· OSPURIdeas +actionfor abetter city Issue 517/October 2012

THE URBANIST

IS INFORMATION

O SPURSAN FRANCISCO

NOVEMBER 2012

VoterGuideSummary

See SPUR's complete ballotanalysis online atspur.org/voterguide2012

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ter?

VOTEPROP.

A

PROP.

B

PROP.

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ORDINANCE

City College Parcel TaxParcel Tax to Support City Co llegeOperationsLevies a ta x of $79 per parce l for eight years, generating approximately $14milli on per year to support the op erations of th e City Coll ege of San Francisco.

GENERAL OBLIGATION BOND

Parks BondClean and safe neighborhood parksAuthorize s the cit y to issue $195 mill ion in gen eral obl igation bonds to fun d

capi ta l mainte nance, repair and improvements to facil it ies th rough out th e

San Francisco parks system.

CHARTER AMENDMENT

Housing Trust FundAffordable housing trust fund andhousing production incentives actCreates a dedic ated fund ing source for affordable hous ing producti on in

San Francisco for 30 years.

YES

VOTE

YES

VOTE

YES

Corey Marshall is

Good Government

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THE URBANIST

OCTOBER 2012

NewsatSPUR

Transit Center District PlanWins Final ApprovalOn August 8, Mayor Ed Lee signed the San Francisco

Transit Center District Plan after the Board of Supervisors

unanimously approved it in late July. SPUR has long

advocated for the passage of this plan, which proposes

update d land uses surrounding the Transbay Transit Center

now under construct ion. In addit ion to creating a walkable,

transit -oriented neighborhood with new housing and jobs,

the plan aims to raise revenue from new development to

extend high-speed rail and Caltrain service into down town

San Francisco, as well as to comp lete other pub lic

infrast ructu re that would support continued growth in the

plan area. The plan's funding program is projected to raise

$590 million of new revenue from develop ment, includi ng

more than $400 million for complet ing the extension

of high-speed rail and Caltrain . The next milestone in

implement ing the plan takes place in mid-October, when

the city wi ll hold joint hearings between the San Francisco

Planning and Recreation and Park commissions. The

hearings will address shadows created by new buildings in

the plan area and their potential impacts on nearby public

parks. The tallest building in the plan area, the Transit Tower,

wi ll go before the Planning Commission in early October.

San Francisco's WaterfrontTransformationSan Francisco's waterfro nt has

been home to some of th e city's

most transform ative proj ects,

including Mission Bay, AT&T

Park, China Basin and the South

Beach neighborhood. Today,

the water front is once again

the location of many of San

Francisco's largest and most

excit ing developm ent prop osals.

Several new plans along th e bay,

includi ng Seawall Lot 337/Pier

48 (Mission Rock), Pier 70 and

the proposed Warriors' Stad ium,

aim to make their mark on San

Francisco. As always, SPUR wi ll

be tracking and weighing in on

these important projects, wh ich

have the potent ial to make an

enormous posit ive impact on

the wate rfront while also helpin g

the port to repair and seismically

THE URBANIST

upgrade some of its deteriorat ing

infrastructure. Throughout th e fall,

SPUR will be hosting a series of

forum s exp loring planning on the

waterfront. To find out more, go to

www.spur.org/events/

ABAG's General AssemblyFocuses on DisasterResilienceEvery year th e Associat ion of Bay

Area Governm ents (ABAG) hosts

a major meeti ng of the region's

elected officials to focus on an

important planning topic. This year,

inspired by the work of both ABAG

and SPUR, th e general assemb ly

will focus on the issue of disaster

resilience and long-term recovery.

SPUR is proud to be part of thi s

assembly, which will be held on

October 18 in San Francisco. For

more infor mat ion, go to

www.abag.gov.

A Focus on SF's SoutheastWaterfrontSince 2007, SPURhas stewarded a

graduate student in design und er

the Piero N. Patr i Fellowship in

Urban Design, a summer- long posi­

tio n that provides the opport unity

to work on meaningful projects

along San Francisco's sout heast

waterfront. This summer's fellow,

Alexa Bush, recentl y presented

her completed prop osal to an

audience of representat ives from

city agencies, th e press, local resi­

dents, business owners and ot her

key stakeho lders. Alexa's project,

a website developed to engage

neighbors and visitors with the

city 's wat erfront neighborhoods,

studies the history and develop­

ment of th e southeast waterfront

and analyzes opportunities to

increase pub lic access and aware­

ness. www.sewsf.org.

SPUR Makes 7x7 Hot List7x7 magazine has named Benjamin

Grant, SPUR's publi c realm and

urban design prog ram manager,

to its 2012 "Hot 30" list. Each year

the magazine prof iles a select

group of locals who help make

San Francisco a place like no other.

Grant, who was recogn ized fo r

his role leading th e Ocean Beach

Master Plan, appears alongside

Stew art Brand, founder of the

Whol e Earth Catalog and the Long

Now Foundation; Neal Benezra,

direc tor of SFMOMA; and Jeff

Henry, design director of Gensler.

"Hot 30" coverage appears in 7x7s

October issue. •

OCTOBER 2012 3

COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION

A policy agenda forthe sharing economyThis emerging movement is redefining the ways goods and

services are exchanged, valued and created.

Summary: From carsharing to

clothes-swapping to couchsurf ing,

collabo rat ive consumption is not

only reinventing what we consume

but how we consume.

By Gabriel Metcalf

and Jennifer W arburg

Sharing is an old idea. But its potential to generate

new economic opport unit ies is only just beginning.

Under the name "collaborative consumption," orsomet imes simply "the sharing economy," a new

type of enterpri se is emerging that strive s to make it

easy for peop le who don't know each other to share

resources. Habits of sharing that have existed with in

small, informal networks for most of human existence(say, borrowing your neighbor's lawnmower or lett ing

a fri end crash on your couch) have now blossomed

into a market for micro-entrepreneur ship that spans

the globe. This new enterpr ise is fundamenta lly

capitalist yet simultaneously more socially and

environm entally conscious. And it has been madepossible by the emergence of new, networked

social tool s and a cultural shift toward peer-to -peer

commerce that makes trust and efficient exchangebetw een strangers possible.

Collabo rative consumption represents a major

economic, social and cultural shift. But as it moves

out of infancy and towa rd greater adoption and

accepta nce, it' s tim e to look at the ways policy migh thelp facil itate its growth - and how government

migh t help, or hinder, it s progress.

The emergence of the sharing economyOne of the longest-standing examples of the sharing

economy is car sharing, which got its start more than

a decade ago. SPUR was an early supporter and in

2001 made it a strategic priority to bring car sharing

to the Bay Area, helping to incubate a new nonprofit

4 OCTOBER 2012

orga nization, City CarShare, to prov ide the service.

Car sharing proceeded from two basic insights: first,

that cars are expensive to own and second, that most

cars sit idle most of the time . The early car-sharing

movement identified a previously unvalued resource

- the unused hours of a car. By making it possibleto pay based on how much one dr ives, car sharing

converts the fixed costs of ownership to variab le

costs based on use.Car sharing offered a glimpse of the incentives

that wou ld come to moti vate the broader sharing

economy, such as cost-con sciousness, concern for theenvironment and a renewed interest in community.

Today, City CarShare members save an average of

more than $8,000 per year compared with the costs

of private car ownership. From an environmental

perspect ive, the benefit s of car sharing are

enormous: reduced resource consumpt ion becausefewer cars are manufactured and better use of

urban land previously devoted to storing vehicles.

