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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February 6, 2009

The sun adding shadows to the rain clouds

Filed under: photographs,ships,weather — Tags: , , — Towse @ 8:36 pm

 

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And then, a while later, a couple tugs pull a decommissioned vessel south … to dry dock? to repair? to ???

 

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February 2, 2009

Citizen Chain, North Beach

Filed under: photographs — Tags: , — Towse @ 7:20 am

 

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Citizen Chain on the corner of Powell and Chestnut

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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November 29, 2008

Just hanging in the sun.

Filed under: life,photographs — Tags: , — Towse @ 12:49 am

Sun peeking out from behind the grey for a few minutes. (And the grey has since drifted back into place.)

Sitting in my chair, which faces the bay. Reading a library book. Back from a walk down to the Ferry Building for bread from Acme and coppa di testa from Boccalone. Down to the Ferry Building and back up the steps, all 223 of them, but who’s counting?

Concentrating on the words before me (Elizabeth Berg: The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation). In the background I can hear the parrots — not chattering, not arguing, not squawking, as they usually do. Susurration. Murmuration. Low. Affectionate.

I get up out of my seat to see what they’re up to.

Just hanging in the sun. [Click on the picture for a closeup look. They blend into the cypress in the smaller view.]

 

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November 14, 2008

Moonrise – full moon

Filed under: photographs — Tags: , , , — Towse @ 1:45 am

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For Auntie K. ;-)

October 26, 2008

Zeppelin!

Filed under: news,photographs — Tags: — Towse @ 6:11 am

 

Our Zeppelin has arrived!

More news

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