https://foundsf.org/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=Texteradmin&feedformat=atomFoundSF - User contributions [en]2024-03-29T15:00:58ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.39.1https://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_FoundSF_Geotagger&diff=18123The FoundSF Geotagger2011-09-26T13:57:27Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div><table border="0" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3"><br />
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<td width="490">'''It's fast, fun, and extremely helpful!''' Join the community of San Francisco locals helping to crowdsource the geographic information for the historical photos in FoundSF. At the same time you will be providing the coordinates we need to build a new map interface for our collection.<br />
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Once you have the app on your iPhone, you can locate images from the FoundSF collection by neighborhood and drop a pin to identify the location of each one.<br />
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Everything you need to use is explained on the app page itself. <br />
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''Special prizes will be announced for monthly winners!''<br />
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'''[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/foundsf-geotagger/id457098543?mt=8 Click here to download the FoundSF Geotagger from iTunes]'''<br />
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[[Image:Be-Here-Then.jpg]]<br />
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<div><table border="0" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3"><br />
<tr><br />
<td valign="top">[[Image:FoundSF-Geotagger.jpg]]</td><br />
<td width="490">'''It's fast, fun, and extremely helpful!''' Join the community of San Francisco locals helping to crowdsource the geographic information for the historical photos in FoundSF. At the same time you will be providing the coordinates we need to build a new map interface for our collection.<br />
<br />
Once you have the app on your iPhone, you can locate images from the FoundSF collection by neighborhood and drop a pin to identify the location of each one.<br />
<br />
Everything you need to use is explained on the app page itself. <br />
<br />
''Special prizes will be announced for monthly winners!''<br />
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[[Image:Be-Here-Then.jpg]]<br />
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</table></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=File:FoundSF-Geotagger.jpg&diff=18121File:FoundSF-Geotagger.jpg2011-09-26T13:51:30Z<p>Texteradmin: uploaded a new version of "File:FoundSF-Geotagger.jpg"</p>
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<div></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=File:Be-Here-Then.jpg&diff=18120File:Be-Here-Then.jpg2011-09-26T13:48:56Z<p>Texteradmin: uploaded a new version of "File:Be-Here-Then.jpg"</p>
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<div></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_FoundSF_Geotagger&diff=18119The FoundSF Geotagger2011-09-26T13:45:33Z<p>Texteradmin: Created page with '<table border="0" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3"> <tr> <td valign="top">Image:FoundSF-Geotagger.jpg</td> <td>It's fast, fun, and extremely helpful! Join the community of San...'</p>
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<div><table border="0" cellspacing="3" cellpadding="3"><br />
<tr><br />
<td valign="top">[[Image:FoundSF-Geotagger.jpg]]</td><br />
<td>It's fast, fun, and extremely helpful! Join the community of San Francisco locals helping to crowdsource the geographic information for the historical photos in FoundSF. At the same time you will be providing the coordinates we need to build a new map interface for our collection.<br />
<br />
Once you have the app on your iPhone, you can locate images from the FoundSF collection by neighborhood and drop a pin to identify the location of each one.<br />
<br />
Everything you need to use is explained on the app page itself. <br />
<br />
Special prizes will be announced for monthly winners!<br />
<br />
[[Image:Be-Here-Then.jpg]]<br />
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</table></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=File:Be-Here-Then.jpg&diff=18118File:Be-Here-Then.jpg2011-09-26T13:40:48Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Template:HomepageRightColumnTop&diff=16709Template:HomepageRightColumnTop2011-01-19T17:29:20Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div><div class="imageLeft">[[Image:130px-John-ross-memorial.jpg]]</div><br />
<div class="textRight"><span class="header">John Ross</span> <br />
'' (March 11, 1938 – January 17, 2011)''<br />
<p><br />
FoundSF remembers the San Francisco activist, author, journalist, poet. He chronicles his community work with the Mission Tenants Union during the 1960s in this piece written for Shaping San Francisco. . . [[Organizing the Mission District Before the MCO (1964-1968)|see more]]<br />
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</div></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Template:HomepageRightColumnTop&diff=16707Template:HomepageRightColumnTop2011-01-19T17:24:16Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div><div class="imageLeft">[[Image:Ferlinghetti-in-city-lights.jpg]]</div><br />
<div class="textRight"><span class="header">The Howl Obscenity Trial </span><br />
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Allen Ginsberg's ''Howl'' was written in the summer of 1955 in an apartment at 1010 Montgomery Street. His first public reading. . . [[The Howl Obscenity Trial|see more]]<br />
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</div></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Template:HomepageRightColumnTop&diff=16706Template:HomepageRightColumnTop2011-01-19T17:18:16Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div><div class="imageLeft">[[Image:John-ross-memorial.jpg]]</div><br />
<div class="textRight"><span class="header">John Ross</span> <br />
'' (March 11, 1938 – January 17, 2011)''<br />
<p><br />
FoundSF remembers the San Francisco activist, author, journalist, poet. He chronicles his community work with the Mission Tenants Union during the 1960s in this piece written for Shaping San Francisco. . . [[Organizing the Mission District Before the MCO (1964-1968)|see more]]<br />
</p><br />
</div></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mechanization_on_the_Waterfront&diff=16403Mechanization on the Waterfront2010-12-06T20:54:32Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''<br />
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''by Chris Carlsson''<br />
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[[Image:ilwu2$pier-80-1997.jpg]]<br />
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'''Pier 80 along Islais Creek in 1997: site of the city's unused container facilities.'''<br />
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''photo: Chris Carlsson''<br />
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{{#ev:archive|ssfHMCONTAN|320}}<br />
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'''Herb Mills, former Secretary-Treasure of Local 10, ILWU, speaks about the container'''<br />
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''Interview by Chris Carlsson and Steve Stallone, 1995''<br />
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San Francisco was primarily a maritime port during its first century as a city. The famous Barbary Coast of the 1800s and its associated saloons, boarding houses, and gambling parlors was the home to a shifting population of stevedores, sailors, merchant marines, etc. In 1921 a five-year push by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce to break union power was finally consolidated when a longshore strike was violently suppressed and a company union (known as "The Blue Book") came to dominate the waterfront workers. The famous [[The General Strike of 1934|General Strike of 1934]] led to a new wave of working class militancy. Three years later, west coast longshoremen left the International Longshore Association, based on the east coast, and created the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), cementing a foundation for a new era of worker strength in San Francisco.<br />
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While the government brought case after case against union president [[Harry Bridges| Harry Bridges]] from the 1930s to the 1950s, trying to nail him as a communist, to deport him, and so on, the workers in the ILWU firmly controlled the labor process along the waterfront and managed to establish some comfortable practices. The men had struck again and again to prevent slingloads from exceeding 2,100 lbs., and by the late '30s were under much less pressure to increase productivity. Eight-men crews were the norm, even though most situations didn't need more than two or four men at a time, so the work crews developed the 4-on, 4-off system, wherein at any given moment during the workday, four men would be sitting around drinking coffee and playing cards while the other four actually worked.<br />
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By the early 1950s the union itself had agreed to discourage such feather-bedding, but larger pressures were beginning to make themselves felt. Shippers were demanding lower costs from the shipowners and the unions. Shippers without sufficiently large loads were beginning to use intermediate freight stations, which soon established the methods of large-scale containerization, a technological change which drastically altered the relationship of living human labor to the quantity of goods being shipped.<br />
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Bridges and the other ILWU leaders began to openly discuss an about-face on mechanization, a process that had been resisted consistently until then. A union investigation into the situation in 1957 concluded "Presently it seems possible for the union to negotiate a contract embracing the full use of labor-saving machinery with maximum protection for the welfare of the workers." They sought a contract which would ensure no speed-up when a new machine was introduced; that machines would not create safety hazards; that dock-workers wouldn't be thrown out of the industry; that the workday would be cut while take-home pay stayed the same; that pensions and other benefits would be improved; and that if mechanization reduced the amount of available work, dockworkers would be guaranteed their weekly take-home pay nevertheless.<br />
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From 1958 to its conclusion in 1960, the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association negotiated intensively over the terms of what came to be known as the M&M Agreement (Mechanization & Modernization). Bridges and his colleagues had realized that they could only resist technological changes through guerrilla warfare for so long, and that ultimately it would lead to a showdown. Isolated from a larger labor movement, ignored or harassed by the government, and pressured by the rank-and-file to acquire health benefits, pensions, etc., the ILWU leaders concluded an historic agreement that saved shippers and the industry approximately $200 million during the 1960-66 contract period, and guaranteed longshoremen of that time wage increases, job security, increased benefits and pensions, and a large retirement bonus, equalling approximately $29 million in additional wealth for the workers.<br />
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In fact, under the M&M, longshoremen increased their wages, men over 62 were given early retirement bonuses of $7,920, and all medical, dental and pension benefits increased. But younger workers were sharply critical, with over a third voting against the deal. The writer Eric Hoffer, who was then a longshoreman, said "This generation has no right to give away, or sell for money, conditions that were handed on to us by a previous generation." A common complaint graffitied in piers and waterfront warehouses was that the speed-up was back with the M&M as slingloads increased dramatically -- Bridges Loads they were called.<br />
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One San Francisco longshoreman even got up in a 1963 union meeting and said:<br />
<br />
''"Brother Bridges has been saying for years that when the newspapers begin saying good things about him, it's time to get the recall machinery in motion. Brothers! That time has come!"''<br />
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The speaker was censured by the local's executive board at the next meeting, and when that was in turn reported to the rank-and-file, they hooted down the board's move derisively.<br />
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With the port doing a booming business throughout the early 60s, in large part due to the Vietnam War, the longshoremen found an accumulation of $13 million in their M&M fund by the 1966 end of the contract. After a few proposals were kicked around, the union voted to pay out $1,200 bonuses to all 10,000 full-time longshoremen on the Pacific Coast. A new agreement dumped the 35-hour week guarantee, but increased lump sum retirement bonuses to $13,000, increased wages and benefits. Meanwhile the Port of Oakland across the bay invested heavily in the new container cranes. Oakland also had the space to accommodate large storage areas and was conveniently served by direct rail and road lines from the Central Valley and all points north, south and east. By the mid-1970s, the San Francisco waterfront had been largely abandoned as too little, too slow, and too inefficient. A brief flurry of old-style longshoring accompanied the earliest days of consumer goods from China, but that, too, was soon supplanted by containerized shipping to Oakland to Long Beach and Los Angeles in southern California, and Seattle in the north.<br />
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In hindsight we can see that the M&M deal struck by the ILWU was the essence of an arrangement between capital and labor in the 20th century U.S. The union bargained away control over technological change in exchange for payment to the existing workforce and its retirees. Ultimately it agreed to become a much smaller labor aristocracy, although one could argue that the union had no choice under capitalist modernization.<br />
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This agreement was the turning point in San Francisco's economic history. After a hundred years of maritime, trading, and manufacturing in the city, San Francisco began its turn in becoming a headquarters city, a popular tourist destination, and a service sector capital. Regional planning, begun in earnest during WWII, led to new transportation grids and decentralization of blue collar industries. The ILWU's formal agreement to cooperate with a great technological leap in their work killed the San Francisco port and its jobs, and led to thousands fewer jobs in the large ports of today. It also signaled a willingness to submit by San Francisco's last bastion of serious labor resistance, the strikers of 1934. When the ILWU supported Joe Alioto for mayor in 1967, and went on to have leaders appointed to the Redevelopment Agency by Mayor Alioto, they completed their transition from ''acquiescing'' to ''enforcing'' the plans of the local and national elite.<br />
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ILWU representative Wilbur Hamilton was appointed to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency in 1968 and soon after got the job of project manager for the Western Addition A-2 project, the SFRA's largest neighborhood clearance plan. Hamilton gave a black , pro-labor face to the essentially white racist "slum clearance" plan devised in the boardrooms of downtown San Francisco.<br />
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Hamilton became the Executive Director of the SFRA in 1977. An ILWU organizer, Rick Sorro, was appointed to Mayor George Moscone's Select Committee on Yerba Buena Center in March, 1976. The ILWU, while less ardent than the SF Building Trades Council, the SF Central Labor Council, and the Teamsters Joint Council, had been supporting the South of Market redevelopment project called [[TOOR (Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment) | Yerba Buena Center]], which was to include a new Convention Center. Ironically, this redevelopment plan came largely at the expense of retired longshoremen and other port workers who inhabited the old neighborhoods which were designated "blighted" in order to facilitate eminent domain clearance by the Redevelopment Agency. (See [[Fillmore Redevelopment | Western Addition Blues]])<br />
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[[Image:Tours-editor.gif|link=The Hidden Mural at Mission Dolores]] [[The Hidden Mural at Mission Dolores|Continue viewing the Editors' Favorite Pages]]<br />
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[[Image:Tours-labor.gif|link=NO PAID OFFICIALS]] [[NO PAID OFFICIALS| Continue Labor History Tour]]<br />
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[[A Community That Fights | Prev. Document]] [[B Men and Automation| Next Document]]<br />
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[[category:Labor]] [[category:ILWU]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:redevelopment]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=San_Francisco%27s_Clean_Little_Secret&diff=16402San Francisco's Clean Little Secret2010-12-06T20:53:51Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''<br />
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''by Joel Pomerantz''<br />
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Surrounded by the salty ocean, San Franciscans take as a given the need for fresh water drawn from mountains on the far side of the state. Hetch Hetchy reservoir, located in Yosemite National Park on the Tuolumne River, is our main source. The Tuolumne, combined with creeks in counties nearer San Francisco, supply 95% of the water we use for our residences, industries, and irrigation. We have this water in our taps as a result of more than a century of San Francisco’s political dominance over an arid region, where control of water is indeed the key to life. Spending billions, we take the water 165 miles from a mostly dry area to distribute among ourselves.<br />
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The oddest part of this arrangement is not the extravagance of our resource grab, but the redundancy. It is not clear that San Francisco needs this water as much as we claim to. Unbeknownst to most San Franciscans, our little seven square miles contain a remarkable geologic feature, a significant wellspring of quality water. At one time, local sources were our only supply and were taken for granted in their own right. Now, the gushing output of San Francisco springs is diverted into our sewers, replaced in our homes by other sources of water that are more susceptible to central control. Our relationship to water has been determined as much by revenue streams as by streams of water.<br />
