This article was originally published by Common Edge as "John King on San Francisco, Oakland, and the Challenge of Affordable Housing."

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This article was originally published by Common Edge as "John King on San Francisco, Oakland, and the Challenge of Affordable Housing."John King has covered the urban design beat for the San Francisco Chronicle for 17 years now. That?s long enough, in other words, to have written about a handful of economic booms and subsequent busts. But the Bay Area is a unique beast. No other region in the country has been as thoroughly transformed by the digital revolution. And it?s a transformation that continues to this day. Shortly before the New Year, I spoke to King about the fate of San Francisco, the Oakland renaissance, and his 4-month long fellowship in Washington, DC.Martin C. Pedersen: How does the recent death of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the political uncertainties created by that affect the urban design issues boiling in the city"John King: Ed Lee was the former City Administrator and before that, head of the Department of Public Works: he ran the city in a methodical way and wasn?t design-focused at all. Instead of having architectural aspirations, his emphasis the last few years ha...