Must Rejuvenation Inspire?
Asking ‘Is That All There Is…’
Our spontaneous interactions with urban places spur moods and memories. Taking in places with our multiple senses, viewing the good and the bad — makes some proposed solutions and rejuvenation efforts seem prescriptive, and just a little too squeaky-clean. No matter how much they claim to honor community input and history, recovery measures must be more than sound bytes and diagrams from consultant toolkits.
I read today in Fast Company about the latest brainstorming in San Francisco to enliven the public realm, following from more creative “placekeeping” efforts another article described in the same publication in June. These ubiquitous efforts promise new amenities worth coming to see — not zip lines and gaming venues — but mural-laden, green, music-filled and pop-up hubs of urban activity. I wonder, however, if they will honor the spontaneous nuances observed by a wanderer like me.
I wrote earlier in my trip how the car show in Carmel put me in the mood to walk to the Carmel Mission Basilica in the dark on a rebellious pilgrimage against auto-centricity. Even in opulent Carmel, such walks span the eras and take in the multiple, ongoing aspects of city life and neighborhoods, not just a sanitized path along the way.
The next morning, in Monterey, the Cannery Row of today had me wondering what an apology letter to John Steinbeck would look like. Sorry, John, little is left standing except for the name.
Then in Los Angeles proper, Beverly Hills, Venice, Santa Monica and West Hollywood, medication from my youthful fascination with Southern California kicked in with new inputs. Diversity of sight and sound was everywhere — not only in the physical environment, but in the ephemeral vignettes of daily life.
In Santa Monica, the Apple Store turned a pending hurricane into a design feature, with sandbags gracing the doorways — the only business I saw taking heed of approaching Hilary. It’s hardly programmed placemaking or placekeeping, but an ironic twist on the events of the day.
Once again, I’m purposely mixing scattershot experiences and sensations, because urban life is not nearly as rational as current efforts to enliven post-pandemic public places.
In Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, 2023 edition, I saw every placemaking intervention in popular use, where not very long ago cars traveled freely.
Pianos, ping-pong, benches, buskers, ice cream, and a less popular ferris wheel — it could be anywhere trying to make a people-centric place.
I don’t have a better resurgence strategy in mind as I visit place upon place, but I know there’s so much more that cities could do.