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As world population surges beyond the levels that planetary fresh water can provide for, the groundwater of San Francisco will quickly become more valuable than oil. If we look closely at what we have and use our “native” creativity, we could establish our city as a self-sufficient user of sustainable local resources, accomplishing the transition over a relatively short period of time. We could restore some of San Francisco’s natural lakes and expose buried creeks to the daylight. We could possibly even return [[The Hetch Hetchy Story, Part I: John Muir, Preservationists vs. Conservationists|Hetch Hetchy Valley]]—which environmentalist John Muir compared favorably to the beauty of Yosemite Valley—to its original condition.<br />
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Water resources have been notably absent from the platform planks of election campaigns, even those of recent progressive candidates. Yet we do not need to start from scratch. Best practices are already codified, many studies have been done, a master plan has even been written (and then shelved) by the [[Who Pays for Public Water? S.F. vs. Suburbs|Public Utilities Commission]]. At this point, we need a broader education about our heretofore secret water options, and a cooperative path into the fragile future. It is time to insert this pivotal issue into the local political agenda. Then we need to fight like hell to steer our new policies past the pitfalls of profit and corporate control, which have so thoroughly poisoned our present system.<br />
<br />
'''Aqueous Ubiquitous?'''<br />
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Here, in our peninsular paradise, we see, feel, and use water daily in a hundred forms. The tide caresses our shore, three-fourths of our border with the outside world. Fishing lines, swaddled in damp fog, are dangled off generations of piers into the salty bay. With each winter storm, surf pounds [[C L I F F H O U S E|Ocean Beach]] leaving patterned blips on the seismograph at the Randall Museum. On sunny days, the mists and sounds of fountain spatter make our public spaces seem grander. Parks and golf courses are coaxed green by old rain sucked from the ground.<br />
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Rain washes oil, left on the concrete by manifold thousands of dripping cars, into the sewers. Clay skeet falls dayglo and shattered from the Pacific Rod and Gun Club into fresh [[Lake Merced a 'shipwreck'|Lake Merced]], once an estuarial inlet of the sea. Gurgling through colorful pipes, water extracts acrid and metallic chemical discard from refineries and circuit board manufacturers, mostly now banned from direct release into the bay by policies developed in the past few decades.<br />
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A Chinatown fishmonger sprays down the scented sidewalk at closing time. Meanwhile, inside, the president appears on a television floated from its Asian assembly line in an airtight container over rising seas. He disingenuously declares a national effort to harness hydrogen energy from “abundant” water.<br />
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We charge ourselves monthly to draw clean water into our homes. It swirls to the left or right down our toilets, sloshes grime off dinnerware in our sinks—water used once and then thrown away. By opening the faucet, we pull it effortlessly from distant reservoirs through aging pipelines and brittle concrete aqueducts snaking miles over active faults and under bay sediments. Convinced our taps are contaminated, we suckle expensive “pure” water from bottles made with estrogen-mimicking plastic contaminants. We somehow derive a sense of purity from famous springs named on the label, though it is often simply trucked in from distant spigots dispensing worse water than our own municipal taps.<br />
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But do we really understand the water around us? While plentiful, most of it presents a great challenge to use, because of sea salt. To drink and manufacture, irrigate and bathe, we require low-saline fresh water—traditionally extracted from rivers. It would seem that all we need to do, if we wish to drink fresh water, is find a sweet water source such as a river.<br />
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Where is the nearest river? If you live in San Francisco and want to escape the pressures of city life, you have probably gone north for a visit to the Russian River region, or east to the Stanislaus River in the Central Valley. Probably you have seen the Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, where High Sierra snow melt meanders at sea level through drained tracts like Bethel “Island.” These two rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, join forces and flow through the Carquinez Straits, bringing most of Northern California’s precious fresh surface water to commingle with the salty tides of San Pablo Bay and the San Francisco estuary itself, which we refer to as simply “the Bay.”<br />
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And, indeed, many Bay Area municipalities draw their drinking water from these rivers, always threatened by salt incursion as reduced river volume brings salt water farther upstream.<br />
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Some of that reduction of flow is due to San Francisco’s use of Hetch Hetchy. Our municipal water leaves the river system high in the Sierra Nevada, where three 75-year-old dams arrest the Tuolumne headwaters. These reservoirs gather water from a prime watershed more than twelve times the size of San Francisco. They pool the annual cycles of snow melt into drowned granite valleys now called Lake Eleanor, Cherry Lake, and Hetch Hetchy.<br />
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In a sense, we have exactly what we need; a fresh sweet river can be found by simply turning the faucet. When we do this trick, we get even more than that river, because the nearer Pilarcitos Creek and Alameda Creek watersheds make their contributions to our system from San Mateo and Alameda Counties, respectively. Turn the tap, get a river and two creeks. Spared the journey they once took along winding, lush banks, “our” water is diverted into the artificial rivers of the Hetch Hetchy Project before being distributed within San Francisco through 1,200 miles of water mains.<br />
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On the way, it slakes the thirst of about 4 million households and businesses in dozens of Bay Area municipalities—and millions of other users in other parts of California. Residential and industrial users of northern watersheds have addresses as far away as Los Angeles. A statewide system of aqueducts brings Central Valley water to the foot of the Tehachapis, hundreds of miles south of San Francisco, where it is pumped over the mountains into the even drier and far thirstier L.A. basin.<br />
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Money and power motivated entrepreneurial engineers to establish the complex Hetch Hetchy system. However, the earliest water sources for our peninsular village-turned-boomtown were right here in our lowlands and along the slopes of Twin Peaks. Some of these sources are easily perceptible—and some are thoroughly hidden. In fact, San Francisco has a remarkable native water source that is so out of sight and mind that we may as well call it a secret.<br />
<br />
'''Mystery Upwelling'''<br />
<br />
Into our briny city we bring potable supplies of anywhere from 75 to 100 million gallons a day. We also enjoy seasonal rains. Adding to those, water burbles up through our geologic substrate. While it is easy to see the reservoirs, aqueducts, and delivery trucks importing water, and natural to accept the rains and their contribution to the water tables, our unusual—though productive—springs and seeps have somehow evaded general notice. Unless you have walked Caselli Street or [[Corwin Park to Tank Hill|Pemberton Steps]] in the early morning quiet, you have probably never heard the babbling brook in the sewer. And if you have, you may have thought it the result of early risers showering. But it is, in fact, Dolores Creek.<br />
<br />
Those San Franciscans with a more intimate sense of history talk about its creeks—Lobos, Islais, and Mission Creeks being the best known. These and other surface creeks and tributaries flowed unimpeded in the city’s early decades. Spanning many centuries before that, five or six permanent villages were located along their banks. These are not seasonal creeks. The flowing surface waterways of San Francisco’s past were year-round affairs, a detail that can be difficult to comprehend in a city which receives no rain for more than half of each year. In an article I wrote in 1994 about the “Wiggle,” a stream-flattened valley favored by bicyclists intent on bypassing hills, I mistakenly implied that Sans Souci Creek flowed only in the wet seasons. I never received a single correction, despite the evidence presented (shortly after publication) by a construction hole left gaping all summer at Scott and Haight Streets, where fresh running water could always be seen.<br />
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[[Image:Sans-Souci-valley-Carleton-Watkins-from-Orphan-Asylum-1866-69-600-dpi.jpg]]<br />
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'''Valley through which [[The Duboce Bikeway Mural: Gateway to the Wiggle|"The Wiggle"]] passes in today's urban landscape.'''<br />
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''Photo: Carleton Watkins, 1866, taken from [[San Francisco Orphan Asylum Society|Orphan Asylum]] near Mint Hill; Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA''<br />
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What we forget, standing on impermeable pavement* is that water still exists beneath these streets, developments, and sandy lots. What once flowed in surface channels, though now buried in the ground or steered into sewer pipes, is still there somewhere. Tens of millions of gallons of fresh water each day (probably over three million just in the North Mission area) flow right below our feet from artesian springs of potable water. ‘Artesian’ is the term for sources that rise above the water table to the surface due to their own hydrologic pressure, needing no pumping.<br />
<br />
Adding yet another layer to the mystery, massive surges of groundwater, much of it potable, travel continuously just beneath us from related “subartesian” sources that even historically never came fully to the surface. We easily overlook these “creeks” since they have never come into view to receive formal names.<br />
<br />
If people think about local groundwater they generally think of the Westside Basin aquifer, because it is visible where its water table meets the surface at Lake Merced. The Westside Basin gets its water from rain, irrigation runoff, and other local, seasonal sources descending through the sand, soil, and fractured rock. It needs the rain for replenishment. In contrast, the fresh spring waters indefatigably flowing on the eastern slopes of Twin Peaks are a wondrous geologic feature, of unknown origin and potentially great benefit to the city. This water comes in quantities and seasons unlikely to be associated with local rains. Further study is needed to determine its ultimate source.<br />
<br />
Between the scores of true artesian springs and the city’s underground flows fed by the same sources, San Francisco has, heading through our soils and sewers to the bay, enough water to supply many, or most, of our needs. With the Westside Basin rainwater aquifer added to these remarkable east slope sources, it appears that graywater recycling and treatment technology, along with conservation, could tip the balance to make meeting our entire municipal thirst feasible—relying only on local sources.<br />
<br />
'''The Hayes River'''<br />
<br />
Though ambling slowly, the mighty Hayes River is wide and voluminous, spreading through the alluvial sediments, bay muds, and landfill under the Civic Center and Downtown neighborhoods with a hydromorphology not unlike Florida’s everglades. It broadsides Market Street, encountering a long concrete subway tunnel that interrupts its gait. So copious are the waters of the Hayes that, to protect their investment from damage, BART runs “de-watering” pumps day and night in the Powell Street BART station. Removing, each week, 2.5 million gallons of tested, high-quality, potable groundwater (into the sewer!) the transit agency keeps the Hayes from flooding the tracks.<br />
<br />
The Hayes, then, is our nearest natural river, a dispersed underground flow that descends through Hayes Valley from “headwaters” (more precisely, hundreds of upwellings, springs, and seeps) in the area near Lone Mountain and the University of San Francisco, and also along the hillsides of Alamo Square. On average, the river is about fifteen feet below surface, and much deeper and wider than most surface rivers. It finally meets the surface South of Market, where it enters the bay beneath China Basin and the even-numbered piers. Originally, it came to the surface in a marsh at Mission and Seventh Streets. The extent of this slow fluid influx is such that hundreds of landowners along this waterway originally used private wells, built right into their foundations, to supply all their water needs.<br />
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[[Image:soma_subsidence1885.jpg]]<br />
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'''These warehouses at Howard and Langton Alley are sinking steadily into the marsh, thanks to the flowing Hayes River below the surface.'''<br>''Photo: Chris Carlsson''<br />
<br />
A few buildings, such as the Olympic Club headquarters at 524 Post Street, and the California Automobile Association on Van Ness Avenue, still use Hayes water today. Many Civic Center buildings employ full-time pumping operations to keep their basements dry. The public fountains at United Nations Plaza and Fillmore Center are also fed by the waters of the Hayes.<br />
The Hayes River still delivers quality, drinkable water to many areas. In the 1800s its wells, along with those tapping the Mission Creek water table, supplemented Lobos Creek in the Presidio to meet the needs of a growing city. Lobos Creek supplied San Francisco as the city’s main Gold Rush water source from 1851 to 1895, through an enterprise named Mountain Lake Water Company.<br />
<br />
[[Image:norbeach$black-point-1870.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Mountain Lake Water Company flume wraps around Black Point (today's Fort Mason) in the 1870s.'''<br>Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA''<br />
<br />
Most of us go along unaware of these precious naturally flowing wonders, more concerned about what our guests wish to drink than with the specific source of the substance on which we depend. Even those of us devoted to environmental efforts usually overlook the native wellsprings of our coastal ridge formations.<br />
<br />
'''More Than a Drop to Drink'''<br />
<br />
We have found, much closer, one river and two creeks—Hayes, Mission, Lobos. Serving water to locals for ages, they were adopted by new Spanish- and English-speaking arrivals and then by the polyglot fortune hunters of the Gold Rush, all long before the Hetch Hetchy system was set up for its centralized dispensing of water and hydroelectric power. These local sources, something of a secret today, produced sufficient potable water to satisfy San Francisco’s basic needs as it grew to a half million residents. Shortly thereafter, greed and political ambition began to change this landscape. But before we examine that shift, we should pause for some revisions in our own narrow perceptions of a city severed from nature.<br />
<br />
On April 5, 1776, Juan Bautista de Anza’s party rowed up [[Mission Creek|Mission Creek]] from the bay to establish a mission. April 5 is the feast day of Our Lady of Sorrows (Nuestra Señora de los Dolores)—thus the name Mission Dolores. The creek they entered wound through marshes to a tidal lagoon and then into a flowing freshwater lake, called [[Lagoon and 1906 Mission|Laguna de Manantial]]. The creek probably spanned a width of forty feet or more and, at 100 to 200 cubic feet per second, offered enough current to require real effort in the arms of the rowers. The water was sweet and excellent for drinking (as it still is today).<br />
<br />
The first Spanish soldiers, coming also in 1776, set themselves up near the Golden Gate in time to keep Russian outposts from expanding down the coast of California. They took their water from El Polin Spring, which still flows from a small circle of stones in the Presidio. (Later the Presidio drank from Lobos Creek, which in its natural state flows out at Baker Beach.)<br />
<br />
[[Image:El-Polin-Spring-sept-08 4087.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''El Polin Spring in the Presidio, Sept. 2008.'''<br>''Photo: Chris Carlsson''<br />
<br />
Newcomers settled in four districts at first, then later populations filtered in to connect those four. The town of Yerba Buena started on a cove near the current Bay Bridge anchorage, getting water from shallow wells.<br />
And then, after the Gold Rush swelled Yerba Buena and the Mission with urban life, successful prospectors and financiers began building “country homes” around and beyond the Mission, near Islais Creek and its tributary, Precita Creek. [[Islais Creek Covered|Islais Creek]] today still flows from headwaters at McAteer High School through Glen Canyon, then in culverts beneath Interstate Highway 280 to the bay.<br />
<br />
[[Image:islais-creek-near-source-in-glen-canyon7143.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Islais Creek near source at top of Glen Canyon'''<br>Photo: Chris Carlsson''<br />
<br />
The combined water sources around Mission Creek, more than twice as voluminous as the Hayes River, flow directly from the steep sides of Twin Peaks through Upper Market neighborhoods. Unlike the Hayes, some flowed on the surface.<br />
<br />
Mission Creek was navigable until 1874. By the early twentieth century, the lagoons and creeks of the Mission had been filled with trash and 1906 earthquake rubble, sold as private lots and built upon. But the water was still there, tapped by homes and businesses before the Hetch Hetchy system of subscribed and vended water superseded it. According to a 1913 survey of 700 San Francisco wells, Mission district wells produced more than 1.2 million gallons per day. The survey, one of the first projects of city Engineer [[Michael M. O'Shaughnessy |Michael M. O’Shaughnessy]], began the long process of replacing those wells with Hetch Hetchy Project water.<br />
<br />
The springs that feed Mission Creek can still be seen and heard all along the inclines and alleys of Mount Olympus and [[Corbett and Clayton 1915|upper Eureka Valley]]. At Clayton Street, where the main waterway’s path crosses Market Street, permanently wet and mossy curbs attest to what was once a small cascade. New Century Beverage (later Pepsi) at Seventeenth Street and Valencia where the police station now stands, supplied their bottling operations into the 1990s from free and potable waters flowing under their property. Atlas Home Laundry linen cleaning service, which was just replaced by a new development at Seventeenth and Hoff (between Mission and Valencia Streets), drew 10,000 gallons a day of groundwater before it closed.<br />
