SPUR Publications

As the coronavirus continues to make headlines, SPUR is keeping members and event attendees updated and informed on the precautions we are taking in response to the recent outbreak.

San Francisco supervisors are about to vote on a plan amendment that would bring affordable housing, community benefits and open space improvements to the Market Octavia area. Some are calling for the amendment to set affordability and public benefit requirements even higher. But the way to get the most benefit for San Francisco from this proposal is simply to pass it as it stands.

Around the San Francisco Bay, a number of different processes are underway to address sea level rise, coastal flooding and other climate change impacts on the Bay shoreline. To bring all of these efforts together and make sure they complement — rather than compete with — one another, SPUR and SFEI propose four policy ideas for how to govern adaptation strategies across the region.

In an essay for the exhibition Cars: Accelerating the Modern World , SPUR’s Allison Arieff asks: What would happen if we didn’t let the car determine the design of our cities and the pattern of our daily lives? Cities, she argues, might end up looking a lot like the fictional world at the center of the film Black Panther .

The results of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission first-ever Transformative Transportation Projects competition are in: We are thrilled to share that integrated transit fares — a proposal from SPUR, Seamless Bay Area and others — rose to the top as not only the most transformative of the 11 finalists but one of the highest-performing projects overall.

We are excited to announce that, through investment made by the Knight Foundation and in partnership with the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, SPUR will embark on a three-year research and planning project for Guadalupe River Park. Our work will focus on understanding the park’s current challenges, investigating what is possible, raising community understanding and awareness, and inspiring a conversation around the power of place.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has made some big improvements to its methodology for assessing transportation proposals and deciding which ones to recommend for funding. What’s more, the improved tool provides a useful diagnostic for how project funding and planning in the Bay Area needs to change. SPUR offers three key observations on what this new perspective means for the next generation of transportation investments.

After years of work, the City of Oakland is close to completing a specific plan for downtown Oakland. While the current draft is a great improvement over earlier drafts, SPUR believes that the plan needs to be more visionary and that it should encourage both jobs and housing — and put them in the right places.

For San José, 2019 was a year of planning for the big ideas launched in 2018. The city made major progress on the policy analysis, planning processes and community dialogue needed to realize those visions, with some notable milestones.

When cities and transit agencies pilot new kinds of services, the early ridership numbers are not always strong, leading many to dismiss the new ideas — and the agencies for trying them. But this skepticism undermines the purpose of pilots: to test new ways to get people out of their cars. Rather than pooh-poohing pilots, we should embrace them as a chance to learn.

San Jose’s Coyote Valley is a paradox: Just 20 minutes south of downtown, miles of farmland and open space provide natural habitat for rare and endangered species. For a decade, locals have debated whether to preserve the land or build manufacturing space and grow jobs. Last week, San Jose City Council settled the debate, agreeing to purchase and preserve more than 900 acres.