Rebecca Solnit on San Francisco

[David Morris]

Oakland, indeed most of surrounding SF is suburban sprawl. And, shitty as
they are, they are very expensive too.  And they are shitty.  Unfortunately
US City/regions are too young to know better than letting or stopping sprawl.
 And zoning (always made by the squatters against newbies) keeps the rich
in their Big Lots,  undisturbed  by the rabble.  At least SF has a not bad
extended public transit system.  Better than lots of cars, but worse than
walking.

On Tuesday, March 5, 2013, Phillip Greenlief wrote:

> it's also too late for (most) cultural diversity - most people of color
> (due to economics) have been driven out of SF - and now it's happening in
> oakland - to some extent, not as widespread as SF.
>
> Phillip Greenlief
> 1075 Aileen Street Apt B
> Oakland, CA 94608
> 510-501-7110
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
> 'fqmorris at gmail.com');>>
> *To:* Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
> 'pgsaxo at pacbell.net');>>
> *Cc:* Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
> 'igrlivingston at gmail.com');>>; Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com<javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'rpmahnke at gmail.com');>>;
> Prashant Kumar <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com <javascript:_e({}, 'cvml',
> 'siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com');>>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org<javascript:_e({}, 'cvml', 'pynchon-l at waste.org');>
> >
> *Sent:* Tue, March 5, 2013 7:30:34 PM
> *Subject:* Re: Rebecca Solnit on San Francisco
>
> On Tuesday, March 5, 2013, Phillip Greenlief wrote:
>
>> look, it's already too late - SF has been gentrified. the alarm should
>> have gone off 20 years ago. i don't care what the buildings look like, the
>> majority of art spaces pre-2000 are gone. period. the buildings don't even
>> exist anymore. a lot of small, family run businesses have disappeared -
>> which includes every kind of retail or food service. there are zoning laws
>> that keep certain kinds of businesses out of SF (there is a limit, for
>> example, on how many fast food restaurants can operate in SF), but the
>> independent shops are disappearing quickly, and have been over the past 15
>> years.
>>
>
> SF isn't too late, if NIBYs don't rule.
>
> Too late for Bohemia? Yes.  Too late for a populace beyond the 3%?  Yes,
> unless government steps in, and not just for the poor.  SF has lots of 2 &
> 3 story residential areas that could use more density.  And the hills of SF
> allow for view corridor over everything.
>
> But remember NYC.  Now mostly for the very right, but politics and old
> density keep certain hoods vital.  Old urbanism still rules in the hoods of
> NYC.
>
> Montreal might be an ideal City Model, with dense nodes situated along
> very good train/transit lines.
>
> Politics rule, and are local. And US urban design is mostly non-existent.
>  But Green urbanism is Old-City, plus some towers.
>
> Little known fact: Florence, a small fortressed walled city, very dense
> with very wealthy merchant-kings palazzos, enacted a law to eliminate most
> of the residential personal watchtowers because they were urban kudzu.
>  Moral:  limit tower density.  A simple thing. Many ways to do so.
>
> Real good urbanism has been the rule in Yurrup for centuries.  US urbanism
> is OK in the Original Colonies, but the developments to the West were Wild,
> even the Near West.  Boomtown, if all goes well.
>
>
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