Issue 504
07.11
SPUR Published monthly by San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association
News at SPUR p3 How to Transform Market Street p5 Urban Field Notes pI6
Urban Drift pI8
•
anlS
Come and celebrate!
Thursday July 14, 2011 5 -10 p.m.
Thank you to the SPUR members and supporters who make this one of the best parties of the year!
Sliding scale for members $10 & up
Thank you to our generous sponsors
spur.org/ memberparty
More information available at 415-644-4288 or events@spur.org
(as of 06.23.77)
COMMUNITY CONNECTORS AT&T' AECOM • Arup • Bank of the West· California Pacific Medical Center' Catholic Healthcare West· Deloitte • Golden Gate University' Lend Lease' macys.com • MJM Management Group' PG&E • Recology • Shorenstein Company LLC BRIDGE BUILDERS ARCADIS/Malcolm Pirnie, Inc.• Cox Castle & Nicholson, LLP • Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.• Forest City Development· Frank Crystal & Co. of California, Inc.• MBH Architects' Nibbi Brothers General Contractors' Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP • Port of San Francisco' ROMA Design Group' San Francisco Waterfront Partners' Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, LLP • TMG Partners' UCSF SUSTAINABLE SUPPORTERS City CarShare • Andy & Sara Barnes· Avant Housing· Borel Private Bank and Trust Company· Charles Salter Associates' Comeast • David Baker + Partners Architects' De La Rosa & Co.• Farella Braun + Martel LLP • Flad Architects' FME Architecture + Design' David A. Friedman & Paulette J. Meyer' Terry Micheau & Rob Evans' Richard Lonergan' Plant Construction Company' Presidio Bank' San Francisco International Airport· Elizabeth Seifel Fund / Seitel Consulting, Inc.• Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP • Tishman Speyer Properties· Universal Paragon Corporation· Webcor Suliders
MEDIA SPONSORS
BilsiiJessTimes
(Somcast.
1
07.11
LETTER FROM THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR
What to do about Market Street? Market Street is where San Franciscans go to protest wars, fete their beloved baseball team, ride their bicycles (and get their bike wheels stuck in the cable-car tracks), walk from their BART stops to work, hail a cab, catch a bus, watch a street performer or catch a ray of sunlight while eating a sandwich. Long considered San Francisco's "civic spine," our main street is connected by its own vertebrae - different parts of the spine that serve different functions. SPUR's 1964 plan "What to Do About Market Street" posited that there are five different Market Streets: Gateway (Embarcadero to Drumm), Financial (Drumm to Kearny), Central Retail (Kearny to 5th), Amusement (Kearny to 8th) and General Commercial (8th to Van Ness). While the plan called for a number of changes we would strongly disagree with today - most notably a proposal to place all of the streetcars below grade and create a sunken plaza open to the sky between six lanes of traffic - the idea of Market Street as not one unified street but many streets serving many functions is still a useful concept. Perhaps because Market Street is many streets serving many functions, it has been the subject of many plans. The neighborhoods directly adjacent to Market Street have also undergone their share of planning efforts, including the Mid-Market and Upper Tenderloin areas, which have experienced disinvestment over many decades, as described by Randy Shaw on page 10 and Elvin Padilla on page 12 Now city planners are turning their attention to Market Street once again in a series of related efforts, each with its own focus. The Better Market Street Plan will make recommendations to improve the transportation and public realm aspects of Market Street itself. Meanwhile, the Office of Economic and Workforce Investment, in collaboration with local groups, is using tax-policy and economic-development strategies to reenergize the Mid-Market area and create an arts district. The recent creation of the Upper Tenderloin Historic District makes it possible to use historic tax credits to upgrade and preserve many of the fine historic buildings in the Tenderloin. Today, we know that it is not possible to come up with one Big Unified Plan to fix Market Street. The idea of the Big Unified Plan that creates a perfect future has, at best, proved to be unsuccessful and, at worst, led to disastrous consequences in cities throughout the United States. But we do have experience here in San Francisco with bold strategic moves that have transformed our city for the better.
Today we know it's not possible to fix big urban problems with one Big Unified Plan. City planners are turning their attention to Market Street once again - but this time in a series of related efforts, each with its own focus. In 1989 the Loma Prieta earthquake hit San Francisco, damaging major infrastructure including the Embarcadero and Central freeways. It took enormous political will and multiple competing ballot measures, but in the end, both of these double-decker freeways were taken down and replaced with surface streets. Octavia Boulevard and the Embarcadero Boulevard represent radical departures from what existed before, and both have had transformative effects on nearby neighborhoods. The demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway reunited the city with its waterfront and helped turn the Ferry Building into one of San Francisco's most beloved buildings. It also enabled new thinking about the Rincon Hill neighborhood, as well as other areas adjacent to the waterfront. Meanwhile, the replacement of the Central Freeway with Octavia Boulevard spurred a major planning effort to knit together a neighborhood that had been cleaved in two by the freeway, ultimately leading to the adoption of the Market and Octavia Better Neighborhoods Plan in 2008. We don't expect the transformation of Market Street to be as dramatic as the replacement of the Embarcadero Freeway with a surface street. But we do hope for a transformation that keeps the best of what Market Street has to offer - a joyful chaos created by many people doing different things in the same place at the same time - and adds substantial improvements that make Market Street an even better place to walk, bike, shop, catch the bus, hail a cab, talk with a friend and eat a sandwich while hurrying off to a meeting. San Francisco's civic spine deserves no less.•
Sarah Karlinsky is SPUR's deputy director
Urbanist> July 2011 3
July 2011 What we're doing
SF APPROVES PARKMERCED AND TREASURE ISLAND PLANS! June was a banner month for fans of urban planning. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved two major projects: Parkmerced and Treasure Island. Combined they will bring 13,000 new units of housing to the city. Parkmerced will update a car-oriented, 1950s-style neighborhood with rehabilitated and new housing, an extension of the Muni M-line, a walkable street grid and a mixed-use corridor for retail and office space. The Treasure Island plan will develop housing and retail space, rehabilitate historic structures, create open space and add new ferry and bus service. SPUR worked hard to support these important projects, and we're thrilled that they've made their way across the finish line. PROP. GNEGOTIATIONS YIELD MUNI MILLIONS IN SAVINGS After Muni operators rejected a negotiated agreement between their union and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, an independent arbitrator ruled that the contract "represents the best resolution" and that the agency's 2,200 operators must accept the terms. The agreement includes increased management oversight of discipline, the flexibility for Muni to hire part-time drivers and reduce overtime costs, and a three-year wage freeze, yielding between $38 million 4 Urbanist> July 2011
and $41 million over the three-year term. The passage of Proposition G last fall mandated that an arbitrator settle Muni contract disputes and made that decision binding. This is a significant victory for the SFMTA and for SPUR following our successful campaign to pass Prop. G last year.
