Streetsblog San Francisco

The BP oil spill goes on. And on. We watch the oil on live web cam pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. And we watch. Political rage is muted, practical responses even more distant. What to do? How do we “take action” on something like this? How can individuals meaningfully respond to this catastrophe? Stop driving? Boycott one brand of gas? Stop buying things made of plastic? Let’s not flatter ourselves. A few folks I know are planning to go to a local ARCO gas station (owned by BP) to protest, which will surely be a big moment for the minimum wage employee in the cash booth, and probably an irritant to the half dozen or more motorists waiting to fill their cars.

The numbing impotence we feel is painfully calibrated to our inability to affect what’s happening. Consumer choices we might make will have zero impact on this disaster, and can’t shape the larger dynamics of a globe-spanning, multinational oil industry either. Just listen to Democracy Now on Friday morning to hear how Chevron has destroyed thousands of square miles of the Nigerian delta in its incessant exploitation of the oil there, or how the Ecuadoran Amazon too is covered in vast lakes of spilled oil.

The deeper questions about technology and science are far from our daily lives. The world we live in is embedded in complex networks of technological dependencies, which none of us have chosen freely. Nor do any of us have any way to participate directly in deciding what technologies we will use, how they will be deployed, what kind of social controls will be exerted over private interests who organize and run them for their own gain, etc. (supposedly the federal government regulates them in the public interest, but that is clearly false as shown YET AGAIN by this disaster). The basic direction of science is considered a product of objective research and development, when it has always been skewed to serve the interests of those who already have economic and political power. Public, democratic direction for science and technology is not only non-existent, we really don’t even discuss it as a possibility!

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As a country bumpkin who moved to New York City in my early twenties, there was no remedy for the overwhelming cacophony of noise that assaulted me on every street and underground, whether it was the piercing horns from cabs or the unbearable throttling clatter of the express trains roaring by me on the local tracks of the NYC subway system. Eight years later, when I left the big city for the more livable confines of Oakland and then San Francisco, I was just thrilled to hear the screaming banshees of Hades that emanate from BART's rails under the transbay tube. I don't know how you lifelong city folk can bear to listen to it without plugging your ears.

That said, there so many sounds in a day that represent the entertaining or lovely sides of our urban centers and now there is a website that is collecting those sounds and mapping them, from New York to San Francisco and everywhere in between. The Smalls Street Sounds is an offshoot of The Smalls, a website where independent filmmakers can showcase their short films. In addition to mapping short sound clips uploaded by users, Street Sounds will be a competition starting on February 8th where filmmakers are encouraged to use street sound clips uploaded by the public in their next short film.

Joanna Riedl of MSR Communications, the company doing outreach for Street Sounds, said the effort is much more than just a film competition. She would like to see users upload sound clips that personify the communities where they live. "It’s more about taking a moment and taking in the sounds around you that illustrate your city and the streets," said Riedl. "We go through our day not listening to the abundance of beautiful sounds around us. We want to highlight the sound and the creativity behind it."

In addition to a slightly-more-pleasant-than-a-banshee BART recording, I'm inclined to like the barking sea lions from Fisherman's Wharf and the amazingly loud McDonald Trail squeaky gate out in the Oakland Hills (it's almost a symphony by itself). If you're interested, get out your phones (there's an app for that!) or other recording devices and upload your favorite sound from the streets. Street Sounds is trying to get 5,000 clips uploaded by March.

I think my first sound subject will be the Epileptic Saxophone Scales dude who sets my teeth a-grindin' when I hear him underneath the Rockridge BART station. I hope he's there tomorrow night.

The San Francisco Great Streets Project is hosting an evening of music, drinks, food, and livable streets discussion tomorrow evening at the Mission District home of architect David Baker. The Art - Streets - Life event will include the grand opening of an Andrew Schoultz mural, and the unveiling of a new Great Streets Project presentation.

Kit Hodge, the project's director, said the presentation and discussion will include both livable streets accomplishments so far and illustrations of what can happen next. "If we can keep the movement going and grow it, I think we can cross into a whole new level of improvements," said Hodge. "Getting together to talk in one place and mingle and have fun is always a good way of doing this."

With two new Pavement to Parks plazas scheduled to open tomorrow as well, it should be a great evening to eat, drink and chat with fellow enthusiasts about the livable streets ahead.

The benefit will run from 6 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at David Baker's home at 337 Shotwell Street in San Francisco. Tickets, which range from $20 to $500, can be purchased at the event, but Hodge encouraged people to buy them online ahead of time since space is limited. Transit and biking are encouraged, and valet bike parking will be provided.

One of San Francisco's cherished literary icons -- poet, painter and City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti -- is celebrating his 90th birthday today, and I thought it would be fitting to bring you his vision for transforming a small block of Vallejo Street in historic North Beach into what would be called the Piazza Saint Francis. 

Ferlinghetti founded the Piazza Saint Francis Foundation and is working with the Planning Department's City Design Group, Caffe Trieste and many others, including attorney and former supervisor Angela Alioto and film director Francis Ford Coppola (who worked on "The Godfather" screenplay at Trieste), to create an Italian-style piazza, with inscriptions on the paving stones from up to 30 or 40 authors, mostly poets.

North Beach is an ideal place to do this, not just because of its Italian flare. The neighborhood consistently shows some of the highest pedestrian counts in the city, yet lacks a lot of usable public space. It does feature Grant Street, though, one of San Francisco's most pedestrian-friendly streets, which runs through the heart of Chinatown, across Columbus, and into North Beach alongside Trieste, and Washington Square Park.

The biggest obstacle to realizing the project is the estimated $3.5 million price tag. The city can't afford to do it, so private funds will need to be raised to make it happen. "We urgently need money to make it go forward," said Ferlinghetti.

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