<br />
Mission Dolores is a lasting tribute to the abundance of this productive watershed. It was erected near the banks of a large lake fed by Dolores Creek (flowing approximately along Caselli and then Eighteenth Street). Another [[Market and Church|pond]] at Belcher Street (near Church and Market) supported an Ohlone village, from which it is likely that the builders of Mission Dolores were conscripted. That pond was fed by Sans Souci Creek from what is now called the Lower Haight. Below the pond, it flowed east down Fourteenth Street to meet the Mission Creek estuary at Fifteenth and Shotwell, where the ground is still sinking dramatically on the site of an oblong marshy inlet.<br />
<br />
'''Power Struggle'''<br />
<br />
Water is our right, but it is not a secured right. It is fraudulent for anyone to claim legitimate ownership of the air, the sea, or space itself. Yet we can see from historical events that these claims are inevitable. The prime example is land, which English courts of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries allowed to be taken from the “commons” and converted into private property. Technological resources follow the same pattern. Where television receivers were once all that was needed by viewers of the public airwaves, cable TV giants have created a pay-to-view culture so entrenched that we risk water-cooler or schoolroom shame if we do not participate. It is sadly axiomatic, under our society’s obsessively monetary value system, that land and nominal public space, as well as air, public airwaves, the Internet, and even knowledge itself, can be controlled by those charging for their use. So goes the story of water.<br />
<br />
Examples from our own sordid town history indicate that these same resource struggles and abuses have permeated local politics for some time, dominating the agenda of power brokers here and in the state capital (occasionally reaching the federal level, with the unusual approval of a municipal reservoir in a national park). The record paints a less-than-rosy picture of San Francisco, past and present. Corruption, neglect, and simple bad policy led to our current predicament, in which private utilities have held lucrative sway over public decisions despite ongoing efforts—partly successful—to municipalize their services.<br />
<br />
San Francisco’s population grew quickly in the nineteenth century. In-creased local demand prompted rivalries, exacerbated by boom-town greed. The first big shift from using only the wells and streams within our city limits was the tapping of surface water supplies from nearby counties. Under the control of speculator George Ensign, a small private company called Spring Valley Water was able to convince the state legislature to extend it rights of eminent domain. This legal power allowed Spring Valley to condemn and seize whole watersheds. In the 1860s the company built a system bringing water northward from Pilarcitos Creek on the slopes of Mount Montara in newly created San Mateo County. Ensign and his successors, notably Swiss engineer Hermann Schussler and the financiers William Ralston and William Sharon, managed to outwit a plan for city municipalization, gaining control of Alameda Creek in [[Sunol and Crystal Springs|Sunol for the Spring Valley Water Company]]. Both of these creeks still supply our taps (making up 18 percent of Hetch Hetchy Project water).<br />
<br />
Ralston and his partners launched a campaign to create large civic parks—green spaces from sandy lots—to leverage their property investments. In order to supply the necessary water, these private investors and their successors developed and zealously dominated a regional water system from 1858 until 1930.<br />
<br />
The Spring Valley Water Company was reviled by the populace for its high prices, spotty quality, corruption, and imperial attitude, which intentionally mimicked ancient Rome’s regional domination. His-torian Gray Brechin described Spring Valley Water Company as “the state’s most powerful monopoly and nearly as hated as the Southern Pacific Railroad would be later.” Public outrage against Spring Valley for its abysmal water quality and service was first used to get public financing for the Hetch Hetchy Project in the 1910s. In 1932 the hated company was purchased by the city, in spite of an outcry over junk- bond bailout profits for investors. <br />
<br />
It would be a mistake to imagine that the ambitious dam and aqueduct project with the alliterative name is just about water. The dream of Hetch Hetchy, both capitalist and populist, was propelled in large part by changes in the technology of electricity. The ’teens saw the beginnings of an effort to electrify autocarriages, locomotives, factories, musical instruments, moving picture projectors, and the most magical wired invention of all, radio. It was in this frenzied context that, in 1912, Michael M. O’Shaughnessy was hired as city engineer to create the tunnels and overhead lines of the electric streetcars and develop the Hetch Hetchy system. One selling point of the expensive Hetch Hetchy system was certainly its water supply, but another of great significance was its promised “low-cost” generation of hydroelectric power. As with nuclear power promotion schemes in the latter half of the twentieth century, unrealistic “cheap energy” promises were made to justify large public investments in a system eventually to be controlled mostly by private hands.<br />
<br />
'''Surging Demand, Tenuous Supply'''<br />
<br />
Natural San Francisco is ready for a new look. We cannot, however, simply reclaim the pre-urban past. Circumstances have changed, both physically and politically, and a global struggle for water is brewing.<br />
<br />
Most people on earth live in what we tend to call “developing countries.” Per capita wealth in these places, depending how it is measured, is between one- eighth and one-hundredth of ours, and the disparity is growing. Meanwhile, the gap is encouraged and cultivated by companies whose shareholders and power brokers benefit. Global water management firms, like the locally based Bechtel Corporation* and Vice President Dick Cheney’s friends at Halliburton, are carrying out further consolidation of their authority over supplies and delivery systems as water becomes more important to global markets.<br />
<br />
A comparison of water demand and availability (accessible water) shows that whoever controls this resource can control human living conditions.<br />
The oil-water comparison can be tempting. Although both are coveted by powerful interests, and both are waning resources relative to demand, there are two differences that rupture the parallel. First, water is needed for life. Second, water has a self-renewing cycle. These differences suggest that control of the delivery system and perceived rights are far more potent for water than for oil, where control of the actual substance is paramount.<br />
All resources suffer from limitations on supply, even if we see them, at first, as limitless. We cannot expect to always have available that which we take for granted today—not even those of us living in rich, selfish societies with unscrupulous military might. This is clearly true for water resources. Water supplies are diminishing in quality while under the strain of increased demand. Aquifers the world around are contaminated by unhealthy practices and neglect.<br />
<br />
In Colorado, accidentally released plutonium from the former Rocky Flats nuclear bomb trigger factory has permanently destroyed the integrity of the groundwater supply. Water now being widely used for Denver area swimming pools and playground sprinklers has been shown to contain plutonium, deadly in minute doses.<br />
<br />
San Francisco’s water, too, could be irreparably contaminated by toxic waste from military and corporate malpractice. These extralegal institutions have bequeathed us the Southern Pacific railyard ([[MISSION BAY|Mission Bay]] Development), Hunters Point Shipyard, the Presidio, and other toxic sites, some recently catalogued by the San Francisco Bayview newspaper.<br />
<br />
After nearly 6,000 years of innovations in urban living, humans are still tossing our waste casually over our collective shoulder into the absorbent land, streams, bays, and oceans when we can get away with it. To be fair, we are not really so casual. If we were simply leaving our waste where it fell, the way most organisms do, we might be better off. Instead, we carefully gather the fast-increasing and ever more poisonous discards of our “advanced” consumer culture and, often for a short-term profit, deposit them right into our most precious of all life-sustaining resources.<br />
<br />
Where we don’t actually throw our detritus and excrement into the life-giving waters, we amass them where the rain and aquifers can seep, percolate, and leach. This slightly delayed sludge of havoc will bring eventual disaster in the unforgiving rigors of species survival and ecological balance.<br />
<br />
The city’s Altamont landfill is monitored for toxic incursions into groundwater. But our local wetlands, water tables, ponds, and creeks that took in the refuse of the last 150 years will be harder to clean. The longer we wait, the more the polluting underground plumes expand. San Francisco has hundreds of sites where contamination of groundwater is already known. Some are being targeted for cleanup. We have yet to fully understand the effects of our past transgressions, but if we are to survive, we must make controlling this malignancy an immediate priority.<br />
<br />
Until only a few decades ago, still ripe in the memories of our living elders, the bay was both the sewage system and the trash heap for every town along its shores. Ever since the first Gold Rush ship fell to pieces abandoned in the feculent San Francisco harbor, we have become accustomed to taking the easy way out of this mess. Or is it the easy way in?<br />
<br />
'''Final Draft'''<br />
<br />
Occasionally public entities set out to accomplish noble goals for the people. Such was apparently the case in the mid-1990s, when the Public Utility Commission (PUC) prepared a document called San Francisco Groundwater Master Plan. Published in 1997, it displays the label “Final” across its cover, but it may as well have been labeled “Dead in the Water.”<br />
<br />
It provides a thorough initial evaluation of San Francisco’s groundwater resources, complete with goals and recommendations for action. The master plan’s sensible starting goals have yet to be integrated into the daily activities of PUC and Public Works Department staff, let alone acknowledged as official policy:<br />
<br />
• Protect and enhance groundwater quality<br><br />
• Coordinate groundwater use<br><br />
• Protect and conserve lakes and streams<br><br />
• Improve ability to deliver water in emergencies<br><br />
• Maximize groundwater use<br />
<br />
Implementation and funding recommendations in the document are augmented by maps, diagrams, and charts showing water resources. Though the master plan does discuss the “long-term strategy” of capturing groundwater produced by dewatering operations, and shows how we might consistently capture 5 to 7 million more gallons a day from certain northern sites in the Westside Basin without serious detriment to water table levels, it falls short in its evaluation of subsurface water from artesian and subartesian sources. In other words, the plan, though potentially useful, falls far short of recognizing the remarkable geologic features of San Francisco’s east slope watersheds.<br />
<br />
All things geologic in San Francisco run in vast northwest-by-southeast patterns, a result of the tilted rock layers of a fault zone. Twin Peaks is composed of cherts and other dense materials of the Franciscan formation. Parallel to that and on its east side, a layer of softer serpentine runs from the Golden Gate to Hunters Point. It is at the juncture of these two layers that water emerges in artesian wells, springs, and wide underground flows.<br />
The survey of wells contained in the PUC publication is not as exhaustive as O’Shaughnessy’s 1913 roster but the master plan does track some current usage. After predicting opportunities for construction site dewatering and identifying a couple of ongoing pump sites, the plan acknowledges that there are better uses for that water, now pumped directly into the downtown sewers. It neglects, however, to assess new well water possibilities in the eastern half of the city, despite affirming the high quality of the water involved.<br />
<br />
'''Stone Soup'''<br />
<br />
Within the precarious political and ecological context of our favorite precious liquid, we still face the practical challenge of supplying ourselves clean, tasty, potable water, here in San Francisco.<br />
<br />
Despite a climate of low electoral confidence and even lower participation, there is a national movement to bring resource decisions out of the hands of officials who conspire with private interests to hide important political choices. Environmental mitigation programs have made it harder to fill and develop wetlands. Activists and other empowered citizens are taking action in record numbers, mainly as volunteers. The Volunteer Monitor, a national newsletter for thousands of watershed monitoring organizations, has tripled in size over the past decade. Quality of life gadflies have joined environmentalists to bring our lakes and streams back to health and visibility. There is ample reason for optimism.<br />
<br />
Some of our optimism can be drawn from the power of recognizing past mistakes. Given all the high quality fresh water found within San Francisco’s city limits, still sloshing in thousands of abandoned wells dotting flooded—if hidden—watersheds, why did we convert entirely to a system which requires that we pay “providers” for our water? We suffer a collective amnesia, crafted over the past century, preventing our recognition that water, like the air and sea, is right here for us to use, communally owned for no one’s profit.<br />
If we were to focus our abundant civic pride and technological prowess on the problem, we could make this city a model of self-sufficiency. Local water advocates must unite with the efforts recently taken up by municipal power advocates and decentralized electrical generation advocates. Our new Department of the Environment could assist in redirecting the PUC toward a “stone soup” of available sources for our water supply: conservation, recycled water (including greywater), rainwater, artesian and subartesian water, and surface water.<br />
<br />
Surface water in particular deserves special attention. Not only should we be using local creek waters in our taps, we should be returning it to the land (not directly to the bay) either cleaned of our mess, or via active wastewater treatment marshes (doubling as wildlife sanctuaries) such as those developed in Bolinas and Arcata, California. The goals of using groundwater do not have to conflict with the goals of returning our surface streams to health.<br />
<br />
I spent part of my childhood in Washington, D.C., where Rock Creek Park sets the standard for natural urban surface flows. Yet in the drier Bay Area, I had developed lower expectations. Then, in 1991, one of my students showed me the wonder of Strawberry Creek, daylighted by the Urban Creeks Council after seventy years in sewer culverts. Ever since that day—when my heart leapt upon first encounter with a restored surface creek—I have felt certain that similar rehabilitation projects are inevitable in San Francisco. Regenerating those waterways adds to the quality of our daily existence, the viability of the biosphere, and the momentum toward redress of past destruction.<br />
<br />
The overhaul of obscured and corrupted natural systems through restoration of local lakes, creeks, wells, and springs is not just a dream. Thanks to neighbors implementing their vision of balance, Lake Merced now has a better chance to survive. The Presidio’s Crissy Field wetlands restoration is a qualified success and has been an important experiment. South of the airport, reclamation of Bair Island wetlands, once considered an expansion area for Foster City, is well under way. Events—and even policies—are conspiring to bring in the next phase of water systems renewal. The daylighting of Islais Creek, which runs deep in the landfilled valley beneath the Glen Park BART station, is currently being promoted by hydrologists and activists at the Neighborhood Parks Council through a carefully drawn Glen Park Community Plan. Muralist [http://www.monacaron.com Mona Caron] has taken some of this vision and made it tangible in her [[Time-Travelling Wall|mural at Church and Fifteenth Streets]]. In the context of a renewed city, she depicts what might be the Hayes River, brought into view as an urban waterway crossing beneath Market Street.<br />
<br />
Creeks and falls that once tumbled year-round down the slopes of Twin Peaks still stream along, but are relegated to the storm sewers. Pumps on backup generators extract seepage from the basements of our civic buildings. Abandoned wells join the [[CISTERNS|cisterns]] and neighborhood fire protection reservoirs in a network of underground water supplies awaiting an emergency. <br />
<br />
The flow of hidden waters in San Francisco may be one key to the sustainability of the city. Yet, our leaders—and by that I mean our profit-and- loss leaders—still encourage us to spend public funds on private repair of quake-prone aqueducts and reservoirs, while obediently paying our redoubling utility bills. Urban dwellers, removed from a sense of nature, too often take water for granted and leave it to the experts. The time is ripe to make our connection to nature healthier. <br />
<br />
The absence of these discussions during recent mayoral campaigns may temporarily reinforce their relegation to the realm of idealistic fantasies, but the politicos don’t have the final say here. A hardier and truer solution is possible—and by embracing it we can induce local politicians to subscribe. We must integrate our most basic natural resource into our activist agenda, to succeed in the long-term challenges of political control and bioregional harmony.<br />
<br />
Abundant local water is a resource we can use, along with solar and wind power, to create a fully decentralized infrastructure independent of the “marketplace.” Will profiteering control these resources and determine our reaction (or inaction) in handling future shortages and past blunders? Or will we begin to work outside that system, as our own voluntary leaders?<br />
We are ready to shift our outlook, our laws and our infrastructure using the guideposts of independence and self-reliance rather than financial reward. To create a sustainable, decentralized system, fortified against corporate vandalism, we must quickly move beyond the PUC’s stagnant Groundwater Master Plan to implement a much grander vision. We can reclaim our water, decentralize its distribution, and divest PG&E of its control over our electricity, too. We can integrate our urban lives back into the web of nature. Imagine walking—or rowing—along a living creek through that San Francisco!<br />
