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Showing posts from November, 2006

Declaration of landmark status

While Measure J - "Save the Landmarks Preservation Ordinance" - did not pass in Election 2006, the City of Berkeley hosts remarkable buildings, some landmarked, others not (see the City of Berkeley, Designated Landmarks document ). For example, Celia's Mexican Restaurant, described by John King as an "utterly nondescript building," received landmark designation while neighboring Brennan's Restaurant did not (read King's article as well as Patrick Hoge's article , both in the SF Chronicle . The City of Berkeley Main Post Office is a locally designated landmark. The building was designed by Supervising Architect of the Treasury Oscar Wenderwoth in 1914. The post office is not listed in the GSA Federal Historic Buildings records . Post offices comprise the majority of Wenderwoth's designs for the federal government. According to the GSA records, Wenderwoth employed the Classical Revival style of architecture to represent a powerful and state

Lists

Among the many items associated with the holidays are the lists...of groceries, of gifts, of recipes, the to-do list, and the airport-pickup list. In the spirit of list-making, this post considers several types of lists. r: The Birds , Camille Paglia; Chicken with Plums , Marjane Satrapi The first list is not a list in the traditional sense. It is a bookstore window display. The theme of the display is bird books, thus constituting a graphic list as opposed to a textual, itemized list. The display is also appropo of the Thanksgiving holiday for which the turkey is the main ingredient. Amazon.com Another list is Blackstock's Collections by Gregory Blackstock. Each page in the book is a graphic collection of thematic items. The larger themes are Our Famous Birds , Fish & The Like , The Dogs , Insects & Arachnids , The Plants , The Tools , The Noisemakers , and The Vehicles . Great turkeys and world crows are two of the birds featured in Our Famous Birds. A mor

Walking the Santa Fe Right of Way

A Santa Fe passenger train (also known as Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad). This image is circa 1895, available from answers.com , and is in the public domain. The Santa Fe Right of Way in Berkeley runs between Oregon Street at Sacramento Street and Cedar Street at Juanita Way. At Cedar, the Santa Fe ROW joins up with the Ohlone Greenway. Ohlone Greenway is located in the cities of Albany and El Cerrito. This portion of the right of way was converted to elevated BART tracks and the ground rights were transformed to parkland in the early 1970s. I think the Emeryville portion of the Santa Fe ROW is now a bicycle trail. There is no comprehensive plan for the 3.2-mile Berkeley portion but several parcel projects have been developed and are proposed. On October 18, 2006, I went on a guided walk given by Susan Schwartz of the Friends of Five Creeks and the Berkeley Path Wanderers Association. The following photographs and notes are highlights from the walk. The Spiral Gard

Local election wins

In Berkeley, Measure A, Kriss Worthington (District 7), and Mayor Bates were election winners on November 7. This news is 12 days old, but the photograph (above) was taken on Thursday, November 16, only 3 days ago. A review of local papers also tells us that election politics are still front and center. According to the 11/17 issue of the Berkeley Daily Planet , the votes for Richmond's next mayor are still being counted. The Daily Planet also reported on Oakland's proposed condo conversion policy (Berkeley's conversion policy was rejected). Today's SF Chronicle ran a feature on Nancy Pelosi's new relationship with the press as she transitions from California Senator to Speaker of the House. An election summary is available from the SF Chronicle .

Signs of the times...two days to Election Day

I found three new voting signs (on Fulton between Ashby and Blake). Interestingly, the judge-ship sign is in the public right-of-way. Measure J is a very popular sign on the Fulton block between Parker and Blake. I noticed the sign in three yards and on the sides and back of a truck (see photo on the left). Two versions of Proposition 89. Note: In the photo on the left, the sign is in a freshly tiled traffic diverter (a future post will feature the various traffic calming devices in Berkeley). For more on voting signs, read Signs of the season...Mayors, measures, districts .

Richmond, California by bus (continued)

1. World War II Kaiser Shipyard #3 2. Watermelon truck 3. Former Ford Motor Company assembly building 4. Remnants of Oishi nursery 5. Remnants of Sakai nursery 6. Abandoned and de-signed Toys-R-Us (See the first 6 photographs.) 7. Richmond Village at BART, a new urbanist-styled development. Note the front porches (small town), flat fronts (urban), and parking courts (European mews). 8. "Tent city," one of many in protest of the high murder rate in Richmond. The domestic and vulnerable act of sleeping in urban public spaces at a time when these spaces are considered dangerous. (The photograph was taken while inside a moving bus.) 9. The new retail on 23rd tends to be "ethnic" retail.