SPUR Community Shares Its Vision for the Bay Area in 2070
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Earlier this year, SPUR began planning its first ever regional strategy for the Bay Area, an aspirational vision of what the region could be like in the year 2070 and a roadmap for getting there. Here’s what participants in three community workshops shared about their values and vision for the region for the next half century.
2018 Silver SPUR Awards: How Anita Friedman Helps Children, the Elderly and Everyone in Between
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2018 Silver SPUR Honoree Dr. Anita Friedman’s record of public service ranges from leading the Bay Area’s Jewish Family and Children’s Services to serving as policy consultant to the State of Israel Ministry of Social Affairs. Her expertise includes social policy and programming for diverse populations; financing of health and human services; developing innovative business and social enterprise models; and Holocaust and genocide education.
2018 Silver SPUR Awards: How Greg Moore Leads One of the Country's Most Popular National Parks
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Under 2018 Silver SPUR Honoree Greg Moore’s leadership, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy has become one of the most successful nonprofits supporting the national park system, providing more than $500 million to park projects and programs since 1981 as well as receiving numerous national awards for excellence in interpretation, conservation and park improvement.
2018 Silver SPUR Awards: How Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins Creates a More Just Criminal Justice System
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2018 Silver SPUR Honoree Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is a social justice advocate, businesswoman and community organizer dedicated to making measurable change. She has lead a number of labor and social justice organizations, such as the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, Working Partnerships USA, Green For All and is a Co-founder of Promise, a de-carceration startup that works with government agencies to keep people out of jail.
2018 Silver SPUR Awards: How Reverend Harry Chuck Improves Quality of Life in San Francisco’s Chinatown
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2018 Silver SPUR Award Recipient Reverend Harry Chuck is a lifelong civil rights activist and leader in the Chinatown community. Chuck was the executive director of Donaldina Cameron House, pastor of Chinatown Presbyterian Church, co-chairperson of Chinatown Coalition for Better Housing, and is now producing through a documentary called Chinatown Rising.
How Has San Francisco Run Out of Money for Affordable Housing?
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San Francisco is running out of funds to build affordable housing, and the city will need to make changes quickly to fix the problem. How did this happen and what can be done? A combination of rising construction costs and new requirements is slowing down new development and curtailing incoming fees. SPUR has five suggestions for how to address the problem before it gets worse.
Lessons for Guadalupe River Park: Denver Plans for Economic Growth Along the South Platte River
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Major plans for new jobs, housing, BART and high-speed rail connections will reshape San Jose’s urban core. Amid this planned growth, the city has an opportunity to capitalize on one of its most treasured resources, the Guadalupe River Park. Denver's River Mile plan — a proposal to transform a downtown riverfront — offers lessons for turning an underused natural resource into an urban attraction.
Can the Reluctant Metropolis Embrace Enthusiasm for the Future?
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In his final public address, outgoing SPUR President and CEO Gabriel Metcalf shared his reflections on where the Bay Area has been and where it's going. To end our housing crisis and transportation woes, he argued, our reluctant metropolis must embrace its role as a world city and economic center.
Working Together to Help Solve Our Region's Problems
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Earlier this year, SPUR provided comments to improve a proposed vacant parcel tax measure (now Measure W) co-sponsored by Oakland City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan. We greatly appreciate the time Councilmember Kaplan spent with us and the changes she made to the measure at our suggestion. The following letter from Councilmember Kaplan is a companion piece to the Oakland section of the SPUR Voter Guide.
Getting Local Land Use Approvals Right
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What can California and its cities do to bring down the soaring costs of housing? Land entitlement is one process that could be reformed to speed up the construction of new housing and reduce costs. At a recent SPUR forum, researchers and planners discussed how state and city reforms might (or might not) streamline the approval processes.
What Does Access Really Mean?
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What do we mean when we say a home, a street or a city is “accessible”? It’s more than a measure of the physical characteristics of the built environment, and it impacts a person’s overall sense of freedom and representation. At a recent SPUR forum, panelists discussed what architects, designers, planners and citizens can do to increase access in our cities.
Advancing Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure in San Jose
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San Jose leads the nation in electric vehicle purchases. In the quickly evolving landscape of electric vehicle ownership, charging technology and future demand, what is the right level of charging service to provide in commercial buildings and multifamily housing? To discuss this challenge, and the market opportunity, SPUR recently brought together real estate developers with experts from PG&E, the City of San Jose and Tesla.
How Can We Create the Best User Experience at Diridon Station?
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Creating a great user experience at the redeveloped Diridon Station will be critical to whether people embrace the station and use transit. If Diridon’s transit services are going to compete with the automobile — or the next big transportation technology — the partners developing the station will need to focus on the user as the primary driver in their planning efforts .
Bay Area Cities Step Up Their Climate Commitments
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Among the most inspiring outcomes of the Global Climate Action Summit, hosted in San Francisco earlier this month, were the climate commitments made by governments and organizations around the world. Bay Area cities and agencies announced ambitious new goals that will wean the region off of natural gas and diesel and make way for a carbon-free future.
Why Bay Area Transit Fares Must Change Before the Upgrade to Clipper 2.0
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Clipper, the Bay Area’s transit fare payment system, is getting an upgrade and moving to a new technology platform, Clipper 2.0. If it happens before the big move, downsizing and streamlining fare policies between the region's 27 transit operators could save millions, make transit more affordable and increase ridership.
Lessons for Guadalupe River Park: How D.C.’s 11th Street Bridge Park Promotes Inclusion
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The proposed transformation of downtown San Jose opens up an opportunity to create iconic and welcoming public spaces where the community can gather. That's why SPUR has launched a major initiative to re-envision the Guadalupe River Park. We invited Scott Kratz of Washington, D.C.'s 11th Street Bridge Park to share lessons learned from the inclusive effort to realize the community’s ambitions for the project.
Tools for Minding, and Mending, Transportation Gaps
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Gaps in the Bay Area transportation system make it challenging for riders to use the many services available: gaps in service, gaps in information, gaps between how the transit network functions today and how it could be. This year SPUR’s Transit + Design Workshops focused on research and design tools to help fill in the gaps that detract from a great customer experience.
Four Future Scenarios for the San Francisco Bay Area
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This report, the first product of the SPUR Regional Strategy, uses a scenario planning process to look at four uncertainties that the Bay Area will contend with over the next 50 years: the economy, housing, transportation and the physical form that growth takes. The resulting scenarios serve as “myths of the future,” stories that reveal the potential long-term outcomes of choices the region makes today.
How Can San Jose Bring Urban Villages to Life?
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In May, the San Jose City Council took an important step toward realizing the city’s general plan when it approved a framework for implementing neighborhood plans known as urban village plans. SPUR strongly supports these steps but believes that even bigger ones must be taken in order for urban villages to succeed. Here are three ways to ensure they live up to their promise.