SCENARIO PLANNING FOR THE BAY AREA'S FUTURE Our regional agencies are moving into an important phase of the Bay Area's Sustainable Communities Strategy, a plan for reducing the region's greenhouse gases that was mandated by
Senate Bill 375. The Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission are analyzing a series of alternative scenarios for future regional growth. One option would place much of the region's housing and employment growth in the urban core - places like San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Another option would shift a larger share of growth to the edges - places like Fairfield and Antioch. All of the scenarios will attempt to identify locations for up to 2 million additional residents and 1.2 million new jobs. In his role on the MTC's Policy Advisory Council, SPUR Regional Planning Director Egon Terplan has argued that all scenarios should at a minimum also meet the region's 15 percent per capita greenhouse-gas reduction target by 2035 - and not simply try to meet that goal. We also want to make sure that the scenarios illuminate the real tradeoffs and implications of outward growth. We think the region needs a stronger set of principles about where it wants to grow, not just how.
SAN FRANCISCO HOUSING ELEMENT SECURES PASSAGE After years of discussion, San Francisco's Housing Element has finally been adopted. Part of the San Francisco General Plan, the Housing Element provides policy guidance for housing growth in San Francisco and must be updated every five years. This round of the Housing Element has been in development for two
years and counting. SPUR has provided substantial input into the document, consistently advocating for increased housing near transit. While the Housing Element does contain policies that support new housing projects where households can easily rely on sustainable transportation modes, it also adds policy support for maintaining housing densities as they are. While we are ambivalent about the final product, we are pleased that the process has been completed at least for now.
SPUR JOINS FRIENDS OF THE URBAN FOREST Laura Tam, SPUR's sustainable development policy director, has joined the board of Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF). A presence in San Francisco for 30 years, FUF advocates and cares for street trees and plants - nearly 1,000 of them each year. FUF works closely with property owners, neighborhood groups and youth from underserved communities to increase awareness of the importance of trees in an urban environment. FUF recently began a sidewalk landscaping program to provide additional habitat for birds and insects and to reduce stormwater runoff. FUF and SPUR both want to see more green infrastructure in the streetscape - and a sustainable model of maintaining it. For more information visit fuf.net.*
How to Transform Market Street Can San Francisco's "civic spine" become a great public space?
<.D
= =
~
o
." =
'-'
Urbanist> July 2011 5
I_O_7_.'_,_ _I_b_Y_J_ef_f_T_u_m_l_in
I_A_L_O_O_K_B_A_C_K
_
A walk down Market Street The story of San Francisco's main drag - its grand ambitions, great disasters and continual plans for reinvention - embodies the history of the city itself.
Jeffrey Tumlin is a principal at Nelson\ Nygaard, aSan Fra ncisco-based transportation planning and engineering firm. Almost every day he walks, bikes, drives and/or takes transit the length of Market Street.
In 1847, Captain John Montgomery's band of occupying forces gave the scruffy Mexican settlement of Yerba Buena a new name, San Francisco, claiming the town for the United States and bringing its population to just under 500 souls. California wouldn't officially be part of the United States until the following year, yet its citizens had ambitions. Despite the lack of a freshwater source or year-round overland connections, San Francisco's leaders decided they needed a new street and block plan (right) to accommodate the slow but steady stream of new immigrants. They hired hard-drinking Irishman Jasper O'Farrell to do the job. One of O'Farrell's challenges was to resolve the north-south street pattern established by the Spanish with the southerly settlement of Happy Valley, whose streets branched off Yerba Buena Cove at a northeast-to-southwest angle. His solution: Market Street, named in honor of William Penn's Market Street in Philadelphia. Certain that San Francisco would one day be grander than bustling Philadelphia, O'Farrell made our Market Street 120 feet wide - 20 feet wider than Philly's. Platted for only six blocks, Market aimed ambitiously across the sand dunes for Los Pechos de la Choca, "the Breasts of the Maiden," which we now call Twin Peaks. With the discovery of gold in 1848 and a huge influx of immigrants in 1849, San Francisco boomed, and the oversea led 120-foot grand boulevard became less absurd and more practical, connecting the Ferry Building to growing neighborhoods via horse-drawn streetcar, then four clattering cable cars. But growth was interrupted in April of 1906, when a magnitude-7.9 earthquake struck two miles offshore. After three days of raging fires, an estimated 250,000 people were homeless and 514 city blocks were destroyed (left). Almost everything on Market Street burned, from Van Ness Avenue to the Embarcadero. Lotta's Fountain, one of the few remaining structures on Market Street, emerged as a gathering place and bulletin board where the lost and dispossessed left notes in hopes of reuniting with loved ones.
6 Urbanist> July 2011
San Franciscans quickly rebuilt their beloved city after the disaster, and Market Street grew as the center of action like never before. The horse-and-buggy era faded, and electric streetcars replaced cable cars on Market Street. By the 1920s, Market Street was renowned as one of the great streets in the world (below). Notice the on-street parking, two sets of electric streetcar tracks running in each direction and lack of trees. Naturally, perambulating on Market meant donning a fine hat and, for ladies, gloves.
The 1950s and '60s were disastrous for cities throughout the United States, and while San Francisco suffered less than most, Market Street went into decline. Suburban attitudes of order, separation and automobile accommodation were inflicted upon Market Street, unintentionally worsening conditions for urban success. In 1963, the grand Fox Theatre (above) was destroyed to make way for the bleak, empty, windswept spaces of Fox Plaza. As the decline continued, every decade saw a radical new plan for "saving" Market Street, including SPUR's 1962 plan for monorails and sunken hanging gardens down the middle of the street (below). One of those grand ideas, the BART system, opened in 1972 after six years of disruptive construction tore up Market Street.
The construction of the Embarcadero Freeway (above), perhaps San Francisco's most unfortunate piece of transportation infrastructure, compounded Market's troubles in the late 1950s. But the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake gave the city the opportunity to rethink this choice and replace the unfriendly overpass with a public plaza. This urban-planning success story offers inspiration for future transformations that could restore Market Street to its proper stature. Urbanist> July 2011 7
1,-0_7_"_'_ _ 1
by Kit Hodge
--------------
1
BEST PRACTICES
Street transformations: Lessons from London, Melbourne, NYC Physical changes can not only make a street work better they can transform it into a great public space. Kit Hodge is the deputy director ot the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and former director of the San Francisco Great Streets Project. She previously worked in New York City and Chicago on large placemaking initiatives.
