Keep Building Oakland
News / As the pace of residential development picks up in downtown Oakland and the Broadway-Valdez area, it’s worth remembering that Oakland is much, much bigger than those two small neighborhoods and that very little is being built anywhere else. If we really want to alleviate the housing shortage, we need to build much more housing, in many more parts of the city.
Why Brisbane Baylands Matters to the Bay Area Housing Shortage
News / The Brisbane City Council will decide this summer whether to allow 4,400 housing units and 7 million square feet of commercial space within walking distance of an underutilized Caltrain station. Seems like the perfect place for homes, amenities and jobs, but so far the Brisbane Planning Commission has favored a low-density plan with no housing. Here’s why this matters — to all of us.
Learning From Seattle
The Urbanist / to
How Caltrain’s Business Plan Can Reinvent the Railroad
News / Now that Caltrain’s electrification project has federal funding, leaders and the public can start designing the Caltrain of the future. Finishing the $2.25 billion modernization project will mark the beginning of a completely new era for the railroad. As Caltrain begins the process of developing a business plan, here are five important questions we think the business plan should tackle.
What’s Going Up in Downtown San Jose? Our Take on Three Trends
News / The number of proposed developments in downtown San Jose is up — but only one project broke ground in the last year. Blocks are filling in with new businesses — but beloved Camera 12 Cinemas has shut its doors. These mixed signals make it hard to predict what the market will do next, but we’ve seen three clear trends play out in recent months.
Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones: Four Years In
News / The Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act is about to turn four years old, and the California Legislature is considering a 10-year extension to allow the program more time to develop and give other jurisdictions more time to start incentive programs.
How Is Oakland Doing on Its Affordable Housing Goals?
News / The rate of increase in rents and home sale prices may have slowed, but Oakland still has the fourth highest rents in the nation, and housing remains unaffordable to too many. In 2016, the city set high goals for addressing the housing shortage — but how much progress has been made since then?
Why California’s New Transportation Bill Is a Really Big, Historic Deal
News / Senate Bill 1, the state transportation funding bill passed by the Legislature this month, represents a monumental win for California and the Bay Area. Not only does it solve big problems for cities and transit agencies across the state, it shows that California can raise significant funding for transportation in an era of dwindling federal resources.
What’s Next for the Silicon Valley Economy?
News / As the rate of economic growth begins to slow down, observers are asking what’s next for Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. Will the region’s miraculous growth continue? Will high housing costs ever come down? Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s Russ Hancock addressed some of these concerns when he presented the 2017 Silicon Valley Index at a SPUR forum in San Jose.
Why Central SoMa Needs to Focus on Jobs, Even in a Housing Shortage
News / San Francisco will soon adopt the Central SoMa Plan, the city’s only current major neighborhood plan. In the 230-acre area, the plan changes the zoning to allow 45,000 jobs and 7,500 housing units. Considering the housing shortage, shouldn’t there be more focus on housing in the city’s only active neighborhood plan? Not necessarily. Here are five reasons we think the plan gets the mix right.
Rethinking the Corporate Campus
SPUR Report Technology has become the lifeblood of the San Francisco Bay Area economy, but the office environments where this work takes place do not reflect the innovation occurring within. The traditional suburban corporate campus reinforces dependence on cars and pushes sprawl development into open spaces and farmland. How do we create a more efficient, sustainable and high-performing model for the Bay Area workplace?
Spare the Air, Cool the Climate: The Bay Area’s New Strategy for Clean Energy and Transportation
News / The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has adopted a major new climate action strategy that will move the region closer to attaining its goals for cleaner air and reduced carbon emissions. SPUR strongly supports this bold vision for a post-carbon economy by 2050.
Getting to 5 Percent by 2020: Building Better Bikeways in San Jose
News / In 2009, San Jose set a goal: 500 miles of bikeways and 5 percent of commutes taken by bicycle by 2020. Since then, the city has added 95 new miles of bikeways, yet the share of people commuting by bike has barely inched up. A recent SPUR forum looked at the reasons why — and how the city can build a bike network for everybody.
Lessons for Diridon: Denver’s Success Story That Almost Didn’t Happen
News / Since Denver Union Station reopened in 2014, it has become one of the nation’s best examples of a modern intermodal train station embedded in a transit-friendly urban neighborhood. The project has a number of important lessons for the team that’s planning the transformation of San Jose’s Diridon Station into a major transportation hub with the country’s first high-speed rail station.
2017 Good Government Awards: How Eva Cheong Modernized Transportation at SFO
News / The 2017 Good Government Awards, Held on March 22, recognized outstanding performances by Managers Working for the City and County of San Francisco. The ceremony honored Eva Cheong for her leadership in enabling the legal operation transportation network companies at SFO.
2017 Good Government Awards: How Robert Beck Launched the Transformation of Treasure Island
News / The 2017 Good Government Awards, Held on March 22, recognized outstanding performances by Managers Working for the City and County of San Francisco. The ceremony honored Bob Beck, for his role in the transfer of nearly 300 acres of Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island, and his leadership in the 25-year process of transforming the former naval base into a sustainable, mixed-use, high-density, transit-oriented space.
2017 Good Government Awards: How the S.F. Benefits Net Team Streamlined Social Good
News / The 2017 Good Government Awards, Held on March 22, recognized outstanding performances by Managers Working for the City and County of San Francisco. The Ceremony Honored the S.F. Net Benefits Team for integrating t he city’s CalFresh and MediCal programs into a streamlined, one-stop service delivery model that provides nearly one in four San Franciscans with nutrition assistance and low-cost health coverage.
2017 Good Government Awards: How Donny Oliveira Champions San Francisco’s Environmental Initiatives
News / The 2017 Good Government Awards, Held on March 22, recognized outstanding performances by Managers Working for the City and County of San Francisco. The ceremony honored Donnie Oliveira for his work creating clever, culturally sensitive public outreach programs to help San Francisco achieve its environmental protection goals.