By Jennifer Maerz
You could ask a scientist or an urban planner or a psychic what the future of San Francisco holds, but that’s boring. We decided to hit up the city’s most imaginative demographic: little kids. The Bold Italic taught a class with 826 Valencia this past fall called “Hello from the Future,” in which we asked eight 10- to 12-year-olds to fantasize about what San Francisco will look like decades and centuries down the line. They spent three weeks writing down their ideas, which we turned into stories, podcasts, and posters from Western Editions.
So what’s in store for San Francisco? Here are the kids’ answers, with animations from designer Angela May Chen.
It is the year 2113. San Francisco is gone. Instead, we’ve moved to a planet that Howard D. Buggwart discovered in 2052. We call it Casa Nova. We built another San Francisco and called it San Francisco Nova.
After about one month, we discovered aliens just like humans, but purple, which were two feet tall and twice as wide. We had long wars with them. We were outnumbered by their powers because they kept ambushing us by hiding in the giant pumpkins that grew there. After a few years, we stopped and settled in with them, sharing our technologies.
The whole planet is full of nature, including plants that weren’t there in the past, because the alien’s specialties are herbs and farming. They created a special way of growing cows so they will taste special, like sautéed-onion cow, or cheese steak, or mince-meat patties. They also grow a plant immune to every known disease on Earth! In trade we taught them all about electrical physics and metalworking. –Darius
In the future anyone can have a cow. Are you a farmer? An actor? Are you a highly paid, handsome, smelly mayor? Just send Grogoro™ Inc. $0.99 and get in with the trend! We put in Boogadio acid, freeze-dry it, and package it in pure gold. Call (111) 478–2003, or go to Instagrow™/packet//homepage.gov. –Ben
In the future we will have portals to Mars. But one day aliens that are called explanatory explanaliens will come through the main portal. We will defeat them, and they will open a rift to their unlimited power source. We will try to use it for a flying car, but we will fail again. LiveCorps’ life support will keep us hanging on to our pets — our robot dogs, cats, and fish. –Cole
Buildings will float in the sky, and people will fly to work, all wearing jet suits. They will be eating squishy chicken that could leap off your plate so high it could hit the top of a mall. Food will taste really different, which is disgustingly good. Cars will look like teleportation jets, but they will actually be teleportation cars. There will be invisible paint on them because they were just made by scientists. There are jet packs where the tires were. There will be a mind reader inside, and it will take you where you think of going in your mind. –Isaiah
In the future people will be eating moon burgers. These delicious treats will consist of a single slice of moon and a sticky bun, donated from a factory in London. –Bea
In the future there will be a tech genius named Shane. Shane will build an army of robots that look like metal chunks and have guns for arms, wheels for legs, and glowing rainbow eyes. Shane will intend to dominate the whole world and will build a space station on Pluto and not die. –Shane
When I turn 25 I will look taller, and I will have a wife with two kids — twins. My house would be futuristic, with awesome security. My job would be a professional Lego designer. Then for two years I will try to make a time machine out of Legos. –Diego
The newest transportation is the Jungle Pod Five. You can tell which Jungle Pod is yours because your name should be carved in the back. A police car is easy to notice because it is the color of a non-ripe lime — the color of a vibrant light-green sun. My Jungle Pod is yellow with blue and orange. I can tell it’s mine because the back of my Jungle Pod has a big “K” carved into it. I live on Moonjen Hill next to the moon soccer stadium. — Katie
Design: Angela May Chen