B Urbanist> July 2011
The stretch of Market Street from Octavia Boulevard to the Embarcadero has confounded planners from the day Jasper O'Farrell conceived it in 1847. The city has struggled to make the most of its main street over the last two centuries but has rarely, if ever, been satisfied with the result. It's too wide and yet too crowded, too empty and yet too chaotic, too dangerous and yet too bland. We just cannot seem to get it right. But in true San Francisco fashion, our collective desire to transform Market Street into a wonderful, vibrant place endures. As we look ahead to inescapable climate and economic change over the next century, improving Market Street is more important than ever. In 2015 the Department of Public Works will begin repaving Market Street from Van Ness Avenue to Steuart Street. The city is taking advantage of this project to think more broadly about how to improve the street. Earlier this year, DPW and other city agencies launched a visioning effort to develop a plan for the street. Although the Better Market Street plan is focused on the street's urban design and transportation systems, it's being coordinated with the city's parallel effort to address the long-standing economic and social challenges of Mid-Market Street. Is it reasonable to be optimistic that this latest effort might actually begin the long-hoped-for
revitalization of Market Street? Yes and no. There are basic transportation problems that we can fix right away. We know how to speed up the 34 transit lines that are moving at a sluggish four to eight miles per hour on average - slower than a walking elephant. We know how to make it safer for the growing numbers of people who want to bike on Market Street - from families, seniors and tourists to commuters like the 25 percent of Twitter employees who bike to work. We know how to make it easier to walk on the north side of Market Street, so that it no longer takes 15 minutes longer than walking on the south side. And we know how to help the frustrated souls who, against their better judgment, end up driving on Market Street while looking for parking in the area, even though the 30,000 parking spaces within a quarter mile of the street are only 45 to 73 percent full. But transforming Market Street into a great place won't happen solely with a digger and a jackhammer. The complicated economic and social forces shaping our underperforming sidewalks and plazas will take years of concerted, supported effort to change. The good news is, we are in a better position than ever to bring more vitality to the street - if we can learn from the history of the street and from our peers around the world. Here's how three world-class cities are transforming their troubled main streets into great urban places.
BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY Lessons: Forge strong community partnerships; keep testing ideas incrementally Thanks to strong community management and creative, bold thinking from the New York City government, over the past decade Broadway in Midtown Manhattan has gone from an unremarkable, uncomfortable avenue to a welcoming, functioning promenade that supports a wide variety of businesses and communities. The street's long journey to improvement began with a strong partnership between the city and the local business improvement districts to focus on safety and cleanliness. In 2009, community groups and the city worked together to dramatically reimagine the structure of the street, creating new plazas, expanding a ribbon of pedestrian space and adding a continuous protected bikeway. This project is structured as a series of trials, all using temporary materials.
SWANSTON STREET, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
OXFORD STREET, LONDON, ENGLAND
Lesson: Take a holistic approach
Lessons: Go big; make transportation iconic
Swanston Street bears a strong resemblance to Market Street: Both have a similar role in the city and a parallel mix of transportation options and business types. And, like Market Street, Swanston has been subject to numerous failed improvement efforts, including initial planning attempts that did not take in all the elements of a complicated transportation system. But recently the City of Melbourne came together with local community management partners and agreed upon a plan for a more holistic transformation of the street. The project broke ground in May 2011. When completed next year, the $25.6 million redesign will include four new expanded tram stops; tracks will be lowered to improve access to low-floor trams and sidewalks will be extended to meet them. The city will also build a separated bikeway.
Oxford Street is notorious for its crowded sidewalks and streets. The New West End Company, the local business improvement district, has proposed a series of bold streetscape improvements, some of which are now being realized. The distinctive diagonal crossing at Oxford Circus, implemented in 2009, is a wonderful example of how a powerful, iconic transportation improvement can also enhance the sense of place. The district and the city have also invested in events that spur retail sales and inspire visitors to take a fresh look at the street. The annual Very Important Pedestrian (VI Pl Day, held each winter holiday season since 2005, opens the street to people on foot, attracting huge numbers of shoppers and holiday revelers.
Urbanist> July 2011 9
1_0_7_,1_1
I SOCIAL HISTORY
1 by Randy Shaw --------------
Linked fortunes: Mid-Market and the Uptown Tenderloin They thrived together, then declined together. Now these key neighborhoods are primed for a joint revival. Randy Shaw is the executive director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and editor of BeyondChron.org. THC sponsored the application for the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District. Shaw is currently working to create a museum and event center at Eddy and Leavenworth streets in the historic Cadillac Hotel.
10 Urbanist> July 2011
San Francisco's recent payroll tax exemption for the Mid-Market and Uptown Tenderloin reaffirmed a century-long connection between these neighborhoods. From the 1890s through the 1950s, Mid-Market theater patrons and shoppers dined and drank in Uptown Tenderloin bars and restaurants. Through the 1930s, Market Street movie theaters picked up their films from the many film exchanges in the Uptown Tenderloin. Market Street also attracted people to Uptown Tenderloin bordellos and gambling houses, the latter often tucked in the back of cigar stores. Both neighborhoods promoted a "bachelor culture" of pool halls, bathhouses and cheap restaurants that helped make them a popular destination for sailors during World War II. Mid-Market Street and the Uptown Tenderloin experienced decades of great economic times. Both had clear functions in San Francisco's broader economy. Mid-Market was the "Great White Way," where people from the entire Bay Area came to see first-run movies at historic movie palaces. The Uptown Tenderloin was San Francisco's center for gambling, bordellos and other vices, which helped support the area's legal entertainment and legitimate businesses. But just as Mid-Market and the Uptown Tenderloin prospered together, they experienced a parallel decline. Suburbanization ended MidMarket's near monopoly over major first-run movies, and the 1960s saw the demolition of the Fox Theatre and other historic theaters. In addition, urban reformers promoting "beautification" eliminated many of the gaudy facades that distinguished Mid-Market, and BART construction in the 1960s tore up the street, hurting the area's retail stores. Mid-Market never established a new function in the San Francisco economy after the theaters departed. Though it hosted some less-than-Iegal businesses, the Uptown Tenderloin had a vital economy through the 1950s and was never the city's Skid Row. As late as 1960, the U.S census
found not a single block in the neighborhood to have "Skid Row characteristics," a term that included the homeless and/or alcoholic single men who predominated in the South of Market and Mission areas at the time. But as Mid-Market declined in the 1960s, the Uptown Tenderloin followed. Restaurants and bars that long depended on patronage from Market Street theatergoers could not survive. San Francisco waged what some called a "war on fun" against Uptown Tenderloin bars (particularly gay establishments) and entertainment venues. The biggest impact came from the city's crackdown on police corruption, which gained force with the election of Mayor George Christopher in 1955. The drive to root out corruption put the Uptown Tenderloin's longtime gambling operations out of business. Gambling and vice were the economic lifeblood of the neighborhood, and by the early 1960s the Uptown Tenderloin, like Mid-Market, needed a new function in the city's economy.
