Posts Tagged ‘pierce’

Cyclists Have the Choice of Going North or South over Alamo Heights – Which is Better, McAllister Street or the Wiggle?

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

If you want to get there and back again from the Panhandle bike path and Mid Market (and beyond), your best choice is McAllister Street.

It’s waaaaaaay better than The Wiggle route.

Why?

Well, why not? McAllister Street (aka the Hastings Cutoff) is shorter and swifter and straighter and safer

Actually, The Wiggle is The Rookie’s Choice, full of part-timers like CW Nevius (oh he just quit cycling in The City, hardly surprising) and fast fixie riders who don’t know any better.

And The Movement prefers the Wiggle, for some unknown reason. But if you just want to get from A to B, then its Market McAllister Divis and eventually Fell for you.

Like this – that’s UC Hastings, your Hastings Cutoff lodestar, there in the background on the left: 

Click to expand

So you climb a bit more using McAl, like 20 more vertical feet if you add up all the ups and downs, but big whoop.

All right, see you out there on the HC!

Today’s Fundraisers for the Victims of the Big Fire in the Western Addition from The Sisters and the AAACC

Saturday, December 24th, 2011

Your District Five Blog has the deets on today’s events for the victims of the big fire in the Western Addition on December 22, 2011.

One fundraiser is being hosted by London Breed and the other by The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

How Cyclists Can Get Downtown Faster by Avoiding the Wiggle: McAllister’s Route 20 Vanquishes Octavia “Boulevard”

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

[UPDATE: And, you know, I guess I hadn't considered the one-way streets. Particularly inbound, they can get you there fast if you're up for lights timed at 20-something MPH. I've seen people on Oak and Golden Gate inbound, but, due to geography most likely, I haven't seen that many using the outbound analogs Fell and Turk. See footnote.]

Well here we go. This shot from United 931 shows, in high relief, why you’re better off talking McAllister Street, Bike Route 20, to downtown from the Panhandle and vice versa.

You see Alamo Square inside the red box on the lower left? It’s the summit of Alamo Heights, sitting there in the sunlight jutting in from the left.

The vaunted Wiggle bike path takes you from the Panhandle through Lower Haight and then behind the Church Street Safeway to Market Street and beyond. Your preferred alternative has you leaving the end of the Golden Gate Park Panhandle by taking Baker north to Fulton to Divisadero up to McAllister. That’s the pass over Alamo Heights – it’s the intersection of McAllister and Divis. Then it’s all the way downhill to Market.

You’re going between the camel humps, between Alamo Square and Kaiser Heights (seen in the sunlight on the left side).

Via jpp123

Now it’t true that Route 20, aka the Snickerdoodle, does have you climbing up, outbound, 20 more feet vertically, net, than the Wiggle (and also inbound – there’s one block of Divis that’s uphill a bit) and it’s also true that Route 20 has a couple steeper blocks betwixt Fillmore and Pierce in the Western Addition.

But, Route 20:

Is a third of a mile shorter

Is faster*

Has better pavement

Has you waiting less time staring at red lights (which is nice when compared to the Wiggle’s concomitant Market Street section with the Octavia Boulevard obstacle, which has traffic signals biased for car drivers heading north-south using Octavia)

Avoids hated Octavia Street / Boulevard entirely (cause Octavia simply doesn’t exist as a road in the McAllister area – it’s like you have a permanent green light)

Has less traffic

Has fewer peds to deal with

Has fewer cyclists to deal with (cause, you know, especially in the Lower Haight area, you just don’t know what those cyclists are going to do)

Is, due to the factors cited above, safer

Avoids the ridonculas behind-the-Safeway-to-inbound-Market puzzle that makes no sense (that I can see – I don’t know how to get across Market at Duboce legally without getting off and walking in the crosswalk)

Has zero cops sitting around handing out tickets (because you’re avoiding Fell and Scott, and Duboce and Steiner, and Haight and Pierce, and all the other places the SFPD hangs out during those periodic stop sign and red light enforcement actions)

Has Gallery 1269 to look at (optionally)

So, I don’t care, go whichever way you want. I’m just saying the Wiggle is the wrong way to get the Panhandle (and Beyond) from Downtown.

And vice versa.

*I suppose that jinking over to Oak and taking it all the way (almost) to Market might be faster still, although you’d have to decide which side of the street to go on. (The left side has more room, but there’s no longer a dashed line to keep left lane traffic out of your way. The wait at Octavia Boulevard might slow you a bit, however.

Oh, and there’s Golden Gate Avenue as well, inbound…

1/1000th of a Second in the Western Addition: Hamilton Pool & Rec Center Lets You Play Mario Brothers IRL

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Thusly:

Click to expand

And thusly:

Now you kids are too young to remember, but the Pool at Ham Rec is just like the Mario Bros. arcade game, from 1983:

Good times…

In this game, Mario is portrayed as an Italian-American plumber who, along with his brother Luigi, has to defeat creatures that have been coming from the sewers below New York. The gameplay focuses on Mario’s extermination of pests in the sewers by flipping them on their backs and kicking them away.”

