Bemoaning San Francisco's Corporate Street Closures

San Francisco's got a number of temporary street closures planned this year. Though the prospect of these pedestrian-friendly events is seen as a good sign for the city, this piece argues that their emphasis on corporate sponsorship taints the value.

April 12, 2009, 9am PDT | Nate Berg

"This year, the first of six Sunday Streets is coming up on April 26. But after looking through the details of this year's corporate-sponsored events, I'm having a hard time summoning much enthusiasm for them."

"San Francisco is slowly becoming a place where it takes corporate backing just to throw a simple street party, or even to ride your Big Wheel down the street, and where failure to fill out the proper forms and display the sponsors' logos will get you shut down by the cops."

"At a time when San Francisco city policies are squeezing out homegrown, community-organized events such as the How Weird Street Faire, Halloween in the Castro, flash mobs, and this weekend's Bring Your Own Big Wheel event – and letting corporations like AEG sanitize venerable traditions like Bay to Breakers -- it's unsettling to see Sunday Streets brought to you by some of the most villainous corporations in town, including PG&E, Lennar, WebCor Builders, and Clear Channel Entertainment, and laid out as a promotional tool for the very Fisherman's Wharf merchants who opposed it last year."

Full Story:

Reclaim San Francisco’s corporate-sponsored public spaces

Published on Thursday, April 9, 2009 in San Francisco Bay Guardian