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August 4, 2011A Walk Down Market Street BY Jeffrey TumlinFor the July issue of the Urbanist — on how to transform Market Street — we asked Jeffrey Tumlin, principal at transportation planning firm Nelson\Nygaard, to take us on a tour of Market Street's history. To learn about plans for Market Street today, read the July Urbanist.In 1847, Captain John Montgomery’s band of occupying forces gave the scruffy Mexican settlement of Yerba Buena a new name, San Francisco, claiming the town for the United States and bringing its...
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July 28, 2011Weekly Snapshot: LA Puts a Halt to Red Light Cameras By Justin Baker RhettIn Los Angeles, the City Council voted unanimously to put an end to its traffic enforcement camera program. The program, which used cameras to identify drivers who ran red lights at city intersections, had cost Los Angeles 1.5 million dollars a year due to unpaid tickets. On top of the financial issues, studies raised doubt as to whether or not the program was effective in reducing the number of accidents on L.A. streets, further delegitimizing the traffic enforcement program.Read full...
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July 26, 2011Feathers Fly Over Backyard Farming Rules in Oakland By Eli Zigas, Food Systems and Urban Agriculture Program ManagerIt’d be unthinkable to ban dogs, cats, and many other types of pets in cities. But if you want to raise other types of animals (like chickens, ducks and rabbits) for their eggs or meat, you might run into a lot more regulation.How much more regulation was a hot topic at a recent community meeting about urban agriculture hosted by the Oakland Planning Department. Nearly 300 people turned out to debate the laws around backyard animal husbandry.Currently in Oakland, gardeners who want to...
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July 22, 2011Coastal Commission Slams Armoring at Ocean Beach by Ben Grant, Public Realm and Urban Design Program ManagerOn July 13, the California Coastal Commission unanimously denied a permit application from the City and County of San Francisco for coastal armoring along the Great Highway South of Sloat Boulevard. The application was submitted by the City's Department of Public Works, which is responsible for the protection of city infrastructure, including the Lake Merced Tunnel, a 14-foot diameter sewer pipe under the Great Highway. DPW constructed rock revetments (i.e., linear piles of boulders) on the...
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July 22, 2011Weekly Snapshot: A New High-Tech Assault on Midtown Traffic Jams BY Justin Baker RhettIn an effort to combat major gridlock in Midtown Manhattan, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city transportation officials introduced a 1.6 million dollar program to improve traffic in one of the city’s most congested areas. The program, which uses wireless technology to gather data from microwave sensors, traffic video cameras and EZ-Pass readers, is the most recent of several attempts to deal with traffic in Midtown. With traffic delays costing New York City’s economy...
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July 21, 2011Take a Virtual Tour of SPUR's Climate Change Exhibition, "Adapt!" By Noah Christman and Karen SteenTaking down a show at the SPUR Urban Center Gallery is always a sad moment. An exhibition is one of the best ways to de-nerdify our policy research and make it accessible to a wide audience. But once it comes down from our walls, we lose that public window into our work. So when we heard about Microsoft’s Photosynth technology, we got excited. Photosynth creates a virtual environment by collaging together hundreds of very high resolution photos. In short, it could allow anyone to visit...
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July 19, 2011The Numbers: LA Cross-Town, 85% Longer for a Plane Than a Bike By Eli Zigas, Food Systems and Urban Agriculture Program ManagerL.A.’s highly hyped “carmageddon” — the two-day closure of the 405 freeway — was not the apocalypse many feared. But it did provide a great showdown of transit alternatives.In the starting gates were: bikes, mass transit and a plane (chartered by gimmick-savvy Jet Blue).The “track” itself: Los Angeles. Specifically, a 40ish mile north to south beeline from North Hollywood to the shore of Long Beach. Approximately: Twin Peaks to Petaluma, the Ferry...
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July 18, 2011What Will 4th Street Look Like in Twenty Years? By Sarah Karlinsky, Deputy DirectorThe stretch of 4th Street between Market Street and the Caltrain station at 4th and King Street may not be one of San Francisco’s best-known neighborhoods (at least not yet), but it’s an important area for urbanists to be thinking about. Why? Because roughly $1.5 billion will be invested in transit infrastructure here, in the form of the Central Subway. This project will ultimately link the T-Third Street Muni line with Chinatown. Meanwhile, other significant plans in the area will...
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July 17, 2011New SPUR Program: Food Systems and Urban Agriculture By Eli Zigas, Food Systems and Urban Agriculture Program ManagerWe are what we eat. It’s true for people — but also for cities and regions. The food we consume and the system that produces, distributes and disposes of it are as vital to San Francisco and the Bay Area as our systems for housing, energy, water and governance. Like those other systems — staples of SPUR policy — food is a basic human need and provides a perspective for answering the question, “How do we make our city and region a more livable place?”...
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July 17, 2011Redevelopment is Dead. Long Live Redevelopment! By Sarah Karlinsky, Deputy DirectorThis year has been a wild one for redevelopment agencies in in California. In November 2010, the voters of California passed Proposition 22, which effectively prevented the state from raiding redevelopment agency funds. Then, just a few months into his tenure, Governor Jerry Brown vowed to abolish redevelopment agencies and got fairly close to doing so, despite the extraordinary efforts of organizations like the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH), to save the parts of...
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