Samsung broke ground on a massive new headquarters for its U.S. Research and Development operations in north San Jose. More than any project to date, the new Samsung campus embraces the city’s vision of a denser, more walkable pattern along North First Street, the city’s tech employment heartland.

The North San Jose Design Guidelines, adopted by the city in 2010, encourage high quality design in new development. The San Jose City Council recently called these guidelines into question as potential barriers to commercial development. SPUR advocates that the city must strengthen — not weaken — its commitment to urban design to support San Jose's transformation into a more livable, walkable and transit-oriented city.

Just one visit to New York City at age 7 was all it took — Paul Zeger was hooked.

Perhaps you’ve noticed? New housing and commercial construction is booming in San Francisco.

A year after receiving cease-and-desist orders, ridesharing companies like UberX, Sidecar and Lyft got the go-ahead to operate under new regulations in California — the first state to create a regulatory framework for such businesses.

From The Year in Urbanism: Critics across the political spectrum challenged the newly adopted Plan Bay Area, a 30-year regional plan that aligns transportation investments with assumptions about growth. By contesting the fundamental notion of a shared regional responsibility, the opponents of Plan Bay Area are undercutting the role of regional planning as a tool to manage long-term growth.

From The Year in Urbanism: San Francisco added jobs faster than any other city in the country in 2013. The boom-and-bust cycle is an inherent part of capitalism. But underneath the ups and downs of the business cycle are longer-term trends — in this case, the emergence of technology as the dominant employment sector in San Francisco.

From The Year in Urbanism: Two Bay Area regional planning agencies adopted Plan Bay Area, which combines a relatively compact land use vision for 2 million more people and 1 million jobs with $290 billion in transportation investments through 2040.

From The Year in Urbanism: When BART went on strike twice in 2013, the Bay Area learned just how dependent it is on a functioning transit system. How do we make sure BART continues to expand to handle more riders as the region grows — and how do we make sure strikes don’t happen in the future?

From The Year in Urbanism: In 2013, housing prices exploded in San Francisco while lagging at pre-recession levels in other parts of the region. Could some of the demand for the hottest markets be met by other, more affordable locations that are well served by regional transit?

The City of San Jose's ambitious new General Plan imagines a dramatic shift away from traditional suburban landscapes to “complete neighborhoods” that provide basic services and amenities close to homes, jobs and transit. Achieving this transformation will be a daunting challenge. SPUR diagnoses the impediments San Jose faces in creating excellent, walkable urban places and recommends changes in policy and practice to get there.

The Planning Division of the City of San Jose recently proposed amending the city’s zoning code to allow for small-scale urban agriculture in commercial zones of the city. SPUR supports this modest change, which will allow urban agriculture projects less than one acre in size.

UC Berkeley archivist Waverly Lowell’s favorite urban artifact may surprise you.

Grab your [figurative] blue pencil: The streets of San Francisco can be a typo-spotters dream.

Silicon Valley, the most dynamic and innovative economic engine in the world, is not creating memorable urban places. The City of San Jose's ambitious new General Plan imagines a dramatic shift away from traditional suburban environments to walkable “complete neighborhoods.” SPUR looks at the impediments San Jose has faced in creating excellent, walkable urban places and recommends changes that will help meet the city's goals.