It's a truism of environmentalism that the automobile has blighted America's landscape. San Francisco, home to the Critical Mass bicycle movement, has struck another blow against the car by encouraging the creation of parklets throughout the City.
Parklets replace curbside parking spaces with benches, artwork, and greenery. They add to the pedestrian-friendly ambience of San Francisco at the cost of higher through-traffic congestion and less parking-meter revenue. (Perhaps the City making up for lost revenue is one reason why suffering car owners now have to feed the meter on Sundays.)
Individuals and businesses pay for construction of parklets, which must get permits like any other construction project. And if all the T's aren't crossed, remedies can be expensive, as one parklet creator has learned.
Parklets are in vogue partly because the wealthy City can afford them. Let's hope that times never become so difficult that San Francisco has to think about taking them down. © 2013 Stephen Yuen
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