Why Burritos Cure Everything

Today was yet another slog through the steaming pile of organic horse manure that life has been throwing our way recently. It started off innocently enough, with a breakfast of hardboiled egg with peanut butter & banana and cheddar cheese. I sat down at my laptop, balancing it carefully on my lap with my bad foot propped up on a squishy pillow. Avoiding the emails I had to return, I decided to spend some time browsing my RSS feed of jobs. What I learned from this endeavor is is that cheese and hardboiled egg are too gluey to eat together in one mouthful, and that no one is hiring or everyone’s on summer vacation. Today I will not become an engineer, computer programmer, or an executive assistant/slave at a non-living wage. 

Lovely hardboiled egg photograph via overthehillandonaroll

I was preparing for a networking meeting when I was thrown off track by the unwelcome news that my partner’s job is not looking good. Breaking down into panic is not a great mental state to be in when you’re attempting to finish a cover letter – its hard to muster the cheery optimism and self-important flourish needed for such tasks when your mascara is pooling around your eyes. Looking like a forlorn raccoon is also not a good look when meeting a potential job contact. I also realized that if he went back to DC for a meeting next week, I would be stranded in my apartment. I have meetings, physical therapy, pre-op doctors appointments (for getting the hardware out of my foot) and other engagements practically every day next week.

Yup that’s my foot – and my four inch steel extra foot bone

Since I can’t get myself and my scooter down the stairs and I can’t drive, I had the realization there’s actually not a single person I know here well enough to call upon for help. This is a sobering though – as time goes on, I’m beginning to realize that community (friends, family, neighbors) is quite possibly the most important part of your life. You can have a perfect apartment, perfect car, perfect job, and a perfect yard – but if you don’t have someone to leave keys with when you’re on vacation, or someone to call if you end up in the hospital and your bike is lying in the street and your dog is home alone, or if you lose your job and you can’t make rent – things can go bad a lot harder, a lot faster. We quite honestly don’t have a “Plan B” – if J has to go to DC, there is no plan, no backup plan, and no backup-backup plan for how I will eat, get to the doctor, and get in and out of the apartment on my own. Not only does this make me realize how lucky we are J works from home, but also how important it is to me to grow a community – and when I find one, not to leave it.

The horrible excuse for an extra foot – on four wheels – I’m using these days

We also spent the fourth by ourselves – not just most of the long weekend, but also the holiday itself. Eventually, we decided to go for it and try and do a traditional holiday BBQ with corn and hamburgers. Unfortunately, we don’t have a yard, deck or BBQ, and the public grills are few and far between – you can imagine how mobbed good picnic spots are on a public holiday in a major city!

Driving around with our little canvas LL Bean Boat’n’Tote full of patriotic foodstuffs, I was dismayed to see giant groups grilling at every park we checked out. I was so jealous of the large gatherings of friends and family, plumes of smoke drifting from their grills, probably claimed at nine that morning. Realizing that you don’t have anyone to celebrate a holiday with – even though you tried – and realizing that you don’t know anyone well enough to be on their must-call list over a long weekend is kind of sad. Its probably easy to classify this as a pity party, but after ten months of 24-7 closeness with one person – with a healthy dose of health problems, financial precariousness, emergencies, and isolation thrown in – it would be crazy not to want to socialize. 

After realizing our chances at finding an open BBQ spot anywhere near San Francisco dwindled, and after watching the clock tick toward five PM, we finally hit upon the idea of driving up the slopes of Mount Tamalpais to find a picnic area there. As we drove up the flanks of the treelined mountain, the vegetation changed from the dry coastal scrub of the headlands to a more close and richly green cloak of evergreen trees and oaks; casting long afternoon shadows across the curving road. My mood lifted as we ascended, and cracking open the window, I realized the temperature had risen as well. The dry heat of the mountainside, away from the chill refrigerator winds of the Pacific coast, released the fragrant scent of the fir and spruce trees. I suddenly missed Maine terribly, the warm breeze wafting the familiar scents of pine and evergreen needles into the car. 

