Patches of Green in San Francisco

Making fun of San Francisco government and politics is a guilty pleasure.  Most of us cannot help it, as the city’s leaders make it so easy for us to do—and granted, California’s fourth-largest and probably ninth-most important city has had its share of colorful politicos over the years.

But one task San Francisco is getting right is adding more green patches and pedestrian-friendly zones around the city.  The compact city of 800,000 already is a green cornucopia of green—one of my favorite pastimes is wandering around the city’s neighborhoods, marveling at how every possible window sill or corner is crammed with vegetation—of course the cool climate is great for growing flowers.  To that end, more neighborhoods like Noe Valley and the Sunset are graced with small patches full of trees, grasses, succulents.

One nice change is where Castro, Market, and 17^th streets meet.  A busy corner once hazardous for pedestrians, now the southeast corner has been paved over where the retro trolleys pick up and drop off commuters.  Bye-bye, distracted drivers!  Planters are everywhere, and best of all, there are tables where locals and visitors can sit and have a snack or just hang out.

This is a lesson its rival to the south, LA, sorely needs.  Too often the focus has been to make the streets as convenient as possible for drivers.  For a relatively young city, its streets are old and creaking, and are hazardous for the occasional brave pedestrian.  So first of all, why not just ban left turn lanes, or shut down traffic every few minutes and let all pedestrians cross?  And in older neighborhoods like Echo Park and Silver Lake, there are many corners that are just chunks of concrete.  Parkman Triangle proved that while much effort from residents is necessary, the desire is there to make the city more livable and breathable.

For too long Los Angeles’s leaders have crowed about green jobs with little results.  Maybe they should just focus on making the city of 4 million a more pleasant place to live.  Creating small pockets where folks can relax in the middle of the day—at GASP!, with the price of closing off an occasional street, will make our streets safer and help traffic flow more smoothly.

Any ideas out there?  I’m speaking vaguely—for a reason!