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.

Remember the summer of 2021? Everyone was thrilled that COVID was largely contained and that California was reopening. But that sense of relief didn’t last long. Housing was too expensive. More people were falling into homelessness. Drought was everywhere. But that was then. By 2070, we turned a region on the precipice of dystopia into a sustainable, affordable and equitable place to live. Here's how we did it.

One of the barriers to restoring Bay Area transit ridership after the pandemic is the fragmented nature of our public transit system, which can discourage people from riding. To stimulate recovery of both the transit system and the economy, policymakers are now pushing for changes that will welcome riders back and make regional transit work for more people. To make the most of these opportunities, SPUR believes six principles should guide this work.

SPUR’s recently released Regional Strategy outlines a vision for the Bay Area of 2070 as an equitable, sustainable and prosperous region. The strategy provides a roadmap for building that future and centers deep regional cooperation as critical to transformational change. To celebrate the release of the project, four Bay Area civic leaders gathered on May 13 to talk about the role of regionalism in advancing a future where everyone thrives.