Walk in San Francisco

Went for a walk in the Potrero Dist. adjacent to Design Dist near downtown San Francisco City, California on a late Saturday morning.  The Rhode Island St. between the 16th and 17th Street, a block about 250 Meters long was blocked off for all kinds of vehicular traffic.  Citizens and kids were out enjoying the weekend sunny late morning.  The SFcB (San Francisco Center for Books) which has its center there, had arranged a free design and printing workshop, right on the street.  Posters were put out well in advance for the citizens to enjoy the event.  This is a common activity here.  Certain city blocks are made pedestrian plazas in the summer and early autumn weekends, to encourage local citizen social interactions.  There may be Farmers Markets, Garage Sales, street foods, painting marathons, etc.  One is expected to use the public transport or personal vehicles parked far away and walk around in the area and take in the planned local activity, which are generally educational.  Even the street Market will have lots of info on the products, with owners explaining and answering queries.   Local eateries and cafes, put out small tables and chairs on the footpath and citizens enjoy the open eating and fellowship.  A great degree of cleanliness is visible with lots of trash boxes in the area.  

This printing workshop brought to my attention a very interesting 'button' making setup.  The adjacent picture shows the manual button jig-die press, along with parts to make the buttons.  There is the clear-transparent PVC circle, then the paper printed matter circle, then the metal underlay, which are all press-bonded together in the first step.  This is then pressed into the back circle plate which has the clip for wearing the button on the shirt.  This setup is for 5cm buttons and the parts have an excellent finish.  

The setup can be purchased locally, the message on the button is locally made for local public cause.   The details for the setup are shown alongside.  I have been thinking, maybe our Activists and Volunteers could use such a setup and make meaningful buttons for public cause at very low cost.  I checked out the parts and setup, and found I could make one button in less than a minute.  Ordering ready buttons from vendors for our activities is always costly with no control on quality.  

Walking around the area I came upon a small  manual letter press for making leaflets, cards and A4 size posters in mono-color.  Children and adults were encouraged to try their hand and understand the process.  Similarly, there was lithography and transfer printing setup.  For a large size print, they had organized a three tonne road roller to press the inked block on the paper.  This drew large crowds and bids were placed for buying the limited editions of art made by popular local artists.  

Thinking of aamchi mumbai, I feel the above activity, buttons and cards are all eminently do-able and will encourage citizen participation and bonding.  Public cause messages can be given and citizen awareness raised easily.  The increased public participation due to national level IAC activities can be used at such platforms to educate citizens on their duties and rights.  Jai Hind!