Balancing Oakland's Budget
Closing the city’s structural deficit to move toward fiscal solvency and economic growth
Designing a More Resilient Bay Area
Urbanist Article / The year-long Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge brought together local residents, public officials, designers and engineers to develop innovative proposals that can strengthen the Bay Area’s resilience to sea level rise, severe storms, earthquakes and flooding. The nine final design concepts are meant to inspire, catalyze action and push us all along the path to a more resilient future.
Remembering Michael Painter
News / Noted landscape architect Michael Painter, a former SPUR board member, board chair and 2014 Silver SPUR Award honoree, passed away on June 28. Michael’s long and prolific career left a great legacy in the Bay Area and across the country, with 856 finished projects and 49 years of service.
At Last, the Tide Turns on Downtown Oakland’s Office Market
News / Downtown Oakland now has the tightest commercial market in the country, with a vacancy rate of 5.3 percent. As a result, commercial rents in downtown Oakland have shot up. After many years of construction costs stubbornly remaining higher than commercial rents, it has finally become financially feasible to build new office buildings downtown.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Affordable Housing: A Primer
News / The dramatic escalation of housing prices in the Bay Area has sparked a lot of discussion about affordability — but what do we mean by “affordable” housing? Who is it for? How is it funded and created? Our primer explains all.
Where Exactly Is “the Bay Area”?
News / The San Francisco Bay Area has long been understood as the nine counties that touch the Bay — but this border doesn’t always hold. Addressing many of our current regional challenges — such as job access, housing affordability and congestion — will require working at many scales. Given this, is the traditional nine-county definition the correct scale for SPUR's Regional Strategy project?