<br />
'''Thanks to Anna Sojourner and Beth Goldstein for inspiration. '''<br />
<br />
[[Image:The-political-edge.jpg]]<br />
<br />
published originally in [http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100341720 ''The Political Edge''] ed. Chris Carlsson (City Lights Foundation: 2004)<br />
<br />
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[[category:Ecology]] [[category:water]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:2000s]] [[category:Mission]] [[category:SOMA]] [[category:Civic Center]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Playland&diff=16401Playland2010-12-06T20:53:04Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''<br />
<br />
''by Lubna Takruri''<br />
<br />
[[Image:richmond$playland$playland_itm$playland-north-1940.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Playland view to the south, c. 1940'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library''<br />
<br />
[[Image:Young-black-mom-and-kids-at-playland-with-cotton-candy.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Young family enjoys cotton candy at Playland, 1960s.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Kurt Bank''<br />
<br />
'''Playland died along with blue collar image that once embodied a gritty San Francisco'''<br />
<br />
San Francisco has always been somewhere people come to enjoy themselves, and tourism has long been a mainstay of the city's economy. <br />
<br />
Nightlife, culinary delight, amusement, erotic adventure and family entertainment are all contained within its 49 square miles. Anything a visitor may seek, San Francisco can provide. Echoes of fun and amusement ring throughout the city from the cable cars atop Nob Hill to the sea lions barking at the wharf. <br />
<br />
Turning back the clock to the Depression, we find San Francisco bubbling as a haven of fun even then.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Richmond%24playland%24%24playland-playbeauties.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Bathing beauties laugh it up at Playland, c. 1940s'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library''<br />
<br />
The place to go was a now-vanished amusement park, Playland-at-the-Beach. During the Depression and World War II, Playland thrived. Adults and children, families and couples on dates, sailors from all over the world went to Playland to ride bumper cars and roller coasters and explore the thrills of the Funhouse. For many San Franciscans, Playland was and still is their childhood, 33 years after its demolition. <br />
<br />
Playland was located at Ocean Beach, just north of Golden Gate Park, below the point where the land rises to Sutro Heights. The attractions in this corner of the city had the added novelty of being where Western civilization meets the Pacific Ocean -- in a way, at the end of the world. <br />
<br />
From the mural-bedecked Beach Chalet at the western end of the park to Playland to the Cliff House and Sutro Baths, the recreational options lined up in a long row. Much of this ended up as part of the pleasure empire of the man called the Barnum of the Golden Gate, George Whitney. <br />
<br />
A little amusement area named Ocean Beach Pavilion had existed since 1884. In 1912, Arthur Looff and his partner, John Friedle, built Looff's Hippodrome, housing a grand carousel built by Looff's father. In 1922, the two added the Big Dipper roller coaster and the Chutes-at-the-Beach water ride. Whitney and his brother Leo came to town and opened a photofinishing concession booth in a smaller version of Playland. <br />
<br />
In 1926, Whitney became general manager, and the park became Whitney's Playland-at-the-Beach. He bought out shaky concessionaires during the Depression. By 1942, he owned everything from Sutro Baths to Fulton Street. <br />
<br />
[[Image:Richmond%24playland%24%24playland-playmirrors.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Funhouse Mirrors at Playland'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library''<br />
<br />
Whitney's Playland grew to more than three blocks of amusements next to the Great Highway. It included Topsy's Roost Restaurant, which later became Skateland; a midway of games and vendors; a diving bell; and, of course, the Funhouse with long wooden slides, a human turntable that spun and threw people off if they didn't hang on, distorting mirrors and air jets that blew women's skirts up. <br />
<br />
Playland was also the birthplace of the It's-It, Whitney's invention of ice cream sandwiched by two oatmeal cookies and covered in chocolate. <br />
<br />
[[Image:Richmond%24cliff-house-1985.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''View from Sutro Heights, 1995.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Chris Carlsson''<br />
<br />
Only the newly remodeled and now far more upscale Cliff House and Beach Chalet still stand. A condominium development erased any trace of Playland. <br />
<br />
'''Blue-collar times''' <br />
<br />
Anyone who remembers Playland is wistful, or maybe just nostalgic, for the gritty, blue-collar San Francisco. "It wasn't just toys for the rich. It was toys for everyone," said Dan Fontes, a muralist working in El Cerrito on a large rendering of Playland and the surrounding area. <br />
<br />
San Francisco has changed. The blue-collar neighborhoods are mostly gone, and amusement is often more solitary than when the Playland fun house rang with screams and laughter. Still, Playland has not been lost. Anyone can find it. Its fragments are scattered all over the city. <br />
<br />
[[Image:Laughing sal.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Laughing Sal'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Chris Carlsson''<br />
<br />
<div><br />
<flashmp3>http://www.archive.org/download/LaughingSal/LAFSAL.mp3</flashmp3><br />
</div><br />
<br />
Playland is best remembered by a laugh, the one that belonged to a huge mechanical woman who towered above the entry to the Funhouse from the 1940s until it closed in 1972 and she was auctioned off. Her name was Laughing Sal. <br />
<br />
Anyone walking down Playland's Midway -- even nearby neighbors -- heard Sal's bellowing laugh. She had devilish curly red hair and huge freckles all over her fat, terrifying visage. In the middle of it all was a gap-toothed smile that provided nightmare material for countless children. This was creepy, the same way a ventriloquist's dummy is. <br />
<br />
"She would stand there laughing and laughing, and you would stand there laughing and laughing, and you didn't know why," said Sharon Jessup, a San Francisco native who grew up going to Playland. Sal's continuous laugh was a drunken yelping guffaw, an evil cackle, the uninhibited outburst of someone going out of her mind. With arms extended, she heaved back and forth with a bit of a bobbing motion in her huge glass box. <br />
<br />
Sal was constructed by the Old King Cole papier-mache company under commission to the Philadelphia Toboggan Co., maker of amusement park furnishings. Old King Cole started with a mechanical laughing department store Santa Claus. They fitted the Santa with a woman's legs, breasts that jiggled on the end of springs and custom-made heads. With the addition of a 78 rpm recording of the most memorable laugh in the world, Laughing Sal was born. <br />
<br />
[[Image:Richmond%24playland%24%24playland-playcoaster.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''The Big Dipper roller coaster'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library''<br />
<br />
[[Image:richmond$playland$$playland-playcoaster2.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Playland: "The favorite in action!"'''<br />
<br />
By the 1960s, Playland was run down and a little seedy. Some say it started downhill when Whitney tore down the Big Dipper roller coaster in the late 1950s. Sutro Baths burned during its demolition in 1966, and Whitney stopped operating Playland in 1968. <br />
<br />
The park took on a roving carnival feel, said Marvin Gold, who grew up nearby, going to sleep every night to the sound of Sal's cackle. In 1972, Playland was put up for sale. When it closed on Sept. 4, 1972, Herb Caen wrote a column called, "We'll Never Go There Anymore." He reminisced over It's-Its, Bull Pup enchiladas, a 40-cent corn dog and a ride on the carousel. <br />
<br />
Today, Playland is covered with housing. A Safeway stands on the site of the old diving bell. Gold said he remembers when workers came to smash the concrete foundation and heard a clang. They found the concrete lined with a steel tank, filled it in and built on top of it. <br />
<br />
"One hundred years from now when they tear Safeway down, they're going to find an old steel tank sitting there and have no idea what it was," he said. <br />
<br />
"Oh, and those slides, those beautiful wooden slides," he said of the long hardwood slides in the Funhouse. "When I saw them cutting those slides into pieces ... I nearly cried. "Playland was our second home." <br />
<br />
For the next 30 years after Playland closed, people didn't have to look far to find Laughing Sal. Although the main Funhouse Sal went to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk for $50,000, Playland's back-up Sal found a home in the basement of the Cliff House, along with the penny arcade machines. They all were put into the ''Musée Mecanique'', a collection that Ed Zelinsky obtained from George Whitney. <br />
<br />
[[Image:Playland-round-the-world-trainer-game.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''International Studies at Playland'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Kurt Bank''<br />
<br />
All of the machines were still working, offering love tests, telling fortunes and showing the first silent films. Video games were added to a small arcade at the back -- early games like Pac Man and eventually the 3-D driving and shooting simulators we see now. <br />
<br />
In 2002, the Musée was imperiled when the [[C L I F F H O U S E|Cliff House]] was renovated. San Franciscans came to the rescue with a petition carrying more than 25,000 signatures. They were outraged that the Parks and Recreation Department, which owns the Cliff House, hadn't tried to find the historical Musée a new home. <br />
<br />
Thanks to the public outcry, a home was found at Pier 45, where a row of crab stands leads to a building painted with a giant version of Laughing Sal's face. Her missing tooth is the entry to Amusing America, which chronicles San Francisco's place in the country's cultural history of amusement parks. <br />
<br />
Playland, Sutro Baths and the 1939 World's Fair are all featured in interactive and informative displays, with the ''Musée Mecanique'' collection in the back. And at the door, as in her two previous homes, Sal is the greeter and gatekeeper who still bursts into laughter for a quarter. Maybe she's laughing at her luck, having survived the urban development that has put her into a museum version of a city that no longer exists. <br />
<br />
Maybe she's laughing at what amusement in San Francisco has become around her: a Fisherman's Wharf that has become a commercial tourist center with many of the same type of attractions as Playland. Dan Fontes, the muralist and a good source of history on Sutro Baths and Playland, says that when Playland was alive, "Fisherman's Wharf was a fisherman's wharf, with fishermen." <br />
<br />
Now, it is the Playland of today, the city's waterfront amusement center, even if it is there mostly for tourists. Playland's remains are scattered elsewhere around the city, too. <br />
<br />
'''Carousel in Yerba Buena''' <br />
<br />
The marvelous carousel built by Charles I.D. Looff in 1906 and installed at Playland in 1912 eventually found its way back to San Francisco. Marianne Stevens, a preservationist, had bought it from Playland and restored it for a Long Beach mall. In 1998, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency bought it for $1 million and installed it in a beautiful glass pavilion at [[LABOR & YERBA BUENA CENTER|Yerba Buena Gardens]]. <br />
<br />
The ocean wind even blew Playland's ashes all the way to El Cerrito, where muralist Fontes and partner Ed Cassel are working with Playland collector Richard Tuck to create a tribute to that vanished beach area. <br />
<br />
They're creating a mural 32 feet long and 10 feet high depicting Playland, [[The Sutro Baths (ruins)|Sutro's Baths]] and Museum and the Cliff House. Fontes said the reactions of former Playland visitors range from surprised delight to tears. <br />
<br />
In 1996, on the very ground where Playland once stood, five ghosts of those bygone days arose. From a distance, the five 15-foot-high figures across the street from Safeway on 48th and Cabrillo look like ghostly black shadows. Up close, they're monuments called Playland Revisited created by Ray Beldner, an artist who often visited Playland as a child. <br />
<br />
Made of perforated stainless steel, each tall, narrow sculpture represents a Playland icon. There's Laughing Sal of course, a Muni streetcar, the clown entrance to the Funhouse, the rooster from Topsy's Roost and a carousel horse. <br />
<br />
The statues at the bus terminus also mark the terminus of San Francisco, of the solid world before it hits the sea, and the terminus of a time when that spot was filled with thousands of people of all classes and types enjoying themselves. <br />
<br />
The icons give tangible body to the ghosts of Playland that live in the hearts and memories of so many grown-ups. They ensure that Playland isn't entirely gone and that childhood won't be forgotten. <br />
<br />
''In 2005 Lubna Takruri was a student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, a freelance print reporter, and an assignment editor at KRON-4 News. This article originally appeared in the '''San Francisco Chronicle,''' Insight section on July 3, 2005.''<br />
<br />
<br />
[[Image:Tours-editor.gif|link=San Francisco's Clean Little Secret]] [[San Francisco's Clean Little Secret|Continue viewing the Editors' Favorite Pages]]<br />
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[[category:Richmond]] [[category:1930s]] [[category:1940s]] [[category:Amusement Parks]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:1990s]] [[category:African-American]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Sixth_Street&diff=16400Sixth Street2010-12-06T20:52:00Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''<br />
<br />
'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>"I was there..."</font></font> </font>'''<br />
<br />
''by Mark Ellinger''<br />
<br />
[[Image:6th_&_Minna_06.jpg ]]<br />
<br />
'''Sixth and Minna, 18 April 1906.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley''<br><br />
<br />
After the earthquake and fire of 1906, San Francisco’s Sixth Street was rebuilt with rooming houses and residential hotels—also known as SROs, or single room occupancy hotels—that for many decades housed the working class. These days, Sixth Street is where the poor are warehoused, and the neighborhood’s working class origins are largely forgotten. As poverty is for many people an uncomfortable truth to be avoided, there are prejudicial blind spots that are inherent in the general consensus regarding Sixth Street; in fact, most people wish Sixth Street would just go away.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Pot Roast Restaurant 1927.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Pot Roast Restaurant, 1927. Long ago demolished, the Pot Roast was a Prohibition era speakeasy on the corner of Sixth and Jessie, next to the Hillsdale Hotel.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''<br />
<br />
Daily life on Sixth Street has been documented since 1992 by the staff and students of the [http://www.sixthstreetphoto.net/ '''Sixth Street Photography Workshop'''], and some moving portraits of neighborhood residents comprise a chapter of the book ''Many Voices''* by documentary photographer Virginia Allyn. I began my own portrait of Sixth Street by documenting its architecture and signs. By getting involved in the neighborhood, I got to know the people who live and work there; by listening to their stories, I learned some history. I got involved with the neighborhood by living in it.<br />
<br />
''&lowast;2005, Trafford Books.''<br />
<br />
[[Image:6th-&-Jessie 1995.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Sixth and Jessie, 1995. On the left is the Shree Ganeshai Hotel, and in the upper left corner are the three turret windows to my old room, #10.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Virginia Allyn''<br><br />
<br />
Even though at any other time in my life I would not have chosen to do so, pressing need is a powerful motivator, and thus in early 2001, while in the initial stages of recovery from a six year nightmare of homelessness and heroin addiction, and with little more than the clothes on my back and a monthly income of $690 from State Disability Insurance (SDI), I moved into the Shree Ganeshai Hotel on the corner of Sixth and Jessie. There I lived until mid-autumn 2006. From the moment I became a tenant until the day I moved out, that hotel was ''home'', my sanctum; the world wherein I reinvented myself, and the soil in which ''[http://upfromthedeep.com/ '''Up from the Deep''']'' was sprouted. The seed was a cheap digital camera that I rescued from the trash.<br />
<br />
[[Image:30-Millionth-Man 2003-.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Surviving on $690 a month was a constant struggle. For a long time, my one daily meal was lunch at the St. Anthony Dining Room.'''<br />
<br />
''San Francisco Chronicle, 01 May 2003''<br><br />
<br />
[[Image:Conveniently-Located.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Conveniently Located"'''<br />
<br />
'''Midtown Loans, 39 Sixth Street.'''<br><br />
'''Whitaker Hotel, 41 Sixth Street.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
When I immigrated to San Francisco in 1968, the South of Market area was a working class neighborhood, largely populated by laborers, off-season migrant workers, merchant marines, and retirees eking out their golden years on meager pensions, men whose sweat and toil helped make San Francisco a thriving, prosperous, world-renowned city. I soon discovered that most people believed these men were all bums and winos, characterizations that had been cultivated since the mid-50s by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and downtown developers, instigated by hotelier and real estate mogul Ben Swig and aided by the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' and ''News Call-Bulletin'', two of the City’s daily newspapers.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Alcoholics-on-Skid-Road 1956.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Newscopy: “Alcoholics on Skid Road.”''(SF News Call-Bulletin photo, 1956)'''''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''<br><br />
<br />
