Chris Carlsson
Recent Posts
Technology and Impotence
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The BP oil spill goes on. And on. We watch the oil on live web cam pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. And we watch. Political rage is muted, practical responses even more distant. What to do? How do we “take action” on something like this? How can individuals meaningfully respond to this catastrophe? Stop driving? Boycott one brand of gas? Stop buying things made of plastic?
Say What?
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The vibrations and rumble of cable cars used to occur on many of San Francisco’s streets. We are often attracted to city life for the energy, the boisterousness, the noise. I am a city guy having lived all my life in cities (born in Brooklyn, Chicago until age 10, Oakland until 17, and San Francisco […]
Wind Powered Transportation…Back Then
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This is the second installment of a slow journey through San Francisco transit history. All of this information is derived from our Shaping San Francisco collection that you can explore on Foundsf.org. "Arrived All Well" by William Coulter (1909) is a painting that hung in the Merchant Exchange over the chalkboards that indicated what cargoes […]
Put it on the Street, A Look at Curbside Recycling
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Ever wonder where your garbage goes? This is the first stop on the way to the big land fill at Altamont Pass. (Editor’s note: this is the latest installment from contributor Chris Carlsson, The Nowtopian) At least once a week all of us in San Francisco schlep our garbage to the curb to be picked […]
A Rose By Another Name: San Jose’s Bike Party
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A crowd assembles at the beginning of San Jose Bike Party, April 16, 2010. Let’s just say right away that Critical Mass is a bike party, and the San Jose Bike Party has a lot more similarities to Critical Mass than differences. A half-dozen San Francisco and Berkeley Critical Mass veterans took a field trip […]
Walking through the Sand
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I’ll be slowly going through San Francisco transit history over the next few months. All of this information is derived from our Shaping San Francisco collection that you can explore on Foundsf.org. Also, I’ll be conducting a 4-hour "Transit history" bike tour on Sat. April 24. Today we start where it all began, in the […]
Tea Partying and Beanbagging on Shotwell
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24th and Shotwell Tea Party The citywide Stand Against Sit Lie campaign Saturday March 27 was a big success by all accounts. The website claims over 100 events took place on San Francisco sidewalks, and over 1000 people participated. That doesn’t sound overwhelming at first glance, but if you recall that this began as a […]
Planning and Public Life
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On Linden Alley the "Union Project" held a public fair last year, just one of dozens of ways San Franciscans are taking public roads for uses beyond merely housing private cars. San Franciscans, like residents of most big cities, are in a continuous process of reshaping public spaces. There are pilot programs for new ways […]
Standing Up to Sit-Lie
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Hippies and punks have been sitting on Haight Street for almost a half century. Will they soon be criminals? (Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, via http://foundsf.org) As San Francisco moves closer to a decision on a new sit-lie ordinance that proponents say would facilitate the SFPD’s clearing of unsavory elements off of sidewalks in neighborhoods like […]
Bicycling Activism in Quito, Ecuador: An Interview with Heleana Zambonino
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Heleana Zambonino conducting a basic bicycling skills class at Sunday Streets in Guadalajara, Mexico, Sept. 2009. In Guadalajara last September I met dozens of cycling activists from around Mexico, and one remarkable woman from Quito, Ecuador, Heleana Zambonino. While riding in a big Critical Mass in Guadalajara, she told me about the cycling scene in […]
Reviewing the Policing of Critical Mass
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Now that the new police chief has announced he is going to "review" department procedures with respect to Critical Mass, I think it might be a good time to "review" the history of the relationship between Critical Mass and the police. I have to emphasize that this relationship has evolved in the context of a […]
Bridge the Gap!
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Photo: Matthew Roth As I climbed the steps out of the Lake Merritt BART station this morning I heard loud chanting. "Wow," I thought, "those bicyclists have really pulled out the troops!" But the demonstrators that greeted me across 8th Street in Oakland were pile drivers, iron workers, carpenters and other trades workers, chanting "Jobs […]