By making the true marginal costs of car use visible

to drivers, car-sharing members are incentivized

to drive less.' Since City CarShare launched in 2001

wit h 50 participants, it has grown to mor e than

15,000 memb ers and 400 cars while attra ct ing

compet ition and imita tor s of all kinds. City CarShare

has overcome numerous practic al hurdl es - lining

up parking spaces, creating reservations technology,

acquiring the vehicles themselves - but more

importantly, it has gotten peop le to rethink the role of

the automobile in their lives.

Gabriel Metcalf isexecutive directorof

SPUR. Jennifer Warburg isassistant to the

executive director.

Special thanks to Allison Arieff, Neal

Gorenflo, Rick Hutchinson, Eric Irvine, Molly

Turner and Vivian Wang.

1 SeeRobert Cervera. Aaron Goluband BrendanNee.

"SanFrancisco City CarShare: Longer-Term Travel­

Demand and Car Ownership Impacts: ' University of

California at Berkeley Inst itute of Urban and Regional

Develop ment. May 200 6. (www.iurd.berkeley.edu/

publications/ wp/2 006-07.pdf)

THE URBA NIST

Newer entrants to th e collaborat ive consumption

fie ld have offered many of the same benefits and

seen similar levels of remarkab le grow th . Services

and spaces like Loosecubes and Hub Bay Area make

it possible to share off ice space. Airbnb, VRBO and

CouchSurfing provide a way for people to rent out

their apartments, homes or extra rooms when they

aren't in use. Peer-to -peer car-sharing companies like

Getaround and RelayRides enable pri vate owners to

rent out their cars, pot entia lly turnin g every car into

a shareable asset, while Park Circa is doing the same

th ing for parking spaces. SideCar and Zimride help

drivers share th e unoccupied seats in their vehicles

by using technology to facilit ate spontaneous,

on-demand ride sharing. Everything from appare l

to babysitti ng services, backyard prod uce to cargo

bikes, can be exchanged under the new sharing­

economy model. Nearly all of these ventures

challenge existing industries and practices, such as

traditional rental car companies and cab companies ,

traditional rental agreeme nts or conventional usage

patterns.

The people who deve loped the necessary

technologies and the projects that got us accustomed

to the idea of sharing on a larger scale deserve

considerable credi t for this shift in the status quo.

The open-source software movement and Wikipedia

pio neered a method for harnessing the contribu t ions

of a crowd to produce a shared resource, even when

th e parti cipants are far-flun g and don't know each

other. This remains a core element of collaborat ive

THE URBAN IST

consumption, one that defines the practices of

companies like Kickstarter and other forms of

crowdso urced funding, social lendin g (Lending

Club, Prosper) and social currencies (Ven, Bay Area

Community Exchange). The 1999 advent of Napster,

the noto rious music downloading site, made many

peop le comfortab le with not ions of use rather than

ownership. And eBay brought technology-based

market exchanges to th e masses, facilitatin g a huge

wave of micro-entr epreneurship that paved th e way

for companies like TaskRabbit, Vayable and Skillshare.

It' s imp ortant to note that th is is not solely

an outgrowth of new technologies; some facets

of collaborative consumpt ion are thr iving via

comparative ly low-tech too ls, such as parents' groups

that facilitate kids' clothing exchange, announce

garage sales and the like on Yahoo discussion

threads, and via brick-and-mortar community efforts

like too l sharing and skill sharing. A huge component

of this movement is a cult ure and behavior shift:

People are collaborating informally in their

neighborhoods out of necessity and as a lifestyle

choice.

That said, the increasing adoption of online

commerce and the rise of smartphone ownership

are core to the rapid growth of collabora t ive

consumpt ion. Fort y-six percent of Am erican adults

now own a smartpho ne, up 11 percent f rom a year

ago.2 In the Unit ed States , e-co mmerce sales grew

16.1 percent from 2010 to 2011and are expected

to cont inue growing by 10 to 15 percent for the

2 Pew Research Center. http://www.pewinternet.

org/Reporls/ 2012/ Smarlphone· Updale·2012/ Find·

ings.aspx

OCTOBER 2012 5

COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION

next several years.' Whereas traditional sharing

arrangements tended to be informal and limited to

folks one knew, the new technologies allow people

who don't know each other to share resources more

safely, formally and effic ient ly.

Why the sharing economy isimportantFor urbanists, th e rise of th e sharing economy is

grat ifying. These sharing services are extensions of

our community . They require a belief in the commons

(i.e., publi c space, public educat ion, health and the

infrast ructure that allows our society to functi on),

which cities foster, and they are amplified by the kind

of physical proximity that only exists in cit ies. Metr ics

increasingly reveal that sharing economy businesses

tend to generate greater economic benefits and

reinvestment in the community. Studies have shown,

for examp le, that for every reduction of 15,000

owned cars, a city keeps $127 million in the local

economy as peop le are able to get what they need

wit hin a smaller geog'raphic area.'

For the Bay Area, the sharing economy has the

potent ial to be especially significant in several

ways. One, it offe rs a very direct and powerful way

to make it more affordable to live here. Instead of

owning a car, you can rel iably access one only when

you need it. If you ow n a car, you can rent it out

during the est imated 92 percent of the time it is not

being dri ven. If you go out of town, you can rent

out your vacant home. The imp act of th ese serv ices

6 OCTOBER 20 12

on household budgets can be huge. Getaround

membe rs earn an average of $4,200 per year

rentin g out their cars?while Airbnb hosts in San

Francisco earn an average of $5,000 a year rentin g

out their housing unit s. Those hurt by the recession

can supplement - or even cobble toge ther - their

income throug h 21st-century versions of the temp

agency, such as TaskRabbit.

Second, thi s industry model is exportable. One

of the ways that cit ies grow their economies is

by developing businesses that serve specia lized

local tastes - think music in Nashvill e or jogging

in Portland. Local fi rms that grow up serving these

demanding customers can then export to customers

elsewhere." The urbanized Bay Area prov ides the

perfect incuba tor for collabo rative consumption.

Some of our cities have compact land use patterns

that facilitate interaction and exchange. We have

an educated pop ulation with high numb ers of

early adopters of new technolog ies. We have high

environmental awareness, along with a high cost

of liv ing, which motivate us to experiment in new

ways to save money by sharing resources. Today

San Francisco is the center of the collaborative ­

consumption movement in the United States, with

stro ng support fro m Silicon Valley. If some of the

firms that exist today can find traction and grow

nati onally and internationally, we will have witnessed

the emerge nce of an important new part of our

economic base.

3U.S.Departmentof Commerce. http://www.

internetretailer.comj2012/02 / 16/e-commerce-sales­

jump-16-2011

4Susan Piedmont-Palladino. "The Space-Time-Money

Continuum," National BuildingMuseum. http://www.

nbm.org/ intelligentcities/topics/city!city-essay.

hl ml#full

S Providedby Getaround. AshleyLevine. Getaround

Press Office.

6 SeeJoeCortwright'sdiscussionof the "Distinctive

City" in City Success:Theoriesof Urban Prosperity,

CEOs for Cities,2008. www.cecstorcltfes.crcz/research/city-success-theories-of-urban-prosperity/

THE URBANI ST

A policyagendafor the sharing economyDespite the excitement surround ing these ventur es,

the emerging industry faces several significant

challenges - most pressingly, outd ated regulatory

frameworks and the hostili t y of established

enterpr ises.

When a new industry or technology emerges,

government f requently has to rely on past models as

it figures out how to regulate the new enter prise. For

example, when t he auto mobi le debut ed on American

roads, it came into conflict with the horse, and early

regulations tended to pr ior itize the horse. As Kenneth

Jackson detailed in his book Crabg rass Fron tier:

TheSuburbanization of the Uni ted States, "On the

theory that lumbering automobiles fr ightened

horses and raised dust, many states fol lowed Brit ish

precedent and passed laws limit ing self-p rope lled

vehicles to four miles per hour and requiring that

each be preceded by a man on foot carryi ng a red

flag."7At the same t ime, the extremely powerful

railroad industry kept the automobile from emerging

as a competitive threa t, delaying by decades the

construct ion of networks of paved roads.

