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SPUR articles, research, policy recommendations, and our magazine, The Urbanist

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What Comes Next for Downtown San Francisco?

News /
Hybrid work and a scarcity of affordable housing have depopulated San Francisco’s downtown. The consequences have been devastating to San Francisco’s budget, putting essential services and surviving small businesses at risk. How can the city create more economic diversity downtown — and address pre-COVID equity and sustainability challenges? SPUR has identified four key areas on which to focus our downtown revitalization research, engagement, and advocacy.

New Transit-Oriented Communities Policy Encourages Equitable and Sustainable Development

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The Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Transit Oriented Communities Policy, passed in 2022, aims to simultaneously address the climate crisis, the Bay Area’s unaffordability, and racial and economic inequities. SPUR reports on the policy’s main components and answers some critical questions, such as how local jurisdictions are being incentivized to comply with the policy and how residents can follow and become involved in its implementation.

It’s Time for California to Step Up for Public Transit: Here’s How to Help

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California transit agencies are facing a $6 billion fiscal cliff. Millions of Californians rely on public transit for access to jobs and school — and the state’s climate, equity, health, and housing goals depend on it. We’re calling for a multiyear commitment to keep transit alive. Here’s what you can do to help.

Welcome to Our New 2023 SPUR Board Members

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SPUR welcomes seven new members to its board of directors. These new appointees bring extensive knowledge in planning, economic justice, sustainability and resilience, good government, and housing. We look forward to their advisorship as we continue our work to make the Bay Area a place where everyone can thrive.

SPUR Sponsors Seven State Bills to Make Housing More Affordable

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Housing continues to be scarce in the Bay Area and unobtainable for even many middle-income residents. SPUR is advocating for and sponsoring legislation that incentivizes and removes barriers to housing production. In addition, we are supporting a nearly $8 billion budget request for investments in affordable housing and funding for homelessness solutions.

Remembering J. Peter Winkelstein

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J. Peter Winkelstein, longtime SPUR board member, talented architect, mentor, and friend to many, died on March 29 at age 94. His work for SPUR continued past his board tenure, as the chair of the new SPUR Urban Center Building Committee. He exemplified a well-lived life of public contribution, and we will all miss him.

New Findings on Shallow Groundwater Rise Highlight a Climate Risk Not Addressed by Policy

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The Bay Area’s climate change adaptation strategies don’t reflect — and might even worsen — the impacts of coastal groundwater rise, which is expected to accelerate with sea level rise as the climate warms. New findings on groundwater rise point to multiple potential risks: degradation of underground infrastructure, movement of underground contaminants left by industrial activities, and an increase in liquefaction during earthquakes. The region’s coastal areas may need a new adaptation paradigm.

How Updating CEQA Can Keep Sustainable Transportation Projects on Track: Q&A with Laura Tolkoff

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The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is intended to protect people and places from the environmental impacts of new development and infrastructure. But it has not been designed to protect against a rapidly warming climate, and ironically, it has sometimes been used to block projects aimed at doing so. SPUR Transportation Policy Director Laura Tolkoff recently testified before a state committee on possible reforms to the law.

Two State Bills Aim to Shore Up the Food Safety Net

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The convergence of high food prices and the end of CalFresh emergency allotments is hitting low-income Californians hard. SPUR is co-sponsoring two bills to keep struggling households from slipping through the food safety net. Both would make proven pilots into permanent benefits that reduce hunger and improve public health.

A Technological Leap Makes Expanding Healthy Food Incentive Programs Easier

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California has taken a big step forward in scaling up healthy food incentive programs: CalFresh participants can now get bonus dollars from their healthy food purchases electronically credited to their benefits card. That technological leap happened because of legislation SPUR co-sponsored. Now SPUR is working to overcome the remaining challenge to enlarging healthy food incentive programs: insufficient funding.

