people dancing at a public event in San José

The SPUR 2025 Annual Report

Learn about our impact

Illustration of a crane stacking cargo containers that say "sound fiscal policy," "structural change" and "economic growth"

Balancing Oakland's Budget

Closing the city’s structural deficit to move toward fiscal solvency and economic growth

photo of San Francisco City Hall

The Next 100 Days

An urbanist decision-making framework for San Francisco’s new mayor

Mural painted on the headquarters of the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District

Culture as Catalyst

How arts and culture districts can revitalize downtowns

Illustration of houses plugging into electricity

Closing the Electrification Affordability Gap

Planning an equitable transition away from fossil fuel heat in Bay Area buildings

Seeking Prosperity: The Facts About Low and Moderate Wage Workers

News /
Middle-wage jobs are becoming scarcer as more and more job growth takes place at the high and low ends of the wage spectrum. How can we create opportunity for low-wage workers to move up? Past efforts to address this issue have sometimes emphasized the differences between workers in different wage groups. But this often masks the specific information needed to solve the challenge.

Greener and Better Roofs

Policy Brief /
Many cities around the world have incentives and even regulations requiring green roofs in new construction. San Francisco lags substantially behind others such as Portland, New York, Chicago and Toronto in both green roof policy and in on-the-roof implementation. This memo asks what can be done to support the development and broader implementation of green roofs in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Exodus

News /
The No. 1 crisis facing San Francisco today is the skyrocketing cost of housing. As high prices push people out, the City of Oakland faces a wave of new arrivals — and new challenges. Here's how we got into this situation, and what we can do about it.

What Bay Area Bike Share Will Need to Succeed

News /
Since rolling out on August 29, Bay Area Bike Share has logged an estimated 21,138 bicycle trips and 4,380 casual members. Not bad for a pilot program. But in order for it to last — and grow — it’s important to ask how we can translate this initial success into a long-term one.

Alarming U.N. Climate Change Report May Be Too Conservative

News /
Climate scientists have raised concerns that the latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is "too conservative," referring to its lowered projections on the range of future warming based on a slight lack of temperature increase over the last decade. Despite this possibly encouraging bit of news, the IPCC's fifth major assessment continues to report unequivocal warming due to human causes.