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Another Model of Convivial Spaces
In Glasgow, Scotland a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to reacquaint myself with a lovely feature of many European cities: broad central city streets converted to pedestrian only. In Glasgow it's on Sauchiehall Street and makes a grand turn onto Buchanan, covering over 20 city blocks. Mostly lined with stores and offices, the landscape created can be "read" as an extended shopping mall, but outdoors, with storefronts opening onto a real street, now converted into a pedestrian and bicycling oasis. The zone is crowded with walkers and shoppers at any given time. (Similar zones that I've visited are the Strøget in Copenhagen, Denmark and Istiklal Caddesi in Beyoglu in Istanbul, Turkey.)
April 29, 2009
Don’t Forget To Come Play in the Streets This Sunday!
This
weekend's Sunday Streets from 9am-1pm on the Embarcadero from the Giants ballpark to Aquatic Park promises to be more thrilling than last year's, with a lot more activities planned along the waterfront. So don't forget to come play in the streets! And send us your photos! Add to our feed by
tagging bookmarks in del.icio.us with for:sf.streetsblog, pictures in Flickr with sf.streetsblog, or videos in YouTube with sf.streetsblog.
April 24, 2009
Great Streets Project Hires Director, Hits the Streets Running
Yesterday marked an important day for livable streets in San Francisco. In coordination with the Castro Street CBD, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, and the Mayor's Office of Greening, the nascent Great Streets Project (GSP) co-hosted a roundtable discussion about how to start and manage successful public spaces, with particular emphasis on the proposed street closure and public plaza at 17th Street and Market Street.
April 24, 2009
Gav For Guv Short On Transportation Essentials
So Gav made it official yesterday that he's running for Guv by tweeting it to his more than 283,000 followers, announcing it on Facebook, and even running a strange pseudo-article with a lot of donate hyperlinks in the Huffington Post, all of which made a splash among bloggers and traditional media icons. All the hullabaloo aside, I need convincing on Gav's record on the issues important to this blog.
April 22, 2009
Bayview Merchants Hopeful Sunday Streets Will Bring Business
It's been reported that the Fisherman's Wharf merchants who vocally opposed Sunday Streets along the Embarcadero last year now proclaim their support for the day and are programming numerous events to coincide with the street closures this Sunday. But merchants in Bayview never voiced concerns last year and this year they are preparing to capitalize on the car-free hours when the second of six Sunday Streets happens on May 10th.
April 21, 2009
Streetscast: An Interview with MTA Chief Nat Ford, Part II
MTA Executive Director Nat Ford sat down with Streetsblog San Francisco last week for an hour-long interview. In today's segment, he addresses the funding crisis facing California transit agencies, the long-awaited implementation of the Bike Plan and the internal MTA battle over how to balance the different modes.
April 17, 2009
Streetscast: Sunday Streets Press Conference
The Mayor's Director of Climate Change Initiatives, Wade Crowfoot, joined MTA Executive Director Nat Ford, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, SFBC Executive Director Leah Shahum and many others this morning to formally announce this year's six Sunday Streets events.
April 16, 2009
Livable Streets Promised Land
Here's
a nice visual of what cities will look like when the livable streets
movement has completely emerged from the wilderness (sorry for the
extended metaphor, couldn't help it today). GOOD Magazine ran this photosim done by our very own Carly Clark in their transportation issue, with text by Streetsblog Editor-in-Chief Aaron Naparstek. They've got a whole interactive graphic that walks you through the elements of a livable street, and -- hats off to my coworkers -- it looks great.
April 9, 2009
The Freiker Movement
Most mainstream news outlets have paltry coverage of the Livable Streets movement, and we devote a lot of space on Streetsblog criticizing them, but one local station did a cool story today about a Freiker program at a school in Los Altos. From ABC7News.com:
April 6, 2009