See?
Petroleum powers cars and ships – I suppose that’s The Message from the Builders of 225 Bush.
Contrast that with the message from the current owners of 225 Bush found on this Wiki entry, which reads like an advertisement for potential tenants.
Or in other words, “This article’s tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia.”
Indeed.
So, yes, January is a very early time to see cherry trees start to blossom but what you’re actually seeing are plum trees.
Now both kinds of trees are pretty much the same thing, so no biggee, but plums come out earlier than cherries – global warming doesn’t have anything to do with that.
Oh, here’s what they look like, rather a bit more pink than cherry, in my experience.
Near Clay and Davis, Financial District:
And here’s a nice shot from Flickr:
See this giant hulking building?
Check out the old-school artwork in this 12,000 square foot structure straight outta 1916:
Click to expand
Sixteen beetles, sure (why not), but what’s that coming out of the back of the car?
Like this guy in the Western Addition – see how he does it?
Click to expand
Is this necessary, like for real?
See?
Click to expand
My campaign to get area residents to call plum trees “plum trees” is picking up steam. Now, remember back in aught-eight, when some people called mountain lions “cougars?” Good times,* right? Well, those days are history. And, similarly, tout le 415 will be calling cherry trees “cherry trees” by January 2014 at the latest.
You’ll see.
*”Cougar corners St. Mary’s Hoopster in Danville” – that kind of thing.
Don’t have an illustration of a blue turtle dream so this shot will have to do.
If you don’t recognize these planes, this bridge and that bit of land, well then welcome to San Francisco, stranger:
Click to dream
OK then. Now what about Five Star Rated The Dream of the Blue Turtles from a quarter-century ago? In it there’s a song We Work the Black Seam,* which is about the glories of coal and coal mining unions and the evils of nuclear power. Which is rather the opposite of how many look at things these days.
Take a look below if you wish.
And if you’re old enough to be familiar that tune, well then check out this version from a decade earlier. Wow, that’s heavy, man.
*In which Sting riffs on William Blake’s Jerusalem,** among other things. And it’s not this kind of black seam, it’s this kind.
** Speaking of the old days and unions and the Golden Gate Bridge, wasn’t it the workers of the GGB who started up labor actions rather than work side-by-side with black people about four decades ago? Yes. I don’t remember it myself, but it was during my lifetime.***
***And I’m not that old – my grandmother just bought a Hyundai and she plans on outliving it…
This place has changed for good
Your economic theory said it would
It’s hard for us to understand
We can’t give up our jobs the way we should
Our blood has stained the coal
We tunneled deep inside the nation’s soul
We matter more than pounds and pence
Your economic theory makes no sense
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen****
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
The seam lies underground
Three million years of pressure packed it down
We walk through ancient forest lands
And light a thousand cities with our hands
Your dark satanic mills
Have made redundant all our mining skills
You can’t exchange a six inch band
For all the poisoned streams in Cumberland
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
Our conscious lives run deep
You cling onto your mountain while we sleep
This way of life is part of me
There is no price so only let me be
And should the children weep
The turning world will sing their souls to sleep
When you have sunk without a trace
The universe will suck me into place
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
****Uh, not really Sting, but anyway.
First started noticing these blooms a couple of days ago:
Click to expand
Some people think they are cherry blossoms. Check it:
Well it’s late January in San Francisco so it’s time for our sidewalk plum trees to begin blossoming. Yeah, they look a lot like cherry trees and that causes people around town to start talking about how global warming / climate change is making the cherry trees of April wake up three months early or something.
You can double-check with the Friends of the Urban Forest if you want, but I’ll tell you, those flashes of pink you see brightening up the otherwise-dreary Streets of San Francsico these days are early-rising Prunus blireiana, aka Flowering Plum trees, or something similar.
Be patient and you’ll be rewarded with real cherry trees in March – check out the sked at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park.
If this January blossom is cherry, I’ll eat my hat:
This will be the scene in the Financh in a couple of months – our wild parrots love all kinds of prunus blossoms of course.
Take heart, Spring is just around the corner…
Did you know that “The Future Begins Today?” Well it does, according to the four Bay Area regional agencies meeting right now in Oaktown.
That’s right, it’s Alphabet Soupalooza 2010 and it’s going off at the Marriott City Center in the 510. All your faves are there:
Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG)
Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)
Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD)
Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC)
Put them all together and you get ABAGMTCBAAQMDBCDC! (Or OneBayArea.org, take your pick.)
All the deets:
Region Celebrates Earth Day With Launch of ‘One Bay Area’ Collaborative Effort at ABAG General Assembly and Summit
Regional Agencies and Local Governments Join Together to Chart Course to Meet Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets
OAKLAND, Calif., April 22 — Four Bay Area regional agencies today are launching a major outreach initiative, One Bay Area, at a regional assembly bringing together 350 Bay Area city and county elected officials, regional leaders and community stakeholders at the Oakland Marriott City Center. The regional agency partners — the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) — are coming together in a joint General Assembly and summit to mark the beginning of development of the SB 375 Sustainable Communities Strategy for the Bay Area. SB 375 refers to landmark legislation (authored by Daryl Steinberg and passed by the California Legislature in 2008) requiring regions in California to develop strategies for combating climate change and promoting sustainable communities.
“One Bay Area” harnesses the resources of regional agencies, local governments, county congestion management agencies, local planning and public works directors, city and county managers, public transit agencies, community members and stakeholder groups. These agencies must work together to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions produced by cars and light trucks in the region over the next 10-25 years. These efforts will be showcased on a new website launched today, located at www.OneBayArea.org.
“One Bay Area underscores the simple and fragile fact that there is only one Bay Area to pass on to our children and grandchildren,” said Scott Haggerty, chair of MTC and Alameda County supervisor, who will be one of the speakers at the Summit.
Ever more deets, after the jump.
Well it’s late January in San Francisco so it’s time for our sidewalk plum trees to begin blossoming. Yeah, they look a lot like cherry trees and that causes people around town to start talking about how global warming / climate change is making the cherry trees of April wake up three months early or something.
You can double-check with the Friends of the Urban Forest if you want, but I’ll tell you, those flashes of pink you see brightening up the otherwise-dreary Streets of San Francsico these days are early-rising Prunus blireiana, aka Flowering Plum trees, or something similar.
Be patient and you’ll be rewarded with real cherry trees in March – check out the sked at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park.
If this January blossom is cherry, I’ll eat my hat:
This will be the scene in the Financh in a couple of months – our wild parrots love all kinds of prunus blossoms of course.
Take heart, Spring is just around the corner…
I don’t know, these polar bears at first looked to be part of some art installation, but it turns out that that’s just the way the managers of the buildings at 555 and 575 Market Street decorate for Our Winter Holiday.
O.K. fine. But Chevron’s an oil company, right? Most of the employees shipped out to San Ramon a while back, but are there a few left up there?
Oh well. Presenting the Bear of the Decade and Symbol of Global Warming, Ursus maritimus:
This one looks a bit weasly (or ferret-ty), huh?
Enjoy your polar bears, workers at Chevron Towers….
