Rebecca Solnit on San Francisco

[Phillip Greenlief]

the public transit works well, but has some tics to it - like: BART shuts down 
at midnight ... ack. the MUNI train that runs in the city runs all night - but 
if you commute from outside into the city at night (which is a very nice 
alternative to driving - essential, in fact) then you had better not plan on 
closing the bars ... not a problem for me, but for lots of people it really 
pisses them off.  i bike to BART on days when i teach in SF and works like a 
dream.

 Phillip Greenlief
1075 Aileen Street Apt B
Oakland, CA 94608
510-501-7110




________________________________
From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
To: Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net>
Cc: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>; Robert Mahnke 
<rpmahnke at gmail.com>; Prashant Kumar <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com>; pynchon -l 
<pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tue, March 5, 2013 7:50:59 PM
Subject: Re: Rebecca Solnit on San Francisco

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>
>To: Phillip Greenlief <pgsaxo at pacbell.net>
>Cc: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>; Robert Mahnke  
><rpmahnke at gmail.com>; Prashant Kumar <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com>; pynchon -l 
><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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