We’ve been helping to create some art for the Street Utopia Festival that is happening this weekend. We’ve made two simulations so far both showing Grant Avenue as if cars were not allowed. We wanted to help motivate some conversation about reclaiming our public spaces for people instead of automobiles.
Urban Ecology’s purpose for being is to get folks to redesign their own public spaces. None of us working on these simulations live in North Beach or Chinatown, so we make no claim that these ideas are correct. We just hope they are interesting and get people to talk.
The Street Utopia Festival is this Saturday from 5:30 – 9:pm at #1 Columbus Avenue (five minute walk from Montgomery BART). More info can be found at http://streetutopia.org.
STREET UTOPIA is an urban design festival showcasing film, food, and art that promotes Democracy & Egalitarianism in the public spaces of North Beach. The multi-media presentation offers:
- Two screens of International Films from Samso and Copenhagen (Denmark), Bogota (Colombia), Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Portland (Oregon), Budapest (Hungary), Curitiba (Brazil), and other cities that utilize environmentally sustainable and people-friendly policies.
- New art presented by North Beach residents: painter Lutzka Zivny, photographer Chris Ferris, and the children of Destination Art.
- Wall displays by Urban Ecology of proposed utopian building and redesign projects in North Beach: Vehicle-free Grant Avenue? “Poet’s Plaza” on car-free Vallejo between Columbus and Grant? Plant 500 trees? Repair & beautify Washington Square, for environmentally-friendly events? Widen sidewalks on Columbus? Audience opinions & suggestions will be solicited.
- “Street Food” by mobile sidewalk vendors: The Girl From Empanada, Bike Basket Pies, The Hot Dog Man.
- Brief public speeches, testimonies and manifestos presented orally by local street freedom activists.
Presented by: Phil Millenbah & Hank Hyena
