When over 100 attendees gathered at a privately-owned public open space at 55 Second Street in downtown San Francisco on April 23, the one thing everybody was talking about was how beautiful the building was and how they had never seen this space before. Those first few minutes set the mood for the evening as Next American City and SPUR addressed the accessibility and uses for privately-owned public open spaces (POPOS).
The night kicked off with a presentation by Rebar on their COMMONSpace project, a series of innovative events geared toward creatively using public spaces. After better understanding what POPOS are, SPUR Policy Director Sarah Karlinsky led the panelists into a conversation about the physical characteristics of public spaces, the role of the city to incorporate these spaces as part of an open space network, the transition of San Francisco as a commuter city into a residential city and finally, the exchange of civil rights for safety and security. Panelists John Bela, Margie O’Driscoll and Josh Switzky discussed ways to draw awareness to the existing POPOS and to build a constituency to guarantee the continued use of these spaces.
Thank you to all who came out for the symposium. It was great to meet everybody; we can’t wait to plan our next trip to San Francisco! Special thanks to Julie Kim, Vickie Bell and everybody at SPUR for all of their help in putting the symposium together.
-Pooja Shah
Haiku for Next American City’s San Francisco Subscriber Party
Next American
San Francisco? We think so
Delightful party
Thanks to all who came out on Thursday, April 24th for our San Francisco subscriber party at Swig. It was great to meet new and longtime subscribers alike. Special thanks to Kristy Wang and Annie Decker for pulling all the details together.
-Michelle Kuly