For the politically minded Galante, working the Prop 1C campaign was an “eye-opener,” from raising the $3 million required to get the measure on the ballot to wheeling and dealing with some of the state’s most influential political leaders. “This wasn’t grass roots anymore—it really was more pure politics, where you are dealing directly with individuals like [State Senator and Senate President Pro Tem] Don Perata,” she says.
Galante’s talent for counting the votes was also put to the test during that time. Real-time polling data for millions of voters was sliced and diced by countless geographies and demographics. In the end, Galante says it is instinct that guides the interpretation of that data.
“Looking at polling data by county and locale —that’s pretty cool stuff —but in the end it is hard to know what is in the voter’s mind. I think the passage of Prop 1C said less about affordable housing than it did about global warming and urban infill. Did people vote for affordable housing or to fund a new form of urban infrastructure? I think that latter helped [passage of the proposition] a lot.”
A NEW ENVIRONMENT Political agendas aside, Galante is thrilled to see real estate developers finally embracing an amalgam of trends and racing toward an eventuality where mixed-income, mixed-use, transit-oriented, urban infill, and green features will all be mentioned in the same sentence.
“There has been a sea change in California in terms of incorporating aspects of New Urbanism, green building, and affordability into all projects. The legislature is concerned with it. The single-family home builders and market-rate apartment developers are starting to tackle really urban projects,” she explains. “We have a much easier time with density in many places than we used to. More and more communities are adopting green building standards. You might not have to be LEED Platinum, but you have to meet some standards—and standards are what raise the bar.”
Galante should know. In 2000—the same year that the U.S. Green Building Council formally launched the LEED program—she established BRIDGE Housing’s Green Building Committee, one of the first formalized green building programs in residential construction, let alone affordable housing. Immediate improvements made under the program included the not-so-obvious at the time, including the use of compact fluorescent lighting, low-E glazing on windows, and low-flow and Energy Star-rated appliances. Next-generation green ideas at BRIDGE involve pushing sustainability onto the residents by encouraging energy conservation, composting, and recycling as well as offering preference to renters who commit to using only one vehicle or no vehicle at all.
BRIDGE’s environmental initiatives—including a commitment to transitoriented development and preserving open space—are among many company enterprises highlighted at BRIDGEtown, the company’s online virtual community that was launched in July 2008. A key project fostered by Galante and designed in partnership with San Francisco-based architectural firm Van Meter Williams Pollack, the virtual community (online at www.bridgehousing.com/BRIDGEtown) allows visitors to check out BRIDGE communities on an interactive map. Users can highlight transit-oriented communities, sites funded by CalPERS or the BUILD program, projects involving historic preservation, affordable projects, or individual communities. They can also read resident testimonials and research affordable housing and green attributes with the click of a mouse.
“The portfolio as a whole shows that you can create a better environment,” Galante says. “We’re proud of the quality in public housing redevelopments, but we’re equally as proud of some of the smaller projects that are knit into existing upscale communities. As important as it is to revitalize a West Oakland, it is equally as important to be rebuilding quality affordable housing in [Marin County’s] Mill Valley. We have a number of incredibly beautiful and wonderful places for families and seniors to call home that look like market-rate condos. That is a BRIDGE signature, and we don’t brand it—it is just a beautiful place to live in Everyday, U.S.A.”
BRIDGE TO TOMORROW This year, BRIDGE turns 25, and the company has developed a list of 25 goals to commit to for the future, along with 25 community celebrations into spring 2009 that will announce programs aimed to maintain BRIDGE’s reputation as a developer on the edge. Sustainability factors largely into those goals, but also included are efforts to create affordable housing from existing market-rate stock, a campaign to encourage individuals to bequeath real estate to affordable housing ends, a program to create a listing service for affordable housing properties, a plan to build a model home showcasing low-cost, high-quality construction techniques, and, of course, a commitment to continue the BRIDGE mission of achieving scale by opening a Southern California headquarters office in Los Angeles.
Despite her penchant for taking everything on at once, Galante knows that she can’t accomplish the BRIDGE 25 goals alone, nor will she sacrifice the company’s core competencies to achieve ideals, however altruistic. In addition to relying on the BRIDGE team, she’ll need an engaged public and an invested housing industry fueled by a new generation of stewardship-minded leaders. To that end, she has dedicated time as a guest lecturer on affordable housing and multifamily real estate at community colleges and Ivy League universities across the country. In addition, in 1998, she established and worked to endow the Don Terner Residency, a two-year real estate fellowship working for BRIDGE.
