I didn’t realize this site was solely devoted to urban design and local politics. I was under the impression that the comment section was a place to comment on relevant issues regarding the featured article.

I appreciate your desire to keep a focused conversation but I think you should lighten up the police routine. It’s an interesting question, and one that does pertain to the values and goals of this site, whether you recognize it or not.

@Ryan: I wonder if I can clear some confusion. Humans voicing and examining economics is a lot like fish examining water—it gets ignored because it surrounds us so completely, but it could save the species. If you find such discussion to be out of place in any aspect of life, then you’ve essentially agreed to accept without question whatever effect it has on that aspect. Intellectual curiosity, if not survival instinct, have a place in any streetsblog discussion, if you ask me.

(Personally, I think the water in this society is low on oxygen. Let’s swim toward a more egalitarian model, please!)

However, I am a bit confused as to why there is an enormous tangent about the perils of capitalism and political maneuvering going on on Streetsblog which, last time I checked was not an affiliate of these obscure parties.

Let’s stick to urban design and local politics, shall we?

I do think Scott may have existed at the same time as the dune, though. In the 1869 map it looks like the block between Haight and Page is there but the dune is still in place. I think you can also see this in the photo — there is a cleared line passing over the ridge that is otherwise covered in trees.

As for the roads on this photo, here’s my opinion, after taking maps from that time (1857, 1859, 1869) and fitting them to a present day map.

I believe that the road you’re trying to call ‘Fillmore’ or ‘Church’ is actually a road that no longer exists. That road curved a lot, and was the original path from the Mission to the Presidio, so I’m calling it “Old Mission Presidio Trail.”

You’re correct in calling the closest street (with the fancy fences) ‘Hermann’—but it was known as ‘Kate Street’ at that time.

The exact spot in the photo where Kate Street forms a T from the east with Old Mission Presidio Trail seems to be approximately at the current Church and Hermann corner.

The route of Old Mission Presidio Trail within the photo is hard to see, because of trees and the fact that the road isn’t paved or even smooth. Within 50 feet north of that T, Old Mission Presidio Trail bends left and continues at a 45 degree angle NW for half a block. That angled portion is essentially invisible nestled in the fuzz where there doesn’t appear to be any path at all. (It’s not that sharp dark line going toward the white tower-like object. That’s at the wrong angle to Lone Mountain.)

When it hits the north-south line that is now Fillmore Street, the Trail then bends right, going due north through the gap in the dune. You can see a house sitting at the top of the dune, on the near side of the gap (with a white fenceline passing behind its roof peak).

After the Trail goes through that gap, it again curves left.

You can see a small cluster of buildings on what became Haight, in front of the dune and just west of Fillmore Gap (just left of what looks like a tall white tower, but probably isn’t). Continuing west on the line of Haight Street, there’s another house, barely visible, in front of the dune, a few blocks to the left. It’s between what are now Pierce and Scott. Of course, these streets only were built after the dune was flattened.

Behind the Page Street Dune, another jagged-topped dune that’s parallel to Pgae Street Dune runs along what is now Hayes. That dune ends at what is now Hayes and Scott on the SW corner of present day Alamo Square. You can just barely see the Old Mission Presidio Trail there, going up and over the Hayes Dune.

The street in the foreground is Hermann, dead-ending at the left of the picture into Church, which runs almost the entire width of the picture, further north than it does today. Near the right edge, the main path jogs left to the Fillmore right of way. It runs into Haight, which has the houses on the north side of it, at the base of the ridge. The fence on the other side of the ridge is between Haight and Page. The fence at the north edge of what looks like water is Waller, turning north at Pierce.

Does that make any sense?

@Morgan: What I am leanin’ towards is that your crew would identify five or ten “Wiggle Mirrors” in SF and do things like distributing your donations to all of the projects, ’cause it is my guess – please forgive any assumptions – that you might have greater capacity, connections… gigabytes-o-bandwidth (as it were) than many of the others. Solidarity, brother! A Wiggle is only as strong as its weakest giggle.

I would say that you are pretty on point. The idea is to inspire other neighborhoods in the city and around the world to make similar changes in their place and lives. That would help
mitigate the issue.

Barring that, two words: rent strike

Thanks! I’m working with them sewerage folkies on something like that, I hope. Been sharing info and slowly hatching a plan. Greg Braswell, the energetic and supremely knowledgeable guy who’s redesigning many of the sewers came on my Thinkwalks Water tour last week. Ideas are bubbling, some with poo and some poolessly.

@Joel: As you know I lived very close to that photo P.O.V. for many years and it would be grand to eventually see some kind of superimposition between the now and the then.

Indeed, when I lived on 14th St. – just a jackrabbit’s jump uphill from Guerrero – there was at one time a big sewer replacement project. I recall seeing a constant flow of water and noticed it contained not a recognizable piece of poo or toilet paper and then figured it must be some kind of buried creek (we pronounce that crik in these parts).