DECADES OF DECLINE Many San Francisco neighborhoods declined in the early 1960s, but Mid-Market and the Uptown Tenderloin still have not recovered. Instead, starting in the 1960s, these two areas increasingly became home to those whose poverty, sexual orientation or gender identity denied them access to other neighborhoods. Porn movie theaters and live sex shows replaced the storied first-run movie palaces of the past and proliferated in both neighborhoods. Street prostitution took the place of bordellos, and public drug dealing - unheard of in these neighborhoods through the mid-1950s - was now commonplace. The decline of Mid-Market and the Uptown Tenderloin continued into the late 1970s, a time when much of San Francisco was on the rebound. Young urban professionals returned to the city, fueling the first waves of gentrification. Gay men and lesbians, attracted by the city's social tolerance, migrated to San Francisco in droves, further
increasing demand for housing in the Mission, Haight-Ashbury, Castro and other neighborhoods near downtown. But Mid-Market and the Uptown Tenderloin remained largely isolated from this upsurge of the late 1970s and 1980s and could not capitalize on San Francisco's economic growth. In the late 1970s, the Uptown Tenderloin got an unforeseen break with the arrival of thousands of Southeast Asian refugees following the end of the Vietnam War. As Asian-oriented businesses filled long-vacant storefronts and refugee families moved into empty apartments (refugees were placed in the neighborhood due to its high vacancy rate), there was a sense that the Uptown Tenderloin was on the verge of a great transformation. As the 1980s began, optimism about the neighborhood's future was so high that activists moved to enact critical laws to prevent the Uptown Tenderloin's gentrification. These included citywide rent-control and "just cause" eviction laws, and a measure restricting the conversion of residential hotels to tourist lodgings. The neighborhood's most important anti-gentrification measure was a rezoning proposal to end the Uptown Tenderloin's long-standing downtown commercial zoning, which had allowed 40-story high-rise towers to be built throughout the community. The new zoning plan was submitted to the city in May 1981. It immediately reduced most neighborhood heights to 80 feet, or to 130 feet in some blocks with conditional-use approval. New tourist hotels were banned, as were nonresidential uses above the second floor. The new zoning law was enacted in 1985. When these land-use restrictions and tenant protections were added to the Uptown Tenderloin's unique absence of homeownership opportunities - an essential part of every gentrified neighborhood in the nation - activists and residents were confident that, unlike elsewhere, the neighborhood's rise would benefit low-income residents. But hopes in the community's progress - and in the ability of the Southeast Asian influx to revive the Uptown Tenderloin's long-stagnant business life - proved illusory. Most immigrants had little disposable income, and often those who became more financially successful quickly moved to a better neighborhood. Even worse, during the 1980s the neighborhood's single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels were transformed into city-funded transient housing, driving out long-term residents and affirming the area's status as a home for the downtrodden. Market Street movie theaters also became unofficial homeless shelters during those
years, with the Embassy and Strand theaters providing cheap lodgings (anyone could sleep in the theater all day for the cost of a $2 matinee) for those unable to afford an SRO.
ROAD MAP FOR REVIVAL From the 1980s through today, there has been no shortage of plans for reviving Mid-Market and the Uptown Tenderloin. In reference to the former, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen wrote in 1967, "The dreamers talk vaguely of pedestrian malls and islands of shrubbery, but there is doubt even in the pretty drawings; they will end up in the files (or the wastebasket) along with a thousand other plans bravely titled, 'What to Do About Market Street''' [the title of SPUR's 1964 plan for Market Street]. I have a file drawer full of failed plans for Uptown Tenderloin projects; considerable time has been spent trying to create a viable economic function for the neighborhood. Today the Uptown Tenderloin and Mid-Market Street show signs of an upswing. I believe their revivial began with their formation of Community Benefit Districts (CBDs) in 2005 and 2007, respectively. The CBDs have improved both neighborhoods' physical appearance and increased the commitment of property owners - who are now paying a special assessment - to improving their neighborhood. This latter point is critical, because inactive property owners unwilling to invest in the area's improvement have prevented progress in both neighborhoods. After decades trying to find a function in the city's economy, the Uptown Tenderloin and MidMarket Street are now playing to their strengths. In 2009, the former's large collection of historic buildings paved the way for the federal government to designate 33 blocks as the Uptown Tenderloin Historic District. The area's history offers a road map for revitalization, as its authenticity attracts patrons to its restaurants and bars. Mid-Market's location near transit lines makes it a perfect site for new arts and theater uses, the key to its successful past. Mid-Market also has highquality historic office space, which made the city's recent deal to retain Twitter possible and opens opportunities for the street to become a home for high-tech companies. The Uptown Tenderloin's small businesses need patronage from Mid-Market office workers, and Mid-Market cannot thrive if it has a troubled neighborhood on its northern border. Two neighborhoods that prospered together for decades, and then declined almost in lockstep, are now primed for a joint revival. â&#x20AC;˘
Urbanist> July 2011
11
07.11
by Elvin Padilla, Jr.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Four ways to transform Mid-Market Strategies for a vital economy in San Francisco's central district Elvin Padilla, Jr. is the executive director of the Tenderloin Economic Development Project. Aresident of the Tenderloin, his favorite neighborhood eating spots include farmerbrown (gumbo), Soluna Cafe (burgers), Morty's Deli (hot pastrami), Lers Ros (Thai), Mangosteen (Vietnamese), Urban Tavern (hot pretzels) and Taqueria Castillo.
