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San Francisco residential buildings with office towers in the background

California Delivers Wins for Building Decarbonization

News /
Moving California’s homes and other buildings off of health- and climate-harming gas heating will require a transition to electric heat pumps. This year, the state pressed some legislative and regulatory levers to speed that process. ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅrecommendations and advocacy helped shape these building decarbonization wins.
Casa Suenos housing development in Oakland, CA

Prop. 5: Giving Communities Better Tools to Invest in Housing, Parks, and More

News /
Local bond measures to fund essential services often garner the support of a majority at the ballot box yet fail to pass because they don’t meet California’s requirement that bonds be approved by a two-thirds supermajority. Proposition 5 would amend the state constitution to lower the voter approval threshold for bonds to fund housing, infrastructure, wildfire prevention, and parks.
AC Transit Tempo line, Oakland

Funding Regional Transit — and Managing Risk in Uncertain Times

News /
ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅis serving on an MTC-appointed select committee to explore legislation that would put a regional transit revenue measure on the ballot in a future election. Two other regional funding measure efforts — SB 1031 for transit, and the BAHFA bond for housing — were both paused earlier this year, casting a cautionary light on regional funding measures. Our recent comments to the committee focus on how to set up the current transit proposal for success.
Dublin Hills Regional Park

Prop 4: Investing Now to Cut Future Climate Costs

News /
California is already paying the cost of climate change impacts from devastating wildfires, droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events. By investing in climate action now, voters can reduce future costs both economic and social. California Prop. 4 would put $10 billion toward safe drinking water, drought resilience, ecosystem restoration, resilience to natural hazards, and more.

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅrequests Governor Newsom's signature on AB 2503

Advocacy Letter
ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅrequests Governor Newsom's signature on AB 2503 (Lee). AB 2503 will streamline the planning and delivery of zero emission rail projects in California to help reduce vehicles mile traveled, greenhouse gas emissions and local particulate matter.

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅprovides comments on development of potential regional transportation measure

Advocacy Letter
ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅCEO Alicia John-Baptiste provided extensive written comments to MTC"s Transportation Revenue Measure Select Committee regarding the ongoing development of a potential future ballot measure to fund Bay Area transit. Given uncertainties about the 2024 national election and the future mood of the Bay Area electorate, ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅis strongly advocating for an approach that keeps multiple revenue measure options on the table.

Letter Opposing CalSHAPE Elimination

Advocacy Letter
ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅsigned on to a coalition letter opposing the elimination of the CalSHAPE, or the California Schools Healthy Air, Plumbing, and Efficiency Program, which funds HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) improvements in schools. These investments will be necessary to support new indoor heat standard and the ever-worsening hazard of wildfire-affected air.

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅcomments on the development of first Caltrans transit plan

Advocacy Letter
Caltrans District 4 - the district that covers the nine county Bay Area - is in the process of developing its inaugural transit plan for the state highway network. ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅserves on the technical working group and provided comments on how Caltrans can measure success and prioritize investments.
Smoothing the Transition to Heat Pumps

Smoothing the Transition to Heat Pumps, Part 1: Code Changes

News /
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 these installations easier and more affordable by amending municipal zoning ordinances and permitting processes. In the first article of a series on accelerating heat pump adoption, ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅrecommends four zoning code strategies.
4th and San Fernando Street, San Jose

It’s California’s Duty to Make Streets Safe for All Users

News /
In 2023, an estimated 4,000 people died on California’s roadways. More than 30% of these traffic deaths happened on state-owned roads. It doesn’t have to be this way. ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅ— together with CalBike, WalkSF, StreetsforAll, KidSafeSF, and AARP California — is sponsoring Senate Bill 960 to make state roads that function as local streets safer by design. In this article, we share testimony from a California mom who lost her husband to a collision that safer street design could have prevented.
Snell and 70th Avenue, Oakland

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅSponsors State Bills to Promote Housing Production

News /
Among the many state housing bills ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅis advocating for this year, we are sponsoring five in particular that would facilitate housing production through transit-oriented, mixed-income, and affordable residential development. The bills tackle issues from lack of transparency about the total costs of a project’s development impact fees to attempts by jurisdictions to thwart the so-called Builder’s Remedy.
red report cover with a graphic of an org chart becoming more organized and rational

Designed to Serve

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅReport
Over time, San Francisco’s governance structure has evolved to distribute authority and maximize oversight. As a consequence, policies don’t always meet the needs of the people they were intended to serve. The lack of clear, coordinated action to address big challenges has led to a growing perception that city government isn’t working. SPUR’s latest report outlines how San Francisco can choose to design a better system that supports leadership and empowerment with clear lines of accountability.

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅand coalition ask governor to unfreeze emergency transit funds

Advocacy Letter
In response to California's budget deficit, Governor Newsom's Administration put a spending freeze on numerous agencies, which also impacted the release of emergency transit operating partners. In June, ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅand our Survive + Thrive coalition partners once again came together to urge the administration to make funding available to transit operators for transit operations and capital projects. In July, the governor released that critical funding to operators to avoid cutting service.
Montgomery Station, San Francisco

Senators Put Pause on Bill to Authorize a Regional Measure to Fund Transit

News /
A bill that would have authorized the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to place a regional transportation revenue measure on the ballot in 2026 has been paused, bringing the prospect of severe transit cuts ever closer. ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅsupports a recently announced effort by MTC to identify a path to a new bill that would be introduced in the 2025 legislative session.
Sarah Atkinson Headshot

The Climate Threat Beneath Our Feet and What Policymakers Can Do ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅIt: Q&A With Sarah Atkinson

News /
Bay Area residents are keenly aware of the threat of sea level rise as the planet warms — but most of us know far less about the impacts of groundwater rise. In the Bay Area, those impacts will be felt long before sea level rise causes overland flooding. That’s one of the takeaways of a new ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅcase study that examines how one Bay Area community, East Palo Alto, would likely be affected in the absence of adaptation efforts. We spoke with author Sarah Atkinson about her findings.
100 Van Ness, San Francisco

Rethinking Revenue: Business Tax Reform in San Francisco in the Era of Remote Work

News /
The rise of remote work and other economic changes have exposed vulnerabilities in San Francisco’s business tax structure. The city’s controller and treasurer have studied potential tax reform recommendations for a possible November 2024 ballot measure. Their proposal aims to increase the city’s economic resilience, create more transparency for taxpayers, and help struggling small businesses.
Report cover with abstract illustration of groundwater rising up toward underground pipes and the buildings above ground

Look Out Below

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅReport
Bay Area cities planning for sea level rise need to address another emerging hazard: groundwater rise. ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅpartnered with community-based organization Nuestra Casa to investigate how rising groundwater is likely to affect one Bay Area city: East Palo Alto. Our case study explains specific risks and offers five recommendations — all applicable to other vulnerable communities along the San Francisco Bay shore.