southern oaks, austin, texas.
mural made of 600 pounds of glass tiles.
Source: Flickr / atxpublicworks
“The pandemic has forced our cities to think about how to get folks in and around their neighborhood needs safely. As major cities seek to create an inclusive plan for the future of all of their residents, it’s clear that this is not the death of the city, it’s a push to serve the needs of residents who are not traditional “peak commuters.” That refocusing has brought more right-of-way for cyclists and pedestrians, more street space for gathering outdoors, and more studies focused on those who have been underserved—investments that will surely lead to greater resilience and bring us closer to the promises of the 15-minute city.
“During quarantine, cities created ad hoc solutions intended to serve residents who needed to move—often in their neighborhood. We saw an iterative wave of quick changes including “slow streets,” “streateries,” and the prioritization of bike and pedestrian networks.
oakland expanded their “slow streets” program to include “essential places”.
“Transit agencies had to plan specifically for essential workers, typically off-peak commuters, low-income, female, black, indigenous, or people of color. If ridership equalizes throughout the day, maybe it no longer makes sense to double train or bus service during morning and evening commute peaks—and we should instead run steady, dependable headways for a longer day span. For those of us who have long fought for mobility of the car-less, of low-income BIPOC communities, this is not the death of the city—it’s a refocusing on the needs of those underrepresented that will make our cities more resilient.
Some city agencies and transportation departments are re-examining travel patterns and needs. Los Angeles released a report on pandemic commutes which specifically compared travel trends between low-income and affluent neighborhoods. They also surveyed transit riders and found that almost 50% are depending on transit to run essential errands.
In a recent webinar with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin, and myself, Tumlin described a notable change: transit ridership has shifted to local routes connecting neighborhood centers, rather than downtown routes primarily serving the financial district. Despite the pandemic, San Franciscans are still traveling between neighborhoods to access amenities and services. Urban activity is still very much alive, just more distributed.”
read more: forbes, 01.10.2020.
san francisco celebrates completion of street improvements to broadway and spofford alley in chinatown.
“At an event marked by lion dancers and speeches, city officials marked the completion of the last of four phases of improvements to the Chinatown-Northbeach corridor, which runs from Columbus Avenue to the Broadway Tunnel. The projects, managed by San Francisco Public Works, added a number of pedestrian safety measures and street beautification improvements along Broadway and Spofford Alley.“
read more: sfexaminer, 30.07.18. sfplanning project page: chinatown broadway street design sfpw: press release
redevelopment in the older areas of shanghai has displaced an estimated one million households. this woman was one of the last remaining residents in her neighborhood, having refused to relocate.
photo: look die bildagentur der fotografen gmbh/alamy. via introduction to cities: how place and space shape human experience, by xiangming chen, et. al.
the alice street mural project, alice/14th street, oakland.
“Culture Keepers are the immigrant elders who have maintained and nourished their native cultures even after moving far away and often over long periods of time. They are the folks who pass on traditions and have thus played a key role in shaping the culture of the neighborhood. Now, the mural has become a part of these residents' stories and the culture they’ve maintained...
This educational experience is important to the Community Rejuvenation Project (CRP), considering the gentrification that is going on throughout the Bay Area. CRP hopes that this mural and the additional documentation can act as a means to nourish respect for the local people and their culture, celebrating what is already here. An art project that beautifies but does not gentrify is a hard balance to walk.”
read more: kqed, 07.08.14. read about the mural details on oaklandwiki.
baltimore’s “road to nowhere”, “a giant ditch that bisects West Baltimore neatly into north and south. Officially named State Route 40, it was originally intended to be a key part of a proposed east-west freeway presented as crucial to the city’s growth. This gigantic project upended hundreds of lives, transformed an entire landscape and cost tens of millions of dollars.”
recommended read: “roads to nowhere: how infrastructure built on american inequality.” guardian, 21.02.18.
the guy in the mural is in front of the mural. in the mission, san francisco.
Source: facebook.com
my favorite little neighborhood in portland!
there used to be a streetcar stop here, which is what this small stretch of a neighborhood main street grew up around.
Source: Flickr / dianneyee
“Until July 22, the lot was known simply as “Parcel R,” a small stretch of real estate left over from when the Central Freeway came down after the 1989 earthquake. Empty for years, it’s been earmarked for affordable housing — though construction isn’t expected to begin anytime soon. Now, it’s the latest home of Hayes Valley Art Works, a place to — by the group’s own description— “discuss, learn, teach, share, and express artistic vision for the betterment of the neighborhood.”
The project isn’t new, although the location is. In late 2015, a group of Hayes Valley residents came together to “activate” Parcel O at Fell and Laguna streets — the former site of the Hayes Valley Farm (tumblr). Next to the already-built luxury apartment building Avalon, 108 units of low-income family housing will be constructed. But while the project worked its way through Planning, the lot sat empty — until developer Mercy Housing agreed to lease it to local residents as an art-exhibition space. During its 18-month tenure at Parcel O, Hayes Valley Art Works was home to large-scale stone labyrinths, several multi-media art exhibitions, live-music performances, and craft lessons.
But all good things must come to an end, and when Mercy Housing received permission to break ground on Parcel O, the art group was displaced — temporarily. Gail Baugh, president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (HVNA), saw an opportunity with the other vacant freeway lots in the neighborhood.
