I am working on a proposal to upgrade the presence of Twain along the length of and alongside Mark Twain Alley in San Francisco. Nothing about him is now there but for the name on the street sign at one end, in SF's Financial District. (A chunk of Merchant Street was stolen to create MT Alley). The change is due to a major highrise (high-price) housing development next door. The alley was named for Twain after a campaign of publisher/author Lawrence Ferlinghetti some 3-1/2 decades ago, when he (Ferlinghetti, not Twain) occupied the literary chair on the city's Arts Commission, and proposed there be "Authors Alleys" in SF's North Beach. A goodly number of once or present authors are honored, with Jack Kerouac Alley at the other end of Columbus Ave being the first to receive a facelift. Ideas, anyone? Locals, Westerners, MidWesterners, even New Englanders are welcome to make suggestions. There'll be a cafe and a fancy restaurant on the alley, a waterfall at the end, with a small Redwood Park with real redwoods between the waterfall and TransAmerica Tower. A government agencies joint-hearing is coming up on February 11, and the development seems destined to be approved. I'd like to promise to have something to propose to the builder before the ATA Conference in SF in May, if possible. Send me your thoughts: phone 415-239-5345 <[log in to unmask]> or <[log in to unmask]>