This summer, SPUR and the Knight Foundation took a delegation of South Bay elected officials and transit agency leaders to visit high-speed rail stations in the Netherlands and France. The trip was a quest for precedents as San Jose prepares to remake Diridon Station into one of the nation’s first high-speed rail hubs. Nine takeaways emerged from the trip as critical considerations for San Jose.

The scale of the devastating fires unfolding in the North Bay is a painful reminder of the earthquake disasters SPUR has studied over the years. As first responders valiantly work to contain the damage and save lives, government officials will soon need to shift their attention to the daunting task of rebuilding the northern part of our region. How should they proceed?

A group of regional stakeholders is working together to develop bold solutions to address the Bay Area's housing challenges. CASA, the Committee to House the Bay Area, will spend the next year building consensus on the “three Ps”: increasing housing production, preserving housing and protecting residents from displacement. SPUR offers recommendations on how to move the needle forward on the first P, increasing housing production.

Last month, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee issued an executive directive calling for the city to speed up housing production in order to deliver 5,000 homes a year on an ongoing basis. The mayor’s directive argues that there is more that the city can and must do to sustain the pace of housing creation over the long term.