The Secret to Brilliant Cities

In this lens, I am comparing two cities in California: San Francisco, and Venice. I hope to illustrate that honoring our "built past" fosters communities, provides aesthetically pleasing downtowns, as well as promoting tourism, and civic pride, just to start.

The point of this lens is not to wallow in our grievous mistakes, but to learn from them. It is also my hope that people who think that their one vote doesn't count, will see the importance of speaking up.

For an in-depth look at the real numbers, see Why Historic Preservation is Smart Growth

San Francisco did have a period of Urban Renewal, unfortunately. The main casualty of that was The Fillmore, now called "The Western Addition".

"It was only when the Redevelopment Agency began to acquire buildings, evict occupants, and demolish structures, and urban renewal became a living, frightening reality, that real participation of the area's residents began, as they organized to defend themselves."
- Chester Hartman, "City for Sale," University of California Press 2002

San Francisco's Black residents fought back in a valiant effort to stop the "urban renewal" they termed "Negro removal" in the Fillmore. But the Redevelopment bulldozers had their way. Redevelopment Director Justin Herman explained in 1970, "This land is too valuable to permit poor people to park on it."


"Urban Renewal" in San Francisco

For a great exposé on this dark period of San Francisco's history, go to: Black Flight

For a photo essay of "The House Movers", who salvaged a bunch of Victorians from the Western Addition during this period: Dave Glass on Flickr

From the days of the Great Earthquake to the first stages of urban renewal to today, you'll discover the evolution of a neighborhood: Places of The Fillmore

For an unbelievable trip through San Francisco in the 1950's -1960's, check out @destroycreate's photo thread on skyscraperpage.com. He painstakingly went through about 1,700 photographs by famous Americana photographer Charles W. Cushman. He chose what he thought were the best and most relevant pictures. Truly stupendous. Skyscraper Page

San Francisco's biggest draw is its history.

Today, San Francisco is a popular international tourist destination, renowned for its chilly summer fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, and its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Chinatown. The city is also a principal banking and finance center, and the home to more than 30 international financial institutions, helping to make San Francisco rank eighteenth in the world's top producing cities, ninth in the United States, and thirteenth place in the top twenty global financial centers.

It's a pretty good argument for saving your architectural treasures...

Venice, California, if it had remained intact, would undoubtedly rival San Francisco for tourism and popularity. There were several bad decisions along the way.

1. Probably the most significant was annexing the city to Los Angeles. There's only one other city in the world like it: Venice, Italy. If a city has a unique quality that simply cannot be recreated, it needs to be saved at all costs.
   


2. It was a seriously misguided move to mow down 550 historic buildings at once, in the name of "Urban Renewal". If these buildings had been adapted for reuse, the historic core of Venice would remain today.


3. Another problem was the automakers luring people off the public transportation system, and into their cars. If the automobile hadn't become such a behemoth in Los Angeles, the canals would never have been filled.