This is an absolutely gorgeous parklet. While there are two rivaling parklets just footsteps away,…read morethis one by far has the most amazing aesthetic. It almost looks like a wooden ship, cruising down Judah Street. The parklet is all made of beautifully finished wood, with built-in planters, a platform for bike parking and plenty of seating. There are a handful of wooden benches to sit on and a couple of longer table-like features. This is a great place to people-watch, or enjoy your coffee and a snack. Make sure to check out the local shops that help maintain this space!

cute park just outside of the san mateo county traffic court. on a nice, warm day, it's actually a…read moregreat place to just sit and read or eat your lunch if you're waiting for your case to be called or the court is on lunch recess. whoever does the landscaping here does a pretty good job b/c the lawn is always neatly manicured and bushes evenly clipped. sometimes there is a food cart on the corner so you can even grab some food, then sit on one of the benches here and enjoy it. park is open even when the traffic court is closed.

I like what Water Light Public Plaza represents, even if it's poorly designed…read more Unfortunately, the three walls that make up the Plaza have no sound dampening. So if you have multiple people speaking or children being children, the sound carries to the point it's unpleasant. It couldn't be made into a park because the noise would be deafening. The Plaza has little to no greenery and only receives sunlight during certain points of the day and year, generally being a concrete shaded rather cold space with tables that go largely unused. It would liven up the area dramatically if they put in a small coffee shop that had games you could check out (like Salesforce Park), but my guess is they have to keep it a community space for tax purposes. In my opinion the seating at Growers Square and the Wells Fargo Fountain are far more successful. They're both more comfortable and have a mix of shaded and sunny areas. So all in all, while the idea of the Plaza (with it's beautiful tiled backdrop and fountain) is great, the actual usability of it day to day is fairly low.

This is a really cute public space in Walnut Creek, with a few plants along the border and several…read moretables available to enjoy snacks or drinks. Half of the seating area was covered by shade when we visited, which was a relief on a hot Sunday afternoon. The glass and ceramic mosaic mural along the wall, titled Water Light, is a beautiful reflective art piece by Jason Middlebrook, whose works connect art, history, and nature. The arcs of water flowing from the jets blend in with the artwork on the wall beautifully. The biggest surprise was the wooden grand piano at the corner of the plaza adorned with images of tiny trees and polka dots whose colors match the mural in the background (part of the Painted Piano Project). We got to play and listen to lovely melodies while relaxing in this simple yet delightful space.

Check out this wonderful new public space in North Beach! The Columbus Street Parklet #1 has…read morebenches, café seating and landscaping at this, the City's third Parklet project. Bamboo used for the surface decking is an environmentally friendly renewable resource and all landscaping used are low-water species. Café Greco has agreed to provide daily maintenance, although all seating is free and open to the public.

Pretty little wood and concrete structure with planters filled with local grasses and succulents. A…read morevery nice addition to this stretch of cobblestone sidewalk near Lake Merritt.

This is a carved redwood bust of Junipero Serra (inscribed with the words: "Padre Junipero Serra,…read moreApostle of California. Presented to the citizens of San Mateo, CA by the San Mateo Serra Club in 1969"). The sculptor was Kenyon Kaiser and the statue is mounted on a concrete pedestal, and nestled in a small redwood grove parklet at S. El Camino Real and Aragon Blvd. This great little piece of California history is one of many, many monuments across the State honoring the man who "settled" CA for the Spaniards and destroyed Native American sovereignty, enslaving thousands and seizing their land. The statue is presumably located here because of Serra's association with El Camino Real -- he helped to blaze the trailer Northward while establishing the string of Missions that are situated along the route.

It's ridiculous that I live within two blocks of both the Divisadero Street and Fulton Street…read moreParklets, that I walk by them all the time (the Divisadero one literally three or four times a week), and that I love the idea and the execution of parklets in San Francisco. Why is it ridiculous? Because I've never actually spent time in either of them. Yet the 18th Street Parklet in Potrero Hill? The first time I saw it, I told myself that I should eat my lunch here, and about two hours later, that's exactly what I did. Yes, it has AstroTurf. (It might be some other faux grass, but it's definitely not FieldTurf.) Despite the higher likelihood of sports-related injury, I don't mind the fake grass; it's clean, and it adds a funny element to what can be a sceney and obnoxious part of Potrero Hill. OK, I don't really think of Potrero Hill like that, but it has more than its fare share of obnoxiously out-of-touch rich people, so you have to be careful sometimes. Anyway, there are cute and mismatched and funny places to sit, and since 18th Street really isn't that busy, you'll actually enjoy sitting in the middle of the street. This is a very strategically located parklet, as Hazel's kitchen doesn't have any indoor seating, and neither it nor Farley's is wheelchair accessible while the parklet is, so if a wheelchair user were actually able to put an order in at either place, she could enjoy the nice day and try to forget that almost every business on 18th Street seems to have an annoying (and discriminatory) front step. Yea, parklets!

It doesn't belong to Four Barrel, so if any of the pasty patrons or bearded baristas are giving you…read moreguff about sitting here, point to the tiny little sign that informs said Mission MacGuffins about the true nature of parklets in San Francisco: namely, that they're free and open to the public. The plastic or plastique figurines dancing above your head are magical, especially as it's getting dark, especially if there happen to be lights affixed to the lattice structure when you happen to be visiting. There is beautiful bike parking (but very few beautiful bikes), and the blocky reclaimed wood feels sturdy beneath your feet. The seating areas look a bit like open-air cubicles, but I haven't spent enough time here to know whether sharing a stall with someone without asking first is rude. I can imagine doing some serious reading here. Or spreading out a bunch of science textbooks and/or technical journals and studying and/or designing something. I'm sure dozens of desk-dreading daredevils have done this before. They might even do it on the regular. San Francisco still has its charms, but as with our inalienable rights, defending these charms sometimes requires sharp elbows as well as tiny little signs.

I'm a huge fan of the diminutive parklets the city of San Francisco has been peppering around town…read moreas of late, and this urban oasis right outside of Four Barrel on Valencia just might be my favorite hang of them all. While you'd be hard pressed to find me giving anything less than 5 stars to any of the pop-up mini parks scattered throughout the 415, this particular structure has an architectural soul that syncs up to the neighborhood perfectly. Plenty of seating, lots of surface area to lock up your bicycle, and some serious synergy with the interior design of Four Barrel just steps away. Well done, parklet wizards!

Nice place to sit, enjoying a cup of coffee with friends in front of simple pleasures. It does…read moreget chilly in the evening, and a but smokey, from the second hand smoke