We can see here that these twin thre ats ­

inappropr iate regulation s and fearful established

comp anies - are interrelated. Peer-to- peer car

sharing, for example, was held back for years

because California insurance regulati ons didn't allow

it. Car companies are thr eatened by car sharing,

just as taxi compan ies are threatened by dynamic

ride sharing . Likewise, hotels are threatened by the

increasing numbe rs of peer-to-peer room and house

renta ls. In all of these situatio ns, there may be valid

reasons to monitor, regulate and tax the collaborative

act iviti es, but there is great danger that in doing so,

government could make it imposs ible for the sharing

econom y to work.

What companies within the sharing economy need

from government is fairly st raightforwa rd: They need

to be allowed to operate. This means that they need

pro tect ion from established companies that might tr y

to use the power of governm ent to kill compet itio n,

and it means that they need a tax structure that does

THE URBAN IST

not penalize collaborat ive consump t ion.

As of th is wr iting , th e rules of the San Francisco

assessor-recorder state that every person who

rents his or her apar tment on a sharing site must

pay the transient occupa ncy tax (commonly known

as the "hotel tax"), just like a hotel does. But oth er

businesses in San Francisco don' t start paying taxes

until they generate revenue over a certa in th reshold.

( If the business tax reform on this Novem ber's

ballot passes, businesses in San Francisco that

earn less than $1 million in revenue wi ll not be

subject to a gross-receipts tax.) Shouldn't people

who earn a couple thousa nd dol lars a year from

sharing resources have a similar small-busi ness tax

exemption?

Advoca tes of the sharing economy argue that we

should give the benef it of the do ubt to people who

are try ing to earn a litt le extr a money renti ng their

housing units, cars, parking spaces or other assets

- that we should be permissive about letting peopl e

share resources.

If gove rnments decide to require perm its for

certain form s of sharing, let 's make sure that we

invent a modern form of permit - one that is

accessible online and easy to understand, as simple

as registering to vote. If we can't make it that easy,

let 's st rongly consider not requirin g a permit. These

new platforms provide an easy and low-impact

way to t rack transact ions that otherwise were

"undergro und" and to capture revenue.

Governmen t 's fi rst and prima ry role in fostering

the sharing economy should be to pro tect this

economy's existence by not overtaxing it or

regulating it out of existence . Beyond that, there are

several key thin gs governments can do to promote

collabo rative consumptio n:

1.Governments can be early adopters of shared

services, as the City of Berkeley did with City

CarShare.8 By prom ot ing the services and providing

the early users that new serv ices rely on to grow,

they give their stamp of approval to something that

will, in many cases, save taxpayers money.

1 KennethJackson. Crabgrass Frontier: The Subur­

banizationof the United States(New York: Oxford

University Press. 1987). p. 158.

8 Seewww.shareable.net/blog/policies-for-a-share­

able-city-14-the-shareable-city-employee

OCTOBER 2012 7

II

I

2. They can help create bet ter and more standardize d

methods for measuring the impacts and benefits of

the sharing economy. Hotels have ways of quant if ying

their economic benefits to the community through

hiring; purchasing of furnit ure, food and cleaning

products; procurement contract s; and tourist dollars

spent locally. As yet, Airbnb has no consistent

method to measure its economic impact, though ithas substant ial survey evidence indicat ing that the

income of Airbnb guests most ofte n flows to the

immediate neighborhood, which is generally outside

the traditi onal touri sm districts where visito r dollars

concentrate. Survey data also shows that hosts use

their Airbnb income to reinvest in their home thusincreasing property values in their neighb orhood.

3. Local decision makers can communicate with other

cities about model policies for suppor t ing the sharing

secto r. Creat ion of overarching best pract ices would

save municipalities across the country t ime andwould help them create incentiv es for growth. San

Francisco can be an undisputed leader in this effor t.

4. Cities can playa more active role in making both

pub licly owned and private assets available for

maximum ut ilizatio n by residents. The simple genius

of the sharing economy is in identify ing existing but

underuti lized assets and ext racting a benefit that

previously didn't exist. SPUR's Public Harvest report ?

inspired San Francisco to do this with public lands by

calling fo r an audit of city -owned land and roof tops

to see which are suitable for urban agriculture.

8 OCTOBER 2012

5. Local gove rnments can build on the backbone

of the great sharing service they already provide ­

libraries - by expanding them to related uses such as

tool libraries.'?

Potential for a symbiotic relationshipSince City CarShare launched more than 10 years ago,

the sharing economy has grown and developed inways we never could have imagined. It 's generating

ways to save resources and money. It 's act ively

helping build community and creat ing new jobs and

new modes of comme rce. It 's an expression of the

natural virtues of city life, in which high densities

of people facilitate exchange, collaborat ion and

innovation.Collaborative consumpt ion shares a core trait with

government in that both exist to help local residents

meet their goals. Their aspirat ions for community­

based benef its are largely aligned and can amplify

each other. Consider city goa ls of zero-waste and jobgrowth, for example. Collaborative consumpt ion can

help make cit ies better. But its contin ued viability and

grow th will be contingen t on learning to play well

with government. It is incumbent on all of us to figure

out the best ways to ensure that will happen.

Some of the sharing economy is taking shape

within for-profit businesses, which will want to

expand around the country and around the wor ld.

Others are nonprofit, mission-d riven organizat ions or

local, informal effo rts. A range of different project s

are taking shape and gathering momentum. We may

have only begun to realize their potential. •

9 Public Harvest: Expanding theUseof Public Land

for UrbanAgriculture inSan Francisco, SPURReport.

April 2012(available at htlp:!! www.spur.org!files!

event -atla chments!SPUR]ublic_HarvesLpdf)

10Seewww.shareable.net/blog/policies-for-a-share­

able-city-13-public-libraries

THE URBANIST

DEMAND BASED PRICING

Smart Cities,Limited ResourcesCan we provide public goods more efficiently by pricing themto reflect real-time demand?

Summary: Demand -based pricing

may result in a bet ter matc h-up

of supply and demand th an has

previously been possible.

By Laura Tam

Have you ever looked up the fare for a roundtrip

flight only to find two days later that the price has

gone up $200? Or perhaps you've had better luck

finding rock-bottom, seemingly half-price deals

to t ravel somewhere at the last minute? Why do

different seats on the same plane, all purchased

at diffe rent t imes, vary so wide ly in price? It' s

because airlines employ a tool called dynamic

pricing - a system that adjusts prices based on

expected demand in ord er to increase profit in light

of fixed capacity and th e elast icity (or flexibility) of

consumers' individual demands. This enables the

airlines to yield as much revenue as possible for

each fixed cost (or fli ght), sometimes resultin g in

substantia l consumer savings, other t imes not.

The price of public goods provided by either

government or a regulated monopoly - th ink tran sit

rides, drinking water, park admission - typica lly

aren't based on supply and demand , because there is

no real "market" for such goods. Prices may be based

on the cost to supply the goods or the cost that

regulators believe wil l meet public expectations of

fairness, or some combination of the two . Sometimes

there is no price at all because it has not been

possible - either physically or po lit ically - to charge

for resources based on use.

But it is becoming possible for the public secto r to

employ dynamic pricing - as airlines do - to manage

certa in limi ted public resources. Somet imes called

demand-based pricing or real-tim e pri cing, thi s is a

THE URBANIST

more efficient way of allocating publicly provided or

regulated goods, especially those that are subject

to wide fluctuat ions in demand over a short period

of t ime, such as within an hour or a day. By judg ing

people's willi ngness to pay for a publicly prov ided

serv ice - such as elect rici ty, road space or parking

- demand-based pr icing enab les a more nim ble

match-up of supp ly and demand than has previously

been possible.