This was therefore a kind of unintentional educational project about the stealth waterways of Frisco. My suggestion is that you coordinate with the Sewerage Council or whatever you Yanks call it and display sewer repair projects as Creekucation Opportunities.

The photo is looking NW into San Souci Valley. (Note correct spelling, named after a family living there whose name was a misspelling of ‘sans souci’, meaning ‘carefree’—close enough to make yet another misspelling into ‘carfree’ if you ask me!).

The hill which the photographer was standing on no longer exists—at least not that part of it. It was called, at the time, Reservoir Hill. It was also called, for a while in the early 1900s, Clinton Mound (thus Clinton Park Street near the corner of Dolores and Market). And now it’s called Mint Hill because of the coin factory atop its remnant. At least 75% of the hill was removed. The photo was taken from a high-up spot just about at the middle of the roof of the apartment building now on the first block, east side of Church Street.

The pointy hill in the middle, background, is Lone Mountain where USF is today. It was known at that time as ‘El Divisadero’ (meaning ‘the divide’—where the waters flow to the Bay on the east slope and the Pacific on the west slope).

The right side of the photo is the slope up to what is now Alamo Square. The left side is the slope up to Buena Vista Hill.

I’ve been digging deep into this photo recently, and though I’m not sure, I am reasonably certain that this photo shows some things I have never before heard nor read about:

1. A 60′ high, narrow dune the entire length of what is now Page Street (covered with low shrubs or chaparral vegetation). It starts, with a jagged ridge-top, at the base of Buena Vista Hill. It was flattened to make a grid of streets very soon after this photo was taken

2. A long, skinny pond, perhaps a remnant of the San Souci Creek itself, just above the large black black roof of the white building near the left side of the photo.

I am trying to triangulate from maps of the time and current geography to figure out exactly where each thing is and whether these hypotheses make sense. If you are into that sort of thing (I have no software to make it simpler), then get in touch! (It’s easy to reach me through my new and not-ready-for-primetime dothewiggle.org.

The street is flooded and part of it is falling into the sea. Puts a new twist to on-street waterways….

Just think what it could do for tourism…

Since our conversation, I’ve had a chance to get into his most recent book Nowtopia and foresaw this issue being highlighted in the piece. Aside from this entry into Nowtopia and a few cursory conversations concerning Hegel, Marx, and the like, I’m really a novice in this arena. I simply don’t really think in these terms (which Chris recognizes in saying: “Perhaps he is representative of his generation of post-Left, post-neoliberal activists”). For me it’s about creating a resilient and sustainable community ASAP, and those conversations come after that original goal. However, I recognize that this classless society is ultimately a worthy and necessary goal, and I take great inspiration from people like Chris who have the ability to clearly envision such a world.

While I don’t have much expertise on the matter, and I recognize that creating alternative societies that exist outside of the market economy is necessary and desirable (both because we can and because it’s important to provide people who wish to “drop out” a place to land), I do maintain the claim that we must engage with the market in order to temper its substantial contribution to the various planetary crises. The fact of the matter is that our market economy exists, and its existence is re-created every single day by individuals deciding to participate in it through our individual purchases (see Hegel: Master-Slave dialectic).

Now we can either choose to drop out and attempt to construct alternative societies while the market economy as currently constructed systematically destroys the biosphere, or we can choose to attempt to re-orient the rules of the market economy – get individuals to spend their momentous dollars entirely on goods and services that are conscious of their impact on people and planet, not just profit. If we got everyone in America to only support all of the best companies, then all of the other companies will adopt these best practices in order to compete for market share. Yes, we maintain our existential identity as consumers, but it’s a kinder gentler consumer.

It’s not the ultimate solution, but it’s what we call in the permaculture circle a “less-bad.” That’s why our slogan (and the title of this piece) is “Sign on, root in, branch out.” When our Hippie fore-bearers turned on and tuned in, they realized the machine was bogus and they wanted no part in it, so they dropped out. Unfortunately, we are not afforded such a choice. We can’t drop out because dropping out means the machine will go on unmolested. We must throw our bodies on the gears. Where the Hippies dropped out, we sign on (both metaphorically and digitally). Once signed on, we root in by learning about the state of the world (through sites like berewarding.com), teaching each other new (old) skills, using our market power to force our local businesses to adopt better practices in exchange for market share, and generally create community and meaning in our lives. Finally, we branch out by spreading the movement to other individuals, other parts of the city, country, and world.

So, we think engaging with and affecting our local market economy is more likely to create what we’re looking for – a sustainable culture (absent of businesses who plunder natural capital and turn it into profit). I’m totally open to the possibility that we’re short-sighted in this approach, but I’m not convinced yet.

What does everyone else think?

You can also follow some of the goings-on of The Wigg Party by following me on twitter: http://twitter.com/MorganicSF