Getting off the memory train and returning to this afternoon, I did manage to wash my face off, put some eye drops in an make a presentable appearance at my meeting. Afterwards, off to the gym to do a gimp workout – flop onto the mat, do a bunch of leg lifts and ab exercises and then lift weights. Also, wear iPod and play house remixes at top volume while averting eyes downward because it reduces the chances of anyone talking to you, asking about your injury, looking at your leg scooter and saying “That’s a neat device, better than crutches, I betcha! Ha ha ha!”, or inflicting their injury story on you (surprisingly, it never makes me feel better to hear about how you still can’t bend your ankle). 

This image was the THIRD Google image search result for “burrito” – probably due to my creepy Google geolocation of San Francisco, but I love it and it stays. It’s via SFIST.

Unfortunately, a planned meeting afterwards fell through, but the one good part of the day soon materialized took the form of a wondrous, majestic, savory burrito. A burrito filled with pork stewed in chile verde, tomatillos, cilantro, tomatoes, rice, onions with a side of yucca and some roasted red pepper salsa. I had been craving a burrito for soooo long and having a badly mediocre, starchy and boring burrito a week earlier had only intensified the longing. After the burrito roll from heaven and a frosty Prohibition ale, I was feeling better about life. 

If you want to know why the internet is full of crap . . .

OMG I would totally follow, and read, all of your quality Tweets. I’d be quite likely to engage with your company in an authentic manner through your “Automated Social Marketing” as well!

… all you need do is peruse the Craigslist “gigs” section, where you’ll find “writing” “jobs”. I use quotation marks to indicate I’m being “sarcastic”. Of course, you all already know that I don’t consider unpaid labor and use of one’s time to be “work”, a “job” or a “gig”. That’s called volunteering, or if you’re being charitable and your target audience is actually students, an internship. In any case, in the Craigslist writing and gigs sections, you can find gems like this one: 

“1 -Rewrite one of our existing articles in your own words (500 words) $3
2- Rewrite an existing blog articles in your own words, adorn it with pictures and make it shine $4
3- Write original article on an accessory for iphone/ipad 500 words $6 see blog.gleemobile.com
4- Write a blog on accessory for iphone/ipad with pictures, videos, and other reader magnets. $8”

Wait, wait, so you’re saying that all I have to do in order to become a writer is “rewrite” some articles? Why didn’t I know that in high school? I never would have had to go to college or write my own papers! Judging by recent student work I’ve seen and heard about – “adorning it with pictures and making it shine” may be to distract from the factual and spelling errors just as much as to divert attention from the directly-lifted-from-Wikipedia content, but that’s another story. My favorite part of this ad is that it notes you can “work from the beach :)” – I’m assuming that at a pay rate of $3, they mean the beach down by the river behind my van. I would totally jump on this “opportunity” if I actually used or owned any iPads or iPhones or cared about stealing some iStockPhoto images for my article because they are “reader magnets”.

One of the AWESOME  stock photos accompanying one of the “blog” postings. I don’t know what the Yin-Yang is for but I’m assuming it is for an awesome 90’s-themed app where you can listen to Dave Matthews while designing a new sculpey bead for your hemp necklace.

I don’t even want to know why they are willing to pay (sort of) for you to rewrite their existing articles – I’m sure it has something to with perpetuating their crap in search engines and making it seem like they have more content – but please, for the love of all that is holy, stop calling it writing! Oh, and if you’re looking for an actual job or paid gig, I think it is time to invent some new terminology because the fellowship-assistantship-prestigious internship-unpaid opportunity people have taken over “job” and “work” as their own.

Can San Francisco benefit from international cooperation on livable cities?

I recently attended a lunchtime talk at at the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association (SPUR) entitled “International Experiments in Public Space" featuring Tilly Chang of the SF County Transportation Authority, John King, Urban Design Critic and columnist at the SF Chronicle, and Kit Hodge of the SF Bicycle Coalition/Great Streets Project. SPUR has been addressing issues close to my heart recently – including hosting one of my all-time favorite organizations, waterscaping design studio Atelier Dreiseitl. I first saw Atelier Dreiseitl at the German Embassy in Washington, DC and then stalked them all the way across the country to their gorgeous "water park” in Portland, Oregon (below). 

Here I am at Tanner’s Creek Park by atelier dreiseitl in Portland, Oregon’s Pearl District, Spring 2010

While I couldn’t make it to see the Dreiseitl talk, I thought Wednesday’s discussion at SPUR would be a great opportunity to catch up with San Francisco’s take on international cooperation. With my background in international relations, including my Master’s research on human landscapes and my past two years working with the German government, I was quite interested to hear how San Francisco was partnering with its international colleagues.

Mary McCue of the SPUR board gave a brief welcome, and Hodge kicked off the event by giving some brief remarks, followed by the introduction of Tilly Chang. Chang began her presentation by sharing photos of popular large-scale public space projects including Paris, France’s “Paris Plage”, London, England’s “Very Important Pedestrian Day”, and New York City’s Times Square Plaza. She also introduced San Francisco’s “Better Streets” program and “Pavement to Parks” – all great initiatives that caught my attention soon after moving here. Chang showed the audience an assortment of successful “parklets”: a public seating area created from one or two former parking spaces adjacent to the sidewalk.

Parklet in front of Mojo Bike/Coffeeshop on Divisadero right near my place. Photo courtesy socketsite

In her presentation, Chang also indicated that certain sections of Market Street, including those separated green bikeways with my friend, the mushroom-headed cyclist, were indicative of a successful cooperation between the Planning Department, MTA, and Department of Public Works. They look nice, but unfortunately there aren’t any on the downtown section of Market Street I was biking on regularly.

Photo of Market Street separated bike lane courtesy Streetsblog

Chang finished her discussion with a slide show of future projects meant to turn alleys into better public spaces – particularly Minna and Natoma alleys downtown. A key challenge in the planning of the alley spaces may be engaging the community in the upkeep and care of the space, as well as making them ADA compliant. 

Rounding out the panel, John King presented a slide show of his whirlwind tour of all of San Francisco’s parklets – including a new one right in my neighborhood at Fulton and Divisadero! I was quite surprised to see the photo, but then realized that since I broke my foot I haven’t actually been able to get that far away from the house – I probably haven’t even gone past McAllister Street.  I can’t believe there’s a neat new urban design project going on only blocks from my door, and will be sure to post photos later this week when I check it out.

Location of your new neighborhood parklet, above

Quick to point out that he didn’t have any trouble parking during the day near any of the parklets – King anecdotally suggested that taking away one or two parking spots didn’t seem to make a major difference in parking difficulty.  King also emphasized the new signage on all of the parklets indicating that the seating is open to the public – while also showing us how several of the parklets front directly on cafes or restaurants, lending the impression that they are café seating only. King concluded his presentation by noting that in order for public space projects to succeed, they must work long term and be more than a trend – he pointed out a park edge project in Bernal Heights as an example of cooperation between residents and the DPW that has the potential to be tended properly and last a long time.


Of course, park-"lets” need plants to be more of a park than a parking space. 

The presentations at SPUR were a great overview of the parklet program and indicative of the commitment by San Francisco and its business community to spend time and resources on public space projects. I was disappointed not to hear more from Kit Hodge, however, and I was also looking forward to hearing a bit more about the “international experiments” promised in the event’s title and photos published on SPUR’s website.

International exchange for urban planning and livable cities is an incredibly fruitful area for exploration and I am eager to see San Francisco do more with this opportunity. When the slide photo of Paris’ “Urban Beach” – on a converted waterside expressway – went up, the accompanying sentiment was simply that it was a neat idea. I wanted to shout “So what if that was the Embarcadero?” In fact, it is possible the landscape of the Embarcadero may be due for some big changes due to the upcoming America’s Cup planning – more on that later.

Unique, large scale, and innovative uses of public space – particularly in urban areas, and particularly when they include landscaping and waterscaping – are a huge draw for the media, for tourism, and for the international design and planning community. One need only look at the constant media adoration generated by the High Line Park in New York City – it is almost as if it were the only park in Manhattan. The media and tourism frenzy surrounding the park hasn’t abated since its debut, and that’s a good thing. Honestly, who gets excited about another multimillion dollar downtown office complex or a new block of blandly colored “luxury” condos that will do nothing for the streetscape?


High Line Park NYC courtesy of Inhabitat

The benefits for city dwellers, their civic pride, and the opportunity to use and enjoy these spaces are infinite. Thinking about the Embarcadero, I’m reminded of the Düsseldorf Rheinuferpromenade – which was developed as a multi-use pedestrian promenade with cafes, boat moorings, beer gardens, benches, trees, and grass. The promenade was wonderfully built over a former motorway, and is now a huge draw for locals and tourists. The river’s edge is set against the backdrop of the old city downtown, and there is no 9 lane pedestrian crossing required to mingle back into the old restaurant quarter.

Photo credit Virtual Tourist

Having experienced the promenade as a resident, it was a wonderful place to take a lazy Sunday afternoon bicycle ride, sit at a cafe, or just walk year round. The trees and landscaping added a touch of shape and color in the winter months that is sorely missing from many modern concrete embankments and human-managed waterscapes, and the multitude of benches provided spots to people-watch, eat lunch, or track the progress of on of the huge river-barges. Like the Embarcadero, the promenade is centrally located, at a hub of Düsseldorf’s public transportation, and being on the waterfront, it is a natural “walking hub” to other areas such as botanical gardens, art museums, the old downtown, bars, and tourist attractions like the bridge and Frank Gehry buildings.

Rheinuferpromenade from the south, photo from Nordrhein-Westfalen Tourism

I’m curious about San Francisco’s participation in international exchange programs based around transit, public space, and sustainability issues since the SPUR presentations didn’t actually address this. The Northern Virginia Regional Commission, for example, has a long-standing program of cooperation with the German city Stuttgart on urban sustainability issues – in addition to workshops and programs, city leaders participate in actual exchanges to see and feel firsthand how various projects are working.

I was also rather surprised that the presentation at SPUR did not make the connection to the next day’s presenters, Atelier Dreiseitl. Dreseitl’s studio is a prime example of international inspiration and cooperation for better spaces and places with an ecological focus. Based in Germany and with offices in Portland, Oregon as well as Singapore, the studio has used its focus on “waterscaping” to address out-of-the-box environmental and design challenges across the world, including keystone work in Singapore addressing water management issues. The nexus of environmental and engineering challenges with design and community involvment is a key area for San Francisco to address in coming years.

Another view of Tanner Creek Park, Portland, OR – April 2010

While I have come across a few examples of international and regional cooperation since arriving here – the Delta Alliance (which includes the SF Bay area, the Mekong river delta area and the Netherlands among others) and the Global Green Cities conference in February – I am curious to learn if there are more. There may well be many initiatives I’ve not yet heard of, which is what I was hoping to learn about at the SPUR presentation.  

Many cities and regions across the world struggle with the same challenges of population growth, aging transit systems, integration of technology and climate change planning. While each region has its own challenges due to environmental and cultural factors, there are many areas where cooperation and idea sharing can lead to innovation, partnership, and even investment. I would like to support this work, and I’m curious as to who in the San Francisco Bay area is investigating the potential to host other city planners and designers in reciprocal idea-sharing and best-practices exchanges. If you know more or have comments, please contact me.

If you’re scared of flying too . . .

A Tupolev 144 – if you’re not already scared of flying you would be boarding this awkward seagull of the sky (from airliners.net)

If you know me, you also know that I developed a completely irrational fear of flying about two years ago. If you are one of those people that also thinks “checking” out the window to make sure the engines haven’t fallen off will someday save your life, you’ll love this piece I just read on The Awl (via The Hairpin) called “How To Not Die in a Plane Crash”.

Banked by clouds and neatly edged plumes of native plants and herbs, the golden gate bridge swings between two coasts. Absent in this photo, idling diesel-engined buses disgorge swarms of sightseers armed with professional nikon lenses and completely unnecessary sunhats. They amble up the short concrete ramp to chatter and take pictures of themselves in front of the red spans, then check their watches and file back down to their waiting drivers. Streams of cars, trucks, and buses issue forth in erratic streams from the emphatically 1930’s tollbooth curves, topped with a bright red clock urging the commuters to get home in time for dinner. There’s an emergency, so the streams of vehicles stop, only to be replaced by the whine of ambulances. Three firefighters recline on their truck in the parking lot below, trading jokes and occasionally looking up at the bridge deck above. Below, where the sea streams in under the iron struts, three surfers in black seal suits ride the swells and avoid the rocky breakwater. Underneath, the stream of traffic begins again, now a dull swish, disappearing toward the hills in Marin, turning golden now in early summer.