Heather Smith talks with urban designer Andres Power about his work creating parklets within the San Francisco Planning Department.
Power says that the nature of San Francisco politics makes it difficult to get anything done, so the temporary nature of the city's parklets makes it significantly easier:
"This makes a big difference. Cities like New York have a strong hierarchical structure. We don't have that in San Francisco. And so when there are differences in opinion between groups or agencies, it can be almost impossible to get things done. The first plaza that went in, at 17th and Castro, had a history going back almost ten years of the community talking about using that space. But making it temporary made it happen. Then, the parklets were inspired by PARK(ing) Day."
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