Downtown Oakland now has the tightest commercial market in the country, with a vacancy rate of 5.3 percent. As a result, commercial rents in downtown Oakland have shot up. After many years of construction costs stubbornly remaining higher than commercial rents, it has finally become financially feasible to build new office buildings downtown.

The dramatic escalation of housing prices in the Bay Area has sparked a lot of discussion about affordability — but what do we mean by “affordable” housing? Who is it for? How is it funded and created? Our primer explains all.

The San Francisco Bay Area has long been understood as the nine counties that touch the Bay — but this border doesn’t always hold. Addressing many of our current regional challenges — such as job access, housing affordability and congestion — will require working at many scales. Given this, is the traditional nine-county definition the correct scale for SPUR's Regional Strategy project?

This spring SPUR hosted Adam Ganser of Friends of the High Line to share the story of New York City’s linear park built atop a disused freight rail trestle. To help kick off a new SPUR initiative to re-imagine San Jose’s Guadalupe River Park, Ganser shared the High Line’s history, as well as lessons learned from this national model in public space development.

San Jose’s South First Area has become the downtown destination for discovering visual art, food, culture, music and more. Over the last year, SPUR worked with stakeholders and compiled research to guide city and community leaders as they face growth pressures in SoFA. Together we have looked at how the city can add residential units while preserving and enhancing the unique culture of the district.