Sunday Streets

Sunday Streets returns to Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway this Sunday, extending the park's regular weekend street openings all the way to the beach and beyond. Thousands of San Franciscans of all ages are expected to pedal, play and relax along the car-free route running all the way from the Panhandle along John F. Kennedy Drive to the windmill and down the Great Highway along Ocean Beach with lots of fun activites along the way.

Thousands of people took to the car-free streets of the Bayview, Dogpatch and Potrero Hill yesterday for a sunny Sunday Streets.  Did you go? Please share your stories in the comments section, and see more photos below the break. The next Sunday Streets is July 12th on the Great Highway.

Many a cycling tot will get another chance to graduate from training wheels this Sunday on safe, car-free streets by the Bay. Sunday Streets returns to Bayview with a tweaked route this year to include the Lower Potero Hill and Dogpatch neighborhoods in the plethora of family-friendly activities.

An estimated 25,000 people turned out for a beautiful albeit windy Sunday Streets in the Mission yesterday, tying the attendance record for the city's "official block party." For many a participant, experiencing car-free Valencia and 24th Streets didn't just continue to beg the question "why not every week?" but rather, "why not all the time?"

A sunny weather forecast promises an ideal Mother's Day for the thousands of San Franciscans planning to enjoy Sunday Streets in the Mission District. An extended route this year will be filled with live music and activities, and some of the biggest crowds yet are expected to fill Valencia and 24th Streets, one of the event's most popular locations.

Redding, California, with a population of 90,000, is probably best known for its sunshine, breathtaking landscapes and conservative politics. Located 200 miles north of Sacramento in Shasta County, the lush region surrounded by the Trinity and Cascade mountains offers an abundance of recreation, including a growing number of paved multi-use trails that draw large crowds of bicyclists and pedestrians.

An estimated 10,000 people celebrated Sunday Streets on the Great Highway and Golden Gate Park yesterday, enjoying six miles of car-free space from Stanyan Street to Sloat Boulevard. Sunny skies and calmer winds blessed the crowds of bicyclists, skaters and walkers, some of whom discovered Sunday Streets for the first time.

Our daily urban lives shape our imaginations in so many ways. Few things box us in like our everyday transit options, and the patterns of traffic that shape our sense of public space. These patterns themselves are historical of course. A quick look back at the famous Market Street film shot a few days before the 1906 earthquake shows how chaotic and unpredictable the flow of traffic was when San Francisco's main artery hadn't yet been paved and standardized. Similarly, leaving the U.S. and visiting other countries provides a fantastic opportunity to experience other assumptions and possibilities for urban space, and surprisingly perhaps, a different range of vehicles.

Despite the prevailing threat of rain, the clouds scattered for yesterday's first Sunday Streets of 2011 from Fisherman's Wharf to China Basin, allowing intermittent sunshine to grace the San Francisco waterfront. The event attracted thousands of people, including Mayor Ed Lee, who were able to tuck away their umbrellas and enjoy the car-free streets.