Shaping Downtown
Urbanist Article / The success of downtown San Francisco is one part accident and one part good planning.
A Healthier San Francisco
Urbanist Article / No other city or county in the nation has made and delivered on a promise of affordable health care for all.
Learning From Muni
Urbanist Article / While there are lessons both good and bad that other cities might draw from Muni and its parent organization, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, a few recent highlights may be most noteworthy.
Eat on the Street!
News / Streetfood is not new. In fact, since the existence of streets and the commoditization of food, streetfood has been an integral aspect of daily life for cultures around the world. That being said, it is undeniable that there has been a growing trend in San Francisco and other American cities towards selling a creative array of food – from Korean tacos to crème brulée –…
Sustainability and Simplicity
News / As students rushed home for the day, SPUR members filtered in for a tour of the San Francisco Friends School. Built in 1906 after the earthquake and fire, the building housed Levi Strauss & Co. until 2002. Fundraising for the Friends School began in 2006, and classes commenced in September of 2008. Peter Pfau and Kami Kincaid of Pfau Long Architecture explained their process…
SPUR Weighs in on MTA's Plans for a Balanced Budget
Advocacy Letter / All measures are consistent with the principle of minimizing the impact on riders while providing ongoing improvements to the MTA's budget.
Woe is Parking.
News / As someone who has lived in this city for virtually my entire life, there is one thing I know for sure – parking is a pain. Were I to calculate the total time I’ve wasted cruising for a parking space or the total amount of money I’ve spent in parking tickets, I might go insane. However, we are not just losing our time, money, and…
The Fall and Rise of Downtown D.C.
Urbanist Article / The revitalization of downtown, greater downtown and Center City
Learning from Metrorail
Urbanist Article / The Bay Area Rapid Transit Authority and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority developed their respective regional transit systems around the same time, and toward similar aims. Both were conceived in the 1940s to complement new highways and underwent construction in the 1960s as opposition to those highways began to mount. BART began operation in 1972, and has grown to 104 track miles; Metrorail began…
Learning from Washington D.C.
News / This past fall, a group of SPUR board members and staff traveled to Washington DC to learn from the urban-planning successes of our nation's capital; today, three members of that group presented their findings at a lunchtime forum. SPUR Deputy Director Sarah Karlinsky began the discussion with an overview of the Washington urban planning models from Pierre L'Enfant's plan of 1791 to and James McMillan's…
Urban Field Notes: Eight Forms of Fortification in our Nation's Capital
Urbanist Article / A function of any city is to provide safety and the defense of residents while they shop and trade, even while they sleep, It's a way of circling the wagons, from Leonardo's fortified town walls to Beijing's Imperial City walls to today's post-9/11 terrorist barricades.
Thriving TOD
Urbanist Article / While urban planners across the U.S. talk about creating transit-oriented development, the D.C. region has built TODs in a way that's actually changing commuter behavior. What lessons can San Francisco learn from this success story?
Extending the City Beautiful
Urbanist Article / In the 18th and 19th centuries, Washington, D.C. was built as a celebration of democracy and civic pride. Today, planners are extending this legacy to reconnect D.C.'s "monumental core" with the rest of the city.
SPUR and streets on film!
News / Deputy Director Sarah Karlinsky was featured in a short film this week on the future of San Francisco’s streets. Streetsblog San Francisco posted a video on Monday showcasing the Making a Better Market Street Project. The project envisions Market Street as a grand boulevard similar to La Rambla in Barcelona, the Champs-Élysées in Paris, or the more recently reconfigured public space in New York’s Times…
Sea Level Rise, Way Worse than We Thought (Again)
News / A paper this week in what is arguably the world's most prestigious scientific journal, Nature, says that the last time the Earth warmed up as much as it will under climate change, sea levels rose about 8 meters. This means that global sea level rise over the coming decades may be about twice as worse as we thought. When we published two articles in the…
SPUR Comments on Proposed Bridge Toll Increase
Advocacy Letter / SPUR encourages MTA and BATA to consider financing a plan for the Bay Bridge corridor that is multimodal, incremental and addresses long-term capacity constraints. Such an approach is an important step in reducing job sprawl, decreasing automobile dependency and providing greater resiliency for the region.
Coming soon: energy efficiency loan program
News / SPUR's analysis of the cost-effectiveness of various options for local government to reduce carbon emissions has gotten around. Our evaluation showing that in San Francisco, a low-interest loan program to finance home energy efficiency retrofits would be more cost-effective than new incentives for renewable energy installations, was featured in an EPA presentation for local governments on how to use stimulus funding. The presentation is accessible…
Greening Paris
News / Fall programming concluded November 18th with bikes, parks and policy in the City of Light. Writer and lecturer Marilyn Clemens illustrated current trends in Parisian roadway and park design, which follow the geometry of the classical era, while also redefining the purpose of public space. The Alliance Française generously sponsored the event. Clemens reported walking as the most popular method of circulation, and the city…
[Literature] in the City
News / The Young Urbanist [Literature] in the City forum at SPUR on November 10th presented a lively discussion on this topic and other aspects of the history and culture of San Francisco’s literary community. Stephen Elliott of the San Francisco Writer's Grotto and editor of The Rumpus, writer and City Lights editor Elaine Katzenberger, and Filipino American poet and professor Barbara Jane Reyes joined the…