TURNING JAPANESE? I REALLY DON’T THINK SO: Here are 10 ideas San Francisco can import from Tokyo to save downtown.
San Francisco is at a pivotal moment.
With foot traffic down 31% from pre-pandemic levels, and over 54,000 residents permanently gone, the need for a compelling new vision to revitalize our urban infrastructure is paramount — especially downtown.
I recently had the privilege of visiting Tokyo for the first time — and the city left me nothing short of starstruck with its urban design. Here are 10 ideas I saw that San Francisco can integrate into its city fabric to reinvigorate our ailing downtown.
Car-free streets
Walking through Tokyo, one of the first things I marveled at was the abundance of car-free streets. This widespread flexibility to walk unencumbered by traffic was inspiring.
Moreover, Tokyo’s walkability creates a thriving environment for small businesses and restaurants, as more foot traffic clearly leads to higher patronage. I didn’t see a single corridor where residents weren’t lining up for their favorite restaurant.
By prioritizing pedestrians, Tokyo also lowers air pollution. While San Francisco has about 460 cars per 1,000 people, Tokyo has 232. With this reduction in cars comes a commensurate reduction in traffic, congestion and pollution.
Double our sidewalk size
In the districts of Tokyo where cars are allowed, the sidewalks are massive; The pedestrian-to-car space ratio is easily 2:1.
The benefits of these larger sidewalks compound. More sidewalk space attracts more pedestrians. More pedestrians mean more foot traffic. And more foot traffic means more patronage for local businesses.
Large sidewalks also allow innovative use of space. Many in Tokyo have metal railings to protect pedestrians from cars. There are designated paths for both incoming and outgoing pedestrian traffic (you always walk on the left side in Tokyo). There’s more room for public toilets. And there are vending machines serving water, ramen or even ice cream.
With more sidewalk, there’s more room for people and the things that they need and enjoy.
That’s nice. But curiously unmentioned in the above San Francisco Chronicle article is Japan’s astonishingly small homelessness problem. Why is it so small?
Drug Addiction
Tom Gill, a Japan-based social anthropologist, reported that Japan has a lower homeless population than the US and other countries because Japan has a much lower drug addiction problem. A 2014 study revealed that about 1.6% of the Japanese population tried drugs other than alcohol in their lifetime. Gill said that drugs other than alcohol are strictly illegal and usually only accessible through gangsters. Around 50% of drug users in Japan have gang connections. However, many of Japan’s homeless suffer from alcoholism.
A 67,500 person survey from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health In America showed that over 50% of the population in the US used some form of illegal drug in their lifetime. Drug addiction is one of the reasons for homelessness in America and can prevent people from finding homes and jobs due to a criminal record.
Karla Thennes, the director of a homeless organization called Porchlight in Madison, Wisconsin, described homeless shelters in Madison. Hundreds of people sleep on mats only inches apart with little sanitation. Madison and other cities across America need shelter reforms that are safer and more spacious.
Thennes explained to The Borgen Project that the homeless could not work past addiction in these shelter environments because of a failure to meet basic needs.“You can’t stay sober sleeping in a shelter,” Thennes said.
Mental Health
According to the Homeless Hub, 30-35% of all people who experience homelessness worldwide have a mental illness. In Japan, someone with a mental illness is typically placed into a mental health facility, sparing them from the streets. There are 269 psychiatric beds per 100,000 people in Japan, whereas, in the United States, the number is 25.
In fact, Japan has one of the most efficient health care systems in the world. However, a significant stigma revolves around mental health in Japan and the country sees one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Public insurance in Japan does not cover prescriptions for mental health medications such as antidepressants, and psychologists don’t always have enough training for their profession.
So while Japan’s mental health system ends up reducing the homeless population, their treatment of mentally ill people and available mental health resources struggle to meet an appropriate standard. “Japan has a conservative approach to the treatment of mentally ill people who are generally institutionalized,” reported Gill when he spoke to the Life Where I’m From Youtube channel.
So by all means San Francisco, crack down on drugs and institutionalize those with mental illness — use those ideas from Tokyo to start revitalizing the city.
UPDATE: Free Parking for the Homeless in CA.
Did you know that homeless people enjoy a constitutional right to free parking? That’s the main takeaway from a California Court of Appeals opinion issued Friday that ruled cities that tow cars with five or more unpaid parking tickets violate the 4th Amendment’s prohibition of search and seizure without a warrant.
The Coalition on Homelessness sued the City and County of San Francisco seeking an injunction against towing scofflaw cars that piled up parking tickets, and the trial court had denied the petition. But the Court of Appeals reversed, because “appellant [Coalition on Homelessness] presented declarations regarding the severe impacts of vehicle tows on unhoused San Francisco residents.”
Wait, I thought we wanted San Fran to be more like Tokyo:
(Updated and bumped.)