Urban Histories With Modern Lessons

Downtown San Francisco as seen from Potrero Hill.
Photo: Joe Bencharsky

This week brought urban history lessons to StreetsWiki from Livable Streets members coast to coast.

Joe Bencharsky penned a neighborhood profile of Potrero Hill, San Francisco, where his family has lived for three generations. Says Joe:

Partly because of street and freeway configuration, partly because of
topography, The Hill is an out of the way community even though it has
close proximity to some of the most active parts of The City. There are
only a few streets that circumvent the freeways that allow traffic
through to The Hill via somewhat circuitous routes.

Meanwhile in New York, Susan Donovan contributed a fascinating entry on the history of Madison Avenue Bus Lanes — a rare remnant of the Koch administration’s largely unrealized 1980 congestion reduction plan.

Elsewhere this week, the new Echo Park and Silverlake Livable Streets chapter of Los Angeles County announces a ride spotlighting roads prioritized in a proposed bike plan; the South Bronx Livable Streets group publicizes a Harlem River rezoning City Council hearing on June 23; and there are new Livable Streets groups for Detroit residents and folding bike users.