A Fast Track for Sustainable Transportation Projects
In 2020, SPUR’s report More for Less suggested a bold idea for meeting state climate goals: Streamline California’s complex regulatory laws for transportation projects that deliver significant environmental benefits in order to help them get built more quickly. Our report inspired a policy pilot, 2020’s successful Senate Bill 288, which SPUR helped draft and advocate for. In 2022, the governor signed Senate Bill 922, which extends the streamlining until 2030.
Millions of New Homes for Californians
The year’s highest-profile housing legislation, Assembly Bill 2011, allows affordable and mixed-income housing developments to be built in areas zoned for commercial uses. Research estimates that the new law could provide up to 2.4 million new homes. SPUR spearheaded an advocacy coalition, the California Home Builders Alliance, which played a critical role in passing the bill.
Prioritizing Housing for People, Not Cars
SPUR co-sponsored Assembly Bill 2097 to enact historic parking reform in California. The bill prohibits cities from setting local minimum parking requirements for developments within a half-mile of a major transit stop. This reform will make housing more affordable to build and will reduce carbon emissions from driving. Joining SPUR as co-sponsors were the Bay Area Council, California YIMBY, Abundant Housing LA, and the Council of Infill Builders.
San Francisco Makes JFK Promenade Permanently Car-Free
San Francisco legislators and residents voted to make the pandemic-era Car-Free JFK program permanent. The change will keep 1.5 miles of John F. Kennedy Promenade in Golden Gate Park free from cars in perpetuity, allowing visitors a safe space to walk, bike, scoot, and skate. SPUR advocated for the change, made possible by 2020’s Senate Bill 288, which we developed.
Making Solar Power More Accessible
The governor signed Senate Bill 379, which automates the permitting of residential rooftop solar systems and residential energy storage systems. The idea for the bill came from SPUR’s policy brief A No-Cost Rooftop Solar Stimulus, which documented how permitting delays were holding back the widespread adoption of solar power and energy storage.
Essential Funding for Transportation in San Francisco
San Francisco voters passed SPUR-sponsored Proposition L, which continues the existing half-cent sales tax to fund maintenance and improvements to transit, streets, and walking and biking infrastructure. This funding is especially critical to transit, given decreased revenues from fares as the impacts of the pandemic continue.
Oaklanders Overwhelmingly Support Good Government Reforms
An impressive 80% of Oakland voters approved Measure X, which amends the city charter with reforms that include term limits for City Council members, campaigning protocols for current officials, salary increases for councilmembers, and a strengthened role for the city auditor. The measure was a direct outcome of SPUR’s report Making Government Work.
The Future of Downtown San Francisco
With support from JPMorgan Chase, SPUR launched the Future of Downtown initiative to identify solutions to help downtown San Francisco recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will examine structural changes affecting downtown San Francisco — namely, lower tax revenues and employment numbers — and identify practical, long-term solutions that city government, businesses, and community members can pursue to position the city for recovery.
California’s New Tool for Creating Middle-Income Housing
With housing prices out of reach for many, California needs new ways to create housing that’s affordable to middle-income households. SPUR and the Terner Center for Housing Innovation released a brief on a promising new model — middle-income housing owned by joint powers authorities — which uses tax incentives to close the gap between development costs and affordable rents. The brief explains how this model works, how it’s being used, and how to ensure that it delivers meaningful benefits.
The High Cost of Traffic Stops
California has some of the most expensive traffic citations in the country, with drivers paying billions of dollars in fines and fees every year. To understand the impact of traffic stops and citations on Californians, SPUR analyzed traffic stop data in seven communities across the state. SPUR found that across California, traffic stops are not evenly distributed across racial and ethnic groups, which can cause significant harm to communities of color and lower-income communities.
Gas Appliances and Smog: California’s Hidden Air Pollution Problem
Gas appliances in California homes and businesses generate four times as much lung-damaging nitrogen oxide pollution as the state’s gas power plants and roughly two-thirds as much as all of the state’s passenger cars. To meet federal air quality standards that protect health, air quality regulators in California must phase out the sale of gas appliances and create equity-centered implementation plans for transitioning homes to electric alternatives. SPUR, the Sierra Club, and RMI released a report outlining how state and regional air agencies can end gas appliance pollution in California.
Making the Most of the Water We Have
Climate scientists predict that California will experience longer, more frequent droughts as the climate warms. To show how the Bay Area can better manage its limited water, SPUR, Greenbelt Alliance, and the Pacific Institute published Watershed Moments, case studies of six Northern California leaders who are pioneering ways to use water more efficiently, protect groundwater supplies, recycle water, and reuse stormwater.
The Bay Area Parking Census
The nine-county Bay Area has 15 million parking spaces, enough to wrap around the planet 2.3 times. This excess has become an accepted part of the urban landscape and makes residents more likely to drive, worsening climate impacts, air pollution, and rates of injury and death from collisions. SPUR and the Mineta Transportation Institute published this and other findings in The Bay Area Parking Census. Our detailed assessment of the region’s parking infrastructure fills data gaps to inform future policymaking.
