Posts Tagged ‘lights’
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Here’s the scene this morning at the official ceremony kicking off all the Divisadero Streetscape Improvements and the Cafe Mojo Parklet at 639 Divisadero betwixt Hayes and Grove.
BIKE NOPA has all the deets for the new parklet in front of popular Mojo Bicycle Cafe, where you are beseeched to “ride in – hang out – get your fix – ride on.”
Of course District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimiwas there* – he was working the crowd and expressing his appreciation for improved bicycle and pedestrian safety on the Divisadero Corridor. He also pointed out the success of the nearby Divisadero Farmer’s Market, which is no longer seasonal. It’s open every Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM year-round these days.
Mayor Gavin Newsom addressing a large crowd on the tiny parklet:

Click to expand
And all the while, the honking yellow Hummer of Main Contractor Synergy Project Management was discretely parked across the street, as discretely as possible given that it’s a honking yellow Hummer:

I’m on the record as not being a big fan of all the changes, but oh well.
SocketSite has more info about Divis and Curbed SF has all the history, as you’d expect.
Brand new median trees and old-school streetlamps for as far as the eye can see:

These days, it’s Mojo a gogo. A fixie bike mounted outdoors as art:

Welcome to the New Divisidero.
*Wearing the same drip-dry suit he was wearing at the recent opening of the Hamilton Recreation Center and Pool.
All the deets, after the jump
(more…)
Tags: 19th avenue, 2009, 2010, 24th street, 639, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, architecture, ARRA, Balboa Street, Berenio Lumber, bicycle, bike, Bison Innovative Products, board of supervisors, bulb out, cafe, cafe mojo, cars, ceremony, Cesar Chavez, cycklists, cyclists, debut, department of public works, director, district 5, district five, divisadero, Divisadero Great Streets Project, Divisadero Streetscape Improvement Project, dpw, Ed Reiskin, Feeney, Flora Grubb Nurseries, gavin newsom, geary, great streets, grove, hayes, hummer, Improvement, inc, kick off, kickoff, lamps, Leland Avenue, lights, Lower Polk Street, management, median, mojo, Mojo Bicycle Cafe, Muni, OEWD, Office of Economic and Workforce, park, parking, parklet, PAVEMENT TO PARKS, paving, program, project, refuge, repaved, repaving, Rg, RG-Architecture, ross mirkarimi, San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, sewer, SFMTA, SFPUC, sidewalks, space, stimulus, street, streetlamps, streetlights, streetscape, Studio Upwell, Supervisor, synergy, Synergy Contractors, synergy project management, TLC, traffic, Transportation for Livable Communities, trees, valencia, van ness, Waller, wide, widen, widening
Posted in streets | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Well the shovel-ready stimulus project on the Div Co (Divisidero Corridor) is nearing completion. Do you see the trees in the widened median and the old-tyme streetlight tops that go from the NoPA to the EaPA? Those are the bulk of the “improvements” that you’re going to notice.
I guess the perfectly fine old aluminum street lights became obsolete or something. And yes, that thing in the median does look like a tombstone. Chestnut Street, here we come:

Click to expand
Now here’s the beef – what they should have done is just taken out the medians entirely to allow for wider lanes. The problem is that they widened the medians and narrowed the traffic lanes to accommodate trees and shrubbery and nonfunctional whatnot.
Now do you see this cyclist? He’s passing by a truck that’s legally parked on the new Divisidero. Do you think that the slow lane he’s on is wide enough? Of course, arguably, it wasn’t wide enough before but now it’s worse. Why? Aesthetics, that’s why. The drivers in the fast lane need to be near median trees, apparently, they need to commune with nature at 25 per.