The innovations that fuel smart cities make these

pri cing schemes possible. A combinat ion of new

sensory and comput ing technologi es, tw o-way

communicat ions and devices that both create and

analyze large volumes of data can now measure and

communicate real- time demand. This information can

be used to automa te price signals for resources, such

as at smart parking meters . In some cases, it can also

be used to remotely tr igger a certa in actio n, such as

powering down preselected devices dur ing periods of

peak electricity demand .

Demand -based pric ing offers th ree key pub lic

benef its:

1. Economic efficie ncy (as exp lained above)

2. The creatio n or growth of a revenue stream

that could be used to recoup the cost of building

infrast ructure or to maint ain levels of service for

supporti ng it -7

lauraTam isSPUR'ssustainable

development policydirector.

OCTOBER 2012 9

DEMAND BASED PRICING

3. The avoided cost and environmenta l impa ct of

building new infrastructure to accommodate peak

demand

SPUR believes that effective use of prici ng is an

appropriate way to manage limited resources like

parking, hig hways and electric ity . In our repo rt TheUrban Future of Work published in January of this

year, we recomme nded insti tut ing full-road pr icing

on key regional highway corridors as an initial step

toward broader pricing of all major highways in the

Bay Area.

Dynamic, demand-based pricing has potent ial

environmenta l and economic benefit s. Because it is a

more effic ient mechanism fo r allocatin g public goo ds,

it can help reduce waste or loss that is otherwise paid

for by taxpayers or ratepayers. A new revenue stream

generated by road pricing, whether congest ion pric­

ing or a peak-per iod bridge toll, for example, can be

direc ted toward road maintenance or t ransit opera ­

tions, wh ich are often underfunded. By reducing peak

demand , demand-based pr icing for electric ity could

save ratepayers the cost of purcha sing reserve power

production , allowing those fund s to be invested in

Demand-BasedPricing in Practice

energy eff iciency or even returned to customers

through futu re electricity price decreases.

The environment benefits because operating

or bui lding new infrastructure just to sat isfy peak

periods of demand can be avoided, and peak

demand fo r the resource itself can be reduced. By

pr icing peak demand for tra ff ic lanes at a rate that

encourages some travelers to dr ive at other times

of day to do so, for example, we can avoid buildi ng

a new lane (a costly enterpr ise that will increase

emissions in the long term) and reduce traffi c

congestion in the short term resultin g in f ree-f lowing

lanes of t ravel and fewer emissions).

Of course, there is a tradeoff here: Peak-period

pricing may be regressive, because higher prices

will have a bigger impact among people with

lower incomes. Any demand- based pricing scheme

for public goods must be designed to mitigate

disproportionate impacts as much as possible,

especially with good s that were previously "free."

SPUR believes that one way to mitigate equity

concerns around new pric ing plans would be to

provide a certain quantity of things such as free tr ips

and reduced rates, to lower-income people .

10 OCTOBER 20 12

ElectricityDemand-based pricing of electr icity can save

ratepayers and elect ric ut ilities both capita l and

opera t ing costs. Capital costs may be saved by

avoidi ng (or at least postponing) the construction of

new facilities that w ill be inf requen t ly used except

in extreme peak demand circumstances (i.e., 3 p.m.

on the hottest day of the summer). Utilit ies can

save operating costs if they don't need to have a

large operationa l reserve or spare capacity online

to deal with unanticipated or sudden changes in

demand. Instead, existing facilit ies wi ll operate more

freq uent ly. The cost savings fro m effic ient pricing

may be signi ficant. Betwee n 10 and 20 percent of

elect ricity costs in the United States are due to peak

demand during only 80 to 100 hours of the year.'The key new technologies that enable demand­

based pricing for elect ricity are smart meters

and smart grids. Together, th ey form an energy

network that is more efficie nt and can bett er utili ze

decent ralized and small-scale renewable energy

sources such as solar and wind. Because it moni tors

real-time demand, a smart grid could enable

significant expansion of demand-response programs

- which current ly enroll mainly volun teers and large

business customers - into the residential market. For

participants, demand -response programs provide an

incentive to temporarily reduce electr icity demand

on peak days. But they also create perma nent energy

savings by reducing demand in off-peak periods by

an average of 4 percent. Smart meters allow users to

moni to r real-time energy consumption and to take

advantage of variable-rate pricing plans where they

are available . Betwee n consumers, ut il it ies and the

environment, everyon e stands to gain from impr oved

effic iency in pricing and the expansion of demand­

response programs.

THE URBANI ST

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2011.www.drsgcoalition.org/po licy/DRSG_Com­

ments_on_CES.pdf

TH E URBANI ST

ParkingThough parking costs vary by location, hourl y or daily

rates tend to be predictable and fixed. But there are

ineffi ciencies and socioeconomic impacts if providersget the price of parking "wron g." While overpricing

parking could lead, for example, to shoppers ortouri sts taking their business elsewhere, underpri cing

leads to excess dri ving, which causes congest ion

and unnecessary emissions (th e percept ion of

limit ed parking could also lead shoppers or touri sts

to choose a different destination). Now, new smart

parking meters can use demand-based pricing to set

the price of parking right at the equilibrium of supply

and demand. A theory of tr ansportation economics

holds that the optimal occupancy rate of publi cly

provided parking is 85 percent - where little or no

circling is necessary to find a spot. New technologies

that can monitor occupancy and gauge demand

block by block can help set rates to achieve this goa l.

San Francisco was one of the fir st citi es in the

RoadsDemand-based pricing for roads can make tr avel

more efficient within a congested zone (li ke a

downt own area), at a congest ion choke point (like a

brid ge) or through out a region by using a network

of high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. As with smart

parking policies, bet ter utili zation of road space

through demand-responsive pricing could reduce

congest ion, especially durin g peak demand periods,

impr ove the speed and reliabilit y of transit vehicles

and enhance the att ract iveness of other modes of

travel such as tr ansit and bik ing.

Road pricing is a common practi ce, especially on

the East Coast of the United States, but the strategy

of rapidl y changing toll prices to reflect real-t ime

traffi c condit ions is newer. London, Stoc kholm and

Singapore are models of city center cordon, or

congest ion pricing; the idea is being studied for San

Francisco.The Metropolitan Transportation Commission is

tr ansitioning many of the Bay Area's high-occupancy

vehicle (HOV) lanes into HOT lanes, which are

Demand-based pricing canmakecitiesbetterCit ies now have the tools and technologies to better

utili ze key pieces of urban infr astructure by getting

the pr ice much closer to the real equilibrium price

than ever before. By doing so, we gain a host of

count ry to test thi s model with its SFpark prog ram,

which began in 2010. SFpark meters have been

installed in a few pilot district s: Fillmore, Downt own,

Fisherman' s Wharf and more. Rates vary by tim e of

day, day of the week, block by block and over t ime

(monthly) to respond to demand. Parkin g sensors

install ed in each parking space detect occupancy

rates, and program managers review utili zation

data every month, at which t ime they may move

hourl y maximum rates up or dow n by 25 to 50 cents.

Two-way communicat ions by these sensors make it

possible for driv ers to look up real-tim e availability

using a smartphone app.

Besides the benefit s of more readily availableparking in SFpark distri ct s and reduced congest ion

and emissions, the progr am may help improve the

speed and reliability of tr ansit vehicles, which may

spend less tim e blocked by tr affi c or doubl e-parked

vehicles.

expected to bett er utili ze exist ing capacity and

reduce idlin g and emissions. An addit ional publi c

benefit is a new revenue source that can be used to

pay for road maintenance or transit.