Uncovering Who Benefits From Prop. 13 in Oakland
SPUR and the Tax Fairness Project explored how California’s Proposition 13 impacts homeowners in Oakland, with a look at who receives the largest benefits from the state’s unique property tax law and who shoulders the burdens from its constraints on revenues. SPUR’s research found that Prop. 13 contributes to the Bay Area’s racial wealth gap, allowing homeowners in higher-income and whiter neighborhoods to save thousands in taxes, while limiting the city’s ability to invest in services for those who need them most.
Taking Guaranteed Income From Pilots to Policy
Interest in guaranteed income programs — which respond to systemic poverty with direct and unconditional cash assistance to individuals or households — has surged during the pandemic. More than 100 pilot programs are in development or are underway nationally, including nearly a dozen in San Francisco alone. SPUR sits on the San Francisco Guaranteed Income Advisory Group, which released a report recommending how to move these programs from pilots to policy.
Landmark Policy to Create Homes and Jobs Near Transit
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission voted to adopt a new transit-oriented communities policy that will support the creation of new homes and jobs in areas that have great transit. SPUR helped lead a broad coalition of equity, housing, and sustainability advocates to push for this transformative policy.
Championing the Need for Housing
Every eight years, California cities must update their housing element, a plan to identify how much housing the community needs and how much it will build. SPUR played an active role in this process in San Francisco, San José, and Oakland, advocating for strong implementation strategies to remove barriers to housing development, stabilize low-income communities, and meaningfully address social and racial equity.
Reducing Harm From Inequitable Fines and Fees
Inspired by SPUR’s report Bridging the Gap, California adopted Assembly Bill 2594, legislation that will help modernize the bridge toll system and reduce the harms caused by fines and fees for missing a toll payment. SPUR’s research showed that these harms fall disproportionately on communities of color, low-income communities, and immigrant communities. AB 2594 is just the first step in reforming inequitable tolling practices across the state. Our future advocacy will build on this foundation.
San José Modernizes Its Approach to Parking
San José passed a landmark ordinance that eliminates minimum parking requirements for new development citywide. The ordinance will reduce the cost of new housing and will lower carbon emissions from driving. It also outlines a permit process for converting parking spaces to other uses, making permanent the temporary initiative that allowed outdoor dining in parking lots during the pandemic. SPUR partnered with the city and other South Bay organizations on outreach, events, and advocacy.
Our Big Loss: Housing Streamlining Fails to Win Support in San Francisco
SPUR worked with a coalition of housing, labor, and environmental groups to sponsor Proposition D on the San Francisco ballot. The measure would have streamlined the approvals process for 100% affordable housing, mixed-income housing with increased affordability, and educator housing. Although Prop. D didn’t pass, we’re encouraged that it fell short by only about 2,400 votes. SPUR will continue to work on reforming the city’s housing approvals process to deliver housing at all income levels.
Building a Healthier Regional Food System
SPUR’s Food and Agriculture program was awarded a $160,000 federal grant to launch the San Francisco Bay Area Local Food Purchasing Collaborative. The collaborative — made up of schools, hospitals, and correctional facilities — leverages the power of institutional purchasing to procure food that is local, sustainable, fair, humane, and healthy. SPUR’s research brief The State of Good Food Purchasing in 2022 and the Bay Area Good Food Purchasing Dashboard laid the foundation for accelerating improvements in institutions’ food purchasing and will inform a replicable model for other regions across the United States.
Helping California Transition to Clean-Energy Appliances
SPUR continued to support the passage of equitable clean appliance regulations by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. We led a coalition of 59 organizations urging the Air District to coordinate the region’s transition to clean-energy appliances. The Air District agreed with our recommendation and appointed SPUR and several of our partners to a working group. The Bay Area’s leadership on cleaning up appliance pollution has sparked similar efforts at the California Air Resources Board and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
SPUR Renews Focus on Earthquake Resilience
SPUR revitalized efforts toward seismic resilience, hiring our first earthquake resilience policy manager. The role has two priorities: advancing efforts to make the region’s buildings and built environment safer before a major quake and ensuring that communities have resources and opportunities to prepare, adapt, and rebuild after one occurs. This work builds on SPUR’s Resilient City initiative, our research and recommendations on earthquake resilience in San Francisco.
San José Embraces New Vision for Downtown Transportation
San José adopted its Downtown Transportation Plan, the result of years of research, analysis, and community engagement. Informed by SPUR’s Seven Ideas for Downtown San José and Future of Downtown San José reports, the plan establishes a framework to support mobility needs downtown. Highlights include rebuilding complete streets networks to serve transit, walking, biking, driving, and delivery needs and advancing “big moves” to transform Santa Clara Street, speed up downtown light rail, invest in downtown bike and trail networks, and break freeway barriers.
