I always feel a peculiar polarity between wanting to live in a beautiful, pristine rural setting or in a bustling, hustling metropolis. Setting up shop in an old farmhouse somewhere and doing some serious homesteading sounds fantastic. Chickens, bees, gardens, canning and tree planting and building things with old tools hanging in an old tool shed. At the same time, I seem to be most comfortable in the city. I love the anonymity of walking amongst crowds of people unnoticed. One of my favorite experiences used to be sitting on the tube in London with my eyes closed and trying to count how many languages I could hear bouncing around the car. It always took at least two hands to count. While the rise of the city is the focal point of some of our major global developmental challenges (and thus, the point of emergence for ingenious solutions and adaptations), I have always loved the chaos that is given form by all that color, noise, diversity. I guess this polarity is the source of my growing passion for urban changemaking, be it urban and peri-urban agriculture, adaptive and green design, urban homesteading, or what have you.
Anyway. I am settling for a time in Santa Cruz, which is a lovely place that represents neither end of the spectrum. And I started prattling about cities because I have been getting a nice ‘fix’ by taking frequent trips to San Francisco, a city that I love. This last weekend we found excuse for the drive in the Chinese New Year Parade, reportedly one of the world’s 10 greatest parade events. Unfortunately, the parade itself seemed a rather ghastly illustration of how capitalism can mutilate cultural expression: nearly every float was a giant advertisement for Visa, Wells Fargo, or McDonald’s. The parade itself is now titled the ‘Southwest Airlines Chinese New Years Parade’. Which certainly turns my stomach. Not to mention nearly the whole route was obscured by formidable bleachers which were paid-entry only. So much for an open community event. Ah well. The marching bands were still amazing…And we managed to have a pretty epic time no matter, splashing around in the rain, squaring off against some pretty intense Cashew Chicken, and following the evening south into the Mission for tea, jazz and visits with old friends. Here are a couple photos from that little excursion and other recent forays to the city.
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