SPUR believes that full -road pricing is better

than establishing single HOT lanes; a single-t oll­

lane approach could result in mor e driving, not less

(by creat ing less congest ion in the unpriced lanes).

Real-t ime congest ion pricing may be more difficult

to impl ement than smart parking policies, tim e-of­

use energy pricing or demand-response programs.

This is because people are generally accusto med to

paying for parking and electricity already, but not

for dri ving on freeways. Also, there are real-tim e

benefit s for parti cipants in these other programs:

being able to find a parking spot (and in SFpark, topay with a credit card) or saving money by turnin g

of f nonessenti al appliances. Some of the equity

impact s of thi s type of plan may be miti gated by

reinvesting revenue from full- road toll ing into publi c

tr ansportation serv ices.

co-be nefits, includin g qualit y-of-life improvements

such as less traffic and environmental benefit s such

as fewer emissions. Smart cit ies of the future will

invest in these opportunities as a boon to their own

residents and businesses, and to society at large. •

OCTOBER 2012 11

CIV IC DATA

Why Does CivicData Matter?A new emphasis is being placed on the availability of open datafrom governments but what use does this data have for citizens'daily experience?

Summary: Open data has the

poten t ial to spur economicdevelopment , engage citi zens,

reduce government costs and

improve its services. But we're not

there yet.

By A licia Rouau lt

A new emphasis is being placed on the availability of

open data from governments. but what use does this

data have for cit izens' daily exper ience?I work with Code for America to advocate for city

gove rnment s to open up public data sets. We make

a clear economic argument to these cit ies: If you

prov ide data as a free commo dity to web developers.

they will ult imately start businesses. grow jobs and

create consumer-facing produ ct s - with relative lylitt le government funding or other support. Althou gh

there are many deep arguments made for opening up

civic data in the publi c domain , from a pragmatic and

economic perspective civic data has great value for

cit ies.

NewsCivic data is literally enhancing news and information

on publ ic sector matters. A lot of attention has been

given to enhanced news experience s: Journ alists are

able to tell better stories because mor e information

is availab le. for example. Though most citizens have

little use for a list of, say, the longi tude and lat itud e of

fire hydrant locat ions. we are all taking in mor e (and

bett er) art icles, chart s, graphs and other interestin g

graphical manifestat ions of publicly provided

12 OCTOBER 2012

stat ist ics about weather, transit. crime, budget

allocat ion and politi cs.

Weather (and Crime)In perhaps open data evangelists' favorit e example

of how data can generate an ent ire industry. the

Nat ional Weather Service released basic weatherdata to pub licly accessible sites like Weather.com

and AccuWeather and to developers of widget s for

mobile devices. contribut ing to what is now a $1.5

bi llion industry of weath er forecasts. San Franciscodesign firm Stamen was one of the fir st to change

the way we consume weather data by building an

innovative hurricane tracker for MSNBC back in 2008 .

Stamen is also responsible for CrimeSpotting, one of

the earliest interact ive crime maps that maps publ icpoli ce data onto a user-f riendly interface.

TransitAnother industry has grown around open transit data .

General Transit Feed Specifi cation (or GTFS data) is

a standardized format born out of a public-private

part nership created when a few city employe es of

Portl and. Oregon's municipal transit system (TriMet)

wanted to provide transit schedules to Google in a

Alicia Rouault isa2012 Code for America

fellowanda2012 Knight News Challenge

Data Winner

THE URBANIST

· I

standardized way. GTFS is now publicly provided for

383 transit agencies and counting and is currently the

standard for releasing static (scheduled) transit data .

Real-time transit data is also one of the more

straig htforward contributions to our daily lives. In

major cities where people commute and rely onpublic transit, quality of life can be infin itely improved

when commuters are given access to real-time arriva l

and departure information in the palm of their hands.

Excellent examples of this have been created by third

parties - and not the transit companies themselves.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency(SFMTA) openly encourages third-party developers

to produce mobile apps like NextBus and iBart that

help riders access real-time data.

What It All Means for CitiesCivic data is just another free commodity provided by

government agencies, similar to the radio frequencies

that were once divvied out to third parties as a

government-provided good. Third-party developers

consume information and can ultimately provide a

better product for less money than if a government

were to produce it. When government or transit

agencies make raw data available at little or no cost,

the private market can process the data to deliver a

superior consumer product.

This trend is being promoted through a slew of

city-hosted competitions like New York's BigApps,

which each year gives cash awards tota ling $50,000

to app developers who create a useful tool with

civic data for citizens. Web developers are drawn

to the notion of doing good for society with data ­

and the process speaks to the highly competitive

hacker/hackathon culture. By leveraging the talent of

individual web developers, the city gets a whole suite

of software for a mere $50,000 investment. Othercities can follow New York's lead on this.

Open data success stories have historically been

pushed forward by for-profit companies . Whether

it 's governments recycling innovative applications

of data (as with websites like federalregister.gov)

or consumers benefiting from indirect application

of data sets provided (as with mobile transit apps

like Routesy), public -private partnerships are crucial

to understanding the unique value of civic data in

the real wor ld. Just as new and small businessesare made strong with governmental subsidies and

tax incentives, civic data has the power to stimu late

economic activity in cities . •

URBAN FIELD NOTES

Case Study #52:

Patched

As a photographer, I am fascinated by the ever­

evolving mosaic of colors and textures that are

characteristic of urban environments like San

Francisco. I am always looking for ways to capture

these changes both large-s cale and in det ail.

Graff it i cultu re and vandalism ofte n result in paint

job s to patch up unwanted blight. It's a phenomenon

that continuously alters our environment. These

patches on buildings and surfaces vary in color s and

textures, add ing to an ever-chang ing mosaic. In my

photographs, my goal is to depi ct the diverse colors,

texture s and (sometimes subt le) patterns that result.

Without getting into the politics of graff iti or st reet

art, these photographs serve as a visual descr ipt ion

of the proc ess.

14 OCTOB ER 2012

A ph otographer observes that

after the graffiti's gone, new wo rks

of art emerge.

Caseworker: Sergio Ruiz

Each image reveals the choices that were made

and what method s were used to mask unwanted

tagg ing or graffiti. I imagine that a bui lding or

business owner may use whatever color paint is

available to them, resultin g in patches that vary in

hue or are an entir ely different color than the original

surface. The painte r (or patcher), can then choose

to paint an entire wall, a specific elevat ion of the

wall, a neat rectang le, or a blob covering just the

tagged area. The surface itself often changes the

resulting look, whether it is coarse or smooth, solid or

permeab le. In some cases, it seems that the patcher

got creative in the process. How else to explain the

irreg ular mix of colors and patterns?

t1 Yellow PanelingOctavia Boulevard at Haight Street

III Gunk Divisadero Stree t between

Hayes and Fell Streets

THE URBANI ST

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Ii TwoStorefrontsBroadway between 17th and 19t h

Streets, Oakland

THE URBANI ST OC TOBER 20 12 15

URBAN FIELD NOTES

mBillboardHayes between Divisadero and

Scott Streets

IJ Liquor Store21st and Valencia St reets

iii Pastelson BrickHyde between Geary and Post

B RitualOctav ia and Hayes Street

Sergio Ruiz isatransportation planner

for theCalifornia Department of

Transportation andisSPUR'sphotography

intern.

16 OCTOBER 2012 THE URBANIST

CITY NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

UrbanDrift

Cana FontSpurUrban Growth?The process of bestowing a

metropolis with a recognizable

identity is much like branding a

consumer goo d: Cities have to

work at it. They need to sell them ­

selves, too . Logos and typefaces

are a good place to start. In Chat­

tano oga, Tenn., a team of young

graphic desig ners decided to give

their cit y a font that could be used

for all Chat tanooga-related com­

munication and messaging .

