This is the day after Xmas. San Francisco has a wonderful ice skating rink which is constructed every winter. We love it. The newly remodeled Ferry Building is in the background. The photo is on the right.

Just to the left of the ice rink is the Vaillancourt sculpture. (Photo on the left) The sculpture is a remarkable piece of prescient art. When it was built forty years ago it was described as ‘a freeway after a collapse.’ Well lo and behold, the freeway that was right behind it is now gone. After the 1989 earthquake, the Vaillancourt sculpture survived, but the Embarcadero freeway was badly damaged. The citizens hated the freeway because it blocked a beautiful view in the name of intercity transportation efficiency. San Franciscans prefer a beautiful view over intercity transportation efficiency .

The citizens won this battle and the sculpture became prescient art.

This photo on the right reflects two convivial triumphs.
When Union Square was rebuilt a few years ago, someone had the vision to put a coffee shop on one end of the Square. The coffee shop is first rate and people love it. It has outdoor seating most of the year.

The photo was taken from the 8th floor of Macy’s on the balcony of The Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant with 178 menu items, many of them excellent. The outdoors rooftop view of Union Square and the wildly diverse pure San Francisco restaurant patrons are truly heartwarming.

Two strikes for commercially generated conviviality. Commerce is really good at making people happy.