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SPUR Publications

SPUR articles, research, policy recommendations, and our magazine, The Urbanist

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What the BART Strike Means for the Regional Transit Agenda

News /
For a group like SPUR — one that works to promote transit, walking and biking as primary forms of mobility — there’s no question that a transit strike is a major setback. It instills in people the sense, consciously or unconsciously, that they cannot count on transit being there when they need it. People who don’t have the flexibility in their jobs to work from…

Focusing San Francisco’s Food Access Efforts

News /
While many parts of San Francisco are full of fresh food retailers, other neighborhoods lack greengrocers of any size. According to the SF Health Department , some areas of the city — including Treasure Island, the Tenderloin, Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley, among others — have limited to no fresh food retail options. On June 18, Supervisor Eric Mar introduced an amended version of his…

Re-Envisioning the San Francisco Housing Authority

Policy Brief
The San Francisco Housing Authority is in crisis. As a recent San Francisco legislative analyst and budget report notes, the agency had a budget short fall of $4 million in fiscal year 2011 and $2.6 million in 2012. Meanwhile, it does not have nearly enough funding to meet its capital needs. SPUR offers recommendations to help the agency become financially sustainable over the long term.

Summer Reading: SPUR’s Favorite Books on Urbanism

News /
We’re often asked for recommended reading on urban planning and policy. It’s the sort of request we love, but it’s hard to commit to a manageable number of titles. A recent brainstorm of essential reading produced a lengthy list that covered everything from William Fulton’s Guide to California Planning (“The best academic textbook on the topic,” says SPUR Deputy Director Sarah Karlinsky) to The Submission …

How Do We Rebuild the Bay Area's Middle Class?

News /
In the past few years, there's been a lot of attention on income inequality and the shrinking middle class, particularly as job growth nationally has remained sluggish. Despite an economic boom in the Bay Area, many workers are still struggling. SPUR is part of a new initiative to identify ways we can increase economic opportunity at the local and regional level.

Bus Rapid Transit: Worth Fighting For

News /
Bus rapid transit (BRT) projects can be transformative, as we have learned from cities like Cleveland in the U.S. and global examples like Mexico City. But making space on streets for travel modes other than the car is a challenge for cities and transit operators around the world. The Bay Area has five BRT projects in development today, and each has met with difficulty and…

What's Going On? Windblown Sand Snarls Sloat Area

News /
The Problem The placement of 73,000 cubic yards of sand by SFPUC and the GGNRA -- a softer approach to coastal protection that SPUR supports -- has resulted in a significant unintended consequence: windblown sand that has closed the parking lot, restroom, and Great Highway at Sloat Boulevard. Large amounts of sand (where once there was next to none) combined with its relatively fine grain…

Taking Down a Freeway to Reconnect a Neighborhood

SPUR Report
Highway 280, the Caltrain railyards and plans for high-speed rail create barriers between San Francisco's SoMa, Potrero Hill and Mission Bay neighborhoods. But San Francisco has the opportunity to advance bold new ideas that enhance both our transportation system and the public realm.

Restoring San Francisco’s Urban Watersheds

News /
Before we paved the streets of San Francisco, little creeks and wetlands were abundant. Today, as in most cities, these natural water features have been replaced by a sewer network that effectively throws away rainwater instead of finding ways to reuse it. The SF Public Utilities Commission is launching a new effort to change our approach to stormwater management.

Central Corridor: A Good Plan, But It Needs More Height

News /
Last month the San Francisco Planning Department released a draft of the Central Corridor Plan, the result of several years of planning efforts. The plan represents an enormous opportunity to build on the substantial transit investment in the area, including the $1.6 billion Central Subway project, as well as existing transit in the form of the 4th and Caltrain station and the N-Judah Muni line…

Why We Love Alleys

News /
This week, SPUR and the Yerba Buena Community Benefit District will close Annie Alley to car traffic and host a series of outdoor public events. What is it about an alley that inspires urban invention? As we kick off our week of investigation, we pause to reflect on the humble alley and its role in the city.

Locally Nourished

SPUR Report
The Bay Area’s food system supports our greenbelt, employs hundreds of thousands of people, and helps reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. SPUR's latest report recommends a series of policies to help us more effectively capture the benefits of our regional food system.

Fixing Transit in SF's Northeast Neighborhoods

News /
How would you improve the transit system for neighborhoods in the northeast part of San Francisco? This was the key question SPUR asked at a transit planning workshop for the city’s northeast neighborhoods last month. The workshop brought together representatives from key public agencies, North Beach and Fisherman’s Wharf businesses, the tourism industry and neighborhood advocacy groups, as well as transportation professionals. Neighborhoods in Chinatown…

San Francisco Gets Its First Eco-District

News /
Over the last year, there’s been palpable buzz in San Francisco around eco-districts — sustainability plans that operate at the neighborhood scale. After studying models in Portland, Seattle, Brooklyn and Denver, the city has kicked off a planning process for its first eco-district. The project will target the Central Corridor, the 24-square-block area south of Market Street currently undergoing a neighborhood planning and rezoning process.

What You Need to Know About Plan Bay Area

News /
SPUR has written several times about the development of Plan Bay Area since the planning process was kicked off a few years ago. Last month, the draft of the plan was finally released. What are the highlights in this 158-page plan and the accompanying 1,300-page environmental impact report? This post provides a summary of the draft and some of its key points.

Can SF’s Transportation Task Force Point the Way Forward?

News /
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has selected SPUR Executive Director Gabriel Metcalf to co-chair his 2030 Transportation Task Force. Like other task forces the mayor has convened, this one will tackle a seemingly intractable problem: transportation funding.

San Francisco Passes Landmark Earthquake Retrofit Law

News /
Last Thursday, on the 107th anniversary of the 1906 Earthquake, SF Mayor Ed Lee signed the mandatory soft-story retrofit program into law . SPUR has long advocated for this legislation, which will help make San Francisco more resilient in a major earthquake. Soft-story buildings are those with large openings for storefront windows or garages, which cause the ground floor to be weak, leaving it vulnerable…