HOT. The word carries so many meanings: passionate, sizzling, trendy, intense, and yes, sexy. But for us, it signals our favorite month. Meet the 20 movers and shakers that have us fired up this year.

The majority of San Francisco’s Art Nouveau–style newsstands—about 70 vintage green metal kiosks in all—sit vacant, awaiting a higher calling.

“They’re perfect for funky, experimental interventions,” says HOK architect Justin Kelly, who hatched the re:NEWS streetscape project in 2010 to soup up said kiosks in the name of enchanting sidewalk strolls, especially in the charm-challenged mid-Market region. “Ultimately, you should be able to see a kiosk down the road and eagerly anticipate its contents.”

From the Huckleberry Bicycles gratis repair stand inside a booth on Market Street, near Seventh—the first to open, in 2011—to the Community Arts International spinoff, called the Kiosk Museum, which this summer began installing art exhibits in a dozen of these offbeat spaces, the project is slowly but surely gaining momentum.

As a triathlete and new father, Kelly seems remarkably suited for such an unprecedented undertaking, given the perseverance and ingenuity required. “We’re not ideas-limited, we’re resource-limited,” explains the East Bay resident. “But I know the most powerful achievements result from many small steps. I can’t wait for this to take on a life of its own.”