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September 13, 2010Exploring future job centers of the Bay Area: Mission Bay as urban tech park - posted by Ed Parillon Across the Bay Area, only one in 10 commuters takes transit to 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 post is the first in an occasional series that will look at the Bay Area's evolving and emerging business districts. For each employment district, we will ask four main questions: The...
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September 10, 2010Weekly Snapshot - posted by Anika Jesi Kung Fu Tacos and the creme brulee guy in front of SPUR's opening party for DIY Urbanism: Testing the grounds for social change, on view through October 29. [Photo Credit: Colleen McHugh] The Power of Density: Writer Richard Florida argues for the economic benefits of urban density, suggesting that the geographic concentration of related industries and assets can play a powerful role in sparking innovation and economic growth. Clever Crosswalk Squashes Jaywalking by Making it Legal:...
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September 9, 2010Californians to Drive Less to Meet Emissions Targets BY JORDAN SALINGER [Photo Credit: flickr user sandy kemsley]This post is the first in an occasional series that hopes to make sense of the issues surrounding the implementation of California's smart growth law, SB 375.California's future demographic reality is clear. We will grow — perhaps not as quickly as in recent decades — but we will nonetheless continue to increase our population. The state projects a population of 44 million by 2020 and well over 51 million by 2035. Even if the recent...
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September 8, 2010DIY Urbanism: When a Recession Creates a Canvas POSTED BY ED PARILLON DIY Urbanism is a movement that arose in part from projects born out of the recession and resulting limited funds. But one project that has a more direct link than most is the San Francisco Arts Council's Art in Storefronts program. The economic downturn brought with it an uptick in empty storefronts, causing some harder-hit commercial strips to look blighted. Art in Storefronts seeks to counteract this by using art installations to enliven these vacant spaces. Efforts in the Mission, SOMA...
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September 7, 2010DIY Urbanism: Outdoor Living Rooms Improve Neighborhoods without Resorting to Gentrification BY ANIKA JESI An Outdoor Living Room in Los Angeles [Image courtesy of ciclavia]Improving an inner-city neighborhood without setting it up for gentrification could be as simple as placing a few wooden seats on the sidewalk. Or at least that's the premise of architect Steve Cancian's Outdoor Living Rooms, a project featured in SPUR's new show at the Urban Center, DIY Urbanism: Testing the grounds for social change (opening today! -- get your tickets here).The project began as an exploration of the...
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September 3, 2010Weekly Snapshot - posted by Anika Jesi [Photo Credit: Colleen McHugh] Portland Streetcar Success has Fueled Interest Elsewhere: The success of Portland's streetcar is helping to spark a streetcar "renaissance," in which cities nationwide are seeking federal grants to build their own networks of electric streetcars. "¨"¨In Stockholm, Rental Blue Boost Black Market: One flipside to Stockholm's egalitarian-minded rent system is that is has fueled a black market in which only renters willing to dish out large sums of money...
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September 2, 2010Bring Park(ing) Day to Your Favorite Neighborhood Café! BY LIZA PRATT SPUR's Park(ing) Day 2009 installation [Photo Credit: Colleen McHugh]Park(ing) Day 2010 is just two weeks away. First celebrated in San Francisco in 2005, PARK(ing) Day has since become a global phenomenon. The annual event celebrates public space and street life by temporarily transforming parking spaces into public parks (or performance spaces, reading lounges—whatever you like!). It is also a great opportunity to test what a parklet on your street can do for your neighborhood or...
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September 1, 2010More than Just a Place to Park Your Bike BY FABIANA MEACHAM A prototype for a bike rack designed by David Baker + Partners [Photo Credit: David Baker]Build pretzel-shaped steel tubes, bolt them to the sidewalk, and the cyclists will come. Or at least that seems to be the logic behind the newfound interest in bike rack design in cities throughout the country. I remember a time when parking your bike meant locking it to anything you might tie a dog to, but these days everyone seems to have an opinion on the right way to lock up your bike — and a...
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August 31, 2010Why Are Our Roads Seeing Red? BY JORDAN SALINGER [Image courtesy of Streetsblog]San Francisco has a problem with its roads. Since 1988, the average pavement condition of roads in San Francisco has declined 20%. No longer considered an essential city service to be paid for out of the City's General Fund, city officials are looking for new ways to pay for street repavement projects. They are also prioritizing street repairs based on how fundamental each road is to the overall system. With the current average PCI (pavement condition index)...
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August 30, 2010Farming the City: Hayes Valley Farm BY FABIANA MEACHAM A patch of greenery at Hayes Valley Farm [Photo Credit: Fabiana Meacham]Situated on a former off-ramp to Highway 101, Hayes Valley Farm is a powerful symbol of a bottom-up transformation of neglected urban infrastructure. Planned according to permaculture design principles, which mimic the biological relationships found in naturally occurring ecosystems, the farm will serve as an exemplary model of this design philosophy. Although the farm currently has only a two to five year interim use...
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