Josué García first emigrated to the U.S. from Durango, Mexico in 1983, and has spent a career as a tireless advocate for workers in the building and construction trades. Today he is chief executive officer for the Santa Clara and San Benito County Building and Construction Trades Council and was recently appointed vice president for the State Building and Construction Trades Council for Northern California.

San Franciscans love their views to the far distance: to the ocean, the bay or the hills, to the Ferry Building or Twin Peaks. But the author's favorite San Francisco vistas are closer in, along the kinky, misaligned streets meeting at the Market Street backbone, where the FiDi north grid and the SOMA south grid meet in wonderfully inconvenient ways.

Plans for Google to develop almost 8 million square feet of office space near Diridon Station coincide with a massive growth spurt in the city. If a significant amount of new jobs are concentrated in the station area, Diridon can become a major economic engine for San Jose and the South Bay.

6,675 residential housing units are under construction — a huge jump from the 765 that were built in 2014. This represents the biggest residential building boom in Oakland since the post-World War II era and is a dramatic turnaround for a city that saw a modest population decline in the first decade of this century.

SPUR offers suggestions for improving the Urban Village Plan Implementation Framework in order to help make swift progress on San Jose's urban village strategy.