Recent Streetsblog SF posts about San Francisco

Whose Streets?

By Chris Carlsson | Aug 9, 2011 | 12 Comments

“Whose Streets? OUR Streets!” yell rowdy demonstrators when they surge off the sidewalk and into thoroughfares. True enough, the streets are our public commons, what’s left of it (along with libraries and our diminishing public schools), but most of the time these public avenues are dedicated to the movement of vehicles, mostly privately owned autos. […]

Danish Architect Jan Gehl on Good Cities for Bicycling

By Jan Gehl | Jun 16, 2011 | 3 Comments

Editor’s note: This is the final installment in our series this week featuring Danish architect and livable streets luminary Jan Gehl. The pieces are excerpts from his book, “Cities for People” published by Island Press. Donate to Streetsblog SF and you’ll qualify to win a copy of the book, courtesy of Island Press. Bicyclists represent […]

The Political and Economic Implications of Bicycling Tourists

By Chris Carlsson | May 2, 2011 | 16 Comments

I’ve been bicycling in San Francisco since the late 1970s so I vividly remember when almost all bicyclists could recognize each other on the streets of the city. There really weren’t that many of us even as recently as the beginning of the 1990s, just two decades ago. We’ve come a long way, and one […]

Ferries on the Bay

By Chris Carlsson | Jan 19, 2011 | 5 Comments

Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series of reports from Chris Carlsson on the history of transit in the Bay Area. There are thousands of people using ferries on the San Francisco Bay these days, so it’s hard to remember that ferry service died out for several decades. Of course the long history […]

19th Century Bicycling: Rubber was the Dark Secret

By Chris Carlsson | Sep 22, 2010 | 9 Comments

“If the increase continues, the time is not very distant when not to own and ride a bicycle will be a confession that one is not able-bodied, is exceptionally awkward, or is hopelessly belated.” —“The Bicycle Festival,” July 13, 1895 New York Times The bicycle came to San Francisco during the last quarter of the […]

Bike Tour Taps San Francisco’s Water Innovations

By Matt Baume | Jul 27, 2010 | 4 Comments

Blair Randall shows off the rain barrels. Photo: Matt Baume When most San Franciscans turn on a faucet, they’ll see water that’s traveled as far as two hundred miles from Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. But that’s not the case for some locally-minded gardeners, for whom careful water stewardship is as important as […]

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