Wit h recent investment in cut ting­

edge broadband infrastru cture,

the city is on an upswing, aiming

to att ract entrepreneurs and art­

ists who can bring vita lity to the

local economy and culture - and

now Chattanoog a can promote all

of its effo rts w ith one unified sty le

called Chatype . The Kickstarter­

funded project didn't cost taxpay­

ers a dime . Already, says one of

the four designers, James Dooley,

"the visitor s bureau is using it for

an ad campaign thro ughout the

South to publ icize the city, and the

libra ry system has comprehen­

sively rebranded themselves with

the font ."

"HowChattanoogaCreated ItsOwn Font to Spur

Urban Growth: ' by Sarah C.Rich.

Smithsonianmag.com, August 29. 2012

THE URBAN IST

It's YourMoveVisual artist Flavio Trevisan has

created an art piece/board game

designed to introduces its players

to the excit ing wor ld of urban

renewal. Each player assumes a

role, vary ing from city councilor

and developer to man-en-the­

st reet and skyscraper Enthusiast.

Part icipants can demolish a failed

urban experiment and start again

from the groun d up to realize their

ambition s and build the ideal city .

"The Game of Urban Renewal" was

part of an exhibition of Trevisan's

work, Museum of the Represented

City. (Visitors could buy the game

in the exhibit's gif t shop.) The To­

ronto- based artist was putting the

whole concept together around

the tim e that infamously anti- ur­

ban mayor Rob Ford was elected.

" I was really upset with that whole

process and who we got," Trevisan

says. "A lot of my cynicism started

coming through as I was writing

these instructions."

"TheUrban RenewalBoardGame," by Jeroen Seek­

mans,Popupcityne t, August11, 2012

TurnYourCity Into a GymArne Schonewald sees the urban

environme nt as the ultimate DIY

gym for the everyman, and he

wants you to see it that way, too .

A born-and-raised Berliner, pre­

ventative and rehab ilitative sports

scientist and ath letic trai ner, he

explains, "A good ninety percent

of peop le don't exercise regu larly.

My goal is to get exact ly these

peop le, who haven't been exercis­

ing for a long time, and to act ivate

them with creative approaches...

Berlin does have a lot of opt ions,

with parks and lakes and forests,

but you have to go a bit out of the

city to get there. My idea is to do

it differently, to find opportuniti es

for movement in the city center."

In Berlin, Schonewa ld ran the

Weekend Warr iors fitness pro­

gram, transform ing the lab and the

surrounding urban enviro nment

into a hardcore outdoor gym. On

any given weekend, one could find

Schonewald bark ing out orders

as parti cipants did pull-up s from

tree branches and bike racks and

shadowboxed their way thr ough

obstac le courses of rope strung

throug h trees. Schonewald hopes

people will take the idea of city-as­

gym into their everyday lives.

"Turn YourCity Into YourGym:A DIY Guide," by

ChristineMcla ren, BMWGuggenheim Lab's"LAB

log: ' August 23. 2012

The PigeonWants a Paint JobAt th e Venice Biennale thi s sum­

mer, artists Juli an Charriere and

Julius von Bismarck airbrushed

pigeons in multi ple hues for the

site-speci fic art pro ject, "Some

Pigeo ns Are More Equal Than

Others ." (The arti sts assure us

no pigeo ns were harmed). www.

[ulian-charriere.net/some -pi ­geon s-are-more-equa l-others

Scentand the CityIf you're nosta lgic for the smell

of your city (or are just worry ing

that your planet will run out of

air), photographer Kirill Rudenko

has the perfect antidote: canned

air. Culled from cit ies like New

York, Paris, Berlin and Singapore,

canned air costs $9.99 before

shipp ing and, it s creator explains,

"relieves stress, cures homesick­

ness and helps fighting nostalgia."

Each can has a list of ingredients

- New York, for instance, contains

20 percent each of Empire State

Building and Statue of Liberty and

10 percent each of Grand Central

Terminal, Chrysler Buildin g, Litt le

Italy and Chinatown, Brooklyn

Bridg e, Times Square and Central

Park, plus possible traces of th e

Bronx, Brook lyn, Queens and

Staten Island . The Paris air bears

the caut ionary note "May contain

traces of libert e, egalite and frater­

nite,' and the Singapore air warns

against opening it in pub lic places,

as th is carries a $25,000 fine.

"Now YouCanBuyOrganic Air ina Can," by Jess

Zimmerman.Grist.orq, August 15.2012

BeyondZuccotti ParkNew York Times architec ture crit ic

Michael Kimm elman asks, "Where

are th e spaces in which we act

as a community? Who governs

th em? Who decides on their

design? Their use? And should we

blur the controls, the boundaries,

the authority, and the th resholds

betwee n public and pr ivate space,

between stree ts and side-

walks?" The Occupy Wall Street

movement has challenged the

physica l manifestation of the First

Amendment right to freedom of

assembly. In a new book, 41 social

scient ists, planners, archi tect s and

civil liberties exper ts - includin g

Saskia Sassen and Michael Sorkin

- explore the defini tio n, use, role

and imp ortance of publi c space

for the exercise of our democratic

rights to free expression.

OCTOBER 2012 17

MEMBER PROF ILE

In San Jose, aPassion for PlanningAsha Weinstein AgrawalA love for ex p lo ring cit ies on foot has t ranslated into

a career researching car-free alternatives.

Images (from top): Asha Weinstein

Agrawal, and aselection ofshots showing

San Jose urbanism atitsbest.

I

ity needs. We caught up with Agrawal as she was

prepa ring for the new schoo l year and asked "What

are stude nts of urbanism most interested in learnin g

abou t these days?"

"The Master of Urban Planning program at SJSU is

designed to prepare a diverse student population to

become leaders in rapid ly changing urban environ ­

ment s, wi th special emphasis on skills for working

with wide-ranging const ituencies and a commitment

towa rd lifelong professional developm ent," she re­

plied, "Our students all share a dream of jobs thr ough

which they cont ribute to bui lding great communit ies,

but they are a diverse bunch who work in every as­

pect of planning, from designing vibrant public spaces

to building affordable housing to managing efficien t

and environmenta lly sustai nable infrastructure."

Asha Weinstein Agrawal is busy. Not only is she

the di recto r of the Mineta Transportati on Institu te's

(MTI) National Transportation Finance Center, she is

also chair and associate professor of San Jose State

Univers ity's Department of Urban and Regiona l Plan­

ning. How did she become so enthralled with all things

urba n? " I loved to explore cit ies on foo t," explains

Agrawal. "That early passion for urban wandering

morphed into a career in urban planning with a focus

on tran sportation ."

Ag rawal's research focuses on cut t ing-e dge prac­

tices in surface t ransportation finance. She explores

such issues as pub lic percepti ons of transportati on

taxes and fees, the challenges low-income residents

face in coveri ng their t ransport at ion costs and how

those costs impact their ability to meet basic mobil-

Asyou know, SPUR openedanoffice in SanJoseearlier thisyear. Gladto seeSPUR in yourhometown?I'm a longtime admirer of SPUR's

wo rk educating the public about

both urba n po licy questions and

also the fun and beauty of livi ng

in the San Francisco Bay Area . I

was delighted to see SPUR create

its new San Jose office . San Jose

needs more community-wide civic

institut ions like SPUR to support

it s urban developm ent.

Assomeoneseeminglyimmersedin cities24/7, what's yourfavorite...

Urbanview:San Francisco, city

and bay, as seen from the East

Bay hills. The view is gorgeo us in

every season and time of day. For

18 OCTOBER 20 12

example, fog pourin g thr ough the

Golden Gate and over the Marin

hills on a late afte rnoon, or the glit­

tering lights on a clear night.

