North Beach, San Francisco: Love Note to a City

I think it’s been well documented at this point that I’m involved in a passionate and long term love affair with my city, San Francisco. Even though she physically and verbally accosts me some nights, she’s always there in the morning with a delicious aromatic cup of Joe, and a bejeweled smile of twinkling lights on the horizon of the evening. I could gush about many things: her delicious food, her diverse population, her hilarious hip denizens of the night. However, one of the things I love the MOST is how she fosters a practically unrivaled atmosphere of creative production. It seems everyone here has some sort of wonderfully stimulating hobby or profession: we’re all photographers, writers, readers, painters, poets, or philanthropic prospectors who don’t posses any artistic talent but allow us, the ones who do, to do what we do. Well, I suppose there are still those who aren’t interested in anything and sit at home watching mindless reality television, but in this town they’re the minority and their uniformed opinions are drowned out with the rally cries of the artistic majority: a veritable Ya Ya Sisterhood of the mind. This effectively transforms the entire city into a canvas to be filled with aesthetics.

And our city government even provides the financing for these aesthetics at times. In 1969, a city ordinance was passed which requires two percent of capital improvement costs to fund the Public Art Program which is administered by the San Francisco Arts Commission. Fast forward to 2008 and the city unveiled a permanent installation created by Brian Goggin and Dorka Keehn titled “Language of the Birds” on Columbus Ave in North Beach. At the same intersection that Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and the rest of the Beatniks re-imagined how we related to words, a flock of illuminated books, spines permanently stretched open to expose their inner most pages, are suspended in mid-air above scattered words inlaid into the concrete. It’s gorgeous, thought provoking, and perfectly epitomizes the very aura of the neighborhood and city in which it is now a part, and that’s all you can ask for from art. I looked for some good pictures to insert here, but I think sending you to a website which is deemed an artists portfolio of the installation by clicking HERE is a better solution.

What I’m saying here is, there’s a reason why Tony Bennett left his heart in the hands of Lady San Francisco, and it’s the very same reason I’ve given mine to her wholesale: our sidewalks are literally art.

Beat that, Anywhereselse, USA!!