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

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Evergreen Senior Homes Initiative: Vote No in June

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This June, voters in San Jose will consider the Evergreen Senior Homes Initiative, a ballot measure that would approve a plan to build 900 housing units for seniors on a 200-acre parcel in the Evergreen area. The measure would create significant exemptions from the priorities laid out in the Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan and weaken inclusionary housing requirements. SPUR recommends voting "no."

Parking + Placemaking = San Pedro Squared

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San Jose’s San Pedro Square is a one-sided retail and entertainment strip. Bars and restaurants line the west side of the street, but the main feature on the east side is a monolithic parking garage. In 2014, SPUR suggested making the first row of parking on the ground floor available for pop-up uses like food trucks and retail. The idea is now becoming a reality.

How New Approaches to the Storefront Are Reviving Retail

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New technology, changing demographics and shifting consumer preferences have caused a slump in sales at big-box stores, traditional shopping malls and downtown storefronts across the country. But innovative uses of space and new approaches to drawing customers into stores show signs of promise. A recent SPUR forum in San Jose explored how retailers are finding success locally.

Oakland Needs More — Here’s How to Get It

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Oaklanders have been willing to tax themselves heavily over the years, but it’s never enough to provide an adequate level of services. The need for more, and the inability to deliver it, has been a defining characteristic of the city for the last few decades. How can Oakland change this? By growing its job and tax revenue bases.

An Easier Way to Double the Fresh in CalFresh

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Thousands of people in Santa Clara County have been earning and redeeming Double Up Food Bucks for fruits and vegetables at participating grocery stores. Our program has been working well, but because Double Up Food Bucks are distributed on paper coupons, they can be cumbersome. A new bill would address the issue and pave the way to scale programs like Double Up statewide.

What’s the Best Use for Oakland’s Publicly Owned Land?

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Many have asked how Oakland’s publicly owned land might be put to use to create affordable housing. The city is now working with a community coalition to develop a new policy for how public land is used. At issue is whether prioritizing affordable housing on public land would pit affordability against other important imperatives like generating funding for city services and creating well-paying local jobs.

Phasing Out Nuclear Power in California

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Nuclear power and the future of California’s electricity grid made the news last week with the announcement that the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved closing Diablo Canyon, the state’s last operating nuclear power plant. SPUR wrote about this promising idea in our 2016 report Fossil-Free Bay Area .

Big City, Big Airport: How San Jose Can Have Both

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The remaking of Diridon Station is the most important city-building opportunity San Jose will get for a long time. But the amount of growth planned for the area is limited by the station’s proximity to the Mineta San Jose Airport and its flight paths. Can San Jose get more space near the station for jobs and housing? Preliminary analysis by SPUR and SOM says yes.

Lessons from Wynwood: A Case Study on Urban Arts Districts

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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?

Gil Peñalosa Challenges San Jose to Build a Healthier, Happier, More Equitable City

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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.

How to Lead the Nation — From the Bay Area

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The Bay Area has become a central player in the story of our country. First because we are coming up with the innovations that are disrupting the economy and people’s lives. Second because we represent an alternative path, a model of progressive urbanism. Our task is to make that model really work — and we're not as far away as we might think.

2017 Silver SPUR Awards: How Dr. Nadine Burke Harris Is Transforming Response to Early Childhood Adversity

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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.

2017 Silver SPUR Awards: How Steve Nakajo Champions San Francisco’s Japanese Community

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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.

2017 Silver SPUR Awards: How Abdi Soltani Fights for Civil Rights

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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.

You Make Cities Great

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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.

San Jose's Sustainability Plan Sets a New Climate Standard

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San Jose’s proposed Environmental Sustainability Plan will go a step beyond California’s ambitious climate goals with a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in compliance with the 2016 Paris Accords. In becoming the first American city to develop a “Paris compliant” pathway, San Jose aims to lead the way among cities in reducing climate impacts.

Remembering George Williams

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City planner, former SPUR Board member and long-time SPUR volunteer George Williams passed away on November 7. The deputy director of San Francisco’s Department of City Planning for 20 years, he was instrumental in creating San Francisco’s 1985 Downtown Plan. We will greatly miss George, and we’re grateful for his years of service to SPUR and to the City of San Francisco.