Making sure everyone can afford clean water has long been an issue, but the economic hardships of COVID-19 have exacerbated the problem. SPUR addressed water bill debt in the wake of the pandemic in our January 2021 policy brief Keeping the Water On . Since the publication of the brief, state and local policy on water affordability and sustainability has made progress, which we discussed in a recent SPUR Digital Discourse.
Many Bay Area freeways and rail lines were designed without regard for their impact on local communities. SPUR and AECOM look at how key regional transportation infrastructure currently intersects in Oakland — and how it might do so differently in the future. The next generation of transportation investments and policy could rectify past planning injustices to facilitate a healthy, climate resilient and equitable Oakland.
When cities emerge from the COVID-19 emergency and start to organize around economic recovery, California and the Bay Area should look to significantly expand employment in the solar industry. While there’s little money in state and local budgets to support this job expansion, state and local governments can provide a no-cost solar stimulus by streamlining the stack of codes and requirements that delay solar installations and drive up costs.
Climate discourse has often relied on moral platitudes, abstract facts and figures, and an over-emphasis on the consequences of climate change to incite action. What if instead we turned to a framework of justice and equity? SPUR’s Ideas + Action 2021: Sustainability & Resilience symposium focused on how to create a climate movement centered on community and people. International climate experts, elected officials and environmental leaders discussed the perils, progress and path forward to creating a hopeful, sustainable future.
With the pandemic lifting and California re-opening, now is the time to commit to overcoming long-standing challenges made worse over the past year. If we really want to make progress on homelessness, traffic the climate crisis and more, we need a bold vision, a long-term strategy and solutions of a similar scale to the problems themselves. It’s time to start building the thriving, equitable Bay Area of 2070.
