Publication Type
Topic
Geography
Date Range

Green Roofs in SF's Civic Center--and Around the World

News /
National Geographic recently featured a photo essay of green roofs around the world. Featured projects included the Academy of Sciences (of course!), but also a Civic Center bus shelter that SPUR's green roofs task force worked hard to design and build. Diane Loviglio, a task force leader, came up with the idea that was later funded by the Academy as a way to bring green…

All the Transit Center's a Stage

News /
A delightful performance in Antwerp's Centration, nicknamed the "Railway Cathedral," and one of the city's most famous landmarks.

NYC's Unbuilt Visions

News /
New York Times "Streetscapes" columnist Christopher Gray highlights a few of Manhattan's ghost buildings—grand architectural plans shelved after the 1929 stock market crash. However easy it may be to compare then and now, let's hope that some of San Francisco's own grand plans—the Transbay Terminal, for instance—don't get stored away in a flat file somewhere, only to resurface decades after the fact.

Proposition 1A - Spending Cap and Increase in Rainy Day Fund

Voter Guide /
This measure appeared on the May 2009 California state ballot. What it does Proposition 1A is a legislative amendment to the state Constitution. It would impose a limit on the amount the state can spend each year based on revenue growth over the previous 10-year period. Spending for each year would be limited to the amount spent the prior year, plus inflation and population…

Proposition 1F - Restricting Elected Officials' Salaries

Voter Guide /
This measure appeared on the May 2009 California state ballot. What it does Proposition 1F would amend the state Constitution to deny elected officials a salary increase in any year that the budget is out of balance. It would direct the commission which sets the salaries of 132 elected state officials—120 of them legislators—to deny those officials salary increases if the budget reserve is…

Proposition 1E - Redirecting Portion of Mental Health Funding

Voter Guide /
This measure appeared on the May 2009 California state ballot. What it does Proposition 1E is a legislative Constitutional amendment that would, for two years, redirect money from a set-aside fund used for new or expanded mental health services to existing mental health programs now supported by the General Fund. This would help reduce the current budget deficit. To understand what Prop. 1E does…

Proposition 1B - Education Funding Protection

Voter Guide /
This measure appeared on the May 2009 California state ballot. What it does Proposition 1B requires that K-14 education receive a $9.3 billion supplement over five to six years beginning in 2011-12 to compensate for recent and hotly disputed budget cuts. Waiting two years to receive the funds guarantees education interests the highest priority for payments from the rainy day fund set up by…

Proposition 1D - Redirecting Portion of Preschool Funding

Voter Guide /
This measure appeared on the May 2009 California state ballot. What it does Proposition 1D would authorize a diversion of $268 million in annual tobacco tax revenue currently earmarked for First 5 programs to the state’s General Fund. That revenue, plus $340 million in unspent First 5 tobacco tax money now held in a reserve fund, would instead be used to pay for other…

Proposition 1C - Selling Bonds From Future Lottery Sales

Voter Guide /
This measure appeared on the May 2009 California state ballot. What it does Proposition 1C amends the Constitution to allow the state to sell $5 billion of bonds backed by future lottery revenues, to help close the 2009-10 deficit. (The state lottery was created in 1984 by a Constitutional voter initiative.) The state could continue such “borrowing” from lottery revenues in future years. Lottery…

Proposition 1A - Spending Cap and Increase in Rainy Day Fund

Voter Guide /
This measure appeared on the May 2009 California state ballot. What it does Proposition 1A is a legislative amendment to the state Constitution. It would impose a limit on the amount the state can spend each year based on revenue growth over the previous 10-year period. Spending for each year would be limited to the amount spent the prior year, plus inflation and population…

May 2009 Voter Guide

Voter Guide /
Includes SPUR's analysis of 6 state propositions on the May 19, 2009 ballot.