Upcoming Events

In recent years, California has seen a precipitous increase in the number and severity of wildfires fueled by rising temperatures and extreme drought caused by climate change. At the same time, the state is currently facing an existential housing crisis. How can we ensure that enough housing can be built to address California's affordability challenges, while also protecting lands vulnerable to wildfire. How can state housing policy help support these two priorities?

The Bay Area hosts more than a third of California’s overall grantmaking foundations, with more than half of the state’s total giving coming from this region alone. It makes sense, then, that when COVID-19 left the Bay Area’s economy reeling, philanthropic organizations stepped up. Over the course of the last 18 months, these institutions have played a leading role in dealing with, and working to recover from, the pandemic and its accompanying recession. Hear from some of the region's key philanthropic organizations as they reflect on the role that philanthropy can play in building an equitable recovery in the Bay Area and the steps necessary to get there.

As part of its forward-looking Regional Strategy, SPUR and AECOM, along with a taskforce of community stakeholders in San Francisco, San José and Oakland, identified seven key sites spread across the Bay Area’s three central cities that are prime opportunities to tackle major regional challenges through local planning processes. Come learn about the last two ideas of the series: one on expanding and connecting all of San Francisco to the region and beyond through public transportation; and the second about the Oakland Coliseum, one of the most important redevelopment sites in the Bay Area.

By the year 2100, the sea level around the Bay Area is projected to rise by nearly seven feet. New research from the Stanford Natural Capital Project illustrates that traditional methods to keep flooding out of a community, such as sea wall construction, can actually do more harm than good by inundating other parts of the Bay Area, causing ecological destruction and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. As a result, it is increasingly important for communities to work together, rather than individually, in their approaches to this looming threat. What other options are there to protect the Bay Area as a whole? Join the authors of that report to learn how nontraditional-based approaches to combating sea-level rise, like strategic flooding plans, can divert floods to overflow zones that absorb increased water and avoid damage to communities.

Oakland has often been overshadowed by its sibling city across the bay, but that does a disservice to its own fascinatingly rich history. The new book, Hella Town, documents how political deals, economic schemes and technological innovations fueled Oakland’s emergence as the urban heart of the Bay Area, while simultaneously planting the seeds of many of the city’s postwar struggles, including displacement, freeway construction that divided neighborhoods, systemic racism and regional competition. Come hear how Oakland’s buildings, landscapes, booms and busts provide insight into its current conditions: an influx of new residents and businesses, skyrocketing housing costs and a lingering chasm between the haves and have-nots.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is the agency most responsible for ensuring that California can achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Since its inception, CARB has become an internationally-renowned pioneer in effective air and climate programs. Come hear from the agency’s new chair, Liane M. Randolph, as she discusses what it will take to build on CARB's powerful environmental legacy while positioning California to effectively tackle the looming threats ahead.

Wildfires have long been a natural part of the California landscape, but “fire season” (a phrase that only recently entered the general lexicon of most Californians) continues to expand, beginning earlier and ending later with each passing year. What will it take to restrain this relentless assault on our state’s land and air? Join us for a conversation with the California Natural Resources Agency’s Deputy Secretary for Forest Resources Management to hear about the state’s plans for addressing this intractable challenge and the difficult choices that California will have to make in the future.

The Bay Area is projected to add 2.1 million people, 1.1 million jobs and 660,000 homes by the year 2040. Subsequently, the region’s water use could increase 50% by 2070, which would be catastrophic for the environment and the affordability of water bills. A new study, jointly produced by SPUR and the Pacific Institute, shows that the Bay Area can prevent, and even decrease, this projected water usage and accommodate sizeable and necessary growth — 6.8 million more people, 2 million more jobs and 2.2 million more homes by 2070 — if the region invests in efficiency and prioritizes compact infill housing. Join the authors of this report, Water for a Growing Bay Area, for a deep dive into how the Bay Area can save water and simultaneously surpass its growth expectations.

Zoning, at least in its most recognizable form, is an antiquated tool that does more harm than good. Poorly-designed zoning and other land use regulations increases home prices, reduces housing availability, promotes segregation, lengthens commutes and restricts transportation choices. With the movement to eliminate single-family-exclusive zoning gaining steam around the country — here in California, two bills that permit multiple homes on single-family-zoned lots were recently ratified into law — the opportunity is ripe to reimagine zoning entirely. Come participate in a conversation about the need for widespread zoning reform, what could replace zoning as we know it and how it could advance real change in our neighborhoods.

