Signs of the Times #185

 

LAKE

CHIPOTLE

1.1 miles

[Pole. Greenway, Minneapolis.]

MEET ME

HALFWAY

[Tree. Longfellow, Minneapolis.]

[light switch]

[Tree. Longfellow, Minneapolis.]

Season's

Greetings

[Pole in summer. Longfellow, Minneapolis.]

[SENT IN FROM A FRIEND in San Francisco I think.]

edna's

park

[Pole. Cedar-Riverside, Minneapolis.]

The lottery. State

promoted greed,

addiction, and

dumb investing.

[Pole. Cedar-Riverside. Minneapolis.]

10%

RAD

[Pole. Como Park. St. Paul.]

summer 1981 (82? 83?)

JIMMY FLEISHAKER - BARBER

ACOUSTIG GUITAR PLAYER

RIGHT HERE ON THIS VERY LOCATION, LIGHTNING

CAME DOWN FROM A STORM 

AND ACCENTED EVERY

WORD I SAID TO HIM

POOR GUY COULDN'T DEAL

WITH IT - HE WENT TO ANOKA

STATE MENTAL HOSPITAL

2 WEEKS LATER -- WHERE IS JIMMY NOW?

[Mickey's Diner railing. Downtown, St. Paul.]

PLANT SALE ->

[Boulevard. St. Paul.]

Sidewalk Poetry #35

A Swarm of Dawns, A Flock of Restless Noons


There's a lot to be written in the Book of Errors.
The elderly redactor is blind, for all practical purposes,

He has no imagination, and field mice have gnawed away
His source text for their nesting. I loved you first, I think,

When you stood in the kitchen sunlight and the laszy motes
Of summer dust while I sliced a nectarine for Moroccan salad

And the seven league boots of your private grief. Maybe
The syntax is a little haywire there. Left to itself,

Wire must act like Paul Klee with a pencil. Hay
is the Old English word for strike. You strike down

Grass, I guess, when it is moan. Mown. The field mice
Devasted the monastery garden. Maybe because it was summer

And the dusks were full of marsh hawks and the nights were soft
With owls, they couldn't leave the herbs alone: gnawing the roots

Of rosemary, nibbling at sage and oregano and lemon thyme.
it's too bad eglantine isn't an herb, because it's a word

I'd like to use here. Her coloring was a hybrid
Of rubbed amber and the little flare of down rose in the kernel

Of an almond. It's a wonder to me that I have fingertips.
The knife was very sharp. The scented rose-orange moons,

Quarter moons, of fruit fell to the cutting baord
So neatly it was as if two people lived in separate cities

And walked to their respective bakeries in the rain. Her bakery
Smelled better than his. The sour cloud of yeast from sourdough

Hung in the air like the odor of creation. They both bought
Sliced loaves, they both walked home, they both tripped

In the entry to their separate kitchens, and the spilled slices
Made the exact same pattern on the floor. The nectarines

Smelled like the Book of Luck. There was a little fog
Off the bay at sundown in which the waning moon swam laps.

The Miwoks called it the Moon of the Only Credit Card.
I would have given my fingertips to touch your cheekbone,

And I did. The night the old monk knocked off early. He was making it
All up anyway, and he'd had a bit of raisin wine at vespers.

[Robert Haas, 2002.]

[Sidewalk café in Berkeley, CA.]

Classic Sidewalks of the Silver Screen #79

The gang does tricks in the alleys of San Francisco or New York...


... in Thomas Michael Donnelly's (1986) bicycle morality tale, Quicksilver.

Classic Sidewalks of the Silver Screen #50

Police Inspector Harry Callahan stops a two-eleven in progress on the sidewalks of San Fransisco... 



... in Don Siegel's (1971) Dirty Harry.

Signs of the Times

Please
do not
climb
on the
iguana

[Outside the Science Museum. Saint Paul]

Now
Available
Red
Bull
Energy Drink
Get Your Wings
For Only $1.95

[Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis]

Protected
By
Freedom
Security

[Lawn in South Minneapolis]

[see image for details]

* *
*Freedom of Speech*
*Please Don't Remove or Cover*
* * *

[A paper sign posted above a newspaper box, Berkeley, CA]

Penthouse. 3rd floor south

1st floor east and south, and
Parking Ramp are NOT sprinkled

[Building near State Capitol, Saint Paul]

Sidewalk of the Week: Mission Street

I just spent a week visiting San Francisco for the first time, and one thing I can tell you: San Francisco has huge sidewalks. I guess it's because it had the relatively unique combination of being built during the time before cars, but out in the West where there was plenty of room to grow and expand… "The West" before WWII was pretty empty and wide open, and I guess there was plenty of space to lay out really wide streets. The amazing thing about this sidewalk, though, is that San Francisco never widened their street to accommodate another lane of traffic during the 50’s and 60’s, when this part of the city was surely overwhelmed with traffic. (I guess this had something to do with San Francisco’s excellent transit system, complete with vintage streetcars (!).) This particular sidewalk sits in the Mission District, somewhere around Mission & 22nd, and someone has, for some reason, laid tiles with multi-lingual geographic facts into the street. As an urban geographer, its impossible not to get excited by a sidewalk like this.

In fact, though, almost all of San Francisco has huge sidewalks, and its hard to feel like you're about to be hit by a car when you're walking around the city. Plus, almost everywhere you go there are interesting buildings and shops to look at as you stroll around, not to mention the fact that the topographic chaos makes for nice views and interesting little staircases that run through the neighborhoods.

One thing that you might think, though, is that San Francisco is so vibrant simply because everyone there is so rich... after all its a poster child of gentrification. But when I was there I spent quite a few time in neighborhoods that weren't that yuppified... places like the tenderloin and the Mission, where the streetside businesses sold cheap chinese goods leftover from the 80's if they sold anything at all. But even in these places (and even if they're disappearing), vibrant sidewalk and street life was everywhere to be found. Somehow, San Francisco has managed to maintain its walkable foundations, and historic buildings, and the end result is a real pleasure oustide of a few places near the freeways.

[Another gratuitous shot of a S.F. sidewalk downtown, away from Mission St. Look how wide! Two segways could pass side-by-side!]

Can any city develop a San Francisco-esque, walkable, and interesting street life? That's the real question, and I'd like to say "yes." I'd like to say that vibrant pedestrian-friendly spaces are a relatively attainable goal for almost any city, from Saint Cloud MN to Durham NC to New London CT, and that these sorts of infrastructural changes can be important economic and cultural drivers for entire regions. I'd like to say this, but it certainly helps to have a good economy, land shortage, and a large region of relatively un-bulldozed historical buildings around...