Happy spring // unhappy 5th anniversary of the Iraq War

Happy ** spring




And unhappy 5th anniversary of the Iraq War.

Technorati Tags: poppies, spring

The Independence leaves port for the last time: a great white hulk of imperial excesses

This ship, the Independence, has been in drydock for years at San Francisco's Pier 70 shipyard. It's fated to be cut up for scrap. While the average sentient being was “watching” the “Superbowl” (*gag*), I was out tooling around the exceptionally quiet City on my bike (thank you for not driving those few hours, ya gas-addicted whores). A few days later, the ship was towed out of the bay, probably to be scrapped in Asia. So goes the waste of the the world's rich.

• Last U.S. ocean liner heads into the unknown — San Francisco Chronicle
• History and old postcard photos of the Independence
• Flickr photos of the Independence leaving San Francisco Bay, 2008

Technorati Tags: cruiseship, Independence, SanFrancisco, SanFranciscoBay, ship

Hunter's Point Power Plant: demolition death

Catastrophic demolition accident at old PG&E plant (30 January 2008, San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper, by Tonja Muhammad):

“The untimely collapse of a steel structure at the old Hunters Point PG&E Power Plant on Evans Avenue caused the death of one demolition project worker and serious injury to two others Monday. Two five-story boiler towers were being prepared to be brought down when the collapse happened.”

The (big, bad) machine in the garden.

• Hunter's Point Power Plant  being decommissioned, San Francisco, Heron's Head Park
• PG&E Hunters Point Power Plant Dismantlement and Abatement
• Hunters Point Power Plant Controversy in Bay Nature magazine, 2006: "In the late 1990s, when local residents started to question their abnormally high rates of cancer and other afflictions, the San Francisco Health Department began studies that revealed some frightening statistic — Bayview-Hunters Point residents were suffering from twice the average U.S. rate of asthma, cervical, and breast cancer, and had hospitalization rates that were three times the national rate for congestive heart failure, hypertension, and emphysema. Bayview-Hunters Point and the bordering neighborhood of Potrero Hill also had noticeably higher rates of bronchitis and other upper respiratory diseases in children."

 

Technorati Tags: demolition, energy, HuntersPoint, PG&E, PowerPlant, PowerStation, SanFrancisco

Anna's Danish Cookies, now Farina, in the Mission

From Tablehopper's review of Farina, the restaurant on 18th Street in San Francisco's Mission District that replaced Anna's Danish Cookies, I learned this about the fate of the Anna's old sign:

“There is a spacious communal table, with two-tops that that are cleverly made out of the former Anna's Danish Cookies sign that line the towering front bay windows…”

Technorati Tags: AnnasDanishCookies, MissionDistrict, SanFrancisco

Whirlpools in San Francisco during winter storm

We're in the midst of a walloping winter storm here in San Francisco. I created a giant whirlpool in the street by clearing the leaves off a storm drain that had clogged. When I walked into the water, it was about mid-calf deep — nearly 12“ of standing water, soaked to the bone. Potrero Hill neighborhood, 20th and De Haro.

Technorati Tags: rain, SanFrancisco, storm, street, whirlpool, california

Thick fog on Nov. 7, the day the Cosco Busan hit the Bay Bridge

Below: 8:23 a.m. on Nov. 7, 2007. The fog is thick on San Francisco Bay. In 7 minutes, a giant ship, the Cosco Busan, will collide with the Bay Bridge, spilling 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the Bay.

Below: 8:56 a.m. and the fog is thick on San Francisco Bay. Little did I know that some 25 minutes before I made this photo, the Cosco Busan ship had hit the Bay Bridge.

Why weren't YOU at the Iraq war protest on October 27, 2007 in San Francisco?

Here's what our disaster in Iraq has brought: 3,800+ Americans dead; 785,000 civilians dead. America is less safe; you are less safe.

Stop going along with the war. Demand an end to Bush's ongoing disaster. Demand that your government extend diplomacy to the world.

Contact your Senator and demand an end to the war.

Hold your elected officials accountable. Vote for peace. Demonstrate against war.

Contact Congressman Dave Obey and demand that Congress stop funding the war!

WAR IS OVER (if you want it).

Burners Without Playas: Ocean Beach, S.F. Parallel Beach Burn

Saturday, Sept. 1, 2007: Ocean Beach San Francisco ~ Burners Without Playas Parallel Beach Burn

LET'S DO IT: an Ocean Beach San Francisco parallel burn, Saturday September 1, 9:00pm, for those of us who stayed behind. Get there early to watch the sunset!

I'm gonna bring my Stick Man down to the beach just north of Lincoln (take the N Judah - be green!). That's about where the BM fire pits are installed. See you out there!

The laws apply: www.nps.gov/goga/parkmgmt/fire_info.htm

Technorati Tags: Burn, burningman, OceanBeach, SanFrancisco

The quickly-changing foggy light of San Francisco

A foggy afternoon brought quickly changing light to the scene in the Mission District:

Technorati Tags: church, MissionDistrict, fog, SanFrancisco

The beautiful cube: modern architecture in the slot, south of Market Street

San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood has been going through an interesting transformation in recent years. I suppose you could simply call it gentrification: flop houses and factories make way for architect's and realtor's and web designer's loft conversion offices. But that's a silly word for the process of urban evolution, especially here in this very young city (with barely 160 years under its belt).

The rapidly evolving San Francisco economy has made south of Market a place of amazing built diversity, where new construction sits side by side with decrepit century-old buildings. Meanwhile, up in the north-east corner of the area, the Financial District's glass skyscrapers have been marching confidently into SoMa as downtown, once confined to north of Market, grows southward. Riding my bike and walking through the neighborhood, I'm often pleasantly surprised to find a new-ish and interesting building filling a slot in the urban grid.

Here's one I shot at Tehama and Gallagher, by Jim Jennings Architecture.

Bored? Looking to kill time? See my earlier posts about SoMa modernism:

• A perfect copper box: South of Market modernism
• Young San Francisco

And modern architecture elsewhere in San Francisco:

• The Copper Building ~ killer modernism
• Potrero Hill, Volkswagen, and Modernist Housing
• Modern Architecture around Buena Vista Park
• Valencia Gardens cultivated: modernism in public housing
• The only good Victorian is a gutted and modernized Victorian

And my Flickr photo set:

• san francisco // living city

Technorati Tags: architecture, modern, ModernArchitecture, modernism, SanFrancisco, soma, SouthOfMarket