SPUR

Meet longtime SPUR member Tony Tolentino. This San Francisco native shares his hopes for the Bay Area, from downtowns to the region as a whole: https://lnkd.in/ghr53DRh #TheUrbanist

With the resignation of San José Councilmember Omar Torres, many in District 3 are wondering what comes next and who will be representing them on the City Council. SPUR looks at the two possible paths forward and the considerations for balancing city needs with community representation. https://lnkd.in/ghrEvx7e

The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 was a wakeup call the Bay Area heeded. In the years since that magnitude 6.9 quake, state, regional, and municipal action has addressed the seismic vulnerability of the region's buildings and infrastructure. But gaps remain in the region's preparedness for the estimated 51% chance of a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in the next 30 years. https://lnkd.in/gHhuwWUk

As the Bay Area phases out sales of gas furnaces and water heaters, more and more property owners will need to install zero-pollution, high-efficiency electric heat pumps in homes. City planners must quickly make that installation easier and more affordable. SPUR has been working with stakeholders to identify permitting and inspection reforms for the clean heating transition. https://lnkd.in/gMwBzVZv https://lnkd.in/gMwBzVZv

Many SPUR priorities prevailed at the ballot box this election. Bay Area voters funded climate resilience, schools, violence & wildfire prevention, and backed measures for economic resilience, better governance & safer streets for pedestrians & cyclists. https://lnkd.in/gZNiPaWt

🏘️ What can California learn from French housing? 🇫🇷 Join SPUR for a special learning session on French housing models with SPUR alum Magda Maaoui, PhD 📅 Tuesday, Jan 7, 2025 ⏰ 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. PT 📍 SPUR Urban Center 📍 654 Mission St, SF 💯 FREE admission! The session will explore lessons for California's needs which can be gleaned from the French housing system. We will cover classic and innovative tools, from fair-share mandates to adaptive reuse and infill densification, from old ways of regulating and financing affordable housing to public-private partnerships. In the post-election uncertain context planners, policymakers and housing advocates have to navigate, we will share actionable insights on how the local makes a difference, even in a strong welfare state like France. Dr. Maaoui is an Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and a Researcher affiliated with the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, the Healthy Places Design Lab, and the Harvard Data Science Initiative. Prior to that, she was an Urban Planner and Research Associate at the Atelier Parisien d'Urbanisme (APUR), acted as an external expert consultant for the OECD, and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Paris Cité. Register now! https://lnkd.in/gAAAX_7n

A new law requires Bay Area jurisdictions on the shoreline to develop sea level rise adaptation plans as part of a regionally coordinated approach managed by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC). SPUR helped shape the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan, which will guide local planning and set regional priorities to ensure efficient and effective knowledge sharing and investments. These efforts will benefit from California's recently-passed Climate Bond (Proposition 4), which SPUR advocated for.

As the Bay Area phases out sales of gas water heaters and gas furnaces, property owners will need to install zero-pollution electric heat pump devices in buildings when the existing devices fail. But the current process is complicated and expensive. The third article in our series tackles state-level action to mandate, incentivize, guide, and resource simplified permitting at the local level. https://lnkd.in/gFXuRwQe

𝘓𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘖𝘶𝘵 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘸: 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘗𝘢𝘭𝘰 𝘈𝘭𝘵𝘰 — 𝘈 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 by Sarah Atkinson. As Bay Area policymakers plan for the impacts of sea level rise, they have an opportunity and duty to address another emerging climate change hazard: groundwater rise. Doing so will reduce and avoid significant human health and economic impacts. Without adaptation measures, groundwater rise in the Bay Area's low-lying communities will exacerbate flooding events, damage belowground infrastructure, mobilize contaminants at legacy industrial sites, and increase the risk of building damage in an earthquake. This SPUR report identifies how rising groundwater is likely to affect one Bay Area city: East Palo Alto. SPUR partnered with community-based organization Nuestra Casa and examined recent scientific studies to learn more about the threat and potential policy responses. The report explains specific risks and offers five recommendations — all applicable to other Bay shore cities. Some key takeaways: 1️⃣ East Palo Alto and other low-lying Bay shore communities will feel the impacts of groundwater rise long before sea level rise causes overland flooding. 2️⃣ Efforts to lessen those impacts should be part of state, regional, and local plans for sea level rise adaptation, infrastructure upgrades, and contaminated site remediation. 3️⃣ Strategies need to be equity-focused: like other climate change risks, groundwater rise is likely to be most severe in low-income communities of color already by industrial pollution, aging infrastructure, and housing affordability. To read the full report visit spur.org/lookoutbelow

Groundwater rise is one of the biggest risks for communities near the Bay. Eleanor R. of The Almanac summarizes the findings of Sarah Atkinson's recent report on the topic ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/giEd-Xxw