It’s been a busy time for me lately. The main thing is that I’ve moved. I’m now living up toward Nob Hill. In my nearly ten years in San Francisco, I’ve lived in the Outer Sunset, then in two different places in Noe Valley, then in a highrise in the Civic Center area. Now I’m back in a traditional flat partway up the hill.
Over the years I’ve consistently moved from less dense to more dense neighborhoods. Today my walk to and from BART each day looks like something from the quintessential San Francisco portrayed in movies and on TV. I pass tall buildings and mid-rise Victorians and Edwardians. I go up and down steep hills with cable cars clanging past. I pass stores and clubs, big and small. I can either pass hordes of tourists or stroll down slightly quieter streets depending on which corners I turn at.
I’m much more centrally located now. It’s a short walk up to the top of Nob Hill or down to Polk Gulch. Russian Hill, Chinatown, North Beach and the Tenderloin are not far away. Views of the bridge or views of the bay are close at hand, though, unfortunately, not right outside my window. I feel lucky to still be here in this city that I’ve always wanted to live in, and I plan to stay awhile and continue to put down roots.
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I’ve written some of my views supporting dense urban development, car sharing and public transit systems here before. Check out SF Cityscape for a wealth of information, and snitty commentary, on Bay Area transit issues and adsurdities.
Update: they removed their own articles and simply link to other sites now. Still useful, but not as interesting (or snarky) as it used to be.
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There was an earthquake north of the Bay Area last night; 4.4 or something like that on the scale. I felt it. I’m midway up a twenty-nine story building. The building was constructed in the mid 1960s and it basically made of giant concrete columns.
The whole thing swayed and wiggled like it was made of styrofoam. That was sort of frightening.
In order to live here, I have to believe that the building is strong enough to surive a major earthquake. Or that if it was not built strong enough in the 1960s, that sometime since then the building code people would have required the owners to do whatever would be necesarry to make it safe. Right? I have to believe that on a rational, intellectual level.
But when the place starts to sway I wonder if the columns will crack and the thing will start to fall down in a big tangled pile of concrete and glass and metal and asbestos (I am pretty sure there is asbestos lurking behind the walls and under the paint on the ceilings — see aforementioned reference to construction date). Doomsday.
The other day the fire alarm went off early in the morning. I didn’t smell any smoke but I started to get dressed; I figured if the alarm was going for more than a few minutes I’d head to the stairwell and run down. The time the alarm went off in the afternoon and I did smell smoke, I bolted down the stairs. That time it was just some popcorn that someone had left on the stove before they left. How would we know? What should I take with me if I really thought my home was going to be destroyed?
I work in a sixteen story building right along the bay. They must have dug the foundations all the way to bedrock when it was built in the mid 1970s, right?
So yeah… I pretty much just believe all of these place are safe because there’s not much else I can do about it.
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Sunrise the other day:
Like most of North America, San Francisco has been a lot warmer than usual this week. Tonight the fog machine kicked in and started cooling things down. It comes over the hills from the ocean side, eventually closing in the downtown area:
A closeup of the fog rolling over Alamo Square and in to Hayes Valley:
And passing around San Francisco City Hall:
The three “fog shots” were taken on the opposite side of the building from my apartment.
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