“HVNA has worked closely with the Real Estate Division to activate parcels during the Hayes Valley Farm period, and more recently with Hayes Valley Art Works site on Fell at Laguna,” Baugh tells SF Weekly. “It’s hoped that they will remain [at Parcel R] until the sites are developed for 100% affordable housing, perhaps two years away.”
“With the new space comes a new vision for programming. For Daniel Farnan and Earl Speas, co-site managers for Hayes Valley Art Works, the sky’s the limit. Despite the fact that Parcel R is about one-twelfth the size of Parcel O, plans are in progress to renovate the shipping container and host poetry readings, open-mic nights, sober meetings, art exhibitions — and gardeners.”
read more: sfweekly, 10.08.17.
block party at 10th/center street in west oakland, 01.08.17.
570 block parties registered for the oakland national night out event. map.
and apparently mayor libby schaaf almost made it out to 70 block parties?? or is that a typo and she meant 7?
Source: Flickr / dianneyee
”After watching “Citizen Jane” — the excellent new documentary about writer-activist Jane Jacobs and her titanic struggles with New York urban planning czar Robert Moses, who preferred high-rises and highways to human beings — I got to thinking about San Francisco’s own Moses, Justin Herman.
Back in the late 1950s and ’60s, when Herman ruled over the city as executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, he was responsible for razing much of the Fillmore district and disappearing thousands of its black residents in the name of urban renewal — or “Negro removal,” as James Baldwin mordantly put it.
Aerial view of the Western Addition A-1 redevelopment zone in 1954. Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library, via FoundSF.
“Once known as the Harlem of the West, with its vibrant nightlife and street scene, the Fillmore became a bleak moonscape of vacant lots and dreary street corners after Herman’s wrecking balls began their destructive work.
The Melrose Record Shop at 1226 Fillmore Street, circa 1950. Photo by David Johnson, featured in A Dream Begun So Long Ago (Via The New Fillmore).
Western Addition Area 1 demolition, December 1953. (via SFPL)
“Herman became so loathed in San Francisco’s eviscerated African American community that one irate citizen lunged at him during a heated Redevelopment Agency meeting and nearly throttled him. The powerful bureaucrat died shortly after of a heart attack in summer 1971.
Tom Fleming, editor of the Sun-Reporter, an African American newspaper, summed up Herman’s sorry legacy this way: “Negroes and the other victims of a low income (fate) generally regard him as the arch villain in the black depopulation of the city.”
justin herman plaza. flickr/o_caritas
“So why was this man honored by having his name attached to the Embarcadero plaza that is the gateway to San Francisco?
“As cities across America re-evaluate their histories, taking down monuments and renaming streets that celebrate dishonorable men, it’s time for San Francisco to do the same. We need to rename Justin Herman Plaza.
There have been earlier efforts to do this, but they went nowhere... In 2015, Brett Harris-Anderson, who grew up in the Western Addition, and his wife, Michelle, started a petition to rename the plaza after the late poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, who was San Francisco’s first black female streetcar operator and began her performing career here. Unfortunately, their campaign didn’t catch fire, but it’s time to reignite it...”
fire spinning at justin herman plaza. flickr/ambientimages
nytimes would like to know: what is the state of your nyc block?
“Complete the form here, tell us the block you live on (we don’t need your full address), give it a grade for the past year and tell us why you gave it that grade. What’s gotten better over the last 12 months? What’s worse? What remains blessedly, or cursedly, unchanged?
We will take all of the block report cards submitted and examine them for a ground-level portrait of the city. We plan to include a selection of the submissions in a project. Please include a working email address and phone number so that an editor or reporter can reach you if we need to. We will not share your personal information with anyone.
Thank you for participating.”
the portola, san francisco.
by nico berry and the youth art exchange. more about the mural: portolaplanet, 11.10.16.
Source: Flickr / halonfury
white america is quietly self-segregating. everyone wants diversity. but not everyone wants it on their street.
"These findings are consistent with a concept known as Group Threat Theory, which is the idea that when minority groups grow in size or power, the majority group feels threatened," wrote Washington University researcher Allison Skinner....
When it comes time for the housing search, black and Latino residents look in neighborhoods that are as diverse as they say they want. University of Illinois sociologist Maria Krysan found that white residents "give a socially acceptable answer in the abstract," but they end up searching and living in much less diverse areas.
It's not black and Latino people who are self-segregating into neighborhoods—rather, it's white residents who say they want more diversity but end up looking in less diverse areas.”
read more: vox, 18.01.17.
viva calle, san jose’s first open streets event, 11.10.15. photos by sergio ruiz.
route: Downtown San Jose — Little Saigon — East San Jose
Carlos Velazquez, outreach manager for the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, stressed the importance of overcoming the isolation of neighborhoods. The Calle Willow neighborhood, for example, while close to downtown and Willow Glen, is separated by roadway bridges.
Valazquez, who’s trying to drum up more business sponsors for future events, says when he worked in Chicago he observed how neighborhoods divided by bridges or railroad tracks suffered a disconnect between people.
“I’m really hoping to get people young and old,” he says. “This isn’t a bike race. We want abuelitas (grandmothers) being led in their wheelchairs by their granddaughters. We want to see people walking and skateboarding. We want everyone to feel comfortable using the streets and see that this is theirs and something they can do.”
read more: “Viva CalleSJ: A Street Festival to Connect San Jose Residents, Neighborhoods.” kqed, 09.10.15.
Source: Flickr / urbanists