives and inclusive of everyone, including working families & those speaking different languages. Constructive, creative collaboration between neighbors, developers & city leaders leads to better communities for everyone.
Our Funders
Click here for an extensive list of the individuals, foundations, companies & governments funding our work.