What Will It Take to Deliver Bus Rapid Transit in the Bay Area?
August 26, 2019Bus rapid transit has been delivering better transportation options in cities around the world for 20 years — but it’s still a work in progress in the Bay Area. Only one BRT project has been built here, and others have encountered significant hurdles. What will it take to deliver BRT in the Bay Area?
Updating San Jose’s Urban Vision
August 20, 2019Every four years, the City of San Jose reviews and updates selected elements of its general plan, Envision San Jose 2040. Since the last review in 2015, the city has seen incredible demand for development, which requires the community to think comprehensively when it comes to this year's update. SPUR supports the items the city proposes to focus on and suggests additional items to consider.
How Has San Francisco Done on Addressing Housing and Homelessness?
August 15, 2019Just before San Francisco’s 2018 mayoral election, SPUR released San Francisco’s Next Mayor: A Blueprint for Change, a policy agenda for the city's next leader. One year later, we took a look back at the progress that Mayor Breed and the Board of Supervisors have made toward those recommendations, specifically on housing and homelessness.
Time to Rethink How Oakland Passes Budgets
July 30, 2019July marked the beginning of the new fiscal year for the City of Oakland, and with it the end of a rancorous two-month-long adoption process for a new two-year budget. Without a city controller to establish a common set of financial facts, the debate in Oakland is not only over which priorities to fund but whose numbers to believe.
Be Regionable: An Urbanist Poster Campaign
July 29, 2019One of the goals of the SPUR Regional Strategy is to help the citizens of the Bay Area to think regionally. So we partnered with TBD* at California College of the Arts, a student-run design studio, to create a series of posters that would inspire people to feel passionately about not just the city they live in but the region we’re all a part of.