DIY Urbanism

Since the onset of the great recession in 2008, San Francisco, like many American cities, has struggled through a period of economic decline and drastically reduced public resources. Fortunately for San Francisco, a city with a long history of entrepreneurship and social activism, citizens have displayed great wherewithal and ingenuity in the face of budgetary stalemates—resulting in an outpouring of innovative “do-it-yourself” projects ranging from activating stalled construction sites, to constructing temporary public plazas and parks at street intersections, to designing pop-up storefronts. DIY Urbanism showcases some of these projects and a snapshot of this burgeoning and distinctively local movement, and explores the meeting grounds between the bottom-up approach of DIY urbanists and the traditional top-down planning process.