After many years of fits and starts, San Francisco's Mid-Market area is stirring with prospects for transformation. Projects about to begin, as well as those still in planning, will bring new vitality to our long-neglected civic concourse. The already-approved CityPlace project, a new 250,000-square-foot retail development, will extend the commercial vibrancy of the San Francisco Centre to the stretch of Market Street west of Fifth Street. At the other end of the Mid-Market area, Twitter will move next year to the San Francisco Mart Building between Ninth and 10th streets. The relocation of Twitter is a huge coup, for both the city and the neighborhood, and is made possible by the city's recent agreement to exempt some employers in this zone from the municipal payroll tax. San Francisco has a unique business tax that requires companies with payrolls in excess of $250,000 to pay the city the equivalent of 1.5 percent of the company's total expenditures on employee compensation. In the Mid-Market area, employers will be exempted from paying payroll tax on new employees for the next six years. This change will go a long way toward luring office tenants and larger retailers to an area with a 51 percent office-vacancy rate and 31 percent storefront vacancy. But more work is needed to make Mid-Market a better place to live, work, walk and shop. Here are four approaches that could help realize its potential:
1. CREATE A MID-MARKET ARTS DISTRICT We have the opportunity to do something more than extend downtown or the Civic Center office district. Mid-Market has the potential to be a great cultural hub for our city. It's already home to the American Conservatory Theater, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, Luggage Store Gallery, EXIT Theatre, Boxcar Theatre, Cutting Ball Theater, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, KUNST-STOFF Contemporary Dance Company, the SHN theater company, CounterPULSE, The Black Rock Foundation (organizers of Burning Man) and Intersection for
12 Urbanist> July 20ll
the Arts. Investing in expanded facilities and these organizations' operational stability can help to create a unique district for arts and culture. ACT presents a particularly promising opportunity. The theater is exploring the development of a new $100 million performingarts center and drama school, along with student and artist housing. If constructed, this bold project would resurrect two long-dead blocks, reinvent the major gateway to the Mid-Market neighborhood, and send a jolt of confidence and energy throughout the surrounding area. This has worked elsewhere. Initiatives such as the PlayhouseSquare District Development Corp. in Cleveland and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership in New York have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in renovating old theaters, programming public spaces, and facilitating the development of commercial and residential real estate projects. The realization of this vision requires funding, however - which means we must develop the resources to acquire and safeguard key properties that can house our cultural treasures as well as stimulate additional investment and development.
2. SECURE NEW RESOURCES FOR THE NEIGHBORHOOD Attracting new businesses and retaining existing businesses requires investment. Several tools are needed to support a new Mid-Market arts district as well as to improve the public realm in the area. We need to establish either a redevelopment area or an infrastructure-financing district (I FD) to capture the new property tax value generated by the Twitter and CityPlace projects. Value increases from other new developments and businesses moving to the area should be captured as well. Tools such as an IFD or a redevelopment area would allow us to rely on these increases in property values as a future revenue stream to repay bonds for a variety of investments in the neighborhood, including the rehabilitation and development of buildings that
,
I, I,
Dlll-,---,IJ...I-ltd C Source: San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, www.oewd.org
support arts uses. The city can help make this type of financing easier to obtain and more attractive to use by serving as the bond issuer and helping arts organizations secure favorable terms from lenders.
3. PROMOTE HOUSING FOR ALL INCOME LEVELS The Mid-Market area is home to a significant stock of low-income housing, much of it owned by nonprofit organizations unlikely to convert it to market-rate housing. We need to find ways to protect and upgrade this affordable inventory to create more livable environments for low-income residents. This can include adding kitchens and bathrooms to traditional SRO units. At the same time, we should also promote market-rate housing, mixed-income housing and family-sized housing in order to attract a diversity of residents to the area. Finally, we should create more affordable housing in other areas of the city to reduce the pressure on the Tenderloin and Mid-Market neighborhoods and help them achieve more equitable development.
Capitalizing on the area's concentration of arts organizations, the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development has launched an initiative to restore MidMarket as the city's downtown arts district. By encouraging new employers, retail and housing in a "focus area" along Market Street, the plan aims to serve and stabilize the larger neighborhood.
The Tenderloin precinct was recently reduced by 17 officers. This will invariably result in weakened deterrence in a neighborhood that can ill afford it. There will be more incidents involving public disorder, and we could lose the progress achieved thus far in this critical component of a livable neighborhood. Two new community efforts are working to move the crack dealing on Turk Street and prescription-pill dealing on Leavenworth Street out of the neighborhood. Both deserve support from community-based organizations, the San Francisco Police Department, the Community Justice Center and the District Attorney's Office. Programs that take chronic inebriates off the streets and provide treatment and other services also are critical. While such programs are expensive, the costs would be off set by the reduction in 911 calls and emergency treatment. The real progress already made in the MidMarket area places us at a crossroads. If we are willing to invest in this area and develop creative policies, we can solve problems that have been plaguing the city for decades. â&#x20AC;˘
4. INVEST IN PUBLIC SAFETY Mid-Market needs more police officers on the streets to create a greater sense of public safety.
Urbanist> July 2011 13
07.11
by Deborah Frieden
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
What makes an arts district successful? Cities across the country are using arts districts as a redevelopment tool. Here's why the best ones work. Deborah Frieden is acultural project planning consultant advising on the Central Market Economic Strategy. She has advised on the Hope VI project in Birmingham, Alabama, and the new de Young Museum in San Francisco, among other projects.
A mural by Shepard Fairey at Wynwood Walls in Miami
14 Urbanist> July 2011
For civic leaders facing limited resources, arts and cultural initiatives have become an appealing community-development strategy. In recent years, the fine-grained arts district - one that does not reinvent a neighborhood wholesale but enhances the existing community with diverse new development - has burgeoned. In fact, some cities are developing more than one of these districts at the same time. This may be due in part to the dramatic downturn in national and local economies, which has made funds for larger capital projects scarce. But there's another reason why these arts districts are so popular: They have the potential to deliver many types of benefits, for both the public and private sectors, at a time when other tools for community development are flagging. Arts districts are complex entities that develop over long periods of time, usually decades, with multiple organizations and individuals contributing to a district's character and success. Initiatives
in Miami, Cleveland, Seattle, Queens, N.Y., and Columbus, Ohio, are as diverse as the cities themselves. A few key strategies, however, may prove successful in many locales. Here are some of the most promising approaches taking root in American cities today.