Favoritebuilding(urbanor not):The zen temples in Kyoto. I visited

many of them 20 years ago, and

the di fferen t temples have merged

in my mind into a single image of

calmness within a chaot ic cit y.

Favoritecity:Paris. Whil e these

may be cliches, I have had few bet­

ter exper iences than sto pping in a

public park bursting with flowers

to eat a f reshly baked croissant,

watc hing the crowd stro ll by as

I drink a coffee at a cafe. What

makes Paris so specia l is also very

much the govern ment support for

convenient and well-mainta ined

publi c services and inf rast ructure,

public art and general quality of

life.

Best-loved urbanist? Wil-

liam Whyte. He used br illiantl y

st raightforward research designs

to illuminate the ways people actu­

ally use public spaces, thus givi ng

us concre te tools to make those

spaces better.

Favorite film about cities: Nighton Earth - a 1991Jim Jarmusch

fi lm that tells stories about taxi

drivers in Los Angeles, New York,

Paris, Rome and Helsinki.

Andfinally,what should peopleknowabout yourcity that theymightnot otherwise? That they

can see a panoramic view of the

city from th e top floor of the Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Libr ary. •

THE URBANIST

NEW MEMBERS

NewBusiness Members Cristelle Blackford Sadie Guthrie Daniel Langford Stan Parkford Alexander Spilger

Jessica Brown Maryam Haj Vanessa Lauf Christopher Pederson Doug Steeke

LECET Southwest Leslie & Buzz Burlock Diana Halliday Cecilia Lavelle Mia Perkins Alex Steffen

Paramount Group, Inc. Brandi Campbe ll Alan Hart Dan Leavitt Benjamin Petersen Elliot Stein

Steinberg Arch itects Joel Campos Alice Hart ley So-Jung Lee Phillip Pierce Josh Steinman

Ella Carney Robin Havens Drew Lehman Carlos Principe Kim Swanson

Gina Centoni Joseph Headley Ross Levy Jackson Rabinowi tsh Hiromi Tabei

G.Cha n Caley Heekin Jaxon Love Steven Rajninger Karr ie TamNewMembers Emmanuel Coloma Rod Henmi Matthew Mahan Liesl Ramsay Michelle Tang

Anna Corbett Gabriel Heywoo d Suzette Mahr Craig Raphael Dana TinioSina Alavi Tim Cornwe ll Sarabelle Hitchner Bridget Maley John Redw ine Stephan ie TsaiPatri cia Algara Kelly Costa Bonnie Hulkower Julia Mandell Mark A. Rhoades Jack TseVictor Amoo Gray Doughert y Meredith Hutcheson Lillian Mano Adam Rogers Chin Pang TungRhiannon Bailard Megan K Edwards Barbara Inaba Phil Martien Gabrielle Rubin Shivam VohraBrian Balise Anthony Esposito Garrett Jacobs Timoth y McCormi ck Maddy Russell-Shapiro Kelvin VuElijah Ball Brendan Finney Elizabeth Johnson Jason McDaniel Deren Salgado Tom WalkerMary Barensfeld Cecilia Fisher Karee JuVette Mary (Molly) Mehaffy Norma Schroder Margaret WeadickAlly Beasley Danielle Fisher Meghana Kamdar Lucien Muir Caylie See Brian W iedenmeierSiobann Bellinger Amie Flemin g Carrie Kao Jessica Nguyen Alex Sicular Danny YadegarKaren Ben-Moshe Brooke Fotheringham Nina Kilham Ellena Ochoa Devin Silverna il Howard P. YoungDoug & Sally Bentz- Dennis Gale Tamara Knox Jennifer Pahlka Jagan Singh Victoria YuLybeck Mathias Gibson Deborah Knuckey Julian Pancoast Ryan Smit h John ZappettiniBriana Bergstrom Edwin Gonzales Michelle Krumland J.J. Panzer Michael Song Eugene ZhuLeendert Bikker Boaz Gurdin Tara Lamont James Pappas Ann Spencer

OSPURLEGACY SOCI ETY

Shape the future of San Franciscoand broader Bay Area

SPUR graciously thanks Florence McCormack Scarlett

and Samuel Lloyd Scarlett. M.D. whose generous bequest

will provide core support to promote good planning

and good government through research . education

and advocacy - helping SPUR shape the future of San

Francisco and broader Bay Area. Samuel passed away in

November of 2011 at the age of 96. and was a loyal donor

to SPUR during his lifetime.

spur.org/legacySPURis a 501(c)(3) non-profit org anization with tax ID# 94-1498232 . All contributions to SPURaretax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

SPUR LEGACY SOCIETY

We are grateful to Samuel and Flor ence Scarl ett,

and to everyone who rememb ers SPUR through

a bequest, lif e income plan, or oth er type of

planned gift. Your suppor t st rengt hens and

ensures the future of SPUR and the Urban Cent er.

Legacy Soci ety members are inv ited to an

exclusive annual gath ering and becom e part

of the Urban Leaders Forum - our majo r do nor

society - which gathers several t imes a year

to hear from noted experts about urbanism,

planning and the futu re of ou r region.

We hope you'll tell us when you have named the

SPUR in your will. We wo uld very much like the

opportuni ty to thank you for your generosity.

ENSURING YOUR LEGACY

For mo re info rmation about how to include SPUR

in your esta te plans in a way that best f its your

needs tod ay please contact SPUR's development

direct or at 415-644-4281 or don ate@spu r.org.

. ' .

Richa rd C. Blum

John & Guss ieSte wa rt

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BNP PARIBAS GROUP

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A nonymous

SPIRE SPO NSORS

Recept ion: 10:30 A M - 12:0 0 PMLunc heon & Awards: 12:0 0 - 1:30 PM

Mosco ne Center SouthEsp lanade Ballroom

Larry BaerPresident and CEO { ,San Francisco Giants S H 0 R E )S T El N

KEYSTON E SPONSORS

A ECOM • Arup • California Pacific Medical Center/Sutter West · Degenkolb Eng ineers· Dignity Heath ·

EHDD • Emerald Fund, Inc.• Gen sler · Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP • Golden Gate University •

Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Co. • The John Stewart Company · JPMorgan Chase · KMD Architects ·

Lennar Urban · McKesson · Parkmerced • Recology • Bill & Dewey Rosetti · San Francisco International

Airport • San Francisco Waterfront Partners, LLC • Steinberg Architects · Roselyne C. Swig • Union Bank •

Webcor Builders · Westfield San Francisco Centre · Wilson Meany

Tickets and sponsorship opportunities available at spur.org/silverspur

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

EVE NT CHA IR

Thank you to our 2012 Sponsors

2012 Silver SPUR Awards Luncheon

Claudine Cheng ' Paul a R. Colli ns' Greg Dalt on' Patri cia Klitgaa rd • Marc Madden' Toby & Sally Rosenblatt· Janet & Michael Smit h-Helrner > Michael Teit z, Ph.D.

.san,1lf'ranci~co QLI)ronicle ISFGate com

Stephe n S. Pearce, D.O., Ph.D.Senior rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El.promoter of interf ait h communi tydialogue and engagement

John K. Stewa rtReal estate develo pment and co mmu nityleader and a powerful advocate forafforda b le housing at a regiona l andnat iona l level

BllsYhessTimes(Somcast.

Edward A. Chow, M. D.

Cofounder of Chinese Hospital'snatio nwid e model for cult urallyco mpete nt healt h care and lon g ti mepu bl ic servant

Mildred HowardAcclaimed mi xed-media andinstallat ion ar tis t and educato r ofat -r isk communi ties w ho has shapedour expe rie nce of t he pu bli c realm

Join more t han 2,0 0 0 fe llow cit izens as we pay tribute to a selec t group of indiv idua ls

w hose goa ls and achievements have mad e San Franc isco and the Bay Area a better

p lace to live, work and play.

