One day two years ago, I happened to pass a young woman sitting on the street. She was crying and saying over and over to herself that she’d never be clean. I live in San Francisco, where it’s impossible to be unaware of the homeless. For years, I’d wanted to do more than volunteer or donate to an organization. But it wasn’t until that day that I took action, inspired by the words of the young woman.
I’m taking one full year to focus on what I most give a damn about: entrepreneurship education to empower girls.
The decision to take this adventure wasn’t an easy one—I loved the projects I worked on during the two years I worked at GOOD/Corps, GOOD’s social innovation consultancy. But my “a-ha” moment came when I visited India last summer as part of a project with Gap Inc.’s Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement program. I got to meet female factory workers who are part of the P.A.C.E program, and the conversations I had with them shattered my preconceived notions of what life is like for these women. They exuded “empowerment” and all cited positive life changes due to the entrepreneurial skills they were learning through the program.
Social change is a complex, messy business. It takes a long time. We’re best positioned to affect long-term outcomes when we stay home and work within our own communities.
Many of you are already enmeshed in local design activism. But do we see our work as designers as a form of community service? If not, I think we should. Think of programs and service delivery models like soup kitchens, Americorps, trash pick-up days. These models, more than global humanitarian work, are most relevant for designers looking to work locally.
You may have heard we’ve declared the last Saturday of April “Neighborday” and we’re encouraging you to spend some time that day getting to know the folks who live near you. April 27 will be a celebration of that basic human inter-connectedness that powers great neighborhoods—the kinds of places where we all want to live.
Overlooking Duboce Park in San Francisco sits the Harvey Milk Center for the Recreational Arts, a monument to a man devoted to creating thriving communities, one block at a time. One of the outside walls of this building contains a fragment of a quote from a little known speech he made in the early days of city politics: “The American Dream starts with the neighborhoods.”
“Everything happened here,” says founder, Jerry Cimino, dramatically. “We call this intersection, Broadway and Columbus, the center of the universe.”
Through the museum’s quirky collection of more than 1,000 photos, rare books, paintings, records, posters and artifacts, visitors learn about the cold war context of the Beat Generation’s emergence, the importance of jazz to their writing, their rejection of the status quo and their influence on the counterculture of the 1960s. There are also biographical displays on each of the major figures, including Kerouac, Cassady (the charismatic ex-con who was at the center of the movement), the poets Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti and the novelist William S. Burroughs. Artifacts include a plaid jacket worn by Kerouac and the referee shirt that Cassady wore later in his quirky career, when he drove the novelist and counterculture figure Ken Kesey’s bus, Furthur.
Veronica Salazar was born in Mexico City, but after moving to San Francisco she couldn’t find a taqueria serving anything like the cuisine she grew up with. Working in restaurant kitchens during the week to support her family, she began selling her native foods at home on the weekends. Word spread, and the crowds grew to 40 customers, but she needed help to make her passion into a business.
In 2005, Salazar found the help she needed, starting El Hurache Loco—named after a Mexican delicacy shaped like the iconic sandal—in the commercial kitchen operated by a nonprofit called La Cocina. Initially a catering company, El Hurache Loco grew into a beloved food stand at area farmers markets. This fall, Salazar will open her own restaurant, a major victory for her and the organization that helped kickstart her business.
La Cocina’s mission is to transform talented home cooks into successful businesswomen by removing obstacles to entrepreneurship. Rooted in the Mission District of San Francisco, La Cocina provides commercial kitchen space and technical advice to help low-income, immigrant women start their own food businesses from square one. La Cocina offers the resources these women need to harness their talent and create successful businesses to support their families and contribute to the local economy, all while doing what they love.
Sick of having to toss your water bottle at airport security and then buy another one at exorbitant prices? Virgin America’s new marketing scheme has you in mind, thirsty traveler. And it helps cut down on bottle waste, too:
Call this common sense marketed well. Virgin America has installed “hydration stations” at San Francisco International Airport’s “green” terminal. Normally, after the TSA pats you down, X-rays your undies, and confiscates your Poland Spring, you have to shell out $4 or so for monopoly-priced airport water. Not any more—well, not at SFO, anyway.
The Bold Italic nailed this. We also love seeing Wendy MacNaughton’s work out in the world. In issue 22, she provided us with illustrations on a story about smarter stoves in Haiti, and how they could slow the deforestation in the region. She’s pretty much the best.
When’s the last time you looked up a number in the phone book? For us, it was probably around 1999. But the Yellow Pages keep coming. Every year there’s another stack of trash delivered to your doorstep.
Now San Francisco, the first city in the country to ban plastic bags, is about to take another step forward: Preventing the Yellow Pages from giving books to people who might not want them. Last week, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted 10-1 to pass legislation (PDF) that would ban unwanted delivery of the directories. Each phone book would have to be “personally delivered to an occupant or authorized representative of the residence or business or left at the residence or business following a request.” A few cities have opt-out registries, but this bill is different. The Yellow Pages would have to confirm you want a book before giving you one. The legislation also includes a public outreach campaign to make sure seniors and low-income people aren’t deprived of useful information.
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