San Jose’s City Hall: California futurism

What we have here is the long-awaited “Future” as realized by architect Richard Meier in San Jose, California's new City Hall — finished in 2005, photographed here in 2008:

It's found at 200 East Santa Clara Street in San Jose, California (Google map) — the so-called “Capital of Silicon Valley.”

As always, start at Wikipedia for more info about San Jose City Hall.

Technorati Tags: architecture, California, RichardMeier, SanJose

Helicopter rescues surfer in Pacifica

We were walking at the beach in Pacifica today when a  rescue helicopter swooped in to pluck a surfer out of the ocean.

From the San Mateo County Times, Feb. 11, 2008:

“A Brazilian teen who misjudged the movement of the tide on Sunday had to be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter as he sat on his surfboard at sea, according to officials.”

 

What I don't understand is why the City of Pacifica doesn't have a police boat that can pick up distressed surfers.  The helicopter was overkill, me thinks.

Technorati Tags: California, emergency, helicopter, Pacifica, rescue, surfer

Facts about California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Levees

What: Earthen berms built on peaty marsh islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta region in California, roughly an hour northeast of San Francisco, bounded by the cities of Sacramento, Stockton, Tracy, and Antioch (Google map). The San Joaquin River and Sacramento River converge here; smaller bays part of the system include San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, Suisun Bay, Grizzly Bay. The delta was originally marshland; reclamation was made by the building of levees, begun by Chinese laborers in 1850s, finished by 1920.

above: photo from NASA's Earth Observatory

Below: sunset on the Sacramento River; the levee running through the middle of the photo is topped by Highway 160.

Area: 1,100 square miles.

The Numbers: around 70 reclaimed islands and tracts, surrounded by 1,100 miles of levees. 35% are project-maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers; the rest private- and local reclamation district-maintained.

Farming: 500,000 acres of prime agricultural land.

Water: surrounded by 700 miles of waterways.

Fauna: over 100 species of waterfowl and wildlife; numerous fish species, both resident and anadromous varieties.

Who uses the Delta:

• important deep water ship channels to Stockton and Sacramento
• natural gas production fields
• East Bay Municipal Utility District (water supply) has three Mokelumne River water pipelines that cross the Delta from their origin in the Sierra Nevada foothills
• power transmission lines
• water transferred through Delta channels for intake into the State Water Project and Central Valley Project at the Delta's south end
• railroad tracks
• Several islands have people living on them
• The islands crucial to preventing saline (ocean) water intrusion in the Delta

The Problem: Levees and island surface sinking because the organic peat soil is highly compressible. Many islands are now 15-20 feet below sea level. Islands are expected to subside to 21-48 feet below sea level in 50-100 years. Subsidence rates are between 1.6-3 inches per year. Danger of levee collapse increases with subsidence because water pressure on levee increases.

Levees are being degraded by several factors:

• pumping water out of the islands aids subsidence; dry, tilled peat soil subject to wind erosion
• wakes from boats, especially recreational boaters in speedboats
• cavities formed by burrowing muskrats and beavers
• scouring action of river and tidal flows
• age — many levees are over 100 years old
• wind erosion
• soil movement
• earthquake
• vegetation — plants can masks levee condition from inspectors; falling trees may tear holes in levees.

Levees break and flood the islands they protect. Major islands were flooded at least 18 times in last 60 years. Franks Tract flooded in 1936 and 1938 and was never reclaimed (now a State Recreation Area), as with Donland Island.

Value of agricultural land and crops not worth the reclamation costs. Farmers are unwilling and unable to pay for repairs by themselves. In recent decades, farmers have been switching to lower value field crops like corn, making the agricultural land even less worth preserving.

Water quality is threatened in summer when low outflow fails to repel saline intrusion.

If an island becomes flooded, water loss through evaporation over the flooded area would exceed what agriculture uses over the same area; this would require State Water Project and Central Valley Project to make greater releases just to flush out the Delta before water could be exported.

Two situations:

1. Levees in central Delta are locally maintained and constructed over a long period of time by private interests or local reclamation districts. The landowners can not afford to maintain their levees without public assistance.
2. Levees along deep water ship channels are maintained by Army Corps of Engineers; these are the “project levees.” Built to much higher standards, they are in adequate condition and no major work is needed to preserve them.

Solutions:

• State Legislature committed in 1973 to maintaining the levees in their present configuration.
• Most important reason to maintain the levees is to protect the SWP/CVP water supply from saline intrusion.
• Army Corps of Engineers wants to maintain only valuable/necessary levees. They prefer a “polder” scenario, creating huge new linked islands with fewer waterways and thus fewer levees to maintain.

Further reading:

• Article and photo from NASA's Earth Observatory
• California Advances Funds to Army Corps for Critical Levee Repair
• California's Levees Vulnerable to Breach (NPR)
• California Town Weighs Cost of Flood Protection (NPR)

Technorati Tags: ArmyCorpsOfEngineers, delta, DeltaRegion, flood, leveefailure, levees, Sacramento, SacramentoRiver, SanFranciscoBay, WaterSupply

Californians sure do love their cars... don't they?

From my “Auto Carnage” series.

Between these roads // the way to get there?

Interstate 280 over Mission Creek, San Francisco // Bodie (Eastern Sierra), California //  Interchange at Interstate 5 and Interstate 14, Los Angeles County

Technorati Tags: automobile, Bodie, cars, EasternSierra, freeways, highways, interstates, LosAngeles, SanFrancisco, sprawl, suburb, suburbansprawl

Suburban sprawl in California: panoramic photos

For your consideration: panoramic (extra extra wide) photographs of suburban sprawl developments around California: San Ramon 2004 · San Ramon 2006 ·  Clayton ·  Antioch · Santa Clarita · Valencia · Tassajara Road and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Technorati Tags: california, clayton, exurban, realestate, residential, sanramon, southerncalifornia, sprawl, suburb, valencia

Wildness in the Marin headlands, Marin County, California

Montara Beach and hills: NorCal coastline, December 2004

It takes me 25 minutes to drive down to Montara Beach from my home in San Francisco. Yes, the coastline of northern California -- it's not such a bad thing!

Vasco Road and Points North, To Antioch

Windmills along Vasco Road, Contra Costa County, California.

Patriotic barn.

Outcropping in Los Vaqueros watershed.

Mount Diablo rising behind sprawl near Antioch, California. Check out my sprawl panorama.

Auto carnage on the edge of Antioch's sprawl. Don't miss my photo collection of junked cars.

Calaveras Road, Santa Clara County

The first winter storm of the season hit the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend and continues tonight. Early this morning I drove out to Niles Canyon Road and Calaveras Road, two winding roads that snake through the hills of the East Bay.

Driving east on the San Mateo Bridge, Highway 92:

Humanoids in a steamy car:

Looking over the Calaveras Reservoir:


Mossy trees along Calaveras Road:


The leaves they are a'changing:

Oak leaves collect along the side of the road: