SFB on SFGate

San Francisco Chronicle's Urban Design Critic John King has brought the possible changes to Mid-Market to the attention of many SFGate and Chronicle readers yesterday morning. After a World Series parade and celebration brought some much appreciated vitality to the area, John King discusses with Interim Executive Director Jim Chappell the proposed incremental changes to Mid-Market drafted by SFB's 2010 Prize Winner Cynthia Talley's report "Mid-Market: A Center for Creative Action." From mobile pianos meant to reflect the historical nature of the arts and theater district to book racks outside the main branch of the library, Ms. Talley's approach uses many existing attributes and implementation of temporary small to medium scale changes to the district to enhance economic vitality. Although the report is only a proposed set of ideas, it broadens the discussion of what might be possible for this section of Market Street.

We hope this article engages San Franciscans to take action and accelerates the incremental changes needed to change Mid-Market. Here's the link to John King's article.

What Makes Cities Great

In an excellent interview and perspective of the life work of Charles Landry, a writer, thinker, speaker and founder of the consulting firm Comedia, Strategy+Business provides insight into what makes cities great. A political economist by training, Mr. Landry has intertwined various ideas, from the commercial to the cultural, that helps establish and sustainably maintain a sense of place readily noticeable in every great city. His viewpoint provides an interesting lens for the future, as well as broad ideas to remake underutilized areas of our cities today.

Here's the link to the Strategy+Business article.

Momentum on Mid-Market

Among the 80 or so guests at the presentation of "Mid-Market, A Center for Creative Action" there were representatives from the DPW, Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the Great Streets project, the San Francisco City Planning Department, the San Francisco Planning Commission as well as numerous other neighborhood stakeholders and concerned citizens. The overwhelming sense of support and enthusiasm for a creative / arts district along Mid-Market was encouraging and inspiring. Lets keep the vision alive!

Public Realm Prize report, 'Mid-Market, a Center for Creative Action' Presented

Tuesday September 21 was the debut of the first annual San Francisco Beautiful Public Realm Prize report, “Mid-Market, a Center for Creative Action.” Eighty people crowded into Luggage Store Gallery at 1019 Market Street at 5:30 for a wine and cheese reception followed by the 6:15 presentation.
The report was prepared by Cindy Talley, a recent graduate with a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley.

In sponsoring the San Francisco Beautiful Public Realm Prize, San Francisco Beautiful’s objectives are:
- give a gift to the city that will stimulate positive change to the environment
- demonstrate SFB’s philosophy and principles in a tangible way
- provide the opportunity for an exemplary young professional to contribute to the city.

This year we selected Mid-Market Street as the site of our efforts because:
- last November, Prop D, encouraging billboards on this street, was erroneously being promoted as promoting positive change and economic development
- SFB led the charge to inform the public, who defeated Prop D at the polls
- SFB then took the responsibility to produce a positive alternative that is complementary to the many efforts the City is putting into Mid-Market and that can demonstrate quick, affordable changes to the environment.

Market Street will be repaved in about five years. The city is mounting major design studies to rethink the entire street, from the Ferry Building to Octavia Boulevard. San Francisco Beautiful, working with the Planning Department and other City agencies, selected the most troubled stretch, from Sixth to Van Ness, to posit a number of activation strategies. Whatever specific design solutions the City chooses to ultimately build, the City and SFB believe they must be in support of two principles:
- life on Market Street should reflect its physical prominence in the city
- pedestrians in the public realm should experience comfort, enjoyment and safety.

The goals we are attempting to optimize are:
- increase pedestrian activity on weekdays, nights and weekends by developing a creative center of theater, cinema, music, art and poetry
- fill the need for affordable creative space through simple, low-cost renovations to empty buildings
- establish an art themed trajectory for future changes to Mid-Market

The Many Efforts to Improve Mid-Market

There is no shortage of efforts and opinions on improving Mid-Market. I've been bookmarking this work through delicious. Taken together, the links provide a sense of all the activity.

Progress on Mid-Market Visioning, by Cindy Talley

There was a time when the character of city life was unrelated to the quality of urban space. Around the turn of the century, streets were full of people completing the necessary arrands of the day. This film of Market Street -taken in 1906- shows just how bustling the street was.

Today, Jan Gehl explains, we are often able to plan our lives so that we don't need to use the public realm. This means that the quality and content of our streets and parks have a major impact on how frequently they are used. In mid-market's case, the decline of first-run cinemas mid-century left a stark void on the street. As I curate temporary program and design interventions to last until Market's repaving around 2015, I am striving to build upon existing activities and create new attractions that will once again bring people the area. A better used mid-market means a safer, more delightful place.

2010 SUMMER INTERN PROJECT – VISUAL POLLUTION BASELINE REPORT

San Francisco Beautiful is happy to welcome as our summer intern Tomas Sanguinetti an Environmental Science major at Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA).

Tomas will work to develop a baseline report on the regulation of billboards and other outdoor advertising that will:
- examine alternative regulation and enforcement mechanisms
- understand legal precedents and cases in the US, California and San Francisco
- understand best practices nationwide
- develop a roadmap of alternative next steps SF Beautiful can take on the regulation and enforcement of general advertising and signage

San Francisco Beautiful will use this Baseline Report to develop an Action Plan to help guide the organization and a Summary Report will be used to:
-brief politicians
-brief the media
-inform neighborhood groups

Types of outdoor advertising to be covered:
-billboards (general advertising)
-electronic signs
-wheat pasted
-on furniture, by city contract (kiosks, bus shelters, news racks, etc)
-on transit vehicles
-banners on poles
-mobile billboards
-temporary billboards in vacant storefronts
-A-frames
-For sale/for rent signs

Stay tuned as Tomas will be writing a regular blog on his efforts. Follow him as he makes his way through LexisNexis, newspaper clippings, library stacks and whatever other rock he must look under to find his answers. Good luck, Tomas!