The Bay Plan Amendment Closes in on Consensus
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There’s something in it for everyone to hate and something for everyone to love, but after two years, we are optimistic: We may be very close to a consensus on how to amend the San Francisco Bay Plan with new information about climate change.
Exploring Ideas for the Future of Ocean Beach
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The Ocean Beach master planning process took a big step forward this month. The project team, led by SPUR, presented four “test scenarios” at its second public meeting on June 4. Based on input from our first public meeting in January, the scenarios explore the outcomes of very different approaches to managing coastal erosion, infrastructure and ecology at Ocean Beach until the year 2100. None…
Public Workshop #2 - Presentation Material Available
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The power point presentation from the June 4 public workshop is now available for download. Please find it below!
Good Government Awards: How Dana Ketcham Modernized SF's Park Permits
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SPUR’s 31st annual Good Government Awards, held earlier this year, honored five City of San Francisco employees and teams who have performed exceptionally, becoming models for other agencies and cities around the country. Dana Ketcham became involved in the Recreation and Park Department as a full-time volunteer when she spent two years redesigning the 103 athletic fields' reservation and permit system. She surveyed all field…
Will the City's Pension Proposal Really Solve the Pension Crisis?
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In the coming weeks, the SF Board of Supervisors Rules Committee will be hearing the "consensus" proposal for pension reform, which Mayor Ed Lee and a coalition of the city’s labor unions released May 24. The board has until July to make amendments and vote on the proposal. The proposal, which projects savings of $1 billion over ten years, would: Require that city employees pay…
San Francisco Crowned the ‘Coolest’ Climate-Ready City
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The 108 Treasure Island bus. Photo by flickr user juicyrai. According to a recent analysis by the carbon-offset managers at CO2IMPACT, San Francisco tops the list of U.S. cities ready for climate change. The study gave us high marks for having committed political leaders, a proactive university community (11 SF schools are members of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher…
Public Workshop #2 - Summary
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We had a very successful public workshop for the Ocean Beach Master Plan on Saturday morning, June 4th. Special thanks to the 60 dedicated neighbors, advocates, and stakeholders who came out in the pouring rain to review our work and provide their input! Thanks also to the SF Rec and Park Department for providing the venue. In case you were unable to attend and still…
4 BART Stations, 1,000 New Residences, 0 Added Footprint
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Photo by Karen Chapple Accessory dwelling units — better known as cottages, in-law apartments or granny flats — could provide an estimated 1,000 new residences near selected BART stations, research by UC Berkeley Professor Karen Chapple shows.ADUs diversify and increase the housing stock without enlarging a neighborhood's footprint, while allowing senior citizens to find a smaller dwelling without leaving their neighborhood, or college graduates…
The Numbers: San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont Has 91.7% Transit Coverage
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BART station in the East Bay, photo by flickr user travesty01 We definitely have work to do--that was the take home point of a recent Brookings Institute study, examining the top 100 metropolitan areas in the nation for transit access to jobs. While the study found that our area ranked fifth in the nation for access of transit to resident, only 35% of jobs…
Hidden Histories: The Oakland Museum of California
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The recent renovation of the Oakland Museum of California by Mark Cavagnero Associates has brought much-deserved attention to this important Modernist design. But the original design of this Modern masterpiece deserves a closer look.
Good Government Awards: How JobsNow Put San Franciscans Back to Work
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SPUR’s 31st annual Good Government Awards, held earlier this year, honored five City of San Francisco employees and teams who have performed exceptionally, becoming models for other agencies and cities around the country. The JobsNow Program was arguably the most innovative and effective subsidized employment program in the United States. During a time of high unemployment, the JobsNow team quickly built a local structure that…
Ocean Beach Master Plan - Public Workshop #2
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Please join us at the Golden Gate Park Senior Center on Saturday, June 4th for the Ocean Beach Master Plan Public Workshop #2. The project team has been hard at work analyzing the impacts of different courses of action at Ocean Beach. You will have a chance to review several "test scenarios" and compare their outcomes in categories like ecology, infrastructure, and public access over a 100-year period…
The Numbers: 96% of U.S. Transportation Energy Comes from Oil
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A recent editorial by the Regional Plan Association cites this sobering stat (from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) to make the argument for a higher tax on gasoline as a way to both reduce carbon emissions and raise revenues in a time of huge fiscal shortfalls. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy recently included a three-cent-per-gallon increase in the gasoline tax in his…
Weekly Snapshot: Good News for Seattle Bikers and Walkers? Kinda.
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Seattle is consistently ranked one of the nation's most bikeable and walkable cities, with low pedestrian fatality rates, bicycle-friendly legislation and a high percentage of commuters who bike or walk to work. However, some worry that these high scores have made Seattle "too cocky," and that the city still has a ways to go in providing acceptable bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. Residents hope Seattle's…
Public Workshop #2 - Ocean Beach Master Plan
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Please join us at the Golden Gate Park Senior Center on Saturday, June 4th for the Ocean Beach Master Plan Public Workshop #2. The project team has been hard at work analyzing the impacts of different courses of action at Ocean Beach. You will have a chance to review several "test scenarios" and compare their outcomes in categories like ecology, infrastructure, and public access over a 100-year period…
The Numbers: SF's Compost Program Offsets 2 years of Bay Bridge Traffic
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San Franciscans have been throwing compostable waste into the “third bin” for 15 years now, since we began a composting pilot program in 1996. But anyone who thinks the third bin has only tertiary importance should know that since its beginning, San Francisco’s composting program has offset 354,600 metric tons of greenhouse gasses, equivalent to the emissions of all vehicles crossing the Bay Bridge for…
7 Phone Apps That Can Make Cities Better
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One of the greatest allures of a smart phone is the time it saves at the bus stop. Having real-time transit info and nearby stop locations at your fingertips makes city living just a little easier. But popular transit apps are just the beginning. Increasingly, smart phone technology is fundamentally changing the way we physically experience our cities.We have written before about SFMTA’s SFpark…
Weekly Snapshot: Imagining Detroit
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Mark Bittman of the New York Times calls Detroit a model of "self-reliance and growth," citing the residents ability to look within the city for solutions to challenges posed by a shrinking population. The key to Detroit's recent successes, Bittman argues, is food. The city's food system is integrated with a sense of justice, community, and a commitment to smart land use that unifies residents…
The Numbers: Sea Level Rise Will Expose 270,000 People in the Bay Area to Flood Risk
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Tomorrow night, we open " Adapt!" an exhibition on the coming effects of climate change in the Bay Area. The show highlights key points from a SPUR policy report released earlier this month, which explains the kinds of changes we can expect to our climate — and what we need to do now to prepare. As our report explains, efforts to slow down…
The Numbers: 30.3% of San Francisco Households Do Not Have a Vehicle
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Compare this to the national picture: only 8.7% of U.S. household don't have cars. While we're certainly ahead of most parts of the country on carfree living, this still means that more than two thirds of San Francisco households do own a car -- and a higher percentage of San Franciscans, 38.9%, use their cars to drive alone to work. The San Francisco Municipal…