" Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind. Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?"Oops... I got sidetracked once again... what was actually on my mind, prior to this latest musical diversion, was Proposition D, a measure on the 2009 San Francisco ballot.
If successful it could lead to revitalizing the two block stretch of Market Street between 5th and 7th Streets from the blighted area (politely put) it has become over the past couple of decades into a vibrant urban entertainment, residential and retail district.
Everybody would win... property owners... retail business owners...the local economy... and the community who would have one more place in which to live and to go for that unique San Francisco-experience.
A bit of background... In 1997, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors nixed a plan to allow electronic signs in Union Square. Five years later, the majority of San Francisco voters approved Proposition G, which prohibited any more general advertising outdoor billboards.
Most people think of outdoor advertising billboards as static images doomed to dinginess ... but technology has changed and created new opportunities. Case in point is the NASDAQ building in New York (see blog photo). Think of electronic billboards that can be programmed to communicate different messages at different times to different audiences.... public service, promotion of the arts, communication of events.
Kudos to David Addington "the Mid-Market impresario" who purchased the famed Warfield Theater and Carolyn Diamond, Executive Director of the Market Street Association who are working hard to turn this "sow's ear into a silk purse".
And now back to our regular programming, the Five Man Electrical Band...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQTJF7y9nn4&feature=related
