The fire at the Ghost Ship artists collective in the Fruitvale district was the most lethal fire in Oakland’s history and the worst in the state since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. How can property owners and the City of Oakland make places like the Ghost Ship safe without making them so expensive that they cease to be affordable?

What kinds of changes can we make to encourage more people to use transit more of the time? The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will be asking questions like this as it launches the Next Network, a system-wide redesign intended to grow ridership, improve its fiscal footing and serve BART.

Bay Area voters have approved more than $10 billion in new transportation funding. The majority of the new revenue is for projects and goals SPUR supports, but if we have learned anything over decades of being involved in urban transportation, it’s that well-intentioned and well-funded projects can still fail if we don’t get the details right. Here’s what we’ll be watching closely.

Last week San Jose became the latest Bay Area city to update its in-law unit ordinances to better serve the need for housing solutions. Once illegal in many cities, this simple way to add more housing — create an additional unit in the backyard, basement, attic or garage — has become a welcome tool in the fight to make urban housing affordable.

The latest update to Plan Bay Area is now underway — and its findings have revealed some troubling flaws in the planning tools we have for managing our region’s biggest challenges: making housing affordable and maintaining our transportation infrastructure. Now that these issues have been made apparent, it’s time to ask what we should be doing differently.

Regardless of what our nation’s new leadership will mean for the issues SPUR works on, here in the Bay Area we are moving ahead, taking dramatic steps to make the world better. SPUR is tackling the big issues our cities face, from fighting climate change to putting economic prosperity in everyone's reach — but we can't do it without your help.

The late Rose Pak championed San Francisco’s Asian-American community for more than four decades. Her life work of building the community’s social, cultural and political influence empowered and gave voice to Chinese-Americans in San Francisco politics. Among her legacies are the many neighborhood nonprofits which prospered through her support, as well as the Central Subway station.

Mark Buell is the president of the Recreation and Parks Commission and chair of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Buell has sought to ensure Bay Area parkland remains accessible and protected for future generations. His legacies include the $35 million restoration of Crissy Field, the Muir Woods Visitor Center and Cavallo Point.

Ira S. Hirschfield is the longtime head of the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, supporting causes that embody fairness, equality and opportunity for all. He is one of four individuals recognized at the 2016 Silver SPUR Awards, held on November 17, for his achievements which have made San Francisco and the Bay Area a better place to live and work.

2016 Silver SPUR honoree Kimberly Bryant founded Black Girls Code in 2011, with the mission to bridge the digital divide and change how we educate girls of color about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Under Bryant's leadership, the organization has expanded to include 11 chapters in the U.S. and 1 in Johannesburg, South Africa; serving more than 6,000 girls.

This election, Bay Area voters chose to make critical investments in transportation, infrastructure and affordable housing. And in San Francisco they rejected a series of harmful measures that would have undone years of good government reforms.

The presidential vote was about many things, but it was in part a protest against what the Bay Area stands for. Our embrace of diversity. Our high taxes and social programs. Our willingness to challenge traditional norms of gender. Our love of cities. What do those values mean — and what should we be doing to support them going forward?

City Agencies are carrying Ocean Beach Master Plan recommendations forward.