POPOS in San Francisco

Privately owned public open spaces or POPOS are written up and applauded as spaces in the foyers, lane ways, entrances etc of private buildings, that are used by the public. Ah ha, sounds like a SF idea, but really, they are just little spaces like we have in Melbourne and Sydney at the front of many public buildings. Don't get me wrong here, I'm just a bit underwhelmed at all the hype over them. Anyway we headed off for more walking around SF, looking for all these POPOS, which is an excuse to explore more of the city, so all good. I'm sure Lady P will elaborate on the aesthetic and architectural nature of the POPOS. One of the good things we discovered on arrival at the Ferry Building, was the Farmers' Market and the pop up food stalls. We could not go past the pizza and homemade lemonade for a late breakfast. 
The POPOS, some 68 of them in total are all rated by the SF Planning and Urban Research Association so recognizing the short attention span of my travel companion, I selectively chose those that rated 'Excellent' no less. Off course the Financial district of SF where many of these are located for office workers, bankers and the like can seek refuge in their lunch hour is undergoing huge development, often across two blocks do unfortunately some of the POPOS that read brilliantly with scupltures, water features etc included were obviously 'in wraps' or demolished as bigger better outside garden areas were being constructed. Never the less we discovered many little hidden gems including one on the 15th floor of one of the local Banks where several employees were resting under the olive trees and enjoying the colourful planter boxes that adorned a large open roof top space with glimpses across to the bay. the gardens were in all cases refined and immaculately kept and I'm afraid I have yet to find similar within the towering office block melee of Melbourne or Sydney. Laneways, yes and I do recall the odd Brisbane laneway with greenery but these POPOS were just a little more and there had obviously been some serious planning behind their development over several years.

After descending the Bank building we were surprised to see a little Irish Bar, the 'Irish Times'. So of course, we had to have a Guinness and a shandy and some chili cheese fries (what a wonderful combination). Then home to Berkeley with some salad goodies from the local supermarket for our salmon patties dinner.