SEATTLE, MIAMI, CLEVELAND: SHARING RESOURCES FOSTERS COMMUNITY Multi-tenant projects bring different organizations together in shared facilities, usually constructed and financed by one developer organization. These projects take the burden of raising capital off of small arts organizations and reduce long-term costs to maintain the facility. As a communitydevelopment strategy, these kinds of buildings can create a vibrant sense of place, provide a venue for diverse arts and other innovative events, and offer educational and social programs that engage local residents. The Youngstown Cultural Arts Center in Seattle, for example, provides low-income housing for artists who in turn support the arts, education and social-development work of the center. In Cleveland, the Gordon Square Arts District ran a single capital campaign for three separate theater projects at three separate non-profits. It's rare for organizations to share donors and connections, but it worked because none of the three could have raised the necessary capital on their own. By collaborating, they could operate on a grander scale and make the project about revitalizing the district as well as supporting the arts. Housing for artists and those who work in the arts can help catalyze a vibrant arts district. In Miami, the new "form-based" planning code Miami 21 (which focuses on the physical form of buildings, rather than on how the space is used) encourages housing for "cultural workers" by allowing live/work space without requiring special approvals. Miami is also considering new types of housing with shared common living and work areas.
CLEVELAND AND QUEENS: MEETING SOCIAL NEEDS CREATES NEW AUDIENCES Arts organizations can boost their staying power when they expand their social contribution beyond traditional educational programs. In the Gordon Square Arts District, the Cleveland Public Theatre provides arts education for children who live in public housing, job training for at-risk youth and homeless men in recovery, and a writing and speaking program for women recovering from domestic violence - all while maintaining a demanding program of nationally recognized experimental theater. In Queens, N.Y., the Queens Museum of Art has initiated arts and literacy programs and health fairs, sponsored community dialogues on current events, and helped revitalize Corona Park, the community's center. These organizations are not only serving the needs of their community but also building new audiences for the arts.
programs, art fairs, gallery walks and mural projects. But when these events expand beyond expectations, they can be catalytic - reaching new audiences, driving regional tourism and creating a brand identity for the district. In the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami, the Wynwood Walls project - a series of massive murals by 18 international artists - has created a "town center" for the district as well as a recognizable brand. Technology and social networking can also weave arts, cultural or historical threads through a neighborhood in unexpected ways. In the Short North District of Columbus, Ohio, the Department of Public Health's Healthy Places initiative uses a telephone application and a podcast art walk to connect people to the arts while encouraging exercise. It's become so popular that the city has expanded the program to other districts. While these initiatives are each products of their own distinct cultures, many might be altered, scaled up or twisted to meet the unique creative spirit of San Francisco and its arts community.•
MIAMI AND COLUMBUS: "GOING BIG" BUILDS A BRAND The most successful districts add experimental temporary programming to their permanent projects. Many districts organize "art in storefronts"
Thank you to our generous sponsors
\1 FIRST REPUBLIC BANK
HOST COMMITTEE
bre
~
David Friedman & Paulette Meyer, CO-CHAIRS ,ri'41~ilnij8
PRINCIPAL SPONSORS Mark Buell & Susie Tompkins Buell· Cox Castle & Nicholson, LLP • Bonnie Fisher & Boris Dramov • George & Leslie Hume • John Kriken & Katherine Koelsch Kriken • Larry Nibbi • Sergio Nibbi • Toby & Sally Rosenblatt· Paul Sack· Charles & Trudy Salter· Elizabeth Seifel & Pierre Capeder • V. Fe; Tsen & Wayne Lew SUPPORTER Irene Lindbeck Tibbits THANK YOU TO OUR PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS fQreigncinema
Andy & Sara Barnes Oz Erickson & Rina Alcalay Diane Filippi & Ephraim Hirsch Linda Jo Fitz Anne Halsted & Wells Whitney Vince & Amanda Hoenigman Richard Lonergan Dean Macris & Ruthe Stein Alastair & Celine Mactaggart Carol & Ezra Mersey Terry Micheau & Rob Evans Bill & Dewey Rosetti Paul & Lynn Sedway
Urbanist> July 2011 15
URBAN
Trek links green spaces in SF's emerald necklace
FIELD NOTES An additive archive of cultural landscapes and observations compiled by SPUR members and friends. Send your ideas to Urban Field Notes editor Ruth Keffer at editor@spurorg.
As the end users of design, we are often limited to the prescribed use of a space. Yet, to be everyday urbanists means to liberate ourselves from that prescriptive logic and find the uses we need in the spaces we have at hand. In the same way that little kids find forts in trundle beds, we must enact what we desire from a city in the city we have. Accordingly, I set out to find Frederick Law Olmsted's "Emerald Necklace" - a network of parks that seamlessly spans Boston - in San Francisco by tracing a path from Bernal Heights to the Presidio through city parks and community gardens. Employing Google maps and the companionship of friends, I tracked a 9.7-mile route from Holly Park to Baker Beach with no more than three blocks between all green spaces. On an unusually sunny Saturday afternoon, we headed out to conquer the coyote canyons of Glen Park, the quietude of Mount Sutro and the musty beaches of the Presidio. With our group ranging from four to 16 people at various stages of the hike, we summitted and careened down various peaks in San Francisco, proving the true walkability of our city.
Caseworker: Ca Ii Pfaff
CASE STUDY #39
Map. Trekking through four of San Francisco's largest parks, as well as tiny community gardens and block-wide greentops like Holly Park, the route took us from an altitude of 922 feet at the top of Twin Peaks down to sea level in the sandy Presidio.
Cali Pfaff is aColorado native living in Bernal Heights. She previously worked for Public Architecture, is aSPUR Young Urbanist and will be returning to school in the fall to study landscape architecture. She enjoys long car rides and climbing trees.
Holly Park. The hike began in the sunny neighborhood of Bernal Heights. We circled Holly Park looking for late arrivers before heading up toward Glen Pilrk l,ilnyon, l1ilssine piayerounds, community gardens and Billy Goat Hill along the way. '----J< 16 Urbanist> July 2011
Twin Peaks. Midday we topped the second summit of Twin Peaks after needling through the backyards of Diamonds Heights. With minimal clouds in sight, we could see the round cap of Bernal, from where we came, all the way to the famous trusses of Golden Gate Bridge.
Mount Sutro. We headed down into the Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve, where the only sounds were our own laughter and the wind between leaves on trees. In its quietude the place was pointedly un-urban, and for that moment we were its sole human inhabitants.
Photo by Jake Moore. Sutro Tower. Content to have no more uphills,
--
we jumped for joy in the shadow of the Sutro Tower. We snaked down a landscaped stairwell, complete with an abandoned Fisher Price swing set, in our descent to Golden Gate Park. Photo by Jake Moore.