Paving the Way to Downtown Revitalization: Three Cities San Francisco Can Learn From

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San Francisco’s office vacancy rate, one of the highest in the country, has dampened the city’s liveliness and economic prospects. Other cities are tackling the resilience challenges that office-centric downtowns face by reconsidering office building uses and creating incentives for redevelopment. San Francisco can take a page from their revitalization plans.

Investing in San José's Parks and Open Spaces Creates a Virtuous Cycle

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San José’s parks and open spaces are underfunded and falling into disuse. Realizing their potentially large economic and social dividends will take significant and sustainable funding mechanisms. Now more than ever, the city must study, assess, and develop long-term funding strategies with clear communication, intentionality, and creativity.

Averting a Worsening Hunger Crisis Hinges on Making Temporary Benefits Programs Permanent

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Recipients of CalFresh food assistance are about to take a big hit: emergency allotments authorized during the COVID-19 pandemic are set to expire just as food costs are at historic highs. SPUR is working to make temporary food access programs permanent and has just launched a statewide project institutionalizing supplemental benefits by making them directly reimbursable to recipients’ EBT cards.

How California Can Help Transit Survive — and Thrive

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Public transit is an essential service for millions of Californians, yet as one-time federal COVID-19 relief funds dry up, many transit agencies are facing a fiscal crisis. The state’s largest and most fare-dependent operators could see severe service cuts and a spiraling decline. SPUR is leading a coalition urging the state to provide necessary funding to keep buses and trains running as agencies work to transition to a sustainable business model.

The Bay Area Has Too Little Middle-Income Housing: Q&A With Sarah Karlinsky

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In a new research paper, Losing Ground: What the Bay Area's Housing Crisis Means for Middle-Income Households and Racial Inequality , SPUR’s senior advisor on housing policy, Sarah Karlinsky, reveals how the high cost of housing is shaping the Bay Area in ways that erode quality of life and erase economic and racial diversity. We spoke with Sarah about the research and its implications.

Losing Ground

Research
SPUR’s new research paper, Losing Ground: What the Bay Area’s Housing Crisis Means for Middle-Income Households and Racial Inequality , aims to identify how the Bay Area’s housing market has become shaped by scarcity and wide economic divides not only among income groups but also among races and ethnicities.

Putting an End to Biased Traffic Stops in San Francisco

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Black and Latinx drivers in San Francisco are pulled over more than other drivers for offenses so minor that citations are often not issued. When these “pretext” stops do result in tickets, the resulting fines can be punitive. Using data-driven decision making, San Francisco has limited eight types of pretext stops that had no effect on road safety and little effect on public safety. SPUR and dozens of other organizations, along with impacted people, helped end this unjust practice.

With Subsidies, Pollution-Preventing Heat Pump Upgrades Can Be Affordable for Low-Income Bay Area Households

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Next month, Bay Area regulators will vote on a proposal to phase out appliances that emit toxic nitrogen oxide pollution, setting the stage for a transition away from gas appliances. Will the new standard pose a cost burden to low-income families already struggling to make it in the Bay Area? We looked at the numbers and found that the true net cost of replacing end-of-life gas appliances with energy-efficient electric heat pumps will add up to a cost savings.

Op-Ed: How San José’s Elected Leaders Can Plan for Success

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The success of San José and the well-being of its residents depend on a fully-staffed and functioning planning department that guides how and where San José's community grows and evolves and expedites projects that conform to the City Council-adopted vision. This is how good government works and must be a top priority for our elected leaders.

Op-Ed: Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria Are a Wake-Up for California. We're Not Prepared for the Big One.

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The devastating earthquakes that shook Turkey and Syria last Monday have taken the lives of over 23,000 people . Such a staggering death toll is hard to wrap the mind around and may seem like an impossibility here in California. Yet, the reality is that a similar magnitude earthquake near Los Angeles or San Francisco could lead to thousands of residents injured or killed and many more displaced, temporarily or permanently, from their damaged or destroyed homes.