To reclaim a public space you must first know where to find it.

Privately-owned public spaces (POPOS) are little bubbles of public space paired to new commercial developments, often in exchange for zoning variances.

NYC has over 500 of them; See Zuccotti Park.

Anonymous locations and heavy surveillance has meant that many of these spaces are underutilized and only nominally public.

In short, the public feels unwelcome.

But now, several groups have rolled out their own welcome mats, and are working to reclaim these spaces. San Francisco-based Rebar Group collaborated on Commonspace, a collection of artists' dispatches on the kinds of playful mischief they each hatched at some of these sites. This project was expanded by San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) into the report "Secrets of San Francisco", which includes a downloadable San Francisco POPOS map.

As it turns out, camping isn't the only way to stay occupied. Say you're in San Francisco and have the urge to fly a kite on a rooftop garden. You're in luck. Just head over to the sun terrace at 343 Sansome Street. Just an easy 7-minute walk from our local Federal Reserve Bank!



Marianne Amoss, “Challenging the Commons: a yearlong experiment tests a new breed of urban public space in San Francisco,” The Next American City, Fall 2007.

Presidio's Quartermaster Reach restoration & Doyle Drive project on Streetsblog SF.

Streetsblog SF story here. Picture source: Presidio Trust

Oil Spill Clean-up and Chemical Dispersants: Does the Good Outweigh the Bad?

Stephen R. Humphrey, "Chemical Dispersants and Crude Oil - Efficacy and Toxicity," The Oil Drum, 7/14/2010.

"In the case of oil released underwater, dispersant reduces the amount of oil surfacing, hence reducing danger and toxicity for the topside workers trying to repair the damaged well and contain the spill. It also increases surface area and time for oil-droplet exposure to microorganisms in the water column. The microbes digest the oil into simpler and much less harmful chemicals."

"More than 200 genera of bacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi, and algae are known to degrade or transform hydrocarbons, using them for energy and carbon."

"The US National Research Council issued a report on dispersants in 2005. The report succinctly noted the tradeoffs involved in dispersant use: 'Dispersant application thus represents a conscious decision to increase the hydrocarbon load (resulting from a spill) on one component of the ecosystem (e.g., the water column) while reducing the load on another (e.g., coastal wetland). Decisions to use dispersants, therefore, involve trade-offs between decreasing the risk to water surface and shoreline habitats while increasing the potential risk to organisms in the water column and on the seafloor.'"

"Prolonging spilled crude oil's exposure to offshore sea life increases environmental harms in ways we don't understand very well, and these harms are probably much worse than we know. In my opinion there's no silver lining among the tradeoffs, only trading off one bad against other bads.

It’s remarkable to me how much people have discussed toxicity of dispersants, and how little people have discussed the toxicity of crude oil, which is high for people and many other organisms. We definitely need to learn whether dispersant allows the oil to degrade fast enough and in large enough quantities to offset damage done by spreading the oil through more of the environment for longer. But we also need a comparable public discussion of the toxicity of the oil to people, to habitats and animals along the shore, and to the myriad creatures of the Gulf of Mexico."

The image above is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. Accessed through WikiCommons.