Following World War Two, the densest concentration of South of Market SROs was in the area known as Yerba Buena, just across Market Street from San Francisco’s business and shopping district. To Ben Swig, Yerba Buena was prime real estate for the expansion of commercial and civic functions, and because the most expeditious way of clearing the area would be to have it declared blighted, in 1954 he donated money to the redevelopment agency to prepare a study. Even though the money was returned by agency director and future mayor Joseph Alioto, the plan moved forward.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Men-gathered-on-Skid-Road 4.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Newscopy: “Men gathered on Skid Road.” ''(SF News Call-Bulletin photo, 1956)'' Look closely at the faces and attire of the men in this photograph and you’ll see that these same gentlemen were also posed in the next photo.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''<br><br />
<br />
In a campaign to discredit the neighborhood’s residents, the newspapers published articles that depicted South of Market SROs as flophouses inhabited by alcoholics and lowlifes, embellishing the stories by posing unwitting hotel residents in photos that purported to show them getting drunk on the sidewalks.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Group-of-men-on-Skid-Road 1956.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Newscopy: “SKID ROAD, SAN FRANCISCO–’No one along Skid Road is likely to shop carefully.’” ''(SF News Call-Bulletin photo, 1956)'''''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''<br><br />
<br />
Little mention was made of the workers and retirees who were by far the majority of SRO residents. The intention was to mitigate concern for the thousands of people who were to be displaced by the razing of every SRO from Third Street to Fifth Street, thus allowing the City to save millions of dollars by sidestepping the issue of relocation. Who would care about the evictions of bums and ne’er-do-wells?<br />
<br />
[[Image:Hotel-on-Skid-Road 1952-.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Newscopy: “SKID ROAD–This is a hotel in the wino district. It has 200 rooms renting from 50 to 75¢ a night, chiefly to old-age pensioners.” ''(SF News Call-Bulletin photo, 1954)'''''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''<br />
<br />
In 1969 many of those who would be affected joined together to form [[TOOR (Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment)|Tenants and Owners in Opposition to Redevelopment]], which took the City to court. After a grim and protracted battle during which people were killed, buildings burned, and political organizations suppressed, the City was forced to provide a measure of relocation support and to build a few residential facilities for seniors before the area was completely gutted. Be that as it may, the cynical manipulation of public opinion successfully engendered a prejudice against hotel life that to this day shapes the common perception of Sixth Street.<br />
<br />
[[Image:St-Daniel-Hotel 1961.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Newscopy: “Slum area hotel at 259 Sixth St., owned by William H. H. Davis, president of the City Board of Permit Appeals.” ''(SF News Call-Bulletin photo by Sid Tate, 1961)'''''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''<br />
<br />
In recent years a sympathetic district supervisor helped to implement some needed improvements for the SROs that remain, but otherwise the policies of city government and law enforcement have created more problems than they have solved. As if filthy sidewalks and poorly maintained hotels with greedy owners and abusive managers weren’t bad enough, residents must also live with the constant threats of robbery and violence, because the police for years have used Sixth Street as a containment zone for crime. The corralling of criminal activity by the San Francisco Police Department and irregular, substandard maintenance by the Department of Public Works are underlying reasons why attempts to improve the appearance of the neighborhood never seem to make any lasting difference.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Winter-Evening---6th-Street.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Winter Evening, Sixth Street"'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br />
<br />
The hotels that have been bought and refurbished by nonprofit corporations now have modern, better-maintained accommodations, a major improvement to be sure; but a system of tiered management circumvents meaningful dialog with tenants who have valid complaints, and the efficacy of so-called supportive housing is problematic, insofar as it maintains tenants in a state of learned helplessness instead of lending meaning and direction to their lives by inspiring them to help themselves. There is also a glaring dissociation between on- and off-site management, especially in hotels that are operated by way of the City’s [http://www.thclinic.org/content/services/property_management.php '''master lease program''']. The Hotel Seneca, for example, is in essence a government-funded crack house, notorious for violence and open drug activity in the hallways.<br />
<br />
[[Image:6th-Street 1950-.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Sixth Street, circa 1950.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''<br />
<br />
I have great love for Sixth Street, not for what it has become, but for what lies beneath the veneer of crime and decay, invisible to all except those who live and work there: its people and its history. Much of what I have learned has come from the stories of old-timers who have lived and worked on Sixth Street for many years. I also have the experience of living in a Sixth Street hotel for five-and-a-half years and personal memories that span the years since my landing in San Francisco. While there are very few archival photos of Sixth Street, my own photography adds a bit more to the record; and though my portrait of Sixth Street is largely an expression of love, it is also an act of defiance whereby I call down the despoilers of individual lives, and thumb my nose at the blindly onrushing forces of redevelopment and urban renewal, which have no use for history.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Sai.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Sai"''' <br />
<br />
'''Sai Hotel, 964 Howard Street'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
Near the end of February 2001, I moved into the Sai Hotel, into the tiniest room outside of a closet I have ever seen. For a monthly rent of $400, I got a seven-by-five-foot room on the top floor at the back of the hotel that was barely large enough to contain an attenuated single bed (for reference, I am over six feet, four inches tall). A narrow door opened inward, just missing the minuscule sink attached to the wall opposite the bed. Unable to squeeze between bed and sink, I had to step onto the bed to enter or leave the room and had to face the sink from the side to use it. Furniture consisted of a small nightstand; there was no closet nor even hooks or nails in the walls. The one electrical outlet was in an exposed utility box just above the sink. Lighting the room by day was a small window near the head of the bed; an unshaded light bulb dangling from the ceiling lit the room at night. It felt like a broom closet, in fact I think it had been one, but it was the first place I could call home after nearly six years on the streets.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Invocation.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Invocation"''' <br />
<br />
'''Shree Ganeshai Hotel, 68 Sixth Street.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
One month at the Sai was all I could take. A month-and-a-half and two hotels later, I settled at the Shree Ganeshai. The title of this image is derived from the name of the hotel. Many centuries ago, Sanskrit scholars began their writings with an invocation to God, usually the one their family worshiped. One such invocation, to Ganesh,* was ''shree ganeshaya namah''. Over time, the invocation came to be used before starting any activity and was gradually shortened until ''shree ganesh'' sufficed as a prayer for an auspicious beginning. The phrase is used today before any beginning, whether it is a meal, a journey, or a task. During my stay at the Shree Ganeshai, I took comfort in knowing my home was an endless prayer to Ganesh for a bright and beneficent new beginning. To this day I keep on my bookshelf a small golden effigy of Ganesh, a gift from the Shree Ganeshai’s manager, Nagin.<br />
<br />
''&lowast;Ganesh is the elephant-headed god in the Hindu pantheon who brought writing to the world by breaking off one of his tusks to use as a pen, the god of wisdom and auspicious beginnings.''<br />
<br />
[[Image:A-View-from-My-Old-Room.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''A view from my old room, #10.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
[[Image:View-from-Room--10.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Same room, different view.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
[[Image:A-Corner-of-My-Old-Room-.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''A corner of my room: cramped, but comfortable.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
[[Image:Dawn---Rain's-End.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Dawn &ndash; Rain's End"'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
As an insomniac, I’ve seen many beautiful sunrises. I captured this one while seated at my computer one spring morning after a night of heavy rain. On the left is a corner of the Hillsdale Hotel; the stacks are part of a PG & E power plant on Jessie Street. This particular view resonated very deeply with me, and the reasons for this are to be found in my childhood.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Gray-Day-3-.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Gray Day #3"'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
I grew up in a Midwestern city in the 1950s, before urban renewal, corporatism, and the “form follows function” aesthetic of corporate modernist architecture eviscerated much of this country’s soul. Grandpa “PR” Ellinger was a brakeman for the B & O Railroad, so some of my earliest memories are of freight trains being assembled in the yards by 0-8-0 switching engines, and of giant 4-8-2 locomotives waiting by the pit or in the roundhouse. Everywhere were the smells of coal smoke, oil, and hot metal, and the sounds of herculean iron machines at work: a crashing and hissing of superheated steam punctuated by whistle blasts that telegraphed the movements of the trains.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Island-Out-of-Time.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Island Out of Time"''' <br />
<br />
'''Hillsdale Hotel, 51 Sixth Street.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
My other grandfather, “Red” Tobin, was a chemist for the city water purification plant, built circa 1912. When I was a boy, the plant’s enormous machinery, valves, pipes, filtration pools, and conduits were still original, as were the many brass-handled controls and oversize gauges, and all were perfectly maintained and housed in cavernous structures of iron and brick. All of this filled me with wonder, and I idolized Grandpa Tobin, so at times when he had to check plant operations, I would beg him to take me along. Each time he would walk me throughout the enormous facility, patiently explaining everything in great detail. Most wondrous of all was the pump house, a brick building five stories high and three stories deep that had brass-railed ironwork galleries instead of floors, and walls that were lined with banks of indicator lights and old-fashioned recording gauges—all built around the colossal, steam-driven, Corliss flywheel pumps that fed the city’s water supply. Such are the archetypes that inform my world view.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Hillsdale.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Hillsdale"'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
It should therefore come as no surprise that I find poignant beauty in buildings most people consider lowly, squalid eyesores. These old hotels have an archetypal quality that stirs my blood and attracts me like a magnet. So many people, so many stories, so much living has taken place within their walls. How can you not feel it? We are far too willing to dispose of anything that is old just because we are told that new things are somehow better. I would ask why we are being told this. Who benefits when we are divested of our history and culture?<br />
<br />
[[Image:My-Back-Yard-.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"My Back Yard"'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
The closest building in this photo is the Lawrence Hotel, behind which is the Hotel Seneca, where windows to inner worlds glow as evening falls. The rear wall of Fascination can be seen peeking over the roof line of the Lawrence, just before it intersects with the edge of the Seneca. Between the Seneca and the McAllister Tower in the background is black-iron framework that once supported a water tank. Many of the older buildings in San Francisco have still-functioning rooftop water tanks, built in response to the 1906 conflagration that was catalyzed by earthquake-shattered water mains.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Dentils-of-Metal.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Dentils of Metal"''' <br />
<br />
'''Sunnyside Hotel, 135 Sixth Street.'''<br><br />
'''Minna Lee Hotel, 149 Sixth Street.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
The box-like components of a cornice are called dentils. While their size and details vary, they are always symmetrical and look like rows of evenly spaced teeth, whence their name was derived.<br />
<br />
[[Image:A-Lost-Art-.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"A Lost Art"'''<br />
'''Sunset Hotel, 161 Sixth Street.'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
Shown here is a small section of the cornice that crowns the Sunset Hotel. I like it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the simplicity of its design. I also like the very large dentils and the medallion that decorates the bracket at the end. Rust reveals metal beneath the illusion of carved stone. Simplicity and neglect combine to make this architectural detail a perfect symbol for all old residential hotels.<br />
<br />
[[Image:If-Walls-Could-Speak-.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"If Walls Could Speak"''' <br />
<br />
'''Hugo Hotel, Sixth and Howard.'''<br />
<br />
The Hugo is Sixth Street’s oldest hotel. Shuttered and vacant since a fire burned out several rooms in 1987, the unreinforced masonry building also suffered structural damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. In 1997 a group of artists led by Brian Goggin transformed the Hugo into an immense sculptural mural called [[DEFENESTRATION !|"'''Defenestration''']]." Scavenged furniture and appliances were modified by the artists to make it appear animate, and then cleverly affixed to the hotel. Tables and chairs leapt from the roof and ran across the walls; lamps corkscrewed from some windows, and sofas, refrigerators, bathtubs, even a grandfather clock squirmed and leapt from others. The furniture is there to this day, still leaping and running about, and squirming through the windows.<br />
<br />
Untold thousands of photographs have been taken of the Hugo and its famous furniture, now a designated sightseeing stop, a housing crisis turned into public art. I took this photograph of what used to be the Hugo’s service alley because it shows the one wall of the hotel that has not been altered, save by the hand of Time.<br />
<br />
[[Image:Defenestration.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Defenestration"'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
'''"[http://www.defenestration.org/ Defenestration]"''' has now endured for nearly thirteen years, although most of the original sideshow-themed paintings have disappeared beneath eye-popping murals of polychrome street art. As a work of conceptual art, the Hugo Hotel is universally appealing—everyone likes it—and I’ve become more attached to it with each passing year. Yet few people know that the hotel remained empty for over twenty years because its owners cared more about profits than people. They didn’t want to maintain the building as low income housing, but were unable to sell it because their asking price vastly exceeded the building’s actual market value. Their outspoken contempt* for those less fortunate reflects an attitude that for years has been tacitly encouraged by the policies of local government. After years of haggling with the owners, in January 2008 the redevelopment agency announced it was seizing the Hugo by eminent domain, foredooming the controversial landmark to demolition.<br />
<br />
''&lowast;”They can put the low-income people somewhere else… you can be homeless somewhere in Idaho.” — Varsha Patel, former owner, Hugo Hotel.''<br />
<br />
[[Image:Daybreak---Hugo-Hotel.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''"Daybreak &ndash; Hugo Hotel"'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Mark Ellinger''<br><br />
<br />
As embodied by the [[LABOR & YERBA BUENA CENTER|new Yerba Buena pavilions]], galleries, malls and tourist hotels, and a widespread proliferation of drab and overbearing condominiums, modern urbanism has been steadily taking over the South of Market landscape for several decades. The old “South of the Slot” district is no more, and Sixth Street for years has been slowly dying by attrition. Inasmuch as the Hugo Hotel has helped prevent the total dissolution of the old neighborhood by holding off encroaching modern urbanism and gentrification, the transformation of Sixth Street will no doubt proceed in earnest once the hotel is razed. Despite its longtime closure in the face of a housing shortage, the Hugo has also served as a signpost; a reminder of the past and a symbol of the present that will soon be just a memory.<br />
<br />
[[Sixth_Street_(Part_Two)| Part Two]]<br />
<br />
<br />
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[[category:Tenderloin]] [[category:SOMA]] [[category:Architecture]] [[category:Homeless]] [[category:Labor]] [[category:Gentrification]] [[category:Redevelopment]] [[category:Photography]] [[category:Public Art]] [[category:1900s]] [[category:1906]] [[category:1910s]] [[category:1920s]] [[category:1950s]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:1990s]] [[category:2000s]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Time-Travelling_Wall&diff=16399Time-Travelling Wall2010-12-06T20:51:00Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
<hr />
<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''<br />
<br />
''by Chris Carlsson''<br />
<br />
[[Image:Rail-MikeRauner.jpg]]<br />
<br />
''Mural: [http://www.monacaron.com/msr-intro.html Mona Caron], Photo: [http://www.michaelrauner.com/ Michael Rauner]''<br />
<br />
