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Look at the lead image. Who wouldn't want something like that in their city? (See note at end.)
But perhaps these developments, welcome as they are, miss a larger point--and a greater possibility for the spaces between buildings. Advocate Patrick Traughber brought this question to light as part of a twitter exchange:
Imagine if the grass of Duboce Park extended across the N Judah tracks. Image: Wikimedia CommonsImagine if the grass of Duboce Park extended across the N Judah tracks. Image: Wikimedia Commons
And if that seems far-fetched, San Francisco used to have them. Although the image below looks like it features a cable-car line, that's actually a funicular:
Looking down the hill at Fillmore Street | Circa July 1903. Image: SFMTALooking Down the Hill at FIllmore Street | Circa July 1903. Image: SFMTA
Maybe those are all the wrong questions. Placing huge swaths of asphalt between buildings is a practice to accommodate cars. Perhaps, as we enter a new decade, we should be taking asphalt itself out of the equation, transforming space between buildings into something else entirely?