To Achieve Seamless Transit, We Must Change What and How We Build
December 18, 2019The Metropolitan Transportation Commission has made some big improvements to its methodology for assessing transportation proposals and deciding which ones to recommend for funding. What’s more, the improved tool provides a useful diagnostic for how project funding and planning in the Bay Area needs to change. SPUR offers three key observations on what this new perspective means for the next generation of transportation investments.
A Bolder Vision for Downtown Oakland
December 17, 2019After years of work, the City of Oakland is close to completing a specific plan for downtown Oakland. While the current draft is a great improvement over earlier drafts, SPUR believes that the plan needs to be more visionary and that it should encourage both jobs and housing — and put them in the right places.
Bringing Big Ideas to Life in San Jose
December 12, 2019For San Jose, 2019 was a year of planning for the big ideas launched in 2018. The city made major progress on the policy analysis, planning processes and community dialogue needed to realize those visions, with some notable milestones.
We Are the Bay
November 20, 2019As part of the SPUR Regional Strategy, we sent photographer Ryan Young out to meet his neighbors. Over the course of a week, Young traveled 2,000 miles north, south, east and west to capture images of residents in the Bay Area's many and varied communities.
It Takes a Village
November 19, 2019San Jose’s 2040 general plan proposed “urban villages” as a key strategy for sustainable growth. These higher-density, mixed-use urban places would concentrate new offices, stores and housing in locations accessible by transit, foot or bike. But only a handful of the 60 designated urban villages have projects underway. SPUR recommends strategies to remove barriers and successfully implement San Jose’s urban village vision.