Baker Beach. Four hours and almost ten miles later, we settled into the sands of Baker Beach for one well-deserved sunset before catching a crosscity cab home. The cost of our labors? $23.60. Photo by Jake Moore.
Presidio. As the day wore on, we followed the rail-thin stretches of parkland lining Park Presidio Boulevard toward the Pacific Ocean. Whittled down from a group of 16 back to four, we navigated cypress groves and the perfect light between them.
Urbanist> July 2011 17
URBAN DRIFT DUBAIINVESTS IN TRAINS Dubai is quickly improving its transportation system by expanding its train network from 75 to 250 kilometers (46 to 155 miles). The goal is to connect the two main airports, Dubai International Airport and AI Maktoum International Airport in Jebel Ali. There are two metro lines in Dubai, either of which could be extended to make the connection. The Green Line will be complete by the end of 2011, and the UAE Federal Railway began construction in May. "Dubai on track, 250km ot rail planned," Emirates 2417, 4/tt/20tt
JAPANESE CITY ELECTS TO RELOCATE RATHER THAN REBUILD Koizumi, a district of Kesennuma city in Japan, was devastated by this year's tsunami. While only 30 of its 1,800 residents perished in the disaster, more than 60 percent of the houses in the city were either damaged or destroyed. Survivors have been living in a local school or with relatives. In order to keep the community together, district leaders have decided to relocate the entire city to a vacant hillside about a mile inland and 214feet above sea level. If they can convince at least ten of the remaining residents to agree to the move, the federal government will pay for 75 percent of the infrastructure costs. District leaders hope relocating will keep community ties intact, as some of the families have lived in the area for 400 years. "To survive, tsunami-hit community may tlee the sea," Miranda leitsinger, World Blog trom NBC News, 6/7/20tt
18 Urbanist> July 20tt
IS THE CHINESE REAL ESTATE BUBBLE STARTING TO DEFLATE? After years of untrammeled growth, prices are beginning to decrease in major Chinese cities. Economists estimate that 13 percent of China's GDP is tied to the real estate sector, which is heavily tied to demand for raw materials and equipment that other countries have begun to rely on. Housing prices have been rising in recent years, with the average apartment price going from $100,000 to $250,000 between 2006 and 2011. The current price is 57 times the average city dweller's annual income. Things have begun to change in recent months. April apartment sales fell 37 percent in Shanghai, and agents say sales have fallen by half in Beijing while apartment rental prices have risen dramatically. Some economists think the fall in prices will be short-lived, but if prices continue to drop, the fallout will be global. "The great property bubble of China may be popping," Bob Davis, The Watl Street Journal/The Australian, 6/lt/20tt
HONG KONG CULTURE ON THE RISE, FINALLY? Hong Kong is one of the world's largest, most vibrant cities, yet it lacks the cultural facilities of other global hubs like New York, London or Tokyo. Plans for the West Kowloon Cultural District began in 1997 when Chinese rule was restored but have not resulted in much progress on the ground. (Plans for Norman Foster to build the world's largest canopy were canceled, for example.) But things are finally
on the move in 2011 as the government has begun finalizing plans for the district and putting cultural institutions in place. Lars Nittve, founding director of the Tate Modern in London, has been chosen to head a new contemporary art museum and Michael Lynch, the former head of the Sydney Opera House and the South bank Center in London, has been appointed as executive director of West Kowloon. Hong Kong is trying a unique funding model, providing a large lump sum ($2.8 billion) up front with the expectation that shopping, dining and entertainment areas will provide enough ongoing funding to support the arts organizations. Many are skeptical that the government is merely using the arts to increase property values, but others simply look forward to opening day. "A Bid tor Culture in aCity of Commerce," Joyce HorChung lau, The New York Times, 3/18/20tt
city news from around the globe
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION UNDERWAY IN BANGLADESH More than 300 international climate-change experts met in Bangladesh for the 5th International Conference on Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change earlier this year. But first they traveled across the country in small delegations to see how resilient communities have begun adapting to a changing planet. Strategies already in place include improved irrigation techniques, farming in flood zones, and collecting rainwater for drinking in areas where groundwater is increasing in salinity. Speakers at the conference following the tours highlighted similar efforts in Peru, Nepal, Fiji, the Philippines, South Africa, Mali, India and Vietnam. "Bangladesh communities show how they adapt to climate change," Saleernul Huq, Guardian.co.uk Poverty Matters Blog, 4/5/20tt
SPUR Board of Directors Co-Chairs
Board Members
John Madden
Linda Jo Fitz
Carl Anthony
Gordon Mar
Lee Blitch
Alexa Arena
Jacinta McCann
Fred Blackwell
Chris Meany
Co-Vice Chairs
Chris Block
Ezra Mersey
Emilio Cruz
Larry Burnett
Terry Micheau Disaster Planning
PROGRAM COMMITTEES Ballot Analysis Peter Mezey
David Friedman
Michaela Cassidy
Mary McCue
Madeline Chun
Jeanne Myerson
Jacinta McCann
Bill Rosetti
Michael Cohen
Brad Paul
Dick Morten
V. Fei Tsen
Charmaine Curtis
Chris Poland
Chris Poland
Teresa Rea
Housing
Secretary
Oscar De La Torre
Byron Rhett
Ezra Mersey
Tomiquia Moss
Kelly Dearman
Wade Rose
Lydia Tan
Shelley Doran
Victor Seeto
Treasurer
Oz Erickson
Elizabeth (Libby)
Bob Gamble
Manny Flores
Seilel
Regional Planning
Human Resources
Larry Burnett
Lydia Tan
Libby Seilel
Bob Gamble
Mary Murphy
Gia Daniller-Katz
Project Review Charmaine Curtis
OPERATING COMMITTEES Audit Peter Mezey Board Development Lee Blitch Building Management Larry Burnett
Mary Beth Sanders
Business
Reuben Schwartz
Membership
Norman Fang
Chi-Hsin Shao
Immediate
Gillian Gillett
Ontario Smith
Past Co-Chair
Chris Gruwell
Bill Stotler
Andy Barnes
Anne Halsted
Stuart Sunshine
Development
Dave Hartley
Michael Teitz
Paul Okamoto
Facility Rental
Advisory
Mary Huss
James Tracy
Bry Sarte
Bill Stotler
Council
Chris Iglesias
Will Travis
Co-Chairs
Laurie Johnson
Steve Vettel
Michael Alexander
Ken Kirkey
Debra Walker
Paul Sedway
Florence Kong
Cynthia Wilusz-
Dick Lonergan Ellen Lou Janis Mackenzie
Welcome to our new members!
