On a sunny morning last week, I stopped by the Central Richmond Trinket Trade box on 23rd Avenue between Balboa and Anza. It's mounted on wooden posts at the edge of the sidewalk, with a pink pinwheel spinning on top. A sign on the lid reads "Richmond Trinket Trade" in pink lettering, alongside the phrase "Take a trinket, leave a trinket", a QR code, and a "Smile! You're on camera" sticker.
I opened it up and found it packed with beaded bracelets, rubber ducks, stickers, keychains, trading cards, small ceramic figurines, and pins. Everything had clearly been placed there with care by different people at different times. I left a pair of sunglasses and took a bracelet that said “Cassandra”.
If you haven't seen one yet, Trinket Trade boxes are small, decorated plastic boxes that have been appearing on sidewalks around San Francisco. The first one appeared in the Outer Sunset, but there are now trinket boxes in the Inner Sunset, Noe Valley, the Castro, the Richmond, and beyond. The movement was inspired by Portland's "Sidewalk Joy" project. In a world where everyone seems to be hustling, the Trinket Trade box is an invitation to slow down, open a lid, and participate in something small and shared.