The San Francisco Citizen

Now back in the day, it was easy to see construction workers on the job. All you had to do was look up through the I-beams and see them walking around. Those were the days, see?  

But these days, due to changing construction techniques using concrete, rebar, and whatnot, you need to get above the workers to see them at labor. These folks are mostly out of view after the first floor gets done. Here, they work on the third floor.

Pretty soon, you wont see the cars of UC Hastings Law School students and staff clogging up the parking spaces of Civic Center  and Little Saigon thanks to this new mixed-use building that’s still going up.

Click to expand.

The other problem with seeing these people at work is that these jobs are drying up lately.

Good-bye construction workers of San Francisco. See you again in a year or two?

Well the concrete slabs are starting to stack up in the Civic Center - it’s a parking garage/retail space project. The 1200 students at vaunted UC Hastings School of Law (the oldest and largest law school west of St. Louis, or something) have enjoyed discounted parking at the Civic Center Garage for years.

Changes are afoot in front of historic McAllister Tower:

It’s nice to see these kids will be pulling their own weight soon. The whole idea is to make the place more “student friendly.” 

We’ll see.

Fiat justitia

This is where it all began. It’s Packard’s Garage, California Registered Historical Landmark #976:

BIRTHPLACE OF SILICON VALLEY - This garage is the birthplace of the world’s first high-technology region, “Silicon Valley.” The idea for such a region originated with Dr. Frederick Terman, a Stanford University professor who encouraged his students to start up their own electronics companies in the area instead of joining established firms in the East. The first two students to follow his advice were William R. Hewlett and David Packard, who in 1938 began developing their first product, an audio oscillator, in this garage.

This is what things looked like in 2005. Click to expand:

And this is what it looks like now, after rehab.

Nice garage, HP!

You can see the culprit reflected in this car’s windshield - it’s a sap-filled Eucalyptus globulus (aka Tasmanian Blue Gum, Southern Blue Gum or Blue Gum Eucalyptus) just waiting to rain down on your vehicle.  

Of course a garage around in the area of Golden Gate Park or it’s Panhandle could run you something like $10 per day. Maybe you’d feel a little gumminess is a small price to pay for free parking?

Your choice.