San Cranecisco--that's what I'm calling the city of 49 square miles that has become fully Manhattanized as Herb Caen said this city would eventually become and it has.
Have you seen downtown? Particularly near the Bay Bridge, only Dubai would rival SF with the over abundance of cranes and $49 million dollar condo towers. But hey, it's a techie world and oh, Yahoooooo!
I used to cross the bridge quite frequently from Oakland but I rather dread going into the city now. It's not just the parking, the horrible roads, the mass potholes and such it's just navigating through a land not designed nor prepared for the million or so people who come to it every weekday. Advantage, Emeryville, Oakland, where you might not have a Coit Tower or Tadich Grill, but you can park and see the sun too. Party on.
*Please, someone tell me cooler heads will come out and prevent the closing of Capp's in North Beach.
*This has been such a tense week for yours truly I actually went to Berkeley.
*Those of you that wrote in with well wishes for Mom, thank you so much. Of course a few schmendricks managed to get their two cents in act like a bunch of schmucks, anonymously of course.
*To rip, to belittle, to criticize, to skewer --public people; media people; myself included, is fair game...people's mothers, kids, father's --are not.
415 Media
Sunday
The more vertical The City goes, the bigger the disaster when "the big quake" hits. Hate to sound like a fearmonger, but it truly is "when" and not "if" in these parts.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought that myself - it's like they're spitting into the wind and completely disregarding the history this town has had with earthquakes.
DeleteCapp's Corner? Nooooooo!!!!! Probably the only original "family" style restaraunt on the City that isn't located in a mall or part of a chain.
ReplyDeleteSoup, salad, and then main course and dessert, plus the atmosphere of an old style SF eatery.
Hi Rich, If you think its bad now with traffic, parking and everything else going on in SF, wait till Polk st, loses 150 parking spaces, Van ness ave goes from 6 lanes down to 4 lanes. More bike lanes more parklets, A basketball arena near ATT park, Mission Bay up and running at full capacity, more buildings and more buildings. I hear we are in a drought, but you would not know it by all the construction thats taking place and will take place. I just read in The Marina Times that Capps Corner may not close after all. We can only hope. Also I'm glad that your Mom is doing better. Bless you and your family.
ReplyDelete+
A coworker recently visited SF from Missouri and asked "what happens in a earthquake?" Great question for which I had no answer
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the City will ever do anything about the open air toilet that is downtown?
ReplyDeleteAgree with North Beach Tony...the SFMTA is doing everything it can to make traffic worse. The Van Ness bike/BRT project not only takes away a lane of traffic in each direction, but the road reconstruction is forecast to take FIVE YEARS. In addition, with Polk Street being torn up for bike paths instead of parking right next door, you have the makings for epic traffic jams. The S.F. Bike Coalition is still fighting to close Market Street to ALL vehicles except for the trolleys, and they are also on record for trying to charge a "user fee" for any car that drives into the city.
ReplyDeleteThe SF Bike Coalition are as forward thinking as the "anarcho-syndicalists" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And they shout "oppressed" about as much, too...
DeleteWasn't there a movie called "The Towering Inferno" that warned San Francisco against building such huge skyscrapers?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I will admit, it would be nice to have a building in San Francisco tall enough for there to be an observation deck to view the whole city and bay.
Maybe a bike registration fee since the bikes don't have to pay the gas tax. Let the bikies maintain the roads they take from cars.
ReplyDeleteFair is fair,
Well put.
DeleteWow, I wish this blog had a "like" button. I'd be hitting it over and over right now.
DeleteI'm a native of San Francisco, Left in 1997....Hate the parking 10 minutes to drive where your going and 45 minutes to find a place to park. and the city has become ONE BIG POTHOLE! One way street nightmares trying to go anywhere down town. I think they're might be 5 or 6 native San Franciscans left in the city. Maybe!
ReplyDeleteThe City has been going that way since Feinstein. Just not this fast.
ReplyDeleteNo, Mayor Rolph then Christopher. Accelerated during Alioto.
DeleteOtherwise it is tied to the economy-- with the current boom and the one in Clinton's second term being catalysts.
When they blow up Candlestick, is that section of San Francisco going to worsen too???
ReplyDeleteThe Giants are building out their parking lots at ATT park!
ReplyDeleteOne day we counted 24 major cranes working in the city.
San Francisco is the perfect example of trying to pack 50 pounds of manure into a 10-pound bag. Fighting traffic, trying to avoid hitting bicyclists downtown at 5 pm and maneuvering through the morass of humanity is not fun. San Francisco is a great city, but once you've experienced fighting for parking, getting around and the daily grind, it ain't such a big deal after all. Thank Da Mayor for making Da City Da Bomb and Da King of Gridlock.
ReplyDeleteI started working in the City in October. Last time I'd worked there was for five years mid 1990s on Main St. I now work a block of Market on Beale, near around the same area and boy has the area changed. It is indeed crane city.
ReplyDeleteThe people who will work in the new high-rise offices they're building will for the most part not be able to afford an apartment in the new high-rise apartments and condos that are being built. So they'll commute in. Moving forward, the people who WILL be able to afford the new high-rise dwellings will for the most part be a non-working leisure class. A small percentage will be occupied by the managers and owners who supervise the commuting workers. The rest will be available for short-term bookings on Airbnb, or sitting vacant in one form or another. Mark my words.
ReplyDeleteBut they've always commuted in - my grandparents commuted in from the Peninsula on the train and so did my parents. The bigger problem, besides SF being so expensive, is the next six of ten highest cities in the nation to rent in are on the Peninsula. I get why, but it's getting to where you have to live in Salinas or Lodi to afford anything anymore. There was just a story about one of the Oakland A's having trouble finding an apartment in the East Bay. Not that he couldn't afford it, but the competition is fierce.
DeleteSo many of you here say that San Francisco has become too crowded, too saturated with businesses, restoration and construction projects. Well, you know what the next logical step will be don't you? I predict, within seven years, San Francisco will try to incorporate, annex or otherwise swallow up a few surrounding towns, and thus increase its borders along with taxable property. Bye Bye Belmont, hello New Frisco!
ReplyDeleteBelmont is too far south of SF...it has Daly City in the way..and there's NO WAY that the citizens of SF would approve annexing Daly City. Too many blue-collar minorities (re: "Gangs") for Frisco Blue-Bloods.
ReplyDeleteAren't these the same blue. bloods who keep reminding us that whites will be a minority race within ten years, and we should get a karmic thrill from knowing that? Yet in their minds they say "but not in MY backyard!".
DeleteI just heard KCBS's Bob Butler do a report on a new eight year lease for Capp's Corner in North Beach. Great news!
ReplyDelete