Oh, I hear you, “just take the lane,” right? Sometimes I do, effectively. And then sometimes I roll onto the newly-widened sidewalk for half a block or so, late at night when I can see that nobody’s using it. It’s a balance of hacking off the nonexistent peds versus the extant drivers.
(Maybe I’ll get a ticket from the busy SFPD someday, maybe. If I ever do, I’d then consider using Fillmore and McAllister as a substitute.)
Now, if you wanted real stimulus and actual improvements, here’s what you’d do. You’d have the workers take out the medians (the old narrow median was unnecessary as well) and move the light standards to the sidewalks, if that wouldn’t break the bank. Then you’d do a nice repaving, better than the job that’s being done now*, anyway. Then you’d take the rest of the money and give it in cash to the workers – tell them they need to spend $500 per day on whatever they want for themselves and that they need to bring back receipts as proof at the end of each “work” day. That’d be some local stimulus right there. The workers would be happier, and I would as well.
I realize that we’re talking in terms of, on average, just inches of width-surrendered-per-lane, just inches sacrificed on the Altar of Aesthetics. And I realize that Octavia Boulevard is a far bigger public policy failure.
Anyway, enjoy your so-called “improved” Divisadero, San Francisco.
*Are they done with that, by the way? Take a look at the macadam near the bulbouts at Divis and McAllister if you want – is that a job well done? I mean, is that quick fix a permanent fix with all the remaining grade changes? I mean, they’re going to end up being forced to do the job properly, right? [UPDATE: Turns out that they weren't finished just yet, good on you Synergy.]
Tags: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, area, ARRA, bicycles, bikes, cyclists, department of public works, divisadero, divisidero, dpw, EaPA, east of panhandle, great, Kris Opbroek, lanes, lights, Mayor's, median, mta, Municipal Transportation Agency, NOPA, north of panhandle, Office of Economic & Workforce Development, phase ii, project, Project Manager, San Francisco, SFMTA, sidewalks, streets, streetscape, TLC, Transportation for Livable Communities, western addition, widen
Posted in bikes | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Check out this SFPD prowler parked in the Funset District – groove on that funky, aerodynamic light bar on top.
Almost thought it was a fake from the filming of NBC’s horrible Trauma action/dramedy at first, but no, if you count the points on the big blue door star it comes up seven (and not eight) every time.

Fake Michael Schumacher will have even less of a chance of evading Park Station the next time he drives his Ferrari F355 Spyder to Haight Ashbury for a pint or five.
Maybe our City is just trying out something new…
Tags: 1275, 355, aerodynamic, ashbury, Blue, car, convertible, crown vic, crown victoria, cruiser, department, dept., detention, district, f355, ferrari, fly yellow, ford, Giallo, golden gate park, haight, light bar, lights, Michael Schumacher, middle, Modena, Park station, police, prowler, radio car, roof, San Francisco, san francisco police department, Schumi, SFPD, spider, spyder, sunset
Posted in cars, police | 2 Comments »
Friday, December 25th, 2009
Was ist das you say?
Click to expand

It’s just one of the lighted Christmas trains of the Financial District.
See? Somewhere under there is a motosickle…

…and a gasoline-powered Honda generator to make the lights shine.
Merry Christmas!
Tags: christmas, generator, Honda, lights, merry, Montgomery Street, motorcycle, San Francisco
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
See?
These buildings look like boxed-up presents under the tree the way they’re lighted during the holidays.
Presenting Embarcadero Center 1, 2, 3, and 4:

Click to expand
Tags: +3, 1, 2, 2009, 4, 5, boston properties, buildings, christmas, district, Embarcadero Center, financial, holiday, lights, sacramento, San Francisco, street
Posted in buildings | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Either it’s National Daiquiri Month and the Powers That Are at City Hall wanted to honor California’s strawberry and lime / avocado growers, or….
…this lighting arrangement is the best They can do to approximate Christmas Red and Christmas Green down in Civic Center. (Way too much yellow in that “green” IMO.)
Click to expand:

I’m sure somebody better at Photoshop than I could tone down the riot of color in this photo in order to properly honor Natalis Invicti, or the birthday of baby Jesus, or whatever. But hey, what about the new hires at City Hall? That crew of recent gubernatorial campaign workers seems to be famliar with Photoshop…
Or not – they didn’t do a very good job it would seem. Oh well, the unaltered photo above will have to do as the record of what Christmas 2009 looked like at City Hall.
Hey, speaking of Christmas, there’ll be no more stars on government trees up in Sonoma. Remember stars atop government Christmas trees? We had a big star on our big tree in Civic Center until about a year ago when it got took down, forever. Oh well.
Merry Christmas!
Tags: campaign, carlton, christmas, City Hall, civic center, constitutional, december, gavin newsom, goodlet, Governor, green building, grove, holiday, invicti, Jason Elliott, Joaquin Torres, led, lights, lime, Mayor, mcAlllister, merry, natalis, Nicholas Panagopoulos, Nick Clemens, Polk, red, star, strawberry, van ness, xmas, Yashar Hedayat
Posted in christmas, government | 4 Comments »
Monday, December 14th, 2009
This is how the Holiday Tree in front of San Francisco City Hall was lit at night last year:

Via Steve Rhodes, who, like Visa, is Everywhere You Want To Be.
But all that color in Civic Center offended certain WASP-y type people. People like Thurston Howell III et ux Lovey:

So here are the expensive new lights for 2009, or some of them anyway. These colorless lights cost $13,500, per City Insder Rachel Gordon.

That ought to placate the richers for a while.
But couldn’t Rec and Park have put this matter to a vote, maybe online using that social media and whatnot? A penniless blogger could throw up a voting system in about five minutes – can’t Rec and Park do the same? This isn’t a matter of health or safety, right? So it seems appropriate that the Gilligans, Professors and the Mary Anns should have a say as well. Why do we seem to only listen to the Howells?
Oh well.
For 2009 anyway, enjoy your boring, WASPy-white, star-free Christmas Tree, San Francisco. But don’t give up Hope for Change (is that a “traditional” train ’round the tree R&P?) next year.
Tags: 13, 2008, 2009, 500, Blue, christmas tree, chronicle, City Hall, city insider, civic center, colored, department, dept., general manager, green, haze, holiday, led, lights, newspaper, parks, Phil Ginsburg, plaza, purple, rachel gordon, rec, recreation, Recreation and Park Department, red, San Francisco, sfgate, strand, tree christmas, trees, wasp, waspy, white, white anglo saxon protestant, white house
Posted in government | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Tags: AIDS, City Hall, coit, lights, night, painted, red, San Francisco, tower, world aids day
Posted in Uncategorized, events | Comments Off
Friday, November 13th, 2009
The Lower Market Christmas Snowflake Lights are officially on through January. Apparently, it was just practice when these lights were on for weeks last summer. As they looked last night, click to expand:

The holidays will be a good time for San Francisco’s illegal taxi trade. See this white Lincoln Town Car? The driver will take you back to your hotel for just $50. Of course a taxi would be cheaper, but where are you going to get a taxi on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night in San Francisco? The City wants people to patiently wait their turns, but our rich tourists don’t like that arrangement. Oh well.

Here’s part of your Mid Market crackdown. The people in the Ford Crown Victoria being stopped by the SFPD are NOT cops. The two in the car were suspects for a brief time last night. Both of them are currently on probation, but that’s not a crime, right? They must not have done anything all that wrong ’cause they were released after a two- minute detention by the SFPD. Hurray!

And there are fewer cars on Market Street between Sixth and Fifth Streets, but more poo, apparently. Yes, that’s what you think it is, from yesterday, right on the traffic-free inbound slow lane of the “Champ Elysees of the Western Hemisphere.” Oh well.

This concludes Your Market Street Update.
Tags: Champ Elysees of the Western Hemisphere, christmas, department, dept., holiday, illegal, lights, lincoln, market, police, poo, San Francisco, SFPD, snowflake, street, taxi, town car, update, your
Posted in streets | Comments Off
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
You know that Autumn has come to San Francisco when you see a crescent moon inside of the nine red stars that make up the Sutro Constellation.
As seen from Duboce Park around 8:00 PM last night:

Click to expand
Red stars at night, a Sailor’s delight
Tags: constellation, crescent, lights, moon, mount, night, red, stars, sutro, sutro tower, tower
Posted in astonomy | 1 Comment »