Alley Love in Seattle

Seattle's Crosscut has a nice piece on that city's alleys. Alleys can provide a great pedestrian experience, and Crosscut gives some good examples around the world (including Maiden Lane here in SF) and discusses a design competition with the goal of improving the local alley environment and public awareness thereof.

SF has several dense pockets of narrow streets or alleys. Western SoMa, the Mission District (or what used to be the Mission District) near 16th West of Mission, The Mission District surrounding 24th and Mission Streets, and Hayes Valley come to mind. I'd like to see some minor improvements made to these pockets of walkable urbanity, and I'd like to see new pockets in areas of the city slated for future development.