Towse: views from the hill

February 27, 2009

Let us now gaze down on the Port of San Francisco

Specifically, Piers 23, 19, and 17. (Click on the photo to get an enlarged version.)

 

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Note the pilings on the north apron of Pier 23.

Note the shabby temporary patches on the roof of the Port building facing the Embarcadero where Pier 21 would be, if there were a Pier 21.

Check out the pilings on the north apron of Pier 19. You can barely see the pair of orange cones keeping you from accidentally walking where the worst of the damage to the apron is. (The apron has crumpled and is no longer horizontal.) What you can’t see in the picture very well is that the bulk of the apron to the west of the orange cones has disintegrated and fallen into the drink as well.

Check out the pilings at Pier 17 (the last pier you can see in the picture). They don’t look in very great shape either, do they?

To quote from a SPUR document, published in The Urbanist in August, 2007:

The Port’s 10-year Capital Plan is based on a comprehensive survey of the physical condition of all Port properties under its ownership. The Plan identifies the cost of bringing the Port into basic compliance with health, safety, seismic and Americans with Disabilities Act regulations, as well as fulfilling waterfront open-space needs, at nearly $1.5 billion. Almost one-third of the costs identified in this Capital Plan are for substructure repair and seismic strengthening of the Port’s pile-supported structures.

Something must be done.

What will it be? What to do, what to do, what to do. …

February 26, 2009

Grey day. Hoping for some rain.

Filed under: photographs,weather — Tags: , , — Towse @ 6:48 pm

 

 

 

 

Update: Day didn’t turn to rain. Quite the contrary. Sunny with interesting clouds.

 

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January 28, 2009

Project Homeless Connect

Filed under: nonprofits — Tags: — Towse @ 9:17 pm

Good video on YouTube about Project Homeless Connect.

Homeless Connect Bar Camp. February 11, 2009. More info on Bay Area homeless stats and “Why a bar camp?”

January 21, 2009

Home again, home again, riggety jig.

Filed under: photographs — Tags: , , — Towse @ 4:54 am

Four crab boats had finished off-loading at the wharf and came out of the small harbor and split in different directions. These two were headed off thataway soon to be home again, home again.

 

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January 19, 2009

Fishermen’s and Seamen’s Chapel

Filed under: photographs — Tags: , , — Towse @ 8:47 pm

The chapel is “a memorial to the fishermen and seamen who have braved cold waves, blinding fog and howling winds. It was built between 1978 and 1981 on the former site of an old Coast Guard building.”

More here.

(Picture taken from Jefferson Street, between Jones and Taylor.)

 

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Gold in them thar hills

Filed under: photographs — Tags: , , — Towse @ 2:20 am

 

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January 15, 2009

This day in history. January 14, 1954

Filed under: history,people — Tags: , — Towse @ 12:27 am

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio married at San Francisco’s City Hall and returned to North Beach for wedding photographs on the steps of Sts. Peter & Paul Church.

They could not be married in the church because DiMaggio was considered still married by the Roman Catholic church, which did not recognize his civil divorce from his first wife.

The DiMaggio-Monroe marriage lasted nine months.

Today you can see a photo of DiMaggio and first wife Dorothy Arnold displayed inside the church, but there can be seen no hide nor hair, no mention of the civil divorce nor of Monroe.

December 24, 2008

Has it been that long?

Filed under: life,people,photographs,video — Tags: , — Towse @ 6:37 am

I have a framed John Byrne Cooke photograph of Mimi Fariña on the wall to the right of the front door. She’s standing at the top of the hill, at Union and Montgomery, goofing off with Debbie Green. I like the picture because it shows the waterfront behind them as it was back when the picture was taken, in 1966, and because it shows Mimi Fariña full of life.

It took me years after I first stumbled on the image on the Web to decide that his price was worth it and to contact Cooke and arrange to swop him $$$ for a print.

I’m still glad I did.

Depending on my mood, the photograph makes me smile, or tear up.

Same with DIAMONDS AND RUST.

The YouTube video is from 1975. Has it really been that long?

I guess it has.

yes I loved you dearly
and if you’re offering me diamonds and rust
I’ve already paid

December 22, 2008

The days grow longer.

Filed under: life,nonprofits — Tags: , — Towse @ 5:47 pm

Thanks be.

Sunshiney day outside with rain expected off and on through the weekend. Clear skies now, though. Lunch at the Bankers’ Club to enjoy the views.

First, though we need to walk down to North Beach Citizens and drop off three bags of warm clothes. I rummaged through our closet. How many warm pullovers and sweaters can you wear at one time? We have more than enough and it’s been so chill recently.

December 21, 2008

‘Bush Shoe’ Gives Firm a Footing in the Market [NYTimes.com]

Filed under: culture,history — Tags: — Towse @ 3:49 am

‘Bush Shoe’ Gives Firm a Footing in the Market

By SEBNEM ARSU
Published: December 20, 2008

ISTANBUL — When a pair of black leather oxfords hurled at President Bush in Baghdad produced a gasp heard around the world, a Turkish cobbler had a different reaction: They were his shoes.

“We have been producing that specific style, which I personally designed, for 10 years, so I couldn’t have missed it, no way,” said Ramazan Baydan, a shoemaker in Istanbul. “As a shoemaker, you understand.”

[...]

… orders for Mr. Baydan’s shoes, formerly known as Ducati Model 271 and since renamed “The Bush Shoe,” have poured in from around the world.

15K pairs for Iraq
95K pairs for Europe
18K pairs for USA

Five thousand posters advertising the shoes, on their way to the Middle East and Turkey, proclaim “Goodbye Bush, Welcome Democracy”” in Turkish, English and Arabic.

[...]

Ah. Capitalism at its finest.

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