2018 Silver SPUR Honoree Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is a social justice advocate, businesswoman and community organizer dedicated to making measurable change. She has lead a number of labor and social justice organizations, such as the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, Working Partnerships USA, Green For All and is a Co-founder of Promise, a de-carceration startup that works with government agencies to keep people out of jail.

2018 Silver SPUR Award Recipient Reverend Harry Chuck is a lifelong civil rights activist and leader in the Chinatown community. Chuck was the executive director of Donaldina Cameron House, pastor of Chinatown Presbyterian Church, co-chairperson of Chinatown Coalition for Better Housing, and is now producing through a documentary called Chinatown Rising.

San Francisco is running out of funds to build affordable housing, and the city will need to make changes quickly to fix the problem. How did this happen and what can be done? A combination of rising construction costs and new requirements is slowing down new development and curtailing incoming fees. SPUR has five suggestions for how to address the problem before it gets worse.

Major plans for new jobs, housing, BART and high-speed rail connections will reshape San Jose’s urban core. Amid this planned growth, the city has an opportunity to capitalize on one of its most treasured resources, the Guadalupe River Park. Denver's River Mile plan — a proposal to transform a downtown riverfront — offers lessons for turning an underused natural resource into an urban attraction.

In his final public address, outgoing SPUR President and CEO Gabriel Metcalf shared his reflections on where the Bay Area has been and where it's going. To end our housing crisis and transportation woes, he argued, our reluctant metropolis must embrace its role as a world city and economic center.