My place-ranking methodology is based on what clusters of places people take pictures of and post to Flickr or Picasa, on the assumption that if they are taking pictures they are finding interesting things and enjoying themselves. I know there are all kinds of problems with this, but it’s the most geographically-detailed data source that I know of, and the results for places that I know personally seem to match my intuitions pretty well.

If you have a better way to rank places, I would be eager to know what you consider the most interesting ones.

SFResident? If you think that promoting small business is a “social justice issue” I’m sorry but you’re kind of out to lunch. Sure it’s nice if we could all somehow benefit from the wealth of these businesses, but Mom and Pop ain’t who they used to be, in case you didn’t notice. And of course I don’t think poor people want to live in “ugly areas”. But our first priority, of course, is to live anywhere at all…

Eric Fischer? If you’re criteria for what is or is not interesting comes from some magazine poll then you’re probably one of the people who are making this city decidedly more BORING…

Aaron B.? If you think less cars and more people = more interesting you obviously have never visited a shopping mall.

John Murphy, those upscale neighborhoods you mentioned have long received their injections of city money, and in any case, except for some stretches of Lombard, it’s been a long time since those areas had anything near the diversity of the mission. And c’mon, do you really think the “spectrum of people” that traverses Valencia street is more important to the city than the $$ that the increasingly upscale shopping district brings in? If that were the case, I can think of a good number of other SF neighborhoods with such “spectrums” that might be getting more than the dregs that they currently get…

Pat, see above. And p.s.? You can take your “foundation for human activity” and stick it someplace nice and shady. That way all your nice active humans won’t get too sunburned .

http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2009/08/evolution-of-one-dutch-road-over-200.html

Note how many bikes are parked outside shops. Note how few cars. Note the physically separated bike lanes! Note the wonderful, beautifully smooth pavement in the bike lanes. (Before I started riding my bike in the city, I never realized smooth pavement could make a person drool, or at least sigh helplessly and hopelessly, as one does over young love.)

Though I realize the comparisons with Valencia Street are limited, it’s good to see how a country that really knows what it’s doing with bikes does it. I have to say though that that place is flat–really, really flat.

And ideally, these projects should be done in commercial districts everywhere regardless of class, so that they would no longer be viewed in such a light. Everyone in any city should have the right to safe, welcoming streets. This is a beginning, and I couldn’t be happier for it.

Indeed, I would argue that promoting small businesses and comprehensive transit solutions are two issues at the heart of urban social justice.

Unless you really think that poor people enjoy living in ugly areas with nothing but big-box stores and no access to affordable public transit. . .

It’s not the “only way” to build a better and more just city but it’s certainly one piece in the puzzle. . . .