Spring in New York, almost

It never fails to amaze me, each time I come here, how active streets just keep going.  Better cities have good neighborhoods with maybe a bustling central street, maybe two with buzz that intersect to become a district's epicenter, maybe even, 2 or 3 parallel streets linked by cross streets to form a gridded core, but level of activity of these hubs falls off quickly into predominantly residential blocks. In Manhattan, the predominant pattern is one of bustling boulevards running north south and quiet residential-looking streets running east-west.  Every 12 blocks or so an East-west street is widened to be a commercial street.  The point is, almost everywhere, you're not far from active pedestrian streets.  Having a car even seems absurd - it would truly just be in the way.  No great revelations there, but just sharing one of the city's best aspects.

it's about time

Long over due to launch this thing. I've been running PechaKucha San Francisco for over 2 years & 22 shows in hopes of kindling the kind of broad-based, interdisciplinary design scene one finds in other major cities like Tokyo, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris....I could go on.  Even New York manages a scene which buzzes around the design professions which extends well beyond the professions themselves.  Let me simply say it's still a work in progress, but one showing wonderful signs of success.  Afterall, this is San Francisco.