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Times Square has under gone a transformation lately, with lounge chairs replacing traffic and conversations replacing honking taxis. This coned-off chunk off Broadway is one of a number of experiments with public space happening around the city. New York City's Department of Transportation is trying out various spots to see where roads currently set aside for traffic could be turned over to pedestrian and bikes  without serious disruption. Like the project in Times Square, the first step is to stage the area with inexpensive, easily removable objects: large potted plants, beach umbrellas, tables and chairs. If it "works," if people use the space, it can made permanent.  SPUR has recently teamed up with the Bicycle Coalition to work for the Great Streets Campaign, which wants to create similar urban spaces in San Francisco. The mayor of Bogata, Colombia, a leader in this movement, will be speaking at the San Francisco Public Library July 7th about successful strategies to make public urban space. Join in! 

We spend much of our days with a roof over our heads, but rarely think of how roof exteriors could be so much more than just a weather shield.  The growing urban rooftop farming movement just may change that.  An article in today's New York Times describes how the green roof movement and the healthy food movement are converging. City policies can play a role in acclerating plantings - Chicago and New York provide tax incentives -  though the urban farmers surveyed in the article admit rooftop gardening is more a labor of love. Although they can be expensive (even if subsidized) and not suitable for every type of roof, green roofs also provide public benefits through reducing urban heat island effects, cleaning air, and producing local food. For a vertical spin on growing food and plants in an urban setting, check out the blog Veg.itecture.

In an interview with DC Velocity, Norm Mineta, President Bush's Secretary of Transportation and a Democrat from San Jose, provides some fantastic insight into the challenge facing our new DOT chief.

Mineta stresses the increasing inadequacy of the federal gas tax. Set at 18 cents per gallon since 1993, total receipts have decreased with inflation and improved fuel economy. The federal transportation account is deeply in the red. He reveals that Bush personally vetoed his propsal to index the gas tax to inflation when he first came to the USDOT.

The alternative? Mineta recommends a vehicle miles traveled tax, as does the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission. The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission concurs, providing a very thorough analysis of funding options.

This matters for San Francisco, of course, but not as much as you might think. Federal funds account for just one fourth of the money we spend on transportation in the Bay Area.

Thanks to Streetsblog SF for the tip.

We're nearly done installing SPUR's first exhibition, Agents of Change: Civic Idealism and the Making of San Francisco. Here's a sneak peak of how it's shaping up—thanks to an amazing cadre of volunteers who have been working around the clock to get the show installed before it opens this Friday.

I have learned so much from working on this show with our brilliant and tireless curator, Benjamin Grant. His approach to grouping the successes (and failures) of urban planners and architects into six generations paints a vivid picture of all the changes to our city and region, while highlighting the achievements of the remarkable individuals and groups who made them happen. The approach also allows SPUR—firmly rooted in the current generation of The Eco-Urbanists—to forge ahead with knowledge, boldness and humility. We "end" with a big question mark: What's next? What does the future hold?

In the storefront, a model of San Francisco loaned to us by SOM:



The lobby, with reception desk donated by Pfau Long Architecture, and the entrance to the exhibition:



A set of three exhibition posters, designed by Leon Yu. The poster on the left features a photo of Mayor Jim Rolph (aka "Sunny Jim") on Muni's opening day in 1912; the center image is of protestors at a "Save us from the Freeway" hearing in 1966; and the right shows a photo of Critical Mass in San Francisco:

A shot showing our exhibition system, designed by Brett Terpeluk of Studio Terpeluk: