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February 14, 2011Weekly Snapshot POSTED BY ANIKA JESIWith Detroit in Dire Straits, Mayor Invites Big Thinking In order to take on the challenges posed by a shrinking population, lost revenue and tight budget, Mayor Bing of Detroit is making an open call for any plans, proposals and theories on how to cure the ailing city. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/07/AR2011020705338.html Urbanism in the Age of Climate Change In an interview, urban planner Peter Calthorpe talks about his new book Urbanism in the Age of Climate...
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February 10, 2011Twitter's Possible Relocation Opens Debate over How to Keep Jobs in the City POSTED BY ED PARILLONSan Francisco might be the cultural center of the region, but in the technology sector the city has generally played second fiddle to the Silicon Valley. That began to change during the dot-com boom and then again more recently, a new generation of startups is setting up in neighborhoods like SoMa and Potrero Hill. (SPUR discussed the trend in its “year in urbanism” recap.)One of the most well-known of these emerging technology companies is Twitter, which has been...
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February 9, 2011The Datablog Takes to the Road POSTED BY JORDAN SALINGER + COLLEEN MCHUGHWhen I entered Stamen’s offices in the Mission district of San Francisco, I saw four people gathered around a computer screen. What were they doing? Nothing less than “mapping the world,” not as it appears in flat dimension, but how it reveals itself. And they weren’t joking. Stamen, a data visualization firm, has always kept the concept of “place” central to many of their projects. They achieved this most famously through their crimespotting maps...
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February 4, 2011Let’s Not Miss the Boat on What the America’s Cup Could do for San Francisco POSTED BY JENNIFER WARBURG + GABRIEL METCALFWhen it comes to global sporting events, almost as intense as the competition between star athletes is the competition between cities to play host.That’s because hosting a major international sporting event presents a unique opportunity for a city to redefine its development goals, stimulate investment and boost tourism.Just last month it was decided that San Francisco would host the 34th America’s Cup. There is no doubt that the San Francisco Bay will provide a breathtaking venue...
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February 4, 2011Weekly Snapshot POSTED BY ANIKA JESI"Residents of Transit-Oriented Development Say 'No' To Transit"What happens when a neighborhood is transit-ready, but it's residents aren't? Not much, if the community doesn't see the benefit of TOD, argues Kaid Benfield.http://www.good.is/post/residents-of-transit-oriented-development-say-no-to-transit/"Once Popular, Car Pools Go the Way of Hitchhiking"An article by the New York Times looks at the economic reasons behind a sharp decline in carpooling;...
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February 3, 2011SPUR POPOS Guide Now in Google Maps! BY JAVIER DEL CASTILLOUpdate: our POPOS guide is now available as an iPhone app, too!A year and a half ago SPUR revealed some of San Francisco's best kept secrets: a rich network of privately owned public open spaces (POPOS) scattered throughout the city's downtown urban area. These are great spots around downtown to eat lunch, hold an informal meeting, or simply soak up some nature. Our web version of the POPOS guide will lead you to these many spaces from your desktop or phone. Big or small, park or "...
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January 28, 2011Weekly Snapshot POSTED BY ANIKA JESI"A Miami Beach Event Space. Parking Space, Too"A parking garage in Miami doubles as an unlikely but sought after event space because of its high-end architecture and stunning views of the city.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/us/24garage.html?em"Should We Sell Naming Rights to Infrastructure"In order to address a $72 million budget deficit, D.C. Metro is considering selling the naming rights of its stations to major corporations. This means the next time you ride D.C. metro...
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January 27, 2011Exploring Chinatown's Alleyways POSTED BY COLLEEN MCHUGH + JORDAN SALINGER
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January 25, 2011It Takes a Village... to Close a Power Plant Joshua ArceThe December 21, 2010 announcement that San Francisco's polluting Potrero Power Plant would shut down by the end of the year was as much a cause for celebration as it was a reason to recount the twists and turns that it took to finally shutter the city's last fossil fuel-burning commercial power plant. For many years, the preferred method of closing Potrero was to build three new power plants to replace it smack dab between the Bayview-Hunters Point and Potrero Hill communities where...
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January 24, 2011Re-thinking Redevelopment POSTED BY JORDAN SALINGEROur new Governor is proposing to eliminate redevelopment in California. (See Governor's proposal called "Tax Relief and Local Government," here. Yesterday, SPUR's executive director, weighed in on the debate with an opinion piece in the Chronicle, arguing that we should reform, rather than eliminate, redevelopment. For contrasting opinions, see the LA Times series from last fall that un-earthed many examples of problems with redevelopment, and an opinion piece in the Contra...
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