Neils Erich lays out the conflicts between Pac Bell and the new telecom companies competing for business freed up by the FCCs ruling allowing competition for Pac Bell. As well, at question are the rights of building owners vs. tenants vs. the telecom companies.

A review of SPUR’s work to reform Muni starts in 1995 and ends with a hopeful look ahead after the passage of Proposition E, which created the Municipal Transportation Agency.

SPUR’s call for a high-speed rail system addresses seven basic questions, from technology to station locations, route alignment and funding.

Jasper Rubin outlines the transformation of the San Francisco Port as a working industrial port to a commercially zoned waterfront. The collapse was due in part to mechanical and engineering progress that San Francisco didn't have the space or resources...

The evolution of common-law notions of water ownership has left San Francisco with a rich set of laws and precedents for use of its waterfront. While it is prohibited in California to develop trust lands for housing or general office use, some projects have managed to slide through...

President Nixon's New Federalism Richard Nixon's first term as president was the one that featured the "new Nixon" – with Daniel Patrick Moynihan as a senior urban policy advisor, passage of several major environmental laws, and creation of the New Federalism. This last item included consolidating all major grant programs administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development into a Community Development Block Grant…

SPUR suggests that any enacted living wage measure should apply only to companies in contract with the city. Before anything is approved the city needs to demonstrate the where the funds will come from, and examine what adverse effects might result.

James Haas looks at the Charter's legal viability and its level of success in achieving its goals. Haas suggests that controls should be placed to avoid excessively confusing amendments.

This interview with a leading figure in regional planning discusses the role of SPUR in the founding of BCDC and the great regional planning successes and near successes in the Bay Area's history.

This article argues that regional agencies should use modeling and projections to clarify the environmental consequences of investments – and ultimately shift more dollars from roads to transit.

This article presents a smart growth alternative to the proposed $88 billion Regional Transportation Plan – better fund transit, restrict parking and integrate land use and transportation planning.

The Urban Design Plan needs to accommodate more than what and where buildings are planted in San Francisco. We cannot separate our society from our city streets, our economy and the buildings we live and work in every day.

Veteran planners Dean Macris and George Williams explain the contents of the 1985 Downtown Plan, especially its preservation and housing concerns. The authors lay out the historical context of resistence to growth among the citizens of San Francisco, and how it affected the Plan.

This article discusses how one important planning tool -- the Specific Area Plan -- can formally bring all sides to the table to plan for how a neighborhood should evolve over time.

San Francisco can increase density, improve the ecological footprint of buildings, and restore nature -- all at the same time.

The vilification of the high-rise framed much of the debate on the growth and development of downtown San Francisco, pitting the neighborhood groups against city hall in a series of propositions that would set limits on building heights.

Michael McGill chronicles the changed thinking about growth in San Francisco from a focus on building configuration to a more dynamic approach, incorporating economic growth and general livability.

A thriving city includes affordable housing and open space, which often compete for the same lots. But San Francisco can have both if we increase building heights and support dispersed neighborhood parks.

Brad Paul interprets an interview of John Kirkwood, author of a 1973 SPUR report, "Building a New Muni," just prior to the eventual approval of a charter amendment to reform Muni by creating the SFMTA.

San Francisco grew up around the pedestrian and trolley. To grow on that good foundation, we advocate an approach blending the needs of pedestrians, transit users, bicyclists, auto drivers and the movement of goods.