SPUR Publications

This spring SPUR hosted Adam Ganser of Friends of the High Line to share the story of New York City’s linear park built atop a disused freight rail trestle. To help kick off a new SPUR initiative to re-imagine San Jose’s Guadalupe River Park, Ganser shared the High Line’s history, as well as lessons learned from this national model in public space development.

San Jose’s South First Area has become the downtown destination for discovering visual art, food, culture, music and more. Over the last year, SPUR worked with stakeholders and compiled research to guide city and community leaders as they face growth pressures in SoFA. Together we have looked at how the city can add residential units while preserving and enhancing the unique culture of the district.

Adopted in 2011, San Jose’s ambitious Envision 2040 plan included goals of bringing more than 10,000 new homes and nearly 50,000 jobs to downtown San Jose. Every year, SPUR reports on the progress we’re making as a city to realize these goals. This year, we’re seeing three positive trends, as well as major decisions on the horizon.

Construction costs are a growing barrier to building new housing in California. Today, experts don’t agree on the exact reasons for California’s soaring costs, which often leads to policy fights based on ideology, not facts. A new research series from the Terner Center for Housing Innovation aims to add data to the debate. At a recent SPUR forum, panelists discussed the research to date.

Uber’s recent announcement that it is adding new travel modes to its platform caught the public transportation sector flat footed. It’s time for Bay Area transportation leaders to start setting a vision for mobility-as-a-service, an approach that makes many transportation choices available through a single platform and payment system. For many reasons, we need government — not the private sector — to take the lead.

The adoption of autonomous vehicles on a grand scale is not inevitable, and their predicted benefits have not yet been proven. As we plan for the transportation system of the future, we should set goals that we will accomplish with AVs or without them. The following are effective strategies to manage traffic and make it easier to get around — even if AVs never arrive.

What would you and your family do if a serious earthquake struck the East Bay? The U.S. Geological Society has released a major study of a hypothetical magnitude-7.0 earthquake striking on the Hayward Fault. Known as the HayWired earthquake scenario, the project uses scientific modeling of realistic impacts to envision what would happen — and what we need to do to get ready.

Depending on who you talk to, the introduction of autonomous vehicles could be a panacea or endlessly fraught with problems. But AVs are not inevitable: We need to plan for many possible scenarios. As part of the SPUR Regional Strategy , we have launched research on the Bay Area's future transportation system. Here’s a look at our thinking on how AVs could manifest in cities.

With only enough shelter beds to serve 25 percent of its homeless population, San Jose continues to look for short-term housing interventions. One promising step: The San Jose Department of Housing is in the process of piloting Bridge Housing Communities, a micro community of 40 sleeping cabins and community spaces to be placed on city-owned property.

In early March, the California High-Speed Rail Authority released its draft 2018 business plan, which outlines key milestones ahead and updates forecasts for costs, service levels and ridership. The plan has some important changes, including a revised funding and delivery schedule of the first operating segment, which will service in the Bay Area and Central Valley as soon as 2027.