Downtown San Francisco

The majority of San Francisco consists of neighborhoods of two and four story buildings, although this is starting to change. Of course we also have a downtown with a dense concentration of highrises. Some buildings that would stick out in the other neighborhoods are packed in shoulder to shoulder here.

Eglise Notre Dame Des Victoires.

 All these pictures are taken from the upper floors of the Sutter Stockton Parking Garage. Here's part of it.

The massed towers.

 The tops of the building from the early 20th Century are a lot more interesting than the contemporary ones.

And this one.

More Murals

These murals are all from two alleys off of Valencia near 17th St. Cliquez s'il vous plaît.

Satan or Kurt Cobain?

This wonderful mural, which I had to shoot in two overlapping parts, is a memorial to the Compton's Cafeteria Riot which took place in San Francisco in 1966, three years before the famous Stonewall riots in New York City. Portraits of transgender women have been placed on the bodies of medieval saints.

Girl-bird.

Sad Woman

Five Alarm Fire

Yesterday, the bureau chief was driving over the top of our hill and saw a huge column of black smoke in the sky, It appeared to be rising from Potrero Hill. Turns out the column was coming from a neighborhood further away but was so immense that it appeared closer. The view from the back deck was blocked by buildings so it was necessary to climb to the roof of the bureau.

A high-rise apartment building, which was under construction in Mission Bay, had caught fire. The building was a complete loss.

According to today's SF Chronicle, the building would have had