Sassy and Caffeinated

After reading this week’s text, I sat back and thought about what “everyday urbanism” really means to me. I came to the conclusion that everyday urbanism is largely the unique ways in which everyday people cleverly manipulate and take advantage of the urban environment to survive and thrive. When I began to think of examples I could glean from my own experiences of urban life, Sassyass Coffee immediately came to mind.

 Besides having a fantasstic name, Sassyass is a mobile, bike-driven coffee cart that moves around Charleston, SC. Normally, Sassyass can be found in their usual parallel parking spots on King and Princess or Glebe and George, just off of College Way. Mike and Sheri, who own the coffee cart (coffee bike?), have been able to take advantage of aspects of the urban environment (empty parking spaces, crowded tourist thoroughfares, and sleep-deprived College of Charleston students) to create a business that city planners and urbanists wouldn’t normally think to provide a space for, but is one that is needed and often-used by the urban population. You can partake in non-corporate coffee culture (here’s looking at you Starby’s), a great conversation with two sassy (not to mention hysterically funny) individuals, and your own small bit of everyday urbanism all for the low, low price of $2-$3 a cup.