A new stardard for civility. How about liveability?

Gone! No more street furniture.
Such a gorgeous day, too.

What a beautiful day today. At lunch I ran over to the Safeway Marketplace to get a bowl of soup. Since it was wonderfully warm outside I proceed to grab me a spot on one of the tables before they were all taken. As a headed out the door and around the corner I was surprised that all the tables and chairs were gone.

I stepped inside to ask the manager what happened to this wonderful space. She said that (you can insert your standard orders from headquarters speech here) they were removed the day before yesterday. When I pressed her a bit more for information she mentioned that their had been fights and other behaviours that warranted their removal.

Its funny that we use terms like "canary in the coal mine", and "indicator species" to euphemistically highlight environmental sustainability but we are ignorant to indicators for civic sustainability or civic vitality. Cities can print out reams of LOS (Level of Service) data or traffic volumes cross tabulated by time of day, but we don't track or show concern for indicators of civility or even personal safety.

Another change since the store opened
 is the addition of this turnstile.
Most urban folk walk and thus carry
bags that make this a real obstacle.

The only statistic or indicator that cities, especially San Jose has historically relied on is the annual homicide rate as if this is a true indicator of livability.

This comes after last year's removal of the street furniture in front of the only downtown Peet's Coffee shop. I do wish we somehow could figure this thing out. Cities in countries like France, Italy, Romania, and even here in North America, Montreal seems to have it figured out.

Oh well, at least the weather was nice.

Recent and related posts:
New building going up in the heart of downtown Campbell

Cafe Culture in Romania

They make great coffee, just not great places