Depeche Mode du Abaissez le Haight: The Fast Fashion of This American Apparel Ad in the Lower Haight

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Andrew Dudley of the Haighteration blog has a heck of a gallery of the infamous American Appareal MUNI bus shelter ad what’s on the corner of Haight and Pierce.

Check it:

The eternal sunshine of the spotless American Apparel ad. 

Wow. Talk about fast fashion - this thing changes every day.

Now here’s the cleanest copy I have, sent in by a Gentle Reader:

Credit Anonymous (or just tell me how to credit this if you want me to change it – muchas!). Click to expand.

Personally, I think this whole charade is welcomed by the American Apparel.

Personally.

(To wit, a bunch of American Apparellers are, once again, following this morning’s 415 drama from down in Los Angeles. It looks like this:

Domain Name americanapparel.net  (Network)
IP Address 66.151.52.# (American Apparel)

AA just loooooooves this kind of stuff, IMO.)

Anyway, here’s my contribution, from a little while back:

 

I don’t have a clean image of this erbiquitous American Apparel bus stop ad campaign that’s all over the SFMTA’s MUNI property these days, but you probably already know what it looks like.

Anyway, this particular advertisement on the south side of Haight, around Steiner IIRC, was turning heads over the weekend.

See? It’s the most arresting ad in the world!

Click to expand

I can explicate with a close-up shot, but only after the jump, as this is a family blog (more or less).

(more…)

The Best Graffiti Ever is Now on Haight Street – American Apparel Pwned – Blue Felt Gives 3D Effect

Monday, June 27th, 2011

I don’t have a clean image of this erbiquitous American Apparel bus stop ad campaign that’s all over the SFMTA’s MUNI property these days, but you probably already know what it looks like.

Anyway, this particular advertisement on the south side of Haight, around Steiner IIRC, was turning heads over the weekend.

See?

Click to expand

I can explicate with a close-up shot, but only after the jump, as this is a family blog (mas o menos).

(more…)

Lower Haight Street Porsche Delivery – Some Assembly Required, But Patient MUNI Bus Drivers Understand Your Dream

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

The dream, of course, is to get this baby back on the road:

Click to expand

As seen on Haight near Pierce:

(Yet another unregistered car in the garages of San Francisco – we have lots and lots already.)

You see, men can’t give birth so that’s why stuff like this happens.

Will this rig look much different in nine months?

Only Time Will Tell…

Warning: The SFPD “Speed Trap” at the Stop Sign for the Downhill Lane of Fulton at Pierce is Alive and Well

Friday, May 27th, 2011

All right, you drive in California – that’s not just a privilege, it’s your birthright. So that means that you can “California stop,” you know, roll through, slowly, all day long all over San Francisco with impunity.

However, some of you don’t do it right, some of you roll on through at like 7 MPH, which might be OK late at night at well-lit, wide open intersections in giant parking lots, but that’s considered too fast for the Alamo Square area.

So, the popo just sit and wait out of view on Pierce. But they don’t hand out tickets for those people who roll through the stop sign with caution, oh no. They wait for a good customer, somebody who maintains a good clip while crossing over the crosswalk.

Click to expand

Now, if you’re on a bike, then you allowed a much higher speed, of course. But you people in cars might consider showing a little respect for da law.

‘Cause if the SFPD gives you a ticket for rolling through a stop, you not only rolled through a stop, you did it faster than anybody else…

Reverse Pwnage: Turns Out That Some of Those Chinese Elm Trees in the Western Addition Got Executed Anyway

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

First it was all like this, then it was all like this (but that was a false alarm), then, just recently, it was all like this.

But then, T2, Judgement Day, Rise of the Tree Chipper Machines.

That was yesterday on McAllister. See?

The Chipperman Cometh:

Click to expand

It was just like the end of that Fargo movie, except with trees.

At the end of the day, some of the 14 trees on death row were spared, some, like these, were not:

Maybe the unhealthy trees were destroyed and the healthy ones were left alone?

That’s one theory, anyway.

Courage.

A Day in the Life of McAllister: #3, Entire Block of Ulmus Parvifolia Trees Outlive Their Death Notices, Posted Back in 2010

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

Remember last year, when these “13 or 14″ Ulmus parvifolia got death notices wrapped around their trunks?

Well, they’re still here in 2011, which is well past they date that they were supposed to be turned into woodchips. See?

Click to expand

Now, I’m not a big fan of trees in the City personally, as they cause a lot of trouble and, occasionally, kill people. But Trees First, People Second is the Law of the Land, so once a tree goes in, it can never ever ever come out, regardless of the circumstances. Oh well.

Anyway, as far as the Chinese Elms of McAllister are concerned:

Ha ha!

It’s your move, City. Care to try again?