Chris Carlsson
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Of Teamsters and Turtles, Plumbers and Progressives
Ever since the much-promoted alliance between “teamsters and
turtles” at the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999, there’s been a renewed
hope that the decades-long opposition between organized labor and
environmentalists might be resolvable. The original Teamsters and
turtles weren’t really in much of an alliance in 1999, what with
AFL-CIO leaders trying their best to keep the labor march away from
occupied downtown Seattle on November 30, 1999. But we don’t have to
rehash that old story because we have a new, local angle on this here
in 2009 San Francisco.
May 4, 2009
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
Over the Pond
Editor's note: While changes appear to be in the works in London on the public space realm (check out our latest Streetfilm posted today), Chris Carlsson got a slightly different take when he visited there last week.
April 13, 2009
The Slow, Beautiful Road to Community on the Streets
Mona Caron is a visual troubadour of street life in San Francisco. Her murals have become increasingly famous in their gorgeous detail, portraying San Francisco’s romantic past juxtaposed to inspired visions of its future. Equally powerful is the way each mural itself comes to anchor new public space, an open-air gallery where people meet and discuss, sharing ideas often growing from the rich street life she portrays in her murals.
March 25, 2009
Will We Ever Get Market Street Right?
“Rebuilding Market Street has become a civic obsession in San Francisco. The city’s main street has been torn up and rebuilt completely at least once in every generation since the Civil War.”
March 23, 2009
A New Mural in the Tenderloin
A new mural is taking shape in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, at the corner of Jones and Golden Gate, diagonally across from St. Anthony’s Dining Room where hundreds line up every day for a hot meal. Muralist Mona Caron and Project Manager LisaRuth Elliott can be found on scaffolds these days, grabbing the good weather when they can to paint on a nondescript building housing a local “sewing company.” In this first of two parts, I talked with LisaRuth Elliott about her experience with the street scene in the Tenderloin. In part two, I’ll explore Mona Caron’s murals from her well-known Bike Mural on Duboce and the Market Street Railway mural on Church, to her recent Noe Valley diptych, all of which make streets and transit central themes.
March 18, 2009
Critical (Soggy) Move
On Sunday, in a relentless rain that rarely stopped all day, several dozen die-hard enthusiasts rode their bicycles back and forth between the new Bike Kitchen at 650 Florida (back where it once was between Alabama and Florida, Mariposa and 19th Streets, across from Cellspace) and its recent digs just off Mission and 9th. They filled panniers and freight containers, pulled trailers and bungied impossible loads of wheels, tires, frames, and all sorts of tools and shelves, moving the entirety of the Bike Kitchen BY BIKE to its new home.
February 25, 2009