Jane Jacobs writing in Dark Age Ahead, identified five pillars of our culture that we depend on but which are in serious decline:

Community and Family
Higher Education
The Effective Practice of Science
Taxation and Government
Self-policing by Learned Professions

The decay of these pillars, Jacobs contended, was behind such ills as environmental crisis, racism and the growing gulf between rich and poor; their continued degradation could lead us into a new Dark Age, a period of cultural collapse in which all that keeps a society alive and vibrant is forgotten.
This walk will tie in ideas discussed in Jane’s last book she published before she died, Dark Age Ahead as seen through the lens of downtown San Francisco Neighborhoods.
Please join this walk.
And maybe, just maybe you might meet The Wizard of O’Farrell Street !

Time: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Date: Sunday, May 5, 2013

Event Start/End: 

Walk Begins : In front of The Twitter Building’s Main Entrance, 1355 Market Street

Walk Ends : Pier 15, The Embarcadero, outside The Exploratorium’s new location

Host:  HiMY SYeD, SFwiki.org

Theme: Walking

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up.

Accessibility: This event is accessible and open to Wheelchairs, Bicycles, Seniors, Children

About the Walk Leader :

HiMY SYeD is currently visiting the San Francisco Bay Area.
For the past four years, he has lead a similar Jane’s Walk in his hometown of Toronto titled, “Dark Age Ahead – The Wizard of Ossington Jane’s Walk”.

This is HiMY’s fifth year leading a walk discussing Dark Age Ahead but the first time in San Francisco incorporating local neighbourhood examples.

As an activist, Jane Jacobs helped stop two planned-for urban expressways, one in Manhattan, the other in Toronto. San Francisco also had its own decades-long parallel struggle eventually dubbed the “Freeway Revolt”.This Jane’s Walk will retrace the route of the former Embarcadero Freeway, along what today is Herb Caen Way. During this walk a history of planned freeways criss-crossing San Francisco will be presented, along with the struggles to stop them from being built, or to tear down existing expressways. As we walk the route, we will highlight the positive results and unintended consequences of bringing down the Embarcadero Freeway. With the walk leader being from Toronto, comparisons between both cities will be made on the intersection of Expressways, Public Transit, Neighbourhoods, and Waterfronts plus the politics driving them all. This Jane’s Walk winds up in Chinatown ending in front of the Central T Subway Station currently under construction. This subway station is an important piece of a giant transit jigsaw puzzle that helps us to understand San Francisco’s municipal politics.

Time: 12 p.m.

Date: Saturday, May 4, 2013

Event Start/End: 

Start Location : Cupid’s Span in Rincon Park. We’ll meet at the footpath right in front of the Giant Arrow where it enters the ground.

End Location : in front of Central T Subway Station currently under construction in Chinatown.

Host:  HiMY SYeD, SFwiki.org

Theme: Walking

Registration: No need to sign up, just show up.

Accessibility: This event is accessible and open to Wheelchairs, Bicycles, Seniors, Children