I've been shoveling dirt and gravel for the past few days, helping to put together a victory garden in front of San Francisco's City Hall. At one point we all looked up from our shoveling and shimmering there in the heat like some kind of vision was the mayor, in a gorgeous suit and equally gorgeous thin leather shoes.
One of the sweat-begrimed volunteers began telling him that the city should keep on funding the garden, rather than ripping it up and replacing it with sod once Slow Food Nation and Carlo Petrini are safely out of town. "You all might enjoy working on it now," the mayor said in a cautionary tone. "But eventually it'll get weedy and people will start to complain."
"Portland has a full-time victory garden" said the volunteer. "You don't want to be behind Portland, do you?"
And with that, the mayor was gone.
"He didn't even pick up a shovel and pose with it!" one of the volunteers wailed.
People kept on stopping by the garden, and asking when they could come by and plant things. You know, once all the dirt-shoveling was finished. Oddly enough, planting day was already over-subscribed with volunteers, something which had not occurred so far with any of our days of staking, raking, and shoveling. Which reminded me of how my friend Novella complains about how people are always trying to persuade her to let them plant things in her garden. To this she says (I am paraphrasing) "find a vacant lot and start your own garden, chump." Planting = the sexy part.
Civic Center in San Francisco is between the Tenderloin and SOMA, which a fair amount of shitting in public. We discussed this as we shoveled. One person said that Civic Center is only a popular spot for congregating during the day, so stealth shitting in the lettuce by night was unlikely to be an issue. Others demurred. A nearby fountain at UN Plaza had been shut down entirely several years ago because it had acquired Ganges-like qualities. We continued to discuss. Hepatitis? Hep A could be a problem.
I'm glad to live in a city where "Garden in front of City Hall! Cool!" outweighs "We could get sued! For serving hepatitis lettuce from our victory garden!"
The plaza in front of City Hall is normally so stark and boring and International Style in nature. What I wish the city would do is turn it into a bench-lined swath of greenery like Washington Square Park in Philadelphia. Or a Gaudi-in-Barcelona-like plaza made out of San Francisco's smashed crockery.
I realize this is completely out of keeping with any California asthetic traditions, other than the Hearst tradition where you steal anything from Europe that seems nifty and smoosh it all together. Nonetheless, I am endorsing it.
