By Peter Lawrence Kane
This city has a ton of great parks, but they’re not always located near people’s offices. (SOMA, in particular, has approximately one divot of sod per tech worker.)
That’s why savvy San Franciscans know about the network of privately owned public spaces (AKA POPOs), semi-secret terraces, plazas, rooftops and parks where you can sometimes eat your lunch on a 70-degree January afternoon while pretending this whole world is your private fiefdom. According to SPUR, there are at least 68 of them, almost all east of Grant Avenue or New Montgomery Street, but they don’t include my personal favorite, the 11th floor rooftop patio at 1 Kearny. Most POPOs are not widely publicized or even marked, probably because property managers would prefer not to deal with any aggravation.
However, they might soon be in danger. Noting that POPOs originated in a 1980s policy where commercial development downtown was only permitted in exchange for public access, SocketSite reports that “a proposed amendment could be adopted which would allow developers to pay an in lieu fee rather than provide any on-site public open space in their buildings.” It stems from the Intercontinental Hotel on Howard and Fourth, which wants a retroactive nix on its two terraces.
That would be disappointing. Think of this amendment as a rough analogy to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the abyss where developers deposit funds so they don’t have to include below-market units in the luxury condos they want to build. That hasn’t proven to be a viable alternative. Considering the boom in skyscrapers and population, it would be a shame not to include a POPO in, say, the Salesforce Tower, especially because the current policy is already a compromise (and one that too few people even know about!).
Even more ominously, the SocketSite article speculates that if the developers win this round, more aggressive proposals to snuff out existing POPOs might not be far behind. (I predict trumped-up cost estimates and overblown fears of terrorism.) So the next time you’re ambling around SoMa, count the cranes. Each one could become a future spot to meet friends over quinoa salad, or a missed opportunity.
[Via SocketSite, Photos via SPUR]
