Germany’s baugruppen (“building groups”) are a modern form of co-housing in which households of all kinds collectively finance and build a multifamily building as a means to improve quality of life and foster community. Could it work here? SPUR is hosting a lunchtime panel conversation on October 5 with experts in co-housing and co-living to explore baugruppen and other models.

Voters around the Bay Area have shown their commitment to addressing homelessness by passing generous funding measures — but resistance to proposed housing that would actually serve homeless residents remains strong. In order to approve and build these homes, the Bay Area will need political will and public support. Here are three reasons why supportive housing should matter to all of us.

The extension of BART to San Jose is moving forward. The city and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Board of Directors will soon vote on some major decision points: where to locate stations and what tunneling method to use. While SPUR isn’t taking a position on all of these decisions, we offer a few ways to think about each of the options.

Oakland neighborhoods like Temescal and Rockridge are walkable, have great restaurants, parks and transit access — and are too expensive for most. These neighborhoods would be great places to build the city’s needed housing, but many have zoning regulations that prevent it.

Ford GoBike has launched in five Bay Area cities. At its planned scale of 7,000 bikes, the program has potential to change how people get around — but only if there are policies in place to help guarantee its success. SPUR shares five ways Bay Area cities can get the most out of this and other bike-sharing programs.

The next generation of the Clipper transit payment system is now under development. While Clipper has removed a barrier to traveling on different transit operators, it did so only by masking a complex web of transit fares, passes and policies, making it challenging for the region to realize the promise of transit. We take a close look at the problem and recommend next steps.

Governor Jerry Brown and California’s legislative leadership are expected to unveil a package of housing bills this week in response to widespread recognition that the state faces a significant housing shortage and a resulting affordability crisis. The announcement explicitly specified a general obligation bond, a permanent funding source for affordable housing and regulatory reforms, but more proposals are supposedly under discussion.

In a city that celebrates food from farm-to-table, public hospitals are now looking to up their game as well. Two San Francisco hospitals have begun baseline assessments using the Good Food Purchasing program framework to see how they can better direct their $8.6 million in combined annual food budgets. The city's jails are exploring following suit.

This summer, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt legislation that makes big changes to the city’s affordable housing requirements for residential development. SPUR is happy to see the supervisors coming together on a contentious issue, but we remain concerned that the new requirements are not financially feasible and will result in less affordable housing actually getting built.

Both San Diego and San Jose are growing rapidly. Both cities have adopted general plans that direct new growth into “urban villages.” At a recent SPUR forum, two urban planners from San Diego discussed key challenges and lessons learned with San Jose’s planning staff and the community.