By Karrie Jacobs
Travel + Leisure

San Francisco is green, clean, and organic—the architecture is high-tech and eco-friendly, and the food is excruciatingly fresh and local. Is this the world's first true 21st-century city? I've prepared for my appointment with Mayor Gavin Newsom by stopping at Citizen Cake, a Hayes Valley restaurant where my iced coffee is made with organic milk and my chocolate cream-filled cookies, a sophisticated take on the Oreo, are spiked with fleur de sel. But even the infusion of sugar, caffeine, and sea salt can't help me keep up with the mayor who, despite being trapped behind his enormous traditional wooden desk, is a bundle of nervous energy as he rattles off the ways in which San Francisco is becoming America's premier green city.

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By Prof. Richard Bender, UC Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design
John Parman, UC Berkeley’s Urban Construction Laboratory

Can we “slow” the growth of San Francisco’s metropolitan region without stopping it? By “slow,” we make reference to the Slow Food movement and its CittaSlow offshoot, especially in their emphasis on the value and pleasures of regional difference. “Without stopping it” is to acknowledge the projected growth of the region, which we accept. Our title’s “smart” refers to “smart growth”—“livable” is another favored adjective, both endorsing density without always asking what it means in practice. Like the Buddha, we see a middle way between “slow” and “smart” that emphasizes enjoyment and livability. Like the Californians we have both become, we want to have our cake and eat it, too. Read more »