Little Brother

I finished reading a novel by Cory Doctorow called Little Brother.   The book, which is free to read online through Creative Commons, explores an underground movement of young people who use technology to subvert the Department of Homeland Security’s draconian measures, after a large scale terrorist attached in San Francisco. 

I really enjoyed the novel and its subversive themes, but of particular interest to this blogger, was a criticism of some urban planning in SF. 

Here’s a passage that made me smirk, as it reminds me of some arguments that have been fought around the worthiness of Peel Plaza:

“I've always hated Civic Center. It's a collection of huge weddingcake buildings: court houses, museums, and civic buildings like City Hall. The sidewalks are wide, the buildings are white. In the tourist guides to San Francisco, they manage to photograph it so that it looks like Epcot Center, futuristic and austere.

But on the ground, it's grimy and gross. Homeless people sleep on all the benches. The district is empty by 6PM except for drunks and druggies, because with only one kind of building there, there's no legit reason for people to hang around after the sun goes down. It's more like a mall than a neighborhood, and the only businesses there are bailbondsmen and liquor stores, places that cater to the families of crooks on trial and the bums who make it their nighttime home.”

(Chapter 19.  Page 108 on the PDF version)

While urban planning is only discussed in passing in the book (a few other sections discuss the make up of a variety of neighbourhoods in the books’ version of San Francisco), it is a fun read with lots of neat ideas and technology to ponder.