Improving Water Use Efficiency in California Homes
State studies on the potential for greater water use efficiency in urban settings integrated SPUR research, leading to the passage of Senate Bill 1157, which directs water suppliers to pursue greater water use efficiency in homes. In Water for a Growing Bay Area, SPUR and the Pacific Institute found that greater water use efficiency and more compact land use would enable the Bay Area to build the housing it needs without increasing water demand.
Encouraging Car-Free Commutes
SPUR co-sponsored Assembly Bill 2206, which combats carbon emissions from driving by increasing the number of employees who can receive cash in exchange for giving up their parking space if they choose to commute without driving. Case studies show that such “parking cash-out” programs have dramatically reduced driving to work and increased carpooling, transit ridership, walking, and biking.
Making Healthy Food More Affordable
SPUR has been running Double Up Food Bucks — a program that makes fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable for low-income Californians — since 2017. We know it works from the data we’ve gathered and from research on similar programs nationwide. In 2022, SPUR co-sponsored Assembly Bill 2153, which would have made fresh food pilots like Double Up permanent. Though the legislation didn’t pass, we built a broad coalition that will continue to work on making these programs part of California’s food safety net.
SPUR Makes Programs Free and Accessible to All
In 2022, we opened our doors to a new audience of urbanists by making the majority of our educational programs free to the public. Once a benefit of membership, free access to programs is now available to all community members. Our aim is to help Bay Area residents understand the workings of public policy and take an active role in shaping the future of their region.
Empowering Voters in San Francisco, San José, and Oakland
The SPUR Voter Guide helped voters navigate a big year with two elections and measures at the local and state levels. To offer guidance for ballot-casters in San Francisco, San José, and Oakland, SPUR researched 42 measures, analyzed the pros and cons of each one, and considered their equity impacts before issuing voting recommendations. Our interactive online guide garnered more than 260,000 page views.
Ideas + Action: Mobility for All
SPUR’s annual Ideas + Action symposium focused on transportation, with a keynote address by Beverly A. Scott, PhD, and a panel discussion with Darwin Moosavi of the California State Transportation Agency and Jeffrey Tumlin of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on how to align goals and processes for the Bay Area’s transportation sectors. Working groups focused on transportation funding, the use of streets as public space, e-bike adoption, and ways to achieve a seamless, service-based transit system.
Silver SPUR Honors Civic Leaders
Our 60th annual Silver SPUR Awards honored Blanca Alvarado, Wilma Chan (in memoriam), Jane Garcia, and Jackie Safier — the event’s first-ever all-female slate — for their contributions to making the Bay Area a place where all people can thrive. In her keynote speech, SPUR President and CEO Alicia John-Baptiste reflected on their work by exploring what it means to use power in service of others.
Good Government Awards Highlight COVID Response
Our annual San Francisco Good Government Awards event is a rare opportunity to recognize those who exemplify the highest standards of public service. In 2022, we recognized a whopping 54 honorees, all of whom contributed to San Francisco’s herculean COVID-19 emergency response efforts.
Presidio Tunnel Tops Park Opens to the Public
The grand opening of San Francisco’s Presidio Tunnel Tops Park marked the culmination of an extraordinary public project that started 31 years ago. What began as a safety effort to replace a dangerous elevated highway became a community-led process to heal a landscape torn apart by freeway building. SPUR played a critical role in bringing people together to design, advocate for, and complete this once-in-a-generation project.
A Leading Voice in the Media
SPUR continued to serve as a leading voice in local and national news, appearing in the media more than 100 times in 2022. Our experts were quoted in outlets including The New York Times, Fast Company, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Mercury News, KQED, ABC, CBS, NBC, CalMatters, and The Sacramento Bee. We published five op-eds on topics that ranged from getting fossil fuels out of buildings to funding for parks to health care plans supporting food-based medical interventions.
President’s Letter
The Changing City
This year, SPUR has been engaged in the hard work of building the “new normal” that so many people committed to create in the wake of the crises of 2020. In doing this work, we’ve recognized that big changes require equally ambitious reimagination. If we are going to deliver on our vision of a Bay Area where all people thrive, we must use the changes at hand as an opportunity to reinvent what that future looks like — not striving to return to the past, but facing forward to create something new.
Thriving cities are always changing. Their dynamism is a result of adapting to evolving needs, realities, and aspirations. As the communities of the Bay Area adjust now to a normative change in how people work, we have a chance to reimagine what places do for communities. We can reinvent downtowns to serve not only as centers of commerce but also as social centers — places where people meet to live, create, and explore Bay Area culture.
At SPUR, we are working across the region to reimagine the building blocks that support daily life. Whether it’s exploring how local governments can govern on behalf of residents or how transit can adapt to a changing reality, we are at the forefront of embracing change while holding close to our vision for an equitable, sustainable, and prosperous region.
Times of great change also require that we reinvest in working together. Our success will be a direct result of our capacity to collaborate and understand each other’s core needs as, together, we create our future.
We at SPUR are grateful to each of you for your partnership in this extraordinary time. Your engagement is our collective success, and we look forward to continuing our collaboration in the year ahead.
Alicia John-Baptiste
President and CEO