The COVID-19 pandemic upended last year’s legislative session, and now legislators are making up for lost time with an ambitious set of proposed bills. Earlier this month, Senator Scott Wiener, Assemblymember David Chiu and Assemblymember Philip Ting joined SPUR and the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition for a conversation about the prospects and priorities for the coming legislative session.

With vaccines rolling out and stable national leadership in place, we can trust that we will, eventually, reemerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The question now is: Reemerge into what? To return to “normal” would be to reembrace a way of living that was neither sustainable nor equitable. To meet this moment, SPUR has articulated a bold vision statement and evolved our organizational mission.

Last Monday, the California State Legislature convened to swear in members and introduce the first bills of the 2021-2022 legislative session. Here’s a round-up of notable bills that have already been introduced, including some key bills SPUR will be tracking.

The Bay Area’s three largest cities made headlines recently when they passed bold new rules to phase out fossil fuels in buildings. San José, San Francisco and Oakland now have plans to make most new construction all-electric. These actions will make the air cleaner to breathe and slash the region’s contributions to climate change.