The League of Women Voters Oakland and SPUR co-facilitated Mayor Barbara Lee’s Charter Reform Working Group over the past six months. The collaborative process engaged more than 750 Oakland residents through public meetings and listening sessions, conducted over 60 interviews with officials and experts, and collected 433 survey responses plus written comments. Residents expressed frustration with unclear accountability and called for structural changes. The working group has released its final report and ultimately recommends adopting a strong-mayor system with a strengthened City Council.

Faster and more frequent service is earning San Francisco Muni its highest customer rating in decades, but without an additional $307 million in revenue by 2027, it could be forced to cut more than a third of its transit service. SPUR and partners have advised the city on a big piece of the solution: a proposed local parcel tax expected to generate $160 million annually. SPUR digs into the details of the tax.

In December, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted the city’s most ambitious zoning reform in decades. The Family Zoning Plan allows dense multifamily housing to be built in most neighborhoods in order to help address the city’s housing crisis. SPUR led advocacy efforts to ensure the plan met state mandates and addressed housing inequality, as well as facilitating public engagement throughout the process. Here’s what went into getting the plan passed — and what it will do for the city.

Three years after establishing a regional network management structure to coordinate Bay Area transit, customers are beginning to experience real changes. A recent SPUR forum highlighted progress in implementing transit priority treatments, simplifying fare systems and signage, and increasing accessibility for individuals with disabilities. But sustaining these initiatives and transit operations more generally requires new funding.

In the wake of the devastating Los Angeles fires in January 2025, SPUR examined wildfire mitigation in the Bay Area and to explore opportunities to improve management strategies. In a new report, SPUR's Sarah Atkinson and Colleen Corrigan find that neighboring cities with shared wildfire risk could significantly improve their resilience by establishing coordinating entities. We asked them about the governance models they studied and how this research may support action on other climate hazards.