guerrilla curatorship

Stakeholder opposition dances pretty hilariously around the fact that people are just scurred of restrictions on automobile travel.

It’s funny that opposition cycles between the trite “harming the economic vitality” and the openly classist “exacerbating the unsavory elements” (I mean, DANG, Chron, good luck in your next life) arguments, which are almost logically at odds.

Nobody needs to park curbside to shop on Market; they use parking lots on Mission or north toward Union Square, or in the FiDi lower portion, garages in big office buildings usually entered on cross-streets like Fremont, Davis, Beale, etc) so there’s no reason why limited auto traffic ON Market proper would choke customer flow (especially when it would arguably provide better transit service.)

You know what would be better eyes on the street at night for those poor “pockmarked” blocks (again, dang Chron!) than speeding cars?? Open businesses. More pedestrians. The attitude most people (and press outlets) take toward the part of Market “west of Powell” or whatever other euphemisms they can find, really bothers me. Truthfully, Mid-Market is not THAT bad. I walk or bike through it on my way home most days, and I have never felt threatened with any kind of bodily harm, even in the dark. It’s wide and open, which affords too much visibility for true nefariousness, and plenty of personal space for all to pass freely. It’s dirty, yes, and there are (gasp!) people of color who are not upwardly mobile (!) and there are (gasp!) women who make a living with sex work (!) and often times you can catch a glimpse of a human being in a very different state of existence than yourself (sometimes this means urine) but it’s not an inherently dangerous experience. It lacks the desolate, angry feel that produces violence in some other urban enclaves. And speaking of economic vitality, its “condition” doesn’t really seem to preclude a variety of business uses, some (like Etiquette and Mr. Smith’s) catering to the very young people with too much disposable income the local business class seems to see as the holy grail of “economic vitality.”

I fail to see how reducing auto traffic on Market and increasing pedestrian, transit and cyclist rights of way and maybe adding some greenspace would do anything but incentivize people to USE the street, rather than continuing to ostracize half a mile of it by speeding through as quickly as possible and trying not to look. And natural usage is the only way to effect natural change and make the effects of neglect less visible.