Category: San Francisco/California

Not enough has been written about the recent round of layoffs at our local daily, the San Francisco Chronicle. Apparently a victim of the shift in advertising from print to online (and elsewhere), the Chronicle recently had to make major staff cuts. In a series of posts to “Colleagues Remembered“, Editor Phil Bronstein and some of his colleagues remember those who were just let go. Someone once said everyone has a story – and each of these individuals are remembered for theirs.

Jerry Hill, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, writes in an editorial today in the San Mateo Daily News about the very real issues of just not enough affordable housing in the county. He describes all of the problems that result – losing our middle class, our first responders only being able to afford to live in Tracy, not in the county, etc. Then he proposes a solution:

What California needs is to create new means for local governments to raise money to increase the supply of affordable homes.

Ahem. The last time I checked, a disproportionate share of our local taxes paid were increasingly going into funding the increasingly generous retirement plans of local government employees – not to helping pay for additional services, not to helping increase the pool of affordable housing, etc.

I’d say the first problem to be solved here is the one involving where local taxes are actually going. Otherwise, who’s really going to believe local officials like Hill when they promise to apply new funds to serious issues like affordable housing?

“Little Boxes”…

Thomas Hawk writes about The Little Boxes of Westlake – aka as a portion – the “coastal portion” – of Daly City, California. Hawk says he shot Westlake for the December issue of San Francisco Magazine.

Hawk’s photos brought back some memories for me. Over the summer between my sophomore and junior year in high school, we moved from Ohio to Daly City – to Westlake.

We never did get used to the fog – and the accompanying wind. Having grown up in the Midwest, we used to look at that fog rolling in and suspect it was about to pour like a Midwestern late afternoon thunderstorm. But it’s oh so different in the fog – and the wind, in Daly City.

On those rare sunny Sundays, my folks used to joke about how they were “going to sell a lot of houses today” – Westlake in the sun really was pretty spectacular. The general problem was that the sun wasn’t around much of the time – instead the fog and wind set the tone for much of the year. The summer was the worst.

Hawk’s post brings back lots of memories for me of days gone by – in Daly City.

I’m not much of a sports fan – but there’s one column I love to read every Sunday in the Sports section of the San Francisco Chronicle – the outdoors column by Tom Stienstra. This week he describes three of his favorite drives in the Bay Area – including one down Skyline Drive on the Peninsula that’s one great ride.

I first noticed Tom’s writing a few years back – and have been an avid reader (and viewer) ever since.

Stone River is a sandstone sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy – sculpted on the Stanford campus built from debris from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake..

On this autumn morning in the fall of 2006, the sun angles were especially glancing on Andy’s sculpture.

I took a hike this morning through most of Thornewood Preserve. Some photos here. Chris Gulker hiked Thornewood last spring.

The sun was sparkling – one of those “Kodachrome Days” – but the ground was still pretty soggy and muddy in parts. Finding the entrance to Thornewood can be tricky — the sign is placed well inside a large brick entryway and not easily visible from the road. Be sure to use the mileage guide provided on the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s web site.

Coming home, there’s nothing quite like re-entering Menlo Park coming down Sand Hill Road and then across I-280. Just feels like a very optimistic piece of highway, sunroof open, with the stereo cranked up…!

We had a doozy of a winter storm come through the San Francisco Bay Area early this morning. Intense rainfall and heavy, gusty winds at our place in Menlo Park. Out back, we had a strong stream of water flowing off the hill – reports of over an inch of rain per hour at some locations around the bay.

The weather radar picture shows most of the front having moved through at this hour – with forecasts for just some lingering showers the rest of the day. While it’s stopped raining, the blowing continues with strong, gusty winds.

Up in Napa, the Napa River is approaching a historic crest of almost 30 feet which one radio report this morning says is a “major event” – not a 100-year flood but at least a 25-year flood.

We’re supposed to get another one of these Pacific winter storms coming through tomorrow evening.

Alex Williams writes for the New York Times about wheels and deals in Silicon Valley.