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April 6, 2010A Gem of the Green Movement, Emerald Cities Published Last Week BY ESTHER In Emerald Cities: Urban Sustainability and Economic Development, Joan Fitzgerald, director of the Law, Policy and Society Program at Northeastern University, showcases how some cities have taken the lead in creating policy that is mutually beneficial to both the environment and economic development. Ms. Fitzgerald spoke on this subject and introduced her book at SPUR, this past November 17th. According to Joan Fitzgerald, it has fallen to cities around the world to embrace the challenge of...
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April 5, 2010Grass Roots Green: The Indian Perspective on a Sustainable Environment BY COLLEEN MCHUGH SPUR is co-hosting with the AIA a lunchtime lecture on bottom-up sustainability practices in India. “Grass roots green” refers to the design approaches in India and other developing countries, which look to innovatively use traditional common-sense methods, knowledge and approaches to minimize consumption. Speakers Nimish Patel and Parul Zaveri, cofounders of the Indian design firm, Abhikram, will share some of their award winning projects that follow this bottom-up...
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March 19, 2010PARK(ing) Day, Everyday BY COLLEEN MCHUGH Mayor Gavin Newsom, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, DPW Director Ed Reiskin and a crowd of supporters gathered yesterday in front of Mojo Bicycle Café on Divisadero at Hayes to celebrate the opening of the city’s first of many new “parklets.” These parklets—parking spaces repurposed as lively sidewalk extensions—are part of the city’s Pavement to Parks initiative. The new Divisadero Street parklet consists of a wooden platform elevated to sidewalk height and...
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March 11, 2010Cycling directions are finally on the (Google) map - posted by Esther Don't be sheepish—try the new Google Maps cycling directions feature. In response to years of requests for a bicycling option and over fifty thousand signatures on the “Bike There” petition, Google Maps has unveiled a new feature that helps cyclists find bike-friendly roads and while avoiding less-friendly streets. In this Web 2.0 era, platforms like NextBus.com and 511.com have made it easier...
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March 3, 2010Recap: the Muni Budget Crisis BY JULIE KIM [Despite historic shortfalls, SPUR believes the SFMTA can balance its budget without further service cuts and fare hikes.] Looks like SPUR's 28-point proposal to balance the Muni budget's been catching on. (We're glad, because we think it makes a lot of sense, too!) In last Sunday's Chronicle, Rachel Gordon put current events in context by noting other significant Muni reform efforts (including SPUR campaigns in 1993, 1999 and 2007) over the last two decades. On Tuesday, the...
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March 1, 2010Creating Our Own Champs-Elysées BY ELIZABETH HOLDEN After learning about new plans for San Francisco's public realm—widened sidewalks and bike lanes on Cesar Chavez Street and throughout the Mission District, a complete makeover of Fisherman’s Wharf—it was time to tackle a public space issue ourselves: Market Street. SPUR teamed up with Next American City and the AIA to host an interactive charrette. Building on the Better Market Street Project, we brainstormed the transformation of Market into our city's grand...
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February 26, 2010The SPUR Plan to Solve the MTA Budget Crisis—without Service Cuts or Fare Increases BY BEN LOWE In response to the looming budget deficits faced by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, SPUR Executive Director Gabriel Metcalf today sent a letter to the MTA outlining a set of measures that could balance the budget this year and next, while avoiding service cuts and fare hikes. The twenty-eight proposals include a diverse range of ideas including hiring part-time operators ($6 million in savings), routing 311 information calls to 511 ($5.5 million), and enforcing existing...
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February 24, 2010Explore Climate Action Activities with the San Francisco Bay Area Climate Action Portal! BY TESSA Climate change is a global problem, and the San Francisco Bay Area is especially threatened. Around one thousand miles of shoreline frame the region, so we will be greatly affected by sea level rise and intensified storm activity. Given our particularly risky situation, the Bay Area is on the forefront of climate change action. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District and the Institute for Local Government have collaborated to release the San Francisco Bay Area Climate Action Portal, a web...
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February 19, 2010T4A: Create Jobs by Investing in Transportation BY BEN LOWE Public transportation gets millions of Americans to and from their jobs every day. Transportation for America, a national public-transit and smart-growth advocacy organization, thinks investing in our transportation sector can create jobs as well. In response to the jobs bill now working its way through the Senate, which would largely offer tax cuts to small businesses, T4A has proposed instead that funding be put toward projects such as:$16 billion for transit$8.1 billion for the...
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February 5, 2010A Flip of the Lens: What's RIGHT with San Francisco? BY JULIE KIM [Image: flickr user VancityAllie] Slow buses. Skyrocketing housing costs. Preventable budget deficits. It's easy to rattle off the myriad things wrong with our city. In many ways, SPUR's very existence and mission are rooted in a practice of taking a hard look at our bad decisions, and accepting responsibility for them as a first step toward changing the city for the better. But we are a little too good at being honest with ourselves, a little too quick to look elsewhere for answers:...
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