Mona Caron’s Market Street Railway Mural (MSRM), at 15th and Church, is on the outer fringes of Mission Muralismo geographically—and even stylistically. No other mural in the city contains so many specific histories, rendered with such detail. A true heir to Rivera’s sprawling and encompassing [[Pan-American Unity|Pan-American Unity mural]] at City College, the MSRM starts in the 1920s, during the last go-go decade of speculative frenzy and stock market madness. The [http://www.monacaron.com/galleries/msr1/welcome.html “roar of the four”] characterized a Market Street with four streetcar tracks where private and public capital competed for passengers at 5 cents a trip. <br />
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[[Image:Msrm 01.jpg]]<br />
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The Big Strike of 1934 enters the picture in the adjacent panel—a compelling saga itself, but this depiction is also an oblique homage to the new social-commenting frescoes in [[Coit Tower Politics|Coit Tower]] that were hidden from the public until months after the strike was over. <br />
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[[Image:Msrm10-R-059.jpg]]<br />
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Labor wins respectability on the picket line, on the job, and in politics—the third panel features a large 1940s Labor Day parade. [http://www.monacaron.com/galleries/msr4/index.html Buses join cars in a traffic jam] at mid-century and mid-mural while Market Street lives up to its name with thriving retail. <br />
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[[Image:Msrm1DSC00793.jpg]]<br />
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Gay pride takes over the street by the late 70s, the iconic [[Sisters--Against Guilt|Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence]] joining thousands to dance out of the closet, while one couple commemorates murdered political leader [[HARVEY MILK A Reflection by Harry Britt|Harvey Milk]]. In the wider panel (third to last) a gritty view of the Grant Building at 7th and Market (itself home to [http://www.ylem.org/artists/mmosher/grant0.html three large murals] by former Mission muralist Mike Mosher) is next to a rooftop featuring the Billboard Liberation Front in action. From the front door bicyclists are leaving, some already in the street—the [http://www.processedworld.com/Rants/anti_economy.htm Committee for Full Enjoyment] is departing for [http://www.critical-mass.org Critical Mass] c. 2002 (10th anniversary posters are on the storefront window). <br />
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[[Image:Msrm06posterwall.jpg]]<br />
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A short distance down the sidewalk performance artist Rev. Billy is exhorting some stop-shoppers. <br />
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[[Image:Msrm05billy880.jpg]]<br />
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Two trucks deliver messages: the first, Globalization, Inc. also has an anti-WTO graffiti on it; the second is a bubble-decorated van delivering for Workathon.com, promising to include food pills with deliveries, and offering to take payment in stock options. An empty storefront facing the traffic was once home to Megabubble.com but is just a graffiti gallery now.<br />
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[[Image:Msrm13workathon.jpg]]<br />
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Leaning precariously to its left, the Grant Building is [http://www.monacaron.com/galleries/msr7/welcome.html home to many participants] in the big February 15, 2003 protest against the Iraq War: dozens of San Francisco’s activists, artists, and agitators show up in the building and the full street below. Puppets, drumming, and humorous signs capture the fierce jubilation with which people refused consent to the illegal and unconscionable war. Even the mainstream media’s obsequiousness is jabbed in the lower foreground. <br />
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[[Image:Msrm13media3.jpg]]<br />
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Abruptly, in the middle of 7th Street, the long-subterranean river has appeared, fully integrated into an aquatic urban life. Today’s marginal, unheralded, but often visionary efforts are projected into an [http://www.monacaron.com/galleries/msr8/welcome.html ecotopian future San Francisco] in the right-most panel. On the roof of Cellspace #13, today’s Odd Fellows Hall, the artist depicts herself, painting the skyline and roof gardens filling her view. An historic streetcar has made it across all the time periods into a future with blimps, elephants, and plug-in solar carts joining bicyclists and streetcars and pedestrians in an apparently stress-free transit paradise. The Diggers reappear in a canal-side building next to the No Penny Opera, a free dining experience with roots in the flamboyant Angels of Light. A Swapping Center stands between a café dedicated to intellectual debate and a global self-governance facility called bolo’bolo (from the book of the same name by the Zurich-based writer p.m.). Rigo’s Inner City Home is portrayed, as is “Utopia” of wildstyle graffiti artist Satyr. Foliage drapes buildings while windmills slowly gather kinetic energy and a semi-permanent Burning Man looks over it all contentedly. <br />
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[[Image:MsrmR-utopia.jpg]]<br />
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Caron hails from Intragna, the same village in southern Switzerland that Gottardo Piazzoni emigrated from in the late 19th century, establishing himself as a San Francisco muralist. One hundred years later Mona Caron has carved out a wholly original style of public muraling, echoing faintly Piazzoni. But in the Market Street Railway Mural she has built on [[Diego Rivera in San Francisco|Diego Rivera]]’s legacy of detailed historicity and time periods that bleed into one another to create a remarkable window on San Francisco’s most prominent street and the many movements and peoples that have inhabited it.<br />
<br />
''--Chris Carlsson''<br />
<br />
'''Audio:''' <div><br />
<flashmp3>http://www.archive.org/download/ArtPoliticsMonaCaron/mona-talk-9-19.mp3</flashmp3><br />
</div> <br />
'''Mona Caron on Art & Politics, A Shaping San Francisco Talk, Sept. 19, 2007'''<br />
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[[Noe Valley Mural|Caron's Noe Valley Mural, completed September 2008]]<br />
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[[Image:Tours-editor.gif|link=Sixth Street]] [[Sixth Street|Continue viewing the Editors' Favorite Pages]]<br />
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[[The Duboce Bikeway Mural: Gateway to the Wiggle|Prev. Document]] [[Balmy Alley: a Modernist Approach | Next Document]]<br />
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[[category:Public Art]] [[category:Castro]] [[category:Mission]] [[category:2000s]] [[category:1920s]] [[category:1930s]] [[category:1940s]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:murals]] [[category:Transit]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Managua_North:_San_Francisco%27s_Solidarity_Movement&diff=16398Managua North: San Francisco's Solidarity Movement2010-12-06T20:50:09Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>"I was there..."</font></font> </font>'''<br />
<br />
''by Alejandro Murguía, in conversation with Chris Carlsson, November 3, 1999''<br />
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[[Image:polbhem1$1976-sandinista-mission-demo.jpg]]<br />
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'''1976 [[FSLN 1979|Sandinista Demonstration]] in the Mission''' <br />
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''Photo: Alejandro Stuart''<br />
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[[Image:Vargas-echeverria-murguia-1974.jpg]]<br />
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'''1974: Roberto Vargas, Emiliano Echeverria, and Alejandro Murguía, San Francisco'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Nina Serrano''<br />
<br />
It was 1974. The first real demonstration we had, maybe 100 people marching up Mission Street waving Sandino posters, making lots of noise. By 1979 we had thousands marching up Mission. At the beginning it was quite humble, as most movements are.<br />
<br />
[[Los Siete|Los Siete]] and the Farmworkers Movement and the Brown Beret movement had been the roots of organizing, cultural activism, community concepts and just running around doing stuff. So they were sort of the grandfather of what happened later. Because through our experiences in these other movements we knew the community, we knew how to organize, how to do press releases, how to organize rallies, how to make presentations. So it was very important: without that earlier experience the Sandinista Solidarity Movement may not have taken off.<br />
<br />
The people we ended up working with, like "Chombo" (Walter Ferreti), Casimilo Sotelo, had no experience in that. They'd just arrived in the country a couple of years earlier, and were working as dishwashers, car mechanics. They knew the Nicaraguan community, but they had no experience in organizing rallies, putting out newspapers, much less dealing with City Hall.<br />
<br />
We would up establishing two very important links with the Nicaraguan community that had been in San Francisco since the 1930s. One was Colonel Haslam, the other was Walter Ferreti's uncle, Colonel Juan Ferreti, who had actually been a member of Sandino's General Staff. So for us that was an incredible direct link. We weren't just saying we were heirs of the Sandinistas. We had documents from them saying we were their representatives, but more importantly, we had Colonel Ferreti who could tell us stories about Sandino and to us it was invaluable, like having Sandino here with us.<br />
<br />
{{#ev:archive|ssfsandnsta|320}}<br />
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'''Alejandro Murguia interviewed'''<br />
<br />
''Video: Mary Ellen Churchill and Chris Carlsson, edited by Joe Caffentzis''<br />
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[[Image:Tours-editor.gif|link=Time-Travelling Wall]] [[Time-Travelling Wall|Continue viewing the Editors' Favorite Pages]]<br />
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[[Sandinistas in SF |Prev. Document]] [[Die-ins of Spring 1984 |Next Document]]<br />
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[[category:Dissent]] [[category:Mission]] [[category:1970s]] [[category:Nicaraguan]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Hunter%27s_Point_riot_by_Fleming&diff=16397Hunter's Point riot by Fleming2010-12-06T20:49:26Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>"I was there..."</font></font> </font>'''<br />
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''by Thomas Fleming, interviewed on Saturday, January 9, 1999''<br />
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[[Image:3rd-street-national-guard-clearing-street-sept-28-1966.jpg|720px|thumb]]<br />
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'''National Guard clearing 3rd Street, Sept. 28, 1966'''<br />
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''Photo: Shaping San Francisco collection''<br />
<br />
"During the 1960s there were riots in some cities. The carryover here was, they called it a [[The Hunters Point Riot |riot out at Hunters' Point]]. A policeman had shot a 17 year old kid who had stolen a car. He was out joyriding like a lot of other 17 year old teenagers do. They steal somebody's car and cops were pursuing the car. When the kid got out there in that part of Hunters' Point, where it happened, he jumped out of the car and ran across a vacant lot. The cops told him to 'Halt' and of course he didn't pay any attention to that. That's what started the shooting. The teenagers started saying it wasn't fair for that boy to be shot like that and they started gathering out there on the streets, and that's when we first started hearing about it. Because somebody out there was calling Nat, they were calling the NAACP to let them know what was going on. There was more policemen on the street out there at that time. The kids would be away from the cops and they'd throw rocks at them. And as the day progressed, it got worse.<br />
<br />
"I remember when that thing occurred. It was coming over the news on the radio. We'd heard about it out here. Burbridge was still president of the NAACP. He came by the paper because we were right over here on Turk Street then and asked me if I would like to go out there with him. I said sure, I'd like to go. So we went and there were a lot of angry young black males out there. They were demanding to see the Mayor. Jack Shelley was Mayor then. So before we left them out there, Nat Burbridge called the Mayor's office and said he thought it would be good for the Mayor to come out there and talk to those kids because most of them were teenagers. He refused.<br />
<br />
"We left there, and Nat said he thought we might have to come out there again that evening. He said 'I don't know what these damn kids are going to do this evening.' So he called me about 6 o'clock and said, 'I think we need to go out to Hunters' Point again.'<br />
<br />
"We came to that police station on Third Street, it was called Potrero Station. We walked in there, Jack Shelley was in there, Tom Cahill who was Chief of Police was in there. It looked like everybody was in there. So we walked in, Nat and I. Nat said, 'Don't say anything to me.' He says, 'I asked you to come out there this afternoon and speak to those kids and you didn't come.'<br />
<br />
"Well, when we got to the police station we saw a car overturned, burning out there on Third Street. They smashed out a lot of windows out there along Third Street. And it looked like there was another fire further out, and they were still out there throwing rocks. Well the police were trying to halt it, but it looked like they weren't doing very well. So the Mayor decided that he would go over there and address them.<br />
<br />
"They went over to that old [[Opera House|Opera House]] out there on Third Street. That's where the kids were all gathered over there. All of us who were in the police station went over there. When we walked in, they started yelling, cursing the Mayor. When he got up on the stage, they started throwing eggs at him and vegetables (chuckle), and he couldn't make a speech, so the Mayor ducked out. Well we knew it was going to be even rougher later on. So we came back over to the police station and we heard that Pat Brown--he was governor then--was going to come down from Sacramento and go meet with the Mayor and everybody else at the Hall of Justice. We went over to the Hall of Justice and the governor came in and that's when he decided to call out the National Guard. I told Nat, 'It looks like we're going to be up all night.' Because most of these Guardsmen are 19, 18-year old kids, and they're scared. I said, 'They'll shoot!' I said I think we ought to start patrolling the streets. So we went further out on Third Street trying to tell them, 'The National Guard are coming out here, if they tell you to get off the streets, get off the streets.' We went out to Sunnydale and did the same because they were all out there on the streets. Then we came over to Haight Street, there were a lot of black kids out there. Told 'em, 'Get off the streets if the Guard comes in.' And we went along Fillmore Street and it wasn't long after that we saw these jeeps patrolling around with a machine gun mounted on the back! We knew that they meant business. So we stayed up until about 4 o'clock in the morning before we went home. I don't think he declared martial law, but he called out the National Guard to restore order.<br />
<br />
"I think the Guard was pulled out after three days."<br />
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[[Image:bayvwhp$cops-in-hp.jpg]]<br />
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'''Police storm Hunters Point in force during 1970 arrest attempt.'''<br />
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''photo: from'' Black Panther, ''the newspaper of the Black Panther Party''<br />
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''--Thomas Fleming, 91 years old, former editor of the ''Sun-Reporter'' in San Francisco, 1944-1994. Interviewed on Saturday, January 9, 1999 at his home on Fillmore Street in San Francisco by Chris Carlsson, with assistance from Caitlin Manning, Joe Caffentzis and Max Millard. ''<br />
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{{#ev:archive|TFHPRfin|320}}<br />
<br />
'''Thomas Fleming gives his account of the 1966 Hunter's Point Riot'''<br />
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[[Image:Tours-editor.gif|link=Managua North: San Francisco's Solidarity Movement]] [[Managua North: San Francisco's Solidarity Movement|Continue viewing the Editors' Favorite Pages]]<br />
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[[Image:Tours-dissent.gif|link=San Francisco Diggers]] [[San Francisco Diggers| Continue Dissent Tour]]<br />
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[[Opera House |Prev. Document]] [[Yosemite Creek |Next Document]]<br />
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[[category:Bayview/Hunter's Point]] [[category:1960s]] [[category:Mayors]] [[category:African-American]] [[category:Haight-Ashbury]] [[category:Newspapers]] [[category:Dissent]] [[category:riots]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mary_Ellen_Pleasant&diff=16396Mary Ellen Pleasant2010-12-06T20:48:07Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''<br />
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''by Chris Carlsson''<br />
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[[Image:aframer1$mary-ellen-pleasant-young.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Mary Ellen Pleasant young photograph'''<br />
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[[Image:aframer1$sunday-call-cover.jpg]]<br />
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'''''Sunday Call'' cover (Mary Pleasant)'''<br />
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[[Image:aframer1$mary-ellen-pleasant-old.jpg]]<br />
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'''Mary Ellen Pleasant (later in life)'''<br />
<br />
Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant became an important western terminus of the underground railroad in San Francisco during the 1850s. By placing maids and servants throughout the homes of San Francisco's rich, she came to wield (secret) power among San Francisco's elite.<br />
<br />
When Mary Ellen was 10, her mother gave her the name of her white plantation-owning father, and also disclosed that Mary Ellen was descended from a succession of "Voodoo" Queens of Santo Domingo. A year later, Mary Ellen was sold to a man in New Orleans, Americus Price, and he decided to place her in a convent where she would be educated, and eventually freed. Later he sent her to live with friends in Cincinnati, since her educated intelligence would have eventually betrayed her in the antebellum South.<br />
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Mary Ellen's life took her in and out of various families and situations in New England and Virginia. She married James W. Smith, a Virginia plantation-owner and abolitionist. Throughout the late 1830s and early 1840s Mr. and Mrs. Smith smuggled hundreds of slaves to Canada as couriers along the Underground Railroad. When Smith died in 1844, Mary Ellen continued to outrage southern planters by helping scores of slaves to escape.<br />
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Things became too hot and Mary Ellen made her way first to New Orleans where Marie Laveau, the voodoo queen, deeply impressed Mary Ellen with her social power among all levels of New Orleans society. Mary Ellen stayed in New Orleans for a few months and learned about the practice of voodoo from Marie Laveau, though she didn't plan to copy Laveau's version exactly. By 1852, Louisiana planters were urgently searching for Mary Ellen Pleasant as the crafty ''intrigante'' who would stop at nothing in smuggling slaves through the Underground.<br />
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She sometimes visited plantations dressed as a jockey, other times as a shabby man on a delivery wagon. After getting trained as a cook, Mary Ellen found a job on a local plantation, right under the noses of the local gentry. Overhearing speculation about her origins one night, Mary Ellen made a hasty escape, and took the four-month sea journey around Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco on April 7, 1852. On the journey she met a Scottish fellow named Thomas Bell, over whom she would maintain a powerful influence throughout the next three decades, as they both became millionaires speculating on mining and banking interests. By her death in 1904, Mammy had lost most of her fortune, and a good deal of Thomas Bell's as well.<br />
<br />
[[Bell Mansion| Thomas Bell]] became a director of the all-powerful Bank of California and Mammy was his closest (and secret) advisor. Meanwhile, she bought and sold dozens of properties, running boarding houses and specializing in developing protéges (i.e. beautiful young women) whom she would endeavor to marry off to the ''nouveau riche'' miners and bankers that frequented her boarding houses. She also built a house, then far out of town, known as the "Geneva Cottage," at the corner of the San Jose road and Geneva (now the corner of Geneva and Bayshore Boulevard near the toxic wasteland of the Southern Pacific rail yards and the [[San Bruno Mountain |Brisbane lagoon]]), which was the infamous site of numerous wild bacchanalian parties, attended by wealthy San Franciscan men and a bevy of beautiful young women.<br />
<br />
The mysterious death of one young woman at the Geneva Cottage led to a consolidation of Mammy's influence as she collected blackmail from the attendees to keep quiet the circumstances of her death. Other associates of Mammy also died mysteriously, often after trying to turn the blackmailing tables on Mammy, but she was never accused, tried, or convicted of any such crime.<br />
<br />
She sought power through several primary techniques: she continued to sponsor runaway slaves as hundreds arrived in SF thanks to her aid. These people she placed in businesses and homes of the city, and they became her ears on the town. She sponsored and housed a number of young women, many of whom continued to follow her wishes for years. She spent a lot of her large fortune on the poor and destitute, earning considerable good will and power. She also used her position as madame to gain control through blackmail over many of the richest men in San Francisco, even helping them dispose of various children their dalliances gave rise to. And finally, Mary Ellen "Mammy" Pleasant used her talent with the voodoo religious rites to control her followers through religious terror.<br />
<br />
Or so the received story has it. Recently researcher Susheel Bibbs has been digging through the record and has determined that a lot of what we know has been derived from articles in newspapers that were basically scandal sheets of the time. Helen Holdridge's book, from which I learned most of what I based this article on, suffers from the same problem. Bibbs' research adds some fascinating bits to the story.<br />
<br />
"In 1858, amid a depression and widespread anti-black sentiment, she returned East to free a brother-in-law and to join John Brown's mission to free slaves near Harper's Ferry W. Virginia. Brown was hanged after being caught while trying to capture a federal arsenal; Pleasant escaped and returned to California. In 1863, after the Emancipation Proclamation and a similar law in California, Pleasant declared her race openly. She sued to win the right for blacks to ride the trolleys and won (Pleasant v. North Beach & Mission Railway) in 1868. Her businesses continued to grow, and her investment in quicksilver mining and silver/gold exchanges amassed a $30 million fortune for her and her silent partner, Scotsman Thomas Bell." [from "Mary Ellen Pleasant: Unsung Heroine" by Steve Crowe in ''Crisis'', Jan-Feb 1999]<br />
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'''2007 postscript:''' Since this piece was originally written an excellent [http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/63kne2zm9780252027710.html book], ''The Making of Mammy Pleasant'' by Lynn Hudson has been published. Hudson does a great job of analyzing the way the stories surrounding Mary Ellen Pleasant were manufactured from public records, courtroom testimonies, and gossip-sheet newspapers, recompiled by Helen Holdredge into her breathless accounts, and finally offers the most cogent view of who this woman was and how she managed to make her way at a time when neither women nor blacks had anything approaching full citizenship or rights. Hudson's book is definitely the best, first place to get the Pleasant story. Another recommended version is the fictional account by Michelle Cliff called [http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100835200&fa=author&person_id=5002&publishergcoicode=87286 ''Free Enterprise''] which dramatizes Pleasant's saga in historically detailed and insightful ways.<br />
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[[Image:Tours-editor.gif|link=Hunter's Point riot by Fleming]] [[Hunter's Point riot by Fleming|Continue viewing the Editors' Favorite Pages]]<br />
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[[Fleming on Segregation |Prev. Document]] [[Racism in the Clubs|Next Document]]<br />
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[[category:African-American]] [[category:women]] [[category:Famous characters]] [[category:1850s]] [[category:1860s]] [[category:transit]] [[category:1870s]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Mission_Plank_Road&diff=16395Mission Plank Road2010-12-06T20:47:18Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>'''<font face = arial light> <font color = maroon> <font size = 3>Unfinished History</font></font> </font>'''<br />
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[[Image:1852-US-Coast-Survey-map-of-Mission-Bay-w-Mission-Plank-Road.jpg]]<br />
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'''1852 U.S. Coastal Survey map of San Francisco's Mission Bay and surrounding areas. Mission Plank Road is the long diagonal from upper right, in the developed area near Yerba Buena Cove, to the lower left where Mission Dolores is, crossing a marked swampy wetland at apx. today's 7th Street.'''<br />
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“Mission Bay’s slender connection to Gold Rush San Francisco is the Mission Plank Road. (today’s Mission Street), which opened as a toll road in 1851. Its three-and-a-quarter-mile length ran into trouble for the contractors where it crossed the line of Seventh Street (shown but not named on the map).<br />
<br />
Here they projected a bridge built on pilings, “but that plan had to be abandoned, to the astonishment and dismay of the contractor; the first pile, forty feet long, at the first blow of the pile driver sank out of sight, indicating that there was no bottom within forty feet to support a bridge. One pile having disappeared, the contractor hoisted another immediately over the first and in two blows drove the second down beyond the reach of the hammer… there was no foundation within eighty feet… pilings were abandoned, and cribs of logs were laid upon the turf so as to get a wider base than offered by piles. The bridge made thus always shook when crossed by heavy teams and gradually settled till it was in the middle about five feet below the original level… the cost of the road was ninety-six thousand dollars, about thirty thousand dollars per mile… the plank road company obtained another franchise for a road on Folsom Street… in 1854 a high tide overflowed the [Folsom] road between Fourth and Fifth and floated off the planking.”<br />
<br />
--J.S. Hittell, ''History of the City of San Francisco and Incidentally of the State of California'' (San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft & Co., 1878) p. 153. Cited in Nancy Olmsted’s ''Vanished Waters: A History of San Francisco’s Mission Bay'' (San Francisco: Mission Creek Conservancy, 1986)<br />
<br />
“J.S. Hittell, writing in 1878, goes on to observe that, although these marshy areas were called swamps, “They seem to have been for part of their area at least, subterranean lakes from forty to eighty feet deep, covered by a crust of peat moss eight or ten feet thick… When the streets were first made, the weight of the sand pressed the peat down, so that the water stood where the surface was dry before… More than once a contractor had put on enough sand to raise the street to the official grade, and gave notice to the city engineer to inspect the work, but in the lapse of a day between notice and inspection the sand had sunk down six or eight feet… heavy sand crowded under the light peat at the sides of the street and lifted it up eight or ten feet above its original level, in muddy ridges full of hideous cracks…it was also pushed sidewise so that houses and fences built upon it were carried away from their original position and tilted up at singular angles…”<br />
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[[Image:Mission-Plank-Rd-1856-from-.jpg]]<br />
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''1856 image: Annals of San Francisco''<br />
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[[Image:9th-and-Mission-07-6629.jpg]]<br />
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'''Two views of northwest corner of 9th and Mission, in 1856 and 2007.'''<br />
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''2007 photo: Chris Carlsson''<br />
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[[Image:downtwn1$market-st-1851.jpg]]<br />
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'''Market and Powell, c. 1851 looking from the southeast, approximately near today's 2nd and Folsom. Note the surprisingly steep sand dunes covered in dune scrub on both sides of Market Street.'''<br />
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''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''<br />
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The toll road to the mission probably would have gone out Market Street, but there was an 80-foot sandhill between Second and Third Streets… In the period 1859 to 1873, the ''steam paddy'' (or giant steam shovel—it was said to do the work of twenty Irish laborers at a single stroke) took south-of-Market sand to fill [[MISSION BAY|Mission Bay]].<br />
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[[Image:Tours-editor.gif|link=Mary Ellen Pleasant]] [[Mary Ellen Pleasant|Continue viewing the Editors' Favorite Pages]]<br />
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[[MISSION BAY|Prev. Document]] [[The Dumps at Mission Creek|Next Document]]<br />
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[[category:SOMA]] [[category:roads]] [[category:1850s]] [[category:maps]] [[category:2000s]] [[category:water]] [[category:shoreline]] [[category:Mission Bay]] [[category:Irish]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=File:Tours-editor.gif&diff=16394File:Tours-editor.gif2010-12-06T19:53:36Z<p>Texteradmin: uploaded a new version of "File:Tours-editor.gif"</p>
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<div></div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Hidden_Mural_at_Mission_Dolores&diff=16391The Hidden Mural at Mission Dolores2010-12-06T19:47:50Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>'''<font face = Papyrus> <font color = maroon> <font size = 4>Historical Essay</font></font> </font>'''<br />
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''by Ben Wood''<br />
<br />
[[Image:Ceiling-projection-P1010389.jpg]]<br />
<br />
'''Photo of projection of Sacred Hearts onto Basilica dome, February 2004'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Ben Wood''<br />
<br />
Behind the wooden altar in the sanctuary at Mission San Francisco de Asís, is a wall painted in the late eighteenth century by Indian labor. Painted directly onto plaster, in ochre, white, red, yellow, black, and blue/grey, the mural, which is adorned with abstract patterns as well as Christian imagery, is still virtually unknown to the public, despite its rediscovery and subsequent publicity in early 2004. <br />
<br />
This mural covers the entirety of the rear wall of the church, behind the historic wooden altar. It measures 22 by 20 feet and includes two statuary niches. It was eclipsed in the year 1796 by an impressive baroque-style relief sculpture shipped from San Blas, Mexico called a ''reredos''. This reredos continues to stand as the backdrop to the mission altar and has concealed the wall painting for over 200 years. <br />
<br />
The construction of adobe walls for the mission church began in 1788 with the manufacture of 36,000 bricks by native laborers. By 1790 the walls were completed, plastered, and whitewashed. It is most likely between this time and the dedication of the church on August 2, 1791 that the mural was painted. <br />
<br />
Thought to be the first wall painting of its kind in the San Francisco Bay Area and one of the first of its kind in California, it was painted on the churches focal interior wall. It was not merely decorative, but served a vital devotional function for worshipers. <br />
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Mission San Francisco de Asís takes its “nickname” of “Dolores” from the nearby stream, Arroyo de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores. The friars honored the Blessed Virgin Mary by depicting her heart pierced by swords. <br />
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For about five years before the mural was covered by the ornate wooden ''reredos'', friars, soldiers, and native people saw the mural each day. The mural was a bridge between sacred and profane, the visible and the invisible. It was a device to allow Indians to feel the presence of the divine. <br />
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English Captain and geographer George Vancouver made two trips to San Francisco in 1792 and 1793 (he was the first foreign visitor to sail into colonial San Francisco). Vancouver’s praising account is one of the few remarks we have from the brief period the mural was displayed. “....''the church, which for its magnitude and architecture and internal decorations, did great credit to the constructors of it....the raising and decorating of this edifice appeared to have greatly attracted the attention of the Fathers, and the comforts they might have provided in their humble habitation, seemed to have been totally sacrificed to their accomplishment of this favorite object.”''<br />
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The first known visual record of any decoration at Mission Dolores was an illustration in 1816 by artist Louis Choris. His watercolor painting depicting Indians dancing at Mission San Francisco shows colored geometric patterns on the lower portion of the buildings facade. <br />
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The mural is part of an architectural element known in Spanish as a ''reredos''. A reredos is often wooden with niches and holds statues or paintings. Part of the mural depicts the sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary on either side of the upper third of the mural, with a decorative recessed wall, or statuary niche, in the center, decorated at the top with a shell motif. The upper niche is richly ornamented with scroll motifs and flanked on either side with more scrolling decorative patterns. The interior of the lower niche is less decorative and painted in red. Similar ornamental motifs are found elsewhere in the old mission on the archway above the sanctuary, as well as chevron patterns on the ceiling. We know these are original native patterns as we see the same pattern in the original basketry woven by local native women over 200 years ago. In the mission church behind the huge canvas depicting the last supper are decorative patterns painted on the wall. <br />
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Murals of this type often consisted of relatively simple architectural elements and were designed by a single artist. The name of the artist or artists working at Mission Dolores and their history is unknown. The technique used in painting the mural is termed “A Secco” or painting executed on dry plaster and adhered with a binding medium to attach the pigment to the wall. Pigments were typically made with local natural materials, such as colored earth, minerals and plant extracts. <br />
<br />
An important question that remains is the nature of collaboration between the friars and natives in the creation of the mural, whether this was a gesture of Christian piety on the part of the natives, or if the murals reflect a native aesthetic or symbolism. The mural's design and composition suggests a largely European influence. Comparing the motifs with scratched graffiti at Mission San Miguel from roughly the same period, it appears that the Mission Dolores wall decoration was executed by neophytes who had been trained to paint religious iconography, while the graffiti at Mission San Miguel was scratched by neophytes who remembered the old ways and either had not yet been taught to draw or paint in the mission style, or chose not paint in that style. Another example that reinforces this theory is a remnant of a large anthropomorphic painting on an exterior wall of an old Adobe Mill at Santa Inez. It is less European in style, while still having a quite formal placement on the exterior wall. <br />
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[[File:Missiondoloresmural.jpg|720px|thumb|composite of 300+ images]]<br />
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'''Pieced together composite of 300+ photographs showing the top 22 by 5 feet of the mural'''<br />
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''Image: Ben Wood''<br />
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[[File:missiondoloresmural_lre-1.jpg]]<br />
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'''Composite of top 22 by 5 feet of mural (enhanced using dstretch software)''' <br />
<br />
''Image: Ben Wood''<br />
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<br />
'''The Investigation'''<br />
<br />
So what really lies behind the altar in the old mission? What does it look like?<br />
<br />
As an artist, I sought to photograph this mural and to make these images publicly accessible for the first time since the ''reredos'' had covered up the mural in 1796. There was no clear understanding of the nature or condition of the mural when this project began in 2004. I worked with archeologist Eric Blind to devise a method to photograph the top section of the mural, an area covering 22 by 5 feet. These photographs were reassembled and a mosaic of digital photographs completed which has rendered the best representation of this rare artwork to date. <br />
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A defining factor in the preservation of the mural over the centuries is the mural's situation in a dark, cramped space behind the historic ''reredos''. The mural is situated on a wall about two feet behind the ''reredos''. It is only partially visible from an oblique angle through a trap door that opens from the attic above. Because of its close proximity to the reredos the only way to see the mural would be by photographing it piece by piece and compositing these images together. <br />
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We were not the first to investigate the mural. After the retrofit of 1916 by architect Willis Polk a policemen, Charles Fennell, discovered the mural, “Fennell, watching workmen engaged in buttressing the walls of the building, had his attention attracted by streaks of color flashing from pealing kalsomine on what was once the interior of the old sacristy.....one of the details looked like a horse shoe, and what resembled a hand or a running or gesticulating figure of man could also be discerned.”(''San Francisco Examiner'' June 19, 1918, Page 4) <br />
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According to the same article, ”The old sacristy walls were preserved with a sheathing of wood by Father Prendergast away back in 1862.” By 1918 the mural had already been covered for over 120 years. <br />
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On April 10th 1936, a Historic American Building Survey (HABS) was undertaken by photographer Robert Kerrigan, who recorded black and white photographs of the central niche. From those photographs the central niche appears to be unchanged in condition since that time. The mission church, the mural, and the hatch opening to it are documented in architectural drawings. Detailed drawings of the sanctuary interior show painted ornament on the north and south walls, of which one design clearly resembles the images of hearts found behind the ''reredos''. This design painted in red on natural white plaster is obviously a rooster, with intricately painted feathers and a heart in the center. The rooster is a Christian symbol of the resurrection of Jesus.<br />
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During the late 1980s, Dr. Norman Neuerburg, a noted mission historian, crawled behind the altar in the cramped space to draw a sketch of the mural. <br />
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Certain areas of the mural have deteriorated over time, particularly a section at the top of the mural that has been severely abraded, possibly when an electrical cable was installed in front of the mural. <br />
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[[File:mural3.jpg]]<br />
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''Photo: Ben Wood''<br />
<br />
The mural was again brought to light while Guire Cleary was Museum Curator in 2000 when a Powder post beetle infestation endangered the historic ''reredos'' and other wooden statuary. In 2003 I approached Guire Cleary about carrying out a projection project. The project would take place at a fortuitous moment which coincided with the departure of Cleary, then a Franciscan brother, and the appointment of Andrew Galvan, an Ohlone Indian descendant, as the new curator of the Old Mission Museum. Galvan told me about the mural, and Cleary gave permission to photograph whatever might be there. I enlisted the help of Presidio archaeologist, Eric Blind, and together we went to investigate what was on the back wall. Shortly before Thanksgiving we lowered a camera behind the altar, and took a snapshot of what turned out to be the ornately decorated niche. The project had begun. <br />
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[[File:door.jpg]]<br />
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'''Composited view of upper niche'''<br />
<br />
''Image: Ben Wood''<br />
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In January 2004, we photographed the top 5 by 22 feet. Using Neuerburg's sketch as a guide, we devised a method using a rope and pulley system to remotely control the camera from above that would allow photography without adverse effect to the mural or building fabric. In the cramped space we worked for over two weeks photographing the mural shot by shot one foot at a time. The images were computer manipulated into a single composite of the top third of the wall which reveals a central niche, abstract decoration, and religious symbols. <br />
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[[File:sacredheart2.jpg]]<br />
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'''Detail of heart pierced by three daggers'''<br />
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''Photo: Ben Wood and Eric Blind''<br />
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[[File:jesus.jpg]]<br />
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'''Detail of heart pierced by a sword'''<br />
<br />
''Photo: Ben Wood and Eric Blind''<br />
<br />
Soon after their discovery, images of a heart pierced by three daggers and a heart pierced by a sword from the mural, were projected onto the interior of the dome of the Mission Dolores Basilica for all to see. Images of the mural, forgotten for so long, were super-imposed inside the building next door after 200 of years of being hidden from view. <br />
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What might the mural have looked like as it was gazed upon for the first time? <br />
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Who painted it, and what was the nature of collaboration that led to its creation? These were some of the questions that arose as we sought to piece together colored digital photographs of the mural. <br />
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Besides being an engaging piece of art, the mural is an intriguing artifact from a seemingly remote past. An artifact which silently stood witness for five years as a few missionaries on the frontier edge of an extended empire endeavored to convert the numerous native peoples to Catholicism and a Spanish colonial vision of civilization. <br />
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So far, our photography has revealed decorative painting, perhaps not atypical of this period, but unique today, because of the mural's fortuitous position there behind the historic reredos which has preserved it for so long. <br />
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'''Displaying and Preserving the Mural'''<br />
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There are several ways of sharing the mural that can help raise awareness about it, as well as potential funding in order to conserve both the altar and mural. Also an immediate concern is to ensure that the mural doesn't deteriorate further. A disadvantage of the murals “a Secco” process are that the pigments merely lie on the surface and do not sink into the stucco and are therefore more susceptible to flaking off over time. A priority should be to record more of the mural before it does. Further investigative photography could be carried out to see what remains of the lower 22 ft by 15 ft expanse. So far our work has been an exploratory investigation of the murals top section. Further digital photography would be an immediate and inexpensive alternative to conserving the mural, while funds are raised to carry out an expensive conservation of it. Pigment analysis would allow us to determine the original pigments hue and vibrancy, which could allow more accurate pigment selection for restoration of the painting. <br />
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In the immediate present there are numerous ways to make the mural accessible in order to create awareness about it and ultimately fund the conservation of the painted ''reredos'' and the fraternal-twin ''reredos'' that covers it. Postcards could be sold in the gift shop, images could be presented as a traveling exhibit. A photographic composite of the mural could be printed and displayed at full size in the old mission as a banner. The mural could also be painted anew inside the mission museum. This could be presented both as a painting of the top section of the mural, and below as a more interpretive painting of what exists below. <br />
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In the meantime Eric Blind and have I been able to create some digital examples of the mural showing the top section as it may have looked like when it was originally painted. We created a photo mosaic which was displayed inside the Mission museum from 2005 until 2008. <br />
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Ever since my initial involvement with this project I have felt it my artistic responsibility to share the mural with the public. As one who has a vital role in making the mural once again accessible, I feel responsible to ensure that it remains available so that scholars and the public may learn about it. <br />
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In the long term I hope to work with Mission Dolores in order to give the public a glimpse of this very important piece of San Francisco history. <br />
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''Special thanks to the following for making this project possible:'' <br />
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'''San Francisco Arch Diocese''', Mission San Francisco de Asís, Rev. '''Arturo L. Albano''', Curator''' Andrew Galvan''', Guire Cleary, Eric Blind, Bay Area Rock Art Association. <br />
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''To learn more about the Mission Dolores Mural visit: ''<br />
http://www.missiondoloresmural.com<br />
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'''Please also visit Old Mission Dolores Chapel ''' <br />
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Mission Dolores is located at the corner of 16th and Dolores Streets in San Francisco <br />
http://www.missiondolores.org<br />
<br />
<br />
'''For more Information Read:'''<br />
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''Mission Dolores'' by Zephryn Englehardt OFM<br />
<br />
''A Time of Little Choice'' by Randall Milliken<br />
<br />
''Ohlone Past and Present'' by Lowell Bean<br />
<br />
"California Indian Art" by Kurt Baer published in ''The Americas'' Vol. 16, No. 1 (Jul., 1959), pp. 23-44<br />
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Norman Neuerburg, ''The Decoration of the California Missions,'' Pages 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 51, 52<br />
<br />
Santa Barbara Mission Archive Library<br />
<br />
Historic American Building Survey: HABS CA-113 1936<br />
<br />
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[[Image:pothill$1869-us-coast-survey-map.jpg]]<br />
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'''1869 U.S. Coast Survey Map. '''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:San_Francisco_outside_the_city&diff=14947Category:San Francisco outside the city2009-08-22T15:18:37Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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[[Image:Sunol-water-temple-at-end-of-road7267.jpg]]<br />
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'''Sunol Water Temple, straddling the Hetch Hetchy system and Alameda Creek, one of the original waterways owned by the private [[WATER! WATER!|Spring Valley Water Company]] before municipalization.'''<br />
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''Photo: Chris Carlsson''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Shoreline&diff=14946Category:Shoreline2009-08-22T15:17:58Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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[[Image:marina$crissy-field-marshes-1895.jpg]]<br />
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'''North shore view northwesterly across the old wetlands and slough where they built Crissy Field. '''<br />
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''Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Parks&diff=14945Category:Parks2009-08-22T15:17:17Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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[[Image:hashbury$panhandle-1996.jpg]]<br />
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'''Former roadway through the Panhandle is now a series of grassy meadows approaching the park.''' <br />
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''photo: Chris Carlsson''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Westwood_Park&diff=14944Category:Westwood Park2009-08-22T15:16:44Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:Westwood-highlands1963.jpg]]<br />
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'''Westwood highlands 1963.'''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Western_Addition&diff=14943Category:Western Addition2009-08-22T15:16:11Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:westaddi$post-and-laguna-1927.jpg]]<br />
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'''Post and Laguna Streets, 1927'''<br />
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''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:West_of_Twin_Peaks&diff=14942Category:West of Twin Peaks2009-08-22T15:15:29Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:Hawk-hill-and-st-francis-fountain 4430.jpg]]<br />
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'''Hawk Hill, remnant habitat above Hoover Middle School, with fountain in St. Francis Wood in foreground.'''<br />
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''Photo: Chris Carlsson''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Twin_Peaks&diff=14941Category:Twin Peaks2009-08-22T15:14:00Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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[[Image:sunset$twin-peaks-photo.jpg]]</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Tenderloin&diff=14940Category:Tenderloin2009-08-22T15:13:29Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:Aunt_charlies_sign.jpg]]<br />
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'''Aunt Charlie's is the last remaining gay bar in the Tenderloin, a neighborhood preceding the Castro as the city's gay mecca.'''<br />
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''Photo: LisaRuth Elliott''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:TenderNob&diff=14939Category:TenderNob2009-08-22T15:12:44Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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[[Image:tendrnob$nob-hill-1895.jpg]]<br />
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'''Looking up Nob Hill on Powell Street from Sutter at the bottom in 1895.'''<br />
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''Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Telegraph_Hill&diff=14938Category:Telegraph Hill2009-08-22T15:12:10Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:Coit-Tower TELHILL 1930s.jpg]]<br />
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'''Coit Tower soon after its construction in the mid-1930s.'''<br />
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''Photo: The Semaphore''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Sunset&diff=14937Category:Sunset2009-08-22T15:11:12Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:Sunset dunes 1947.jpg]]<br />
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'''Sunset houses start to fill dunes in 1936. The large building in the center of the photo is the old Infant Shelter, later the Conservatory of Music, and now a French school at 19th and Ortega.'''<br />
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''Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:SOMA&diff=14936Category:SOMA2009-08-22T15:10:31Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:soma1$soma-view-of-palace-hotel-1892.jpg]]<br />
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'''Looking northwest in 1892 across South of Market. Large square building is Palace Hotel, and visible slightly above and to its right is the architecturally spectacular Temple Emanu-el on Sutter Street. '''<br />
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''Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Russian_Hill&diff=14935Category:Russian Hill2009-08-22T15:09:52Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:norbeach$lombard-street-1922-photo.jpg]]<br />
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'''The celebrated Lombard Street while being constructed in 1922.'''<br />
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''Photo: San Francisco History Center, SF Public Library''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Presidio&diff=14933Category:Presidio2009-08-22T15:08:32Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:Troops-mock-battle-1876.jpg]]<br />
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'''Mock battle practice, 1876, showing a Presidio without forest.'''<br />
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''Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Portola&diff=14932Category:Portola2009-08-22T15:08:02Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:excelvis$silver-avenue-west-c-1924.jpg]]<br />
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'''Silver Avenue looking westerly from Merrill St. towards Vienna, c. 1924'''<br />
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''Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Polk_Gulch&diff=14931Category:Polk Gulch2009-08-22T15:07:29Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:tendrnob$polk-gulch-1860s-view.jpg]]<br />
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'''Looking westward across today's Polk Gulch from western slope of Nob Hill in the 1860s. Gough and Franklin top the ridge in the foreground with Lone Mountain in the distance.'''<br />
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''Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, SF CA''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:Pacific_Heights&diff=14930Category:Pacific Heights2009-08-22T15:06:56Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:Atherton House .jpg]]<br />
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'''Atherton Mansion, 1990s'''<br />
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''Photo: Chris Carlsson''</div>Texteradminhttps://foundsf.org/index.php?title=Category:OMI/Ingleside&diff=14929Category:OMI/Ingleside2009-08-22T15:06:16Z<p>Texteradmin: </p>
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<div>[[Category:Neighborhood/Geography]]<br />
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[[Image:Urbano-sundial-1922.jpg]]<br />
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'''Urban sundial, 1922.'''<br />
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''Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA''</div>Texteradmin