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10 Apr 2012 8:18 AM

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The bicycle is more than just a means of transportation in San Francisco — it's part of a joie de vivre. In a city with over 10,000 bike coalition members and even more Burning Man hibernators, biking takes on an elevated status.
Sven Eberlein Full Size
(Park)ing Day is a special annual holiday in San Francisco. Taking over parking spaces with fun-themed people spaces is just part of the routine. Here at the Bug Hotel everyone's abuzz.
Sven Eberlein Full Size
San Franciscans liked the idea of temporarily taking over parking spaces so much that they decided to make it permanent. Part of the city’s Pavement to Parks program, this former parking space is one of 23 parklets all across San Francisco.
Sven Eberlein Full Size
Unpredictability is the mother of good street life. Who wouldn't close the street for a piano-playing cowboy on a bicycle?
Sven Eberlein Full Size
There'll be swingin', swayin', and records playin'! When the music is good and the sidewalk sales are happening, spontaneous dancing in the street is bound to erupt.
Sven Eberlein Full Size
Sunday Streets not only closes down good chunks of a neighborhood to automobile traffic, but it brings out the best new ideas in sustainable inspiration. Bike-powered music has become a staple of SF street life, shedding a few pounds in the process.
Sven Eberlein Full Size
A former gas station on Valencia Street overpowered by outdoor yoga. Good for mind, body, soul, and city!
Sven Eberlein Full Size
Some prefer to take it more slowly, as witnessed in this parklet on 22nd Street in the Mission District. The revolution will not be sleep-deprived!
Debra Baida Full Size
There's no heart without art. Street artists showcasing their trade during a Sunday Streets closure in The Mission.
Sven Eberlein Full Size
Wanna learn how to play bike polo in the street? It's what we used to do before cars took over.
Sven Eberlein Full Size
No place like asphalt to play a round of skully. That's what streets are for!
Debra Baida Full Size
San Francisco musicians' favorite stage! In the city that invented the Bicycle Music Festival, playing an instrument is just not enough. You've got to know how to build a rock 'n' rickshaw.
Sven Eberlein Full Size
Chasing bubbles in the street: The definition of a livable city.
Sven Eberlein Full Size

Street people: In San Francisco, humans reclaim the right-of-way

By Sven Eberlein

In San Francisco over the last few years, residents have transformed parking spots into community spaces, closed off stretches of a neighborhood’s streets to auto traffic, and otherwise reclaimed the streets for humans. Everyone is invited. All you need to be is carless, ageless, and marvelous.

Sven Eberlein is a writer and ecomuse living in San Francisco, with roots in Germany. He’s written about environmental issues for Yes! and Ode Magazine and ruminates from the spaces between soil and soul at his blog, A World of Words. Through his work with nonprofit Ecocity Builders he’s been intimately involved in the advancement of sustainable urbanism, and he loves reporting about people and ideas that make cities more livable. Though a man of many characters, he tweets his words wisely.

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Street people: In San Francisco, humans reclaim the right-of-way

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