PILLAR SPONSORS

Archstone • Atkins · Andy & Sara Barn es · BAR A rchitects · BRE Properties · Buch alter Nem er · Cahill Contracto rs ·Californ ia Academy of Sciences· Cannon Constructors Nort h. Inc. • Carmel Partn ers · Char les Salte r & Assoc iates ·Coblentz, Patch , Duffy & Bass, LLP • Comcast • Commune Hotels & Resort s · Cox Cast le & Nich ol son , LLP • The Coult er/Weeks Charitable Foundat ion · Dav id Baker + Part ners. A rch itects· Farella Braun + Martel LLP • Fine Ar t s Museums ofSan Franc isco · Linda Jo Fit z • FME Architecture + Design · David Friedman & Paulette Meyer · Gerson Bakar &Associat es · Gould Evans · Anne Halsted & Wells Whitney · Hanson Brid get t LLP • David & Jane Hart ley · Jackson Paci f icVentures · John & Marci a Goldman Phil anth ropic Fund· Lend Lease · Richard Lon erg an · macys.com • MBH Architects ·McKenna Long & Ald ridge, LLP • Terry Micheau & Rob Evans · MJM Managem ent Group · Lar ry Nibbi • Sergio Nibbi •Nib bi Bro thers General Cont ractors · No rthern California Carp ente rs Reg io nal Cou ncil · Perkins + Will · PIER 39/Blue and Gold Fleet · Pillsbu ry Winthrop Shaw Pittma n LL P • Pol aris Gro up · Port of San Franc isco · The Prad o Gro up ·Proje ct Manag ement Adv isors . Inc. • Relat ed Californ ia .• Reube n & Junius. LLP • ROMA Desig n Gro up· Sack Properti es ·Saint Franc is Memorial Hospita l · San Francisco Foundation · San Fran cisco State Universit y · San Franc isco TravelAssoci at io n · Sedgw ick, LLP • Lynn & Paul Sed way • Elizab eth Seifel Fund/Seife l Con sulting Inc. • Sheppard. Mul lin.Richter & Hampton LLP • Skidmore, Ow ings & Merrill . LLP • Solomon Cord well Buenz • The Sw ig Company·Sw inerton Builders · Tishman Speyer· V. Fei Tsen & China town CDC· TMG Partners/Avant Housing · Tom Elio t Fisch ·Turnstone Cons ulting · UCSF • Unio n Square Business Im provement Dist rict · Uni versa l Paragon Corporation ·Uni versit y of San Franci sco · U.S. Bank North ern Californ ia · Dede W ilsey · W SP Flack + Kurtz

CAPSTON E SPONSO RS

CO RNE RSTO NE SPO NSORSA. R. Sanchez-Corea & Associates' Bay West Showplace ' Valli Benesch & Bob Tandl er • Buro Happold Consulti ng Eng ineers, Inc. •Cathedra l Hill Plaza. an ADCO company ' CH2MHILL • Jim Chappell· CMG Lands cape Architecture' Daniel Solomon Design Partners·Equi t y Community Builde rs· Jean Frase r & Geoffrey Gordon-Creed' Handel Ar chit ects , LLP • Rut h & A lf red Heller ' Stanley Herzstein •HKS Architects, Inc. • Vince & Amanda Hoenigman • Hunt Construction Group · Jo nes Hall , Bever ly Mills · Missio n Bay DevelopmentGroup ' NicholsBooth A rchi tects. Inc.• Pfau Long Architect ure. Ltd . • Plant Const ruct io n Company ' Presidi o Bank, Public FinancialManagement, Inc. • N. Teresa Rea ' SKS Investments, LLC • W ilbu r-E ll is Company' Woods Bagot A rchitects

MEDIA SPONSORS

Sponsor list as of 09.74.72

INTERN SPOTLIGHT

New Faces at SPUR

JamesBakerJames grad uated fro m the University

of Iowa with a BA in political

science, studied in Washingt on,

D.C., and Hong Kong, lived and

worked in Lond on and completed

his MA in international affairs at

the New Schoo l before arriving in

San Francisco. SPUR's pub lic policy

inte rn declares he is "proud to

be part of SPUR's city wide urb an

advocacy efforts."

Sean BoltonSean studied business and philoso­

phy at San Francisco State Univer­

isty and desig n at Califo rnia

College of the Arts. (On the side,

he taught himself compute r pro­

gramming) . Af ter deciding to take

a year off, he exp lains that he came

to SPUR because of his "curiosity

abou t how comp lex systems like cit­

ies and governme nt (and non-prof ­

its like SPUR itself) are organized."

22 OCTOBER 2012

JohnDacyA recent graduate in urban stud ies

at th e University of California,

Berkeley, John is interested in

transport at ion, regional planning

and civ ic engagement and is

excited to be part of a dynamic

organization like SPUR.

Hilary FinckSPUR'ssustainable po licy intern

is a graduate student at San

Francisco State University working

toward her MA in geog raphy, with

a concentration in environmental

plann ing and resource

management. When not geeking

out about esoteric things like

sto rmwater mitigation too ls. Hilary

enjoys explo ring San Francisco's

many t reasures by foot or bike.

AnnaGoreAnna came to SPUR after earning

her master's in enviro nmental

design and planning from the

University of Georgia. Her interest

in planning stems from her interest

in sustainable built and natural

environments and her passion

fo r nonmot orized transportat ion

planning. Anna bring s a

background in media produ cti on

and GIS (geographic information

systems) mapping to her posit ion

as SPUR's GIS intern.

JuliaGrebensteinSPUR'spublic programs intern

is a Nort hern California native.

a graduate of the community

developm ent program at Portl and

State University and a return ed

Peace Corps volunteer (youth

development, Ukraine, 2010-2012).

THE URBANIST

Cody HicksCody is in his last year at San

Francisco State University,

majoring in environmental studies

and minoring in urban planning. He

is most interested in sustainable

development and transportation

policy and is enjoyi ng being a part

of SPUR's development team.

HalieKampmanHalie is a Bay Area nativ e who

recently return ed to San Francisco

with the goal of promot ing

good planning locally. With a

background in interna tional

development and filmmaking,

she is interested in the power of

media advocacy. She is SPUR's

video volunteer, documenti ng and

promo ting SPUR happeni ngs and

events.

THE URBAN IST

Josephine LauJosephine recent ly graduated

from the University of California,

Berkeley, with a dual degree in

urban studies and society and

environment. She's interested

in t ransportation planning, in

parti cular bicycle and pedestri an

planning . In her spare tim e, she

likes to play basketball, bike and

read.

MollySchremmerSPUR's publ ications and

communications intern graduated

from Clark University with a BA in

geography in 2009. Growing up in

Maine, Molly developed an interest in

smart urban growth as she watched

her region grow from rural to

suburban. When she is not exploring

her career opt ions in the urban

planning f ield, Molly climbs indoors

and nerds out about craft beer.

SergioRuizSergio Ruiz, SPUR's Photography

Intern is an avid photographer who

has cont ributed numerous images

to The Urbanist th is year. His "day

job" includes bicycle and pedest rian

transportati on planning and he is a

st rong proponent of smart growth.

oJanVisayaD Jan graduated from St. Mary 's

College with a BS in economic s

and business administ rat ion. It

was a course on the growth and

development of Cont ra Costa

County that fir st got him interested

in planning. Having served as an

AmeriCorp s VISTAand a Peace

Corps volunteer, he is now act ively

pursing a career in urban and

community development.

OCTOBER 2012 23

OSPUR654 Mission StreetSan Francisco. CA 94105- 4015

(415) 781-8726spur.org

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Ideas + action for a better city

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