SPUR Elevates Public Policy’s Role in the Climate Movement

What exactly does it take for a climate-related policy to reach the mayor’s office? To find its way into our laws and legislature? To become a part of our spending habits, housing search or daily commute? For many of the proposed policies currently circulating among the ranks of government in California and the Bay Area, you can ask an employee of SPUR. The San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (aka SPUR) is a nonprofit public policy organization that tackles pressing issues facing big cities today. Through their research, education, and advocacy programs, they seek to bring sustainability, equity, and prosperity to all of our most affected communities. 

Founded in 1906 as the San Francisco Housing Association, SPUR’s original mission focused on advocating for affordable housing and proper building codes. In 1942, they tacked on planning to the mission, and in 1959 added the “research” component to complete the SPUR acronym. From its humble origins as a small city improvement group to its status as a multi-city nonprofit featured in voter’s guides and ballots, SPUR has had quite the journey. And, though their goal of creating solutions for problems big cities face has not changed, the issues that they aim to tackle have. In recent years, the Bay Area has witnessed the intensification of many climate-related hazards: increased wildfire risk and subsequent air pollution, sea level rise in coastal areas, heatwaves that disproportionately affect vulnerable communities, and worsening erosion and stormwater runoff. In the face of stagnant federal action, local organizations and governments have stepped in to provide solutions that center on mitigation, which focuses on cutting current greenhouse gas emissions, and adaptation, which focuses on preparing for impacts that are already unavoidable. “We know that the cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of preparing for climate change, which is already a reality whether or not we choose to deal with it,” Sustainability and Resilience Policy Manager Colleen Corrigan said.

CURRENT WORK

One area of their current climate-related work aims to eliminate household appliances that are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and also contribute to higher concentrations of particulate matter and health-harming pollutants such as nitric oxide This supports the Bay Area Air District’s Rules 9-4 and 9-6, which will phase out the sale of residential gas-powered water heaters by 2027 and gas furnaces by 2029. SPUR’s policies work to ensure that permitting processes for new technology like heat pump water heaters are efficient, that contractors and supplies are ready for increased demand, and that financial support is available for families that may need it. The year prior, SPUR worked on SB 282, the Heat Pump Access Act, which aimed to streamline the permitting process for heat pumps in residential areas. However, the policy didn’t make it into law because of a bad financial year; voters were concerned about the cost of the project. “It was good to be behind something that felt a little bit like a slam dunk, but it was also a little disappointing to see how even when that’s true, bureaucracy can still get in the way,” Sustainability and Resilience Policy Manager Sam Fishman commented.

CHALLENGES THEY ARE FACING

Under the Trump administration, several federal programs that support environmental resilience have been significantly weakened or eliminated altogether, undermining years of progress by SPUR and other advocacy organizations. Critical funding programs, such as FEMA’s Flood Migitation Assistance (FMA) program and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program have already been canceled, despite research showing that these investments are highly-cost effective. This has left Bay Area cities scrambling to fund projects like the SAFER Bay Project in Menlo Park, the Oakland-Alameda Adaptation Committee’s Adaptation Project, and San Francisco’s Downtown Coastal Resilience Project. 

SPUR has responded by holding events to spotlight these funding gaps and by supporting policies that fill the holes left by federal retreat. The surge of funding cuts harms low-income communities of color the most, worsening existing environmental disparities. “The politicization of disaster relief and prevention, as we have seen under this administration, disproportionately harms low-income communities and communities of color, who are least able to access the capital necessary to prepare and/or recover from climate change-related events,” Corrigan said.

As the Bay Area continues to evolve, SPUR’s work has become more important than ever. We continue to grapple with enormous questions—how to house a growing population, how to build a stable economy, how to ensure wealth is properly distributed among the people—and continue to do so in the face of climate change. SPUR offers not just ideas on how to confront these issues, but concrete policies that take into account the interconnected nature of environmental issues. In the words of Fishman, “We are in a place in the world where California really should be the model for how we reduce emissions. We have a voting population that has a long history of caring about their environment. And, we have the resources and kind of wherewithal to be a leader on environmental issues and have done so in the past.” In other words, it’s up to us to take that leap.