Chairs and committees
Lovell Cindy Wu
Sustainable
Tom Hart Terry Micheau
Transportation
Executive
Emilio Cruz
Andy Barnes
Anthony Bruzzone
Linda Jo Fitz
TASK FORCES
Finance
Climate Adaptation Will Travis
Bob Gamble
Individual Membership Bill Stotler
INDIVIDUALS
Renee Anderson Drew Bagdasarian Katherine Baylis
John Beveridge Joseph Bonk Gary Borden H Batee Andrea Broaddus
Investment Ann Lazarus Major Donors Linda Jo Fitz Anne Halsted Planned Giving Michaela Cassidy Silver SPUR Dave Hartley Teresa Rea
Paolo tkezoe Ji Yun Jeong Todd Jersey Brandy Jones
Kendall Jones Brett Kelly Susan Kim Erika Kimball Anthony King
Gait Price Devan Reiff Angela M, Robbins Deborah RobertsonChristman
Geoff Rollins Gino Salcedo Tim Seufert
Charu Sharma Aaram Shirani Leigh Bryant Nikolai Sklaroff Julie Burns Brian Soland Nico Calavita Joern Kroll Karen Steen Christine & Stephanie Stern Jonathan Carey Kathryne Larson Amanda Leahy Eileen Sullivan Barbara Cartier Jay Lee Hiroe Takeuchi Patricia Centeno Slin Lee Leslie Terzian G. Chan Janet Lees Markoff Dorothy Cheung Jennifer Lehane Leah Toeniskoetter Pete Choi Dan Leineweber Walker Toma Sean Co Brian Ulaszewski Michael S. Connor James Lesko Andy Levine Maulik Vaishnav Jesse Matthew Lewis Liane Ware Costello-Good Wenlin Li Nell Waters Kimo Crossman Kimball & Lourdes Adam Weiner Taylor Dalton Livingston Charla Welch John Davey Jennifer Liw ann wendler Cynthia Dean Amanda Loper Perry Wexelberg Jim DeGolia Andrea Lopez Jenna While Deanna Desedas Rudj Widmann Louise Lowry Steven Diller Jialin luh Peter B. Wiley Natalie Dillon James Lynch Christopher Wright Juan Doubrechat Laura Marshall Nicolaus Wright Zach Dunn Connie M. Martinez Chi-En Yu Matthew Eaton Michael Metiu Margaret Zeidler Roberl Evans Rakesh Mishra J. Timothy Falvey Brent Mitchell BUSINESSES Jose Farran Jason Mitchell Bay Area Air Quality Emma Feeney Jonathan Moftakhar Management Ariel Fisk-Vittori Marci Montgomery District Shaun Flinn Bohlin Cywinski Chris Hodges Ford Amy Morris Lainie Motamedi Jackson Jacob Furlong Pete Mulvihill CB2 Builders Anisha Gade Jack Munson Fine Arts Museums jamie Gardner Frank Nelson of San Janice Gendreau Douglas Nicolson Francisco David Gould Riki Nishimura GreenLeaf Liza Hadden Jordan O'Brien Microsoft Eliza Hart Juliana Oronos Corporation Matthew Hendren Carli Paine Wilbur-Ellis Jana Henning Eric Panzer Company Brandon Herman Charles Perl Brigid Herron Maxwell Pike Fiona Hovenden Brent Plater Kate Howard Wendy Poinsot Sha Hwang Jonathan Bruck
Steven King David Kleiman Karen Kong George Koster
Urbanist> July 2011 19
Join SPU R today!
The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association
is a member-supported nonprofit organization. We rely on your support to promote good planning and good government through research, education and advocacy. Find out more at spur.org/join.
I
OSPUR
o
SAN FRANCISCO PLANNING + URBAN RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
Nonprofit Org. US Postage
~
-j
PAID
o
Permit # 4118
-j
San Francisco, CA
Âť Z
:::0
(f)
11
o
654 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94105-4015 tel 415.781.8726 fax 415.781.7291
:::0
3: 3:
Âť :::0
info@spur.org www.spur.org
A
m
Time-dated material
-j
~"o
(f)
-j
:::0
SPUR Staff
Young Urbanist summer movie series!
SPUR main number
415.781.8726 Accountant Terri Chang x128 tchang@spur.org
Manufactured Landscapes: 7.19 Echotone: 8.16 The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: 8.30
Public Programming Intern Noah Christman xl22 pUblicprogramming@ spur.org
At the SPUR Urban Center spur.org/events
Publications Assistant Mary Davis mdavis@spur.org Urban Center Director Diane Filippi x110 dfilippi@spur.org
Celebrate!
SPUR Member Party Thursday, July 14, 2011
Public Realm and Urban Design Program Manager Benjamin Grant x1l9 bgrant@spur.org
5-10 p.m. SPUR Urban Center & Annie Alley spur.org/memberparty
Development Assistant
Sponsorships and Special Events Manager Kelly Hardesty x120 khardesty@spur.org
Urban Center Event Manager Sue Meylan x130 smeyJan@spur.org
Public Programming Manager Gretchen Hilyard xl22 ghilyard@spur.org
Research and Volunteer Coordinator Jordan Salinger xl36 jsalinger@spur.org
Deputy Director Sarah Karlinsky xl29 skarlinsky@spur.org
Publications and Communications Manager Karen Steen x112 ksteen@spur.org
Development Director Arnie LaUerman x115 alatterman@spur.org Development Associate Rachel Leonard x1l6 rleonard@spur.org Administrative Director Lawrence Li xl34 lIi@spuLorg Good Government Policy Director Corey Marshall xl25 cmarshall@spuLorg
Uza Hadden x1l8 Ihadden@spuLorg
Il
This newsletter is printed on New Leaf Reincarnation paper: 100% recycled fiber and 50% post-consumer waste.
Executive Director Gabriel Metcalf x1l3 gmetcalf@spuLorg
Sustainable Development Policy Director Laura Tam x137 Itam@spur.org Regional Planning Director Egon Terplan xl31 eterplan@spuLorg Assistant to the Executive Director Jennifer Warburg xl17 jwarburg@spur.org Food Systems and Urban Agriculture Program Manager Eli Zigas xl2G ezigas@spuLorg
m m -j