housing building on 2060 Folsom Street, San Francisco

SPUR 2022 Impact Report

Learn what we accomplished in 2022

buildings in downtown SF

Flexible Work Has Reshaped Downtown San Francisco

How will the city embrace the New Normal?

computer rendering of howard terminal ballpark in oakland

What It Will Take to Make the Howard Terminal Ballpark Project a Home Run for Oakland

A once-in-a-generation opportunity for the City of Oakland

therese mcmillan

An Exit Interview With Therese McMillan

Retiring MTC director shares lessons from her career

taiko drummers

SPUR’s First 10 Years in San José

A retrospective of SPUR's work in the South Bay

Losing Ground

Policy Brief
SPUR’s new research paper, Losing Ground: What the Bay Area’s Housing Crisis Means for Middle-Income Households and Racial Inequality, aims to identify how the Bay Area’s housing market has become shaped by scarcity and wide economic divides among not only income groups but also among races and ethnicities.

Putting an End to Biased Traffic Stops in San Francisco

News /
Black and Latinx drivers in San Francisco are pulled over more than other drivers for offenses so minor that citations are often not issued. When these “pretext” stops do result in tickets, the resulting fines can be punitive. Using data-driven decision making, San Francisco has limited nine types of pretext stops that had no effect on road safety and little effect on public safety. SPUR and dozens of other organizations, along with impacted people, helped end this unjust practice.

With Subsidies, Pollution-Preventing Heat Pump Upgrades Can Be Affordable for Low-Income Bay Area Households

News /
Next month, Bay Area regulators will vote on a proposal to phase out appliances that emit toxic nitrogen oxide pollution, setting the stage for a transition away from gas appliances. Will the new standard pose a cost burden to low-income families already struggling to make it in the Bay Area? We looked at the numbers and found that the true net cost of replacing end-of-life gas appliances with energy-efficient electric heat pumps will add up to a cost savings.

Op-Ed: How San José’s Elected Leaders Can Plan for Success

News /
The success of San José and the well-being of its residents depend on a fully-staffed and functioning planning department that guides how and where San José's community grows and evolves and expedites projects that conform to the City Council-adopted vision. This is how good government works and must be a top priority for our elected leaders.

Op-Ed: Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria Are a Wake-Up for California. We're Not Prepared for the Big One.

News /
The devastating earthquakes that shook Turkey and Syria last Monday have taken the lives of over 23,000 people. Such a staggering death toll is hard to wrap the mind around and may seem like an impossibility here in California. Yet, the reality is that a similar magnitude earthquake near Los Angeles or San Francisco could lead to thousands of residents injured or killed and many more displaced, temporarily or permanently, from their damaged or destroyed homes.