The Bay Area’s transit system is overly fragmented and challenging for even experienced riders. Integrating bus and rail services across the region into a single-fare structure with coordinated schedules would increase ridership, make transit easier to understand and greatly expand affordable access to housing and jobs. Join transit agency leaders from around the country who have successfully integrated their own once-splintered transit systems, and hear their advice about how the Bay Area might integrate its own buses, rails and large transit institutions.

While the pandemic brought much hardship, our response to the emergency also brought lessons about the resilience and flexibility of our cities, providing a window of opportunity to reexamine how streets serve us. Transformations like "slow streets" and swaths of new outdoor dining offer a glimpse at a vision for streets that are untethered from our car-oriented past and better-suited for a more sustainable future. SPUR's new report examines the success of programs and sets a path forward to integrate these efforts into a larger vision for reimagining our city streets. Come learn more about the report, its recommendations for San Francisco's streets and how it can be used as a model for other cities.

As the housing crisis worsens throughout the Bay Area, legislators and policymakers from across the region are looking for varying ways to boost housing production to alleviate California’s increasing level of unaffordability. Come join us as we discuss how leaders in the Bay Area can develop an ecosystem of missing-middle housing production that has been missing for decades.

The 2021 California state legislative year — the first of a two-year session — has come to an end, allowing us to both reflect on the year in the Capitol and begin to formulate the 2022 housing agenda. The passage of key bills like SB 9, which allows for duplexes and lot splits in single-family residential zones, and SB 10, which enables cities to densify infill, transit-rich and jobs-rich sites, along with historic levels of investment in affordable housing and programs to reduce homelessness, showed that the Legislature was willing to address the state’s housing crisis head on. But what about bills that addressed the pressing issue of development and wildfires, such as SB 12? Or those that sought to extend COVID-19-related tenant protections into next year, as AB 15 intended? Join us for a debrief of the legislative year and a discussion about the key issues and themes we can expect to see our state legislators tackle next year.

Zanker Recycling in San José is an award-winning, nationally recognized recycling facility and home to the nation’s first and largest construction and demolition recycling site. Come see where more than 3,000 tons of mixed debris are processed every day and learn how Zanker is able to divert so much of it from our landfills, bringing the South Bay closer to zero-waste goals and a reduced environmental impact on future generations.

The much-loved City Trivia Night returns to SPUR — and back in person for the first time in two years! Join us for five themed rounds of searing questions all relating to cities, architecture, urban planning, policy and more! As we always say, it’s the ultimate showcase of urbanist talent and planning geekery. Bring your own team of six or join up with other urbanists at the event to compete for the figurative crown and prizes.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) and has developed new preliminary policy proposals for its updated transit-oriented development (TOD) plan, drawing on rigorous analysis and years of research into best practices to determine how best to house thousands of jobs and residents in communities around existing transit throughout the Bay Area. Join us to learn what MTC is proposing, share your questions and concerns and help push the region towards more achievable transit-oriented development.

With vaccinations becoming more widespread and employees beginning to return to their offices, one concern is that our highways and bridges will soon become flooded with single-occupancy vehicles. Can commuters be encouraged to choose transit instead of the car? Come hear about new scenarios for sustainable and equitable transit transformation, what businesses are saying about their post-pandemic office plans and the actions the Bay Area should take now to position itself as the region reopens.

The La Cocina Municipal Marketplace, a new food hall in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, provides an innovative model of conscious, community-led development. Join us for a tour with La Cocina's Marketplace Manager and its Executive Director to learn the unique story of how this food hall came to be and what the future holds for food entrepreneurism in San Francisco.

As the housing shortage in the San Francisco Bay Area continues unabated, elected leaders across the region are exploring myriad options in order to build the number of homes mandated by the Regional Housing Needs Allocation. One of the innovative methods for achieving these housing goals being explored is the creation and application of overlay zones, at which Berkeley is serving as a regional model. Come hear how overlay zoning are working there, the success that they’ve seen in Massachusetts and why they might be the best tool for which to address the state’s expanding housing crisis.