SPUR's Equity Platform

SPUR defines equity as fair and just outcomes for all people. Equity is achieved when our identities, particularly race, do not define our life outcomes.

SPUR’s vision is a Bay Area in which all people thrive. We hold equity as one of our three central values, along with environmental sustainability and economic prosperity. SPUR recognizes that systemic racism is a profound barrier to achieving this vision and that it is pervasive across our seven policy areas: Planning, Housing, Transportation, Sustainability and Resilience, Economic Justice, Good Government, and Food and Agriculture. SPUR is committed to advancing equity in the areas in which we work, in our organizational practices and in our relationships.

In specific, SPUR recognizes:

• Systemic racism has shaped urban planning and policy for generations, resulting in unequal and unfair outcomes for communities of color.
  
• Intersectionality informs lived experiences. Other forms of bias, such as sexism and ableism, are also embedded in urban planning and policy decisions, resulting in unequal and unfair outcomes for a significant number of people in our communities.
  
• America’s institutions, laws and systems have historically penalized — and continue today to penalize — race above all other identity factors and Black and Indigenous people above all other races.
  
• The systemic nature of this bias means that America’s systems, institutions and policies will perpetuate racial injustice if left to continue to operate as usual.
  
• Systemic racism and its unjust outcomes are pervasive across the many laws, policies, institutions and systems that shape a person’s life. These include education, criminal justice, housing, economics and employment, and transportation, among many others.
  

To advance equity through our policy work, SPUR will:

1. Understand how past policies shaped by systemic racism and bias have led to current circumstances and center this lens in our policy recommendations and programs to continue to educate decision makers and the public.
   
2. Seek to identify and remove bias where it exists in the region’s policies today.
   
3. Address existing inequities with new policies and new institutional norms and practices.
   

As an organization committed to equity, SPUR seeks to:

• Serve as a key partner in advancing equity in the Bay Area.
  
• Embed equitable practices and a culture of belonging into our organizational processes.
  
• Make sure our staff members, board members and supporters reflect the diversity of the region.
  
• Provide a safe, positive meeting ground for people with different perspectives to discuss how to advance equity.
  
• Leverage our research, education and advocacy to transform structures and systems for a more just and equitable Bay Area.
  
• Act in authentic partnership and dialogue with the communities we serve.
  
• Continuously adapt our processes and perspective to ensure that equity is at the heart of the systems change we seek and the outcomes we achieve.