Year: 2009

"Over the past century, mean sea level has risen nearly eight inches at the Golden Gate in San Francisco. It is expected to rise between four and feet by 2100. A recent report by the Pacific Institute concludes that sea level rise will change the character of the California coast, and that adaptation strategies must be evaluated, tested and implemented if the risks identified in the report are to be reduced or avoided. What will be the social implications of these changes? With author Matt Heberger."

Bike Pittsburgh has posted some great, sortable data about how commuters get to work in major American cities, drawn from a Census Bureau report. San Francisco ranked near the top of cities with a high percentage of walkers, transit riders and cyclists, and a relatively low percentage of people who commute alone in a car. Only New York City at 23.3 percent and Washington D.C. at 37.2 percent had fewer solo drivers than San Francisco's 38.4 percent. San Francisco also had a high percentage of car-free residents, at nearly 20 percent of the population.

"From the Beat movement and City Lights to McSweeney’s, San Francisco has been shaped by its literary history.  But this history does not simply lie in the texts produced by the writers—it was also a history produced in the city’s fabric, in literary movements that defined and influenced people and place. Join us in exploring the role of literature in shaping our local cultural understanding of Urbanism and policy-making. The SPUR Young Urbanists welcome writer Stephen Elliott of the San Francisco Writer's Grotto and editor of The Rumpus, writer and City Lights editor Elaine Katzenberger and poet Matthew Zapruder, the forum moderator, for an evening that explores [Literature] in the City."

"Sea level rise in San Francisco Bay will challenge the 40 year-old legal framework, which manages development on the Bay's shoreline. How will we adjust? Will Travis, executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, will discuss opportunities to amend the Bay Plan to increase our region's resilience to climate change." 

The Congress for the New Urbanism will meet in Portland, Oregon, in early November for the annual Project for Transportation Reform, a summit to further define and clarify emerging urban transportation policies that embrace entire networks, rather than interdependent transportation segments, and that seek to balance modal transportation splits and reduce overall vehicular miles traveled (VMT).

"As shuttle services have proliferated over the past few years, questions have emerged regarding how to best incorporate them into San Francisco’s overall transportation system. A recent report, commissioned by Supervisor Bevan Dufty, examines shuttle services in terms of their costs and benefits, while also exploring their regulatory environment and co-existence with other transportation services such as BART and Caltrain and with the neighborhoods which they serve and traverse.  With San Francisco County Transportation Authority Staff."  

"Please join SPUR for what has become one of our most popular traditions: the post-election recap. David Latterman and Alex Clemens give us an insider’s look into what happened and why. They'll also be lending insight into the fall 2010 election, which promises to provide fireworks." 

"The annual Silver SPUR Awards Luncheon is one of San Francisco’s largest and most important civic events of the year. Over 2,000 people will pay tribute to six people who make our city and region a better place to live and work. This event has evolved over 49 years, but its purpose remains the same: to recognize the contributions and dreams of remarkable San Franciscans."

"The 500,000 people who use bicycles each day in Copenhagen are not “cyclists,” nor are they “environmentalists.” They merely choose to ride because of safe, quick infrastructure. After 30 years of traffic and urban planning, the bicycle has become a democratic tool liberating Copenhagenites from cars and created the foundations for one of the world's most liveable cities. Speaker Mikael Coleville-Andersen is Denmark's leading bicycle advocate, advising cities, towns and organizations about bicycle culture, infrastructure and urban planning with a unique focus on the anthropological aspects of getting more citizens to choose the bicycle."