First, our PacBell Building in SoMA was all like this.
Then is was all like this.
Now it’s all like this, so you can see through entire floors.
Say hello to the higher floors of a totally gutted building:
Click to expand
If only San Francisco were the Innovation Capital of the World or something, then we wouldn’t have a bunch of empty buildings sitting around for years and decades.
On It Goes…
Look at this monster perched high atop 140 New Montgomery Street, up there with all those Neo-Gothic eagle statues.
Reminds of when Devastator climbed up one of those pyramids in that Transformers II movie…
Click to expand
Anyway, the abandoned Pac Bell building no longer looks like it belongs in Detroit, so that’s good.
Look for Yelp to move in this year, directly under the enemy’s scrotum.
“The PacBell Building or 140 New Montgomery Street in San Francisco’s South of Market district is a Neo-Gothic, 132.6 m (435 ft) office tower located close to the St. Regis Museum Tower and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.[1] The 26-floorbuilding was completed in 1925 and was San Francisco’s first significant skyscraper development when construction began in 1924.[1] The building was the tallest in San Francisco until the Russ Building matched its height two years later in 1927″
Here’s the latest from San Francisco Chronicle writer Jaxon Van Derbeken on PG&E CEO Anthony Earley:
“It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my career — I was literally walking into the owner’s suite,’’ he said. “And the lights went out.’’
[Earley] said two power feeds serve the stadium, one had a repair of a previous break, known as a splice. He said the utility does visual checks of splices before the games, but the problem with the splice was apparently not visible, it became superheated and failed.”
Uh, “superheated,” sometimes referred to as boiling retardation?
‘Cause that’s what you’re saying.
You know, like this:
Oh, what’s that, you were just waxing poetic ‘n stuff?
No.
No, no, no.
The time to bandy about with the allegory and whatnot is not when you’re explaining why your big blow up occurred.
If you meant that the thing got too hot, then just say that the thing got too hot.
All right, PG&E, Go, and Sin No More.
Oh, and you know what you should be embarrassed about, Mr. Early, is having your spokesmodels out there Blaming SFGov First during this particular crisis. I know that’s what they’re taught to do, deflecting blame during an emergency, but, you know, isn’t that a bit cheesy?
And in fact, Mr. E., there are many, many other aspects of PG&E that you should be embarrassed about as well.
All right, GASNM.
I don’t know, PG&E. Don’t you know by now that you’re a loser organization?
So how does it help to have your spokesmodels Blame the Customer First?
“Right now, we’re actively investigating the cause,” PG&E spokesperson John King said shortly after the outage. “It could be a number of things, from customer-owned equipment to PG&E equipment…”
Oh, I know. The answer is that it doesn’t help.
It doesn’t help at all.
Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job:
Via David Yu - click to expand
Here’s the latest:
“PG&E and the City and County of San Francisco Investigate Power Outages at Candlestick Park
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19, 2011 — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) issued the following statement from Geisha Williams, executive vice president of electric operations, about the power outages that impacted Candlestick Park this evening:
PG&E is working closely with the City and County of San Francisco, owner and operator of Candlestick Park, to determine the cause of tonight’s power outages. The first priority for both PG&E and the City and County has been to get the power restored as quickly and safely as possible and keep the power on through the rest of the game. Determining exactly what happened and working to prevent something like this from happening again is very important to everyone involved.
SOURCE Pacific Gas and Electric Company”
And from SFGov:
“MAYOR LEE’S STATEMENT ON POWER OUTAGES AT CANDLESTICK PARK
Mayor Edwin M. Lee today issued the following statement on the electric power outages at Candlestick Park at tonight’s San Francisco 49ers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Monday Night Football game:
“Following the loss of electric power to Candlestick Park before kickoff this evening, I directed our Police, Fire and Recreation & Park Departments and our Public Utilities Commission to work closely with the 49ers and PG&E to ensure that maintaining public safety and restoring power to the stadium were the top priorities. City staff worked immediately to deliver backup power and support PG&E staff in their repairs.
I have directed Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington to conduct a full investigation into the cause of both outages and, with PG&E, identify immediate actions that must be taken to prevent incidents such as this from happening again.
Tonight we all share in tremendous pride for our San Francisco 49ers. We must make every effort to support continued victories for the team and fans across the Bay Area in the weeks ahead.”
And from Mayor Ed Lee on September 1, 2011, during the one-year anniversary of PG&E’s incompetance killing eight people in San Bruno:
“They’re a great company that gets it.”
Uh, nope!
[UPDATE: Oh yes, the birds, too - I forgot about them.]
Get up to speed right here on tonight’s surprise fireworks show in the Music Concourse for the benefit of the San Francisco Giants and Major League Baseball.
Per the SFGiants:
“If you’re in The City and you hear fireworks in a minute, don’t be alarmed, it’s just the #SFGiants private World Series Gala at GG Park.”
But, uh oh:
“Seeing complaints from people in SF about the Tuesday night Fireworks. Giants better win the World Series for the city after this one!”
Und:
“Oh apparently it’s some fireworks show for the Giants over GG park? Effing stupid. I’ve never seen a city so obsessed with a sports team.”*
Here’s the video.
Can you hear the chants of, “Let’s go, Giants?”
And here’s the view from Fell Street:
Don’t click to expand
And here’s the mise en scene with Sutro Tower in the background.
This show was scheduled to end at 10:25 PM but concern over area NIMBYs pushed things up a half-hour or so.
Go Giants!
*Say what?
Were you “jolted awake by a blinding white fireball that engulfed” your building this morning around 8:36 AM, Saturday 12, 2009? If so, you were not alone. And if you miss that kind of stuff, as world-famous Xeni Jardin does, then you’re not alone, again!
It sounded like an airplane crashing into the Fillmore Center, if you happened to be at the intersection of Geary and Divisidero as I happened to be. Was it a groundstrike into Hayes Valley or the Western Addition or (or the NoPA, oh no, not the NoPA!) or Pacific Heights?
Of course the Pigs Giraffes & Elephants at our local PG&E power monopoly were dealing with power outages earlier this morning, but some additional service was lost by this big strike. (“Saint Francis Woods,” like there’s more than one? Where do these writers live, freaking Walnut Creek?) Utility workers should focus their attention on soggy Golden Gate Park to make sure that Alanis Morrissette can put on her show this afternoon at Power to the Peaceful.
Did a transformer get hit? We’ll find out soon enough. Power at Post and Webster was out this morning just after the Big Boom of 9-12-9, so the strike couldn’t have been too far away.
Courage people, courage.
[UPDATE: Jay Barmann at SFist has the scoop. Here's the clap of thunder (craaaaaack!) and here's the result via PDX503. That's one less Audi, Chariot of the Yuppie, on the Streets of San Francisco.]
If only Megan Fox were here, to fix our transformer.
Oh, here she is, fixing the transformer of a 1976 Camaro in the movie Transformers:
Or maybe PG&E, perhaps they could help….
It was Miller Time at the scene of yesterday’s lightening strike after workers towed away the cars and patched things back up. Actually, strike that, the bolt darkened the ground so let’s call it a darkening strike.
For all you do, this Miller Time is for you.
