No outlet is what the sign at the top of a block of steep street said, but in San Francisco, that might mean no outlet for cars.

I felt a staircase coming on. It was morning and two people dressed for work rushed past me down the no outline street. For sure, there had to be steps.

Yes, the Saturn steps on Saturn Street in the uphill toward Twin Peaks part of the Castro. Lots of great plantings beside the steps. Civic participation, democracy in action is what those plants are.

From having lived near some steps that are administratively a street, I know that all the nice plantings that are done are done by neighbors. The steps are streets to the city government. They are under the Department of Public Works like the streets are.

DPW will help some with making the area around street/steps nice, but they are not Parks and Rec. Plants and pretty aren't their thing.

So people make those places nice again and again, all over the city. The only steps I've seen that haven't been lovelyized are surrounded by impossibly steep ground.

It's not just voting, democracy. It's people feeling they can make a move that they think betters thing. Where people can do that fairly easy it's like a different planet from where they can't.