Rising Together is SPUR’s coordinated policy and advocacy response to the COVID-19 pandemic, its economic fallout and the systemic racial inequities it has highlighted.
The COVID-19 pandemic presents a profound threat to the future of transit. It’s hard to speculate how the future will play out when the world today looks so different from the one we inhabited just two months ago. But one thing is certain: We will still need transit.
During the last recession, homebuilding ground to a halt. We can’t let the same thing happen this time. What can be done to keep the pipeline of new housing open through this crisis and recovery? SPUR and the Terner Center offer four principles to help guide new housing construction and facilitate economic recovery.
SPUR has released Keeping the Doors Open, a set of 10 recommendations for cities to implement as they work to assist ground floor businesses in reopening while shelter-in-place orders remain in effect. We recommend three principles to keep in mind: move quickly and remain flexible, focus on neighborhoods, and center equity in the allocation of resources and staff time.
Shelter in place has made it starkly evident just how much space cities allocate to cars and parking. The City of San José is currently considering changes to the amount of parking it requires of new development. All of this makes it a good time to unpack the many ways that parking impacts neighborhoods and quality of life.
The mayors of the region should follow Oakland’s lead and close some streets to through traffic to create space for walking and biking. By making it safer for us to be outside in a socially distant way, “slow streets” help us combat another public health crisis: chronic diseases caused by inactivity. They also equalize the opportunity to be outside for communities that lack open space.
SPUR was founded over 100 years ago to help San Francisco rebuild after the 1906 earthquake. Now, as then, SPUR’s job is to help the region recover from a crisis and emerge more resilient, more sustainable, more equitable and more prosperous. We are calling this work Rising Together.
In coalition with local chambers of commerce, business associations, trades councils and housing advocates, SPUR signed onto a letter urging the seven Bay Area county public health officers to modify the next shelter-in-place order with regard to housing construction. The coalition advocated for allowing a wider range of projects to continue, noting that these projects often pay fees or dedicate land for affordable housing.
SPUR and the Bay Area Council encourage MTC to deploy the CARES Act emergency funds to meet immediate needs while creating the foundations of a more effective, efficient, equitable and resilient regional transit network.
The COVID pandemic has highlighted a fundamental truth: Housing insecurity is a threat to our society — both at the height of the market and during crises like this one. By understanding what caused Bay Area housing prices to escalate over the past decade, and how that changed who can and can’t afford to live here, the region can make a course correction.
COVID-19 Does Not Have to Be the Death of Transit
Four Tools for Stimulating Economic Recovery Through New Homebuilding
How Cities Can Support Ground Floor Business Survival