SPUR Publications

Across the Bay Area, only one in 10 commuters takes transit to work each day. And half of those transit commuters go to one job center: downtown San Francisco. But since most work is outside of downtowns, SPUR is trying to understand a little more about emerging suburban and non-downtown job centers. This post is the first in an occasional series that will…

[Photo Credit: flickr user sandy kemsley] This post is the first in an occasional series that hopes to make sense of the issues surrounding the implementation of California's smart growth law, SB 375. California's future demographic reality is clear. We will grow — perhaps not as quickly as in recent decades — but we will nonetheless continue to increase our population. The state…

DIY Urbanism is a movement that arose in part from projects born out of the recession and resulting limited funds. But one project that has a more direct link than most is the San Francisco Arts Council's Art in Storefronts program. The economic downturn brought with it an uptick in empty storefronts, causing some harder-hit commercial strips to look blighted. Art in Storefronts seeks…

Improving an inner-city neighborhood without setting it up for gentrification could be as simple as placing a few wooden seats on the sidewalk. Or at least that's the premise of architect Steve Cancian's Outdoor Living Rooms, a project featured in SPUR's new show at the Urban Center, DIY Urbanism: Testing the grounds for social change.

SPUR's Park(ing) Day 2009 installation [Photo Credit: Colleen McHugh] Park(ing) Day 2010 is just two weeks away. First celebrated in San Francisco in 2005, PARK(ing) Day has since become a global phenomenon. The annual event celebrates public space and street life by temporarily transforming parking spaces into public parks (or performance spaces, reading lounges—whatever you like!). It is also a great opportunity to test…

A prototype for a bike rack designed by David Baker + Partners [Photo Credit: David Baker] Build pretzel-shaped steel tubes, bolt them to the sidewalk, and the cyclists will come. Or at least that seems to be the logic behind the newfound interest in bike rack design in cities throughout the country. I remember a time when parking your bike meant locking it to…

[Image courtesy of Streetsblog] San Francisco has a problem with its roads. Since 1988, the average pavement condition of roads in San Francisco has declined 20%. No longer considered an essential city service to be paid for out of the City's General Fund, city officials are looking for new ways to pay for street repavement projects. They are also prioritizing street repairs based on…

A patch of greenery at Hayes Valley Farm [Photo Credit: Fabiana Meacham] Situated on a former off-ramp to Highway 101, Hayes Valley Farm is a powerful symbol of a bottom-up transformation of neglected urban infrastructure. Planned according to permaculture design principles, which mimic the biological relationships found in naturally occurring ecosystems, the farm will serve as an exemplary model of this design philosophy. Although…

An example of "Palletecture" from I-Beam Design [Photo via I-Beam Design] Architects and designers are getting creative about finding low-cost ways to build green structures that are just as compelling, if not more so, than their pricier counterparts. It is no wonder, then, that trends such as "Palletecture" and other forms of architecture that use recycled and reclaimed materials have become a worldwide phenomenon…

While living in the suburbs often appears less expensive than living in the city, this is often not the case when factoring in transportation costs. The Center for Neighborhood Technology just released an expanded version of their housing and transportation index which provides a comprehensive view of neighborhood affordability. Unlike other affordability indices, the Housing and Transportation Affordability Index takes into account transportation costs associated…

[The Vendor Power! poster breaks down NYC's rules and regulations for street vendors. Photo courtesy of Making Policy Public] Much to the chagrin of many graphic designers, the most effective and skilled examples of their trade often exist within the field of advertising, where the profits reaped from consumption dominate the end product. But when the rare opportunity does arise to use graphic design for…

The Levi's Workshop on Valencia Street [Photo Credit: flickr user thepostfamily] Nestled among artisan manufacturers and freshly ground coffee, the Levi's Workshop at 580 Valencia Street continues the Mission's tradition of craft through a community print shop. This bold artistic enclave merges the pop appeal of the storefront with the patience of the printmaker. The wide windows and old signs from a past laundromat…

Hayes Valley Farm extends to the very edge of a more traditional urban scene [Photo Credit: Fabiana Meacham] Spend a few hours walking through any sector of the city and you will inevitably stumble upon a small patch of toiled earth, usually surrounded by chain-link fencing and accompanied by the all too familiar odor of manure. Urban farms have surfaced throughout the country in…

Flint Hahn's Burning Man infographic. (Click to view larger.) For some it is a yearly spiritual revival providing an emotionally charged respite from reality; for others it simply means they are able to eat brunch without standing in line. The mark left by Burning Man on San Franciscans and this city is undoubtedly immense, but is hard to truly measure. The same can be said…

Sprawl, conformity, car culture, ennui, decay. These are a few of the themes Arcade Fire tackles in its third album, The Suburbs, released last week. At times nostalgic and at times cautionary, The Suburbs may be most notable (certainly in the realm of SPUR's blog) as an example of city planning commentary in pop culture. As an NPR review put it, "the members of…

[Photo Credit: flickr user notaboutwill] The US Department of Energy released their 2009 Wind Technologies Market Report outlining the current state of wind technology in the United States. The report is an exhaustive study of what is generally seen as solar power's less glamorous and less popular cousin. Some interesting facts from the report include: Wind power made up 39% of all new generating…

[Photo Credit: Colleen McHugh] Through an interactive market system of live music, produce booths and youth art projects, the Mission Community Market (MCM) activates an underutilized block at the intersection of 22nd and Bartlett Streets. It also brings diverse walks of life together on one block every Thursday from 4 to 7p.m. Chance encounters with fellow pedestrians carrying sunflowers or succulent produce are the…

[Photo Credit: flickr user Troy Holden] In 2011, America's estimated 78.2 million baby boomers will begin to reach retirement age, officially ushering in the "silver tsunami" - a term used to describe the impending onslaught of retirees into a society that is currently ill-prepared to handle the needs of an aging population. Most boomers currently live in suburbs, having ridden the wave of suburban…

Plug-in cars in San Francisco [Photo Credit: flickr user felixkramer] PG&E's clean energy blog, Next 100, recently explored the idea of the rise of electric vehicles in the Bay Area. At the recent Plug-In 2010 conference, PG&E President Chris Johns predicted that the Bay Area will see around 500,000 electric vehicles (EVs) "plugging in" over the next decade. From a sustainability perspective…