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.

Tom Matoff takes the reader through an illuminating history of our Municipal Railway, from the days of private, profit-making transit companies to today’s beloved Muni.

SPUR's deep involvement with city planning issues, while guiding SPUR's expansion into new policy areas of city management, finance, and the democratic decision-making process. He has an intimate knowledge of the dynamics of change in San Francisco during the 1970s, from the founding of the GGNRA, to the effects of Proposition 13, to the continuing transformation of San Francisco's economic base. In February of this…

Along with other civic groups, SPUR played a leading role in preserving the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Community activist Amy Meyer...

This report is the fourth in a series of SPUR reports on ways to increase the supply of housing in the San Francisco. The others are: "The Central Waterfront – One SPUR Answer to San Francisco's Housing Crisis" (March, 1998, Report 361); "Zoning for More Housing – Proposed Changes to San Francisco 's Planning Code and Zoning Map" (April, 1998 Report 362); and "Reducing Housing…

Redevelopment in the period from 1948 through 1973 was characterized by a reliance for funding on the federal government - first the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA), then the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This was the era of big government, big redevelopment, big programs, and big changes to San Francisco's cityscape.

In January of 1999 SPUR's deputy director, Gabriel Metcalf, interviewed John Hirten to talk about the first decade of SPUR's existence and, more specifically, about urban renewal. As SPUR's first executive director, John Hirten was a national spokesman for enhancing our cities, through the federal urban renewal movement, and was one of the key actors behind San Francisco's programs. This candid interview between two generations…

While the world has changed a great deal in the last 40 years, and SPUR along with it, certain remarkable individuals had a prescience about the core values that make a difference. One such person was Dorothy Erskine (1896-1982), a founder of both SPUR and Greenbelt Alliance, and a key participant in a wide variety of civic planning activities. Were she here today, we would…