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November 5, 2010Weekly Snapshot BY ANIKA JESI Elections Cloud High-Speed Rail's Future, Just as New Survey Shows It's Potential: The recent wins of politicians opposed to high-speed rail funding could threaten to stall rail projects in several states such as Florida and Ohio when, only days prior, the American Public Transportation Association had released a survey showing that 62% of people would patronize high speed rail service.Sustainable Growth Formula Eludes Many China Cities: While some Chinese cities are making strides...
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November 4, 2010World Series Also a Victory for BART POSTED BY ED PARILLON [Photo Credit: flickr user NicoleAbalde] As those who follow the Bay Area transit blogosphere already know, Wednesday's Giants World Series victory parade spurred BART on to its highest ridership ever"”by a huge margin. The system carried over half a million riders — 522,000 to be exact, which beat the previous record (from Oct 29, 2009, when the Bay Bridge was closed for emergency repairs) by 18%. BART wasn't the only regional system with a bumper day either: Caltrain...
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November 2, 2010Exploring Future Job Centers of the Bay Area: Hacienda Park, a Midpoint for the Megaregion BY POONAM NARKAR Across the Bay Area, only one in 10 commuters takes transit work each day. And half of those transit commuters go to one job center: downtown San Francisco. But since most work is outside of downtowns, SPUR is trying to understand a little more about emerging suburban and non-downtown job centers. This series will look at the Bay Area's evolving and emerging business districts. For each district, we will ask four main questions:The Location: Where is this place located? How far or...
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October 26, 2010California Forward Features Interview with Gabriel Metcalf "The only way we're going to do something about sprawl, which is the environmental problem of our generation, is to increase density near transit and already urbanized areas." Watch the full interview with SPUR's Executive Director.
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October 26, 2010Canadian Suburbanites More Likely to Ride Transit than Americans POSTED BY ED PARILLON Jarrett Walker of Human Transit has an intriguing post comparing transit ridership in American cities to those in Canada. As you can see in the chart below (based on these data), Canadian cities seem to have higher transit usage than American metro regions of similar size (the points on the chart are all based on metropolitan areas, not central cities). [Chart via: urbanist.typepad.com/]There's been a lot of speculation over at Human Transit as to why this might be, as the reasons aren...
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October 22, 2010Weekly Snapshot BY ANIKA JESI SPUR members toured Recycle Central last week [Photo Credit: Colleen McHugh] Can We Farm in Skyscrapers? Author Dickson Despommier thinks we can. His newest book on "vertical farming" advocates for growing food in multi-story urban agriculture centers as a way to cut down on the resources traditionally involved in producing and transporting crops.How SoHo Can Save the Suburbs: As more young families opt to live in cities rather than suburbs, suburban renewal has taken on a new level...
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October 22, 2010Loma Prieta Turns 21, a Sobering Reminder for a More Resilient San Francisco COLEEN MCHUGH Long-time and fair-weather Giants fans alike are enjoying a thrilling — yet quintessentially torturous — postseason this October, hoping for a fourth World Series trip since the team moved to San Francisco in 1958. Listening to postseason baseball commentary is often a lesson in history — or at least a lesson in obscure team records for most strikeouts in a playoff game or what players have hit the first three homeruns for their team in a postseason series. Sunday marked the...
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October 21, 2010Election 2010 Resources Election Day is fast approaching - make sure you're not stranded at the voting booth without all the right information. We've compiled a list of resources on San Francisco and statewide Props to help you navigate the ballot this November.SPUR Voter Guide: SPUR's official analysis of San Francisco's ballot measures, including detailed pros and cons, and an official position on each measure.California Choices: Non-partisan analysis of statewide ballot measures. There's also a...
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October 20, 2010Brian O'Neill's Legacy Ensures a Bright Future for the GGNRA BY HEATHER MACK [Photos: left: flickr user armstrks, right: via SF Chronicle] "Nothing big happens in less than a decade," the late Brian O'Neill was quoted as saying. Those words from the ambitious superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (and longtime SPUR board member) who worked to transform one of the largest urban park districts in the country, still serve as a reminder when tackling giant projects, putting into perspective all that was accomplished during his tenure....
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October 19, 2010Obama Talks Infrastructure BY JENNIFER WARBURG On Monday of last week, President Obama recommitted his administration to a "fundamental overhaul" of the nation's infrastructure, following up on a previous Labor Day announcement that had excited smart growth advocates and set off speculation about the form such a "second stimulus" or "infrastructure bank" would take. Obama's speech last week on infrastructure investment [Via whitehouse.gov]When Obama was elected, supporters of progressive...
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