Balancing Oakland's Budget
Closing the city’s structural deficit to move toward fiscal solvency and economic growth
SPUR to SF Supervisors: Don't Let the Next Google Get Away
News / While the Bay Area is still climbing out of the great recession, we’re simultaneously experiencing the makings of a second dot-com boom. The Chronicle reports that tech jobs have climbed near to their year 2000 peak of 34,116. Silicon Valley is hiring again. And so is San Francisco. Between Twitter, Zynga, Yelp, Salesforce and others in social media, gaming and cloud computing, a growing sector…
Seattle Planning Director Marshall Foster at SPUR
News / Known for its quality of life and access to nature, Seattle has long prided itself on refusing to be “world class.” But rapid growth and a diversifying population mean Seattle is changing — whether it wants to or not. Booming biotech, software and gaming sectors are transforming the economy, new light rail and streetcar lines are expanding, and the city is about to reclaim…
Defining Good Government in the New Reality
Urbanist Article / Costs of City government are rising while revenues are stagnating. Meanwhile, our need for core services has not decreased. What began as a national recession may have triggered a rare moment of opportunity to deal with the causes of our structural deficit. So what is the way forward?
Public Input Summaries from the First Open House and Workshop
News / At our open house and workshop on January 15 th, we presented a series of presentation boards as well as a range of different ways to provide feedback, from questionnaires to collages. After transcribing all of the public comments, the project team created an overview of public input, posted below along with a detailed record of all comments. In the coming months, the…
2010: The Year in Urbanism
Urbanist Article / With this issue, we're kicking off the new year — and a new tradition — at SPUR. More confident in our ability to assess the present than predict the future, we've taken a stab at naming the biggest trends and events affecting urban planning in the Bay Area right now. Write to [email protected] with your own list!