Tag: san francisco

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Sky

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So the Friday evening walk to the ferry to meet Kate often–usually–starts with a hike up the west side of Potrero Hill. Once, it was probably a working-class area; the older homes are modest in scale, mostly, and the heights are surrounded by old industrial and warehouse neighborhoods on the edge of the Mission, the south of Market area and (a new one to me) the Dogpatch district on the eastern flank between the hill and the Bay.

Anyway, I go up the west side, usually, and down the north side and then wind my way to the Embarcadero and the ferry slip. The bonus of the walk, which generally takes about an hour,, is everything you see along the way. Tonight, I hit the street just as the sunset color was coming on. I thought, “Ah, it’ll fade by the time I’m up the hill.” But it only got more intense. Above is the view from the upper part of 18th Street, looking down over the Mission. What an evening. End of summer. We’re just a week out from the equinox.

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Door

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10th Street, South of Market, San Francisco. On my way from work up to the Civic Center BART station — a change of pace from 16th and Mission BART. I just liked the door color. And the rest of the palette, too. If you’re not a habitue of the city, this part of San Francisco was once filled with warehouses and light industry. Some still remains, but large tracts have long since been cleared and redeveloped into parks, hotels, condos, retail centers, and the like. This part of the South of Market neighborhood, well west of downtown, has changed more slowly and there’s still plenty of evidence of what used to be.

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Bay Bridge: Friday Dawn

bridgedawn090409.jpgSpent the morning — Friday morning, I need to say, with Saturday morning fast approaching — out at the Bay Bridge construction project. I’d love to describe it in detail, and will, but right now I’m just plumb tuckered out. This is the scene at the Coast Guard boat landing on Yerba Buena Island. None of the construction is in this view, and it’s a little out of focus, but it does convey a little bit of the beauty of this morning. More later.  

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Warning

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Seen today, posted in several locations near 16th and Mission streets in San Francisco. Several people who saw me looking at the poster stopped, took in the picture, and expressed dismay. Words to the effect of “that’s terrible!” Unknown to me is whether this is street art or a real warning or some of both. (Now to bed: I’ve got to get up in four hours to go out to the Bay Bridge construction site tomorrow to help in KQED’s coverage of the weekend closure.)

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Potrero Avenue: PM Clouds

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The other end of the day. Looking south on Potrero from Mariposa. Another warm evening, one that prompted me to run up to the top of Potrero Hill after I left work to watch the city and the sky. (And I mean run: I passed a cyclist who was struggling up the upper part of San Bruno Avenue. We said hi to each other, and she said, “You go!”)

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Berkeley: AM Clouds

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We at Infospigot Information Services are great fans of the evening sky, but we’re not often out and about to report on dawn-time sky conditions. This morning was the exception to that rule. According to the National Weather Service area forecast discussions, there’s some sort of low spinning off the coast and sending in a stream of moisture from the southwest, which takes shape as unusually high, fluffy, and abundant clouds hereabouts (are typical cloud cover in the summer months is a dense bank of low stratus). It’s also a warm, muggy morning, also atypical of our Mediterranean climatic regime.

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Potrero Hill Sundown

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Beautiful summery night here — which would be an odd statement in August almost anyplace else but the Northern California coast. It was warm with a variety of high clouds that were gorgeous as the evening came on. The sight and the evening’s gentleness were enough to make me detour from my usual walk to the 16th and Mission BART station over to the Civic Center Station on Market Street.  

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Friday Night Ferry: The Walk

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On Mariposa Street, just east of Potrero Avenue. This one-block slope is at the beginning of my Friday evening walk from KQED to the Ferry Building. From that stop sign up above, I turn right, then cross U.S. 101 on the pedestrian overpass that connects to 18th Street on the east side of the freeway. One more block up from there is Kansas Street, a corner with one of the great views of downtown. From there, I walk north and east down the slope of Potrero Hill and across the South of Market flats to the Bay, sometimes walking over the low eminence of Rincon Hill. What I noticed most about the walk this week: It’s getting dark much earlier than it did just a month ago.

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Friday Night Ferry: The Walk

mariposa082109.jpg

On Mariposa Street, just east of Potrero Avenue. This one-block slope is at the beginning of my Friday evening walk from KQED to the Ferry Building. From that stop sign up above, I turn right, then cross U.S. 101 on the pedestrian overpass that connects to 18th Street on the east side of the freeway. One more block up from there is Kansas Street, a corner with one of the great views of downtown. From there, I walk north and east down the slope of Potrero Hill and across the South of Market flats to the Bay, sometimes walking over the low eminence of Rincon Hill. What I noticed most about the walk this week: It’s getting dark much earlier than it did just a month ago.