photo looking down San Francisco's Market Street toward downtown

Reinventing Downtown

A new model to revitalize San Francisco’s urban center

photo of San Francisco with orange skies from wildfire smoke in September 2020

Shared Risk, Shared Resilience

New governance structures for community wildfire resilience

Transit funding rally at San Francisco City Hall

The SPUR Impact Report

What we got done in 2025

Building storefronts in downtown San Jose

Getting In on the Ground Floor

Activation strategies for downtown San José

photo of San Francisco City Hall with a construction crane in the foreground

Charter for Change

Empowering San Francisco’s government through charter reform

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

Time to Make Room

Urbanist Article /
Innovative design solutions can better accommodate the changing — and sometimes surprising — demographics in cities, including a rising number of single people. In New York, a third of all households are single people living alone. In San Francisco, it’s 38 percent. Why aren’t we designing housing for that demographic?

New York vs. Silicon Valley?

Urbanist Article /
Today, Silicon Valley receives the country’s largest share of venture capital investment — but New York may be catching up. It’s not official economic development strategies that should worry the Bay Area. More important are the underlying fundamentals supporting New York City’s growth: its ability to attract talent, its urbanity and its existing industry mix.

A City Within the City: Exploring the San Jose Flea Market

News /
The San Jose Flea Market hosts one of the country’s most extensive collections of items for sale, building upon San Jose’s legacy as a city of many people and cultures. The flea market opened in 1960 with 20 vendors brought together by George Bumb, a man with a vision to sell usable items that he saw being sent to landfills. Since then it has grown…

Green Light for San Francisco’s New Urban Agriculture Program

News /
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has given the green light for the Recreation and Parks Department (RPD) to take the lead coordinating the city’s support of urban agriculture. Among SPUR's recommended priorities for this program are developing a strategy to reduce community garden waiting lists and operating as a "one-stop-shop" for the people seeking assistance with urban agriculture projects.