SPUR Publications

Like San Jose’s South First Area, Miami’s Wynwood District leveraged the arts to transform an underutilized neighborhood into a successful mix of galleries, nightclubs and restaurants. Today rising rents risk driving away the very artists that made Wynwood such a unique and attractive place. As large-scale development comes to downtown San Jose and SoFA, what lessons can the city learn from Wynwood’s story?

From Copenhagen to Los Angeles, cities are finding new ways to address their interconnected health, climate, congestion, equity and economic challenges through innovative thinking about public spaces. At November’s San Jose Public Life Summit, urbanist and public design advocate Gil Peñalosa challenged leaders and residents in San Jose to move forward with ambitious projects that support sustainable mobility, vibrant public spaces and civic engagement.

Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris is a leader in the movement to transform how we respond to early childhood adversity and stress. She serves as an expert advisor on the Too Small to Fail initiative and on the American Academy of Pediatrics National Advisory Board for Screening. Her book The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity will be released in January of 2018.

Steve Nakajo is a civic leader and longtime champion of San Francisco’s Japanese American community. In 1971, he co-founded (with Sandy Mori) Kimochi, Inc., a successful community-based nonprofit, to bring social services to non-English-speaking seniors of Japantown. A longtime instructor in the Asian American Studies and MSW programs at San Francisco State University, Nakajo served on the the City’s Fire Commission and the Arts Commission.

As principals of ROMA Design group, Boris Dramov and Bonnie Fisher have championed an urban design consciousness that stresses the integration of architecture and landscape architecture. Dramov and Fisher have had an unparalleled impact on the revitalization of San Francisco’s waterfront, from Fisherman’s Wharf to China Basin.

Abdi Soltani is a nationally recognized civil rights leader whose work with the ACLU of Northern California has helped transform California into one of the nation's most progressive states. With his leadership, the ACLU has cultivated partnerships with communities most directly impacted by injustice, and developed a presence in the Central Valley and in Sacramento.

With your support, SPUR is working to create a better future for the cities of the Bay Area. The region we envision is affordable and inclusive. It is linked by high-speed transit that’s easy and convenient to use. It leads the world as the first carbon-free metropolis. Together, we can make the Bay Area a model for how a metropolitan region should work.