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June 30, 2009A Primer on Federal Climate Policy BY LAURA TAM, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICY DIRECTOR Our friends at the Sightline Institute in Cascadia have put together a primer on the federal climate bill, aka the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), aka Waxman-Markey, that passed the U.S. House of Representatives late last week. Cap and Trade 101 features what you need to know about cap and trade, pollution auctioning, offsets, and why national climate legislation is good for families. For one slightly technical analysis of the bill, also check out Sightline's blog...
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June 25, 2009Relax in Times Square BY MARY Times Square has under gone a transformation lately, with lounge chairs replacing traffic and conversations replacing honking taxis. This coned-off chunk off Broadway is one of a number of experiments with public space happening around the city. New York City's Department of Transportation is trying out various spots to see where roads currently set aside for traffic could be turned over to pedestrian and bikes without serious disruption. Like the project in Times Square, the first...
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June 23, 2009Raising the Bar, and the Park BY MARY Earlier this month, after ten years of advocacy from neighbors, activists and artists alike, the first of three sections of New York's High Line park opened for visitors. The 1.45 mile-long park is situated on a defunct 19th century elevated train track that used to carry cattle into the Meatpacking District, but had been left standing since 1980, when nature adopted it, and turned it wild with grasses and wildflowers--a magical place for those who knew about it. James Corner,...
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June 17, 2009A better, or at least higher, use of open space - posted by Laura We spend much of our days with a roof over our heads, but rarely think of how roof exteriors could be so much more than just a weather shield. The growing urban rooftop farming movement just may change that. An article in today's New York Times describes how the green roof movement and the healthy food movement are converging. City policies can play a role in acclerating plantings - Chicago and New York provide tax incentives - though the urban farmers surveyed in the article admit rooftop...
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June 16, 2009One Way to Manage Shrinking Cities BY LAURA TAM, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICY DIRECTOR The UK Guardian recently reported from beleaguered Flint, Mich., on a new plan to shrink the city by actually bulldozing unused buildings and neighborhoods. The idea is to concentrate the dwindling population and city services into a smaller area, or as Detroit has envisioned, many smaller urban centers separated by "forests and meadows". This proposal is apparently attracting the attention of the Obama administration. Is this is a budget-wise coping strategy, a plan...
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June 2, 2009Former USDOT Chief Norm Mineta (Bay Area's Own) in a Revealing Interview BY DAVE In an interview with DC Velocity, Norm Mineta, President Bush's Secretary of Transportation and a Democrat from San Jose, provides some fantastic insight into the challenge facing our new DOT chief.Mineta stresses the increasing inadequacy of the federal gas tax. Set at 18 cents per gallon since 1993, total receipts have decreased with inflation and improved fuel economy. The federal transportation account is deeply in the red. He reveals that Bush personally vetoed his propsal to index the...
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May 29, 2009Without a Hitch BY JULIE KIM YESTERDAY (live): TODAY (in the Examiner):
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May 28, 2009Agents of Change: A Sneak Peak BY JULIE KIM We're nearly done installing SPUR's first exhibition, Agents of Change: Civic Idealism and the Making of San Francisco. Here's a sneak peak of how it's shaping up—thanks to an amazing cadre of volunteers who have been working around the clock to get the show installed before it opens this Friday.I have learned so much from working on this show with our brilliant and tireless curator, Benjamin Grant. His approach to grouping the successes (and failures) of urban planners...
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May 28, 2009Agents of Change: A Sneak Peak BY JULIE KIM We're nearly done installing SPUR's first exhibition, Agents of Change: Civic Idealism and the Making of San Francisco. Here's a sneak peak of how it's shaping up—thanks to an amazing cadre of volunteers who have been working around the clock to get the show installed before it opens this Friday.I have learned so much from working on this show with our brilliant and tireless curator, Benjamin Grant. His approach to grouping the successes (and failures) of urban planners...
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May 27, 2009Board Fails to Reject SFMTA Budget BY DAVE SNYDER Only five members of the Board of Supervisors today voted to reject the SFMTA budget, two short of the supermajority of seven needed to reject it.The supermajority requirement was put in the City Charter by Proposition A and Proposition E (both in part crafted by SPUR) to create a balance between the need to defend the SFMTA from political influence and give the city's elected leaders a chance to reject the budget if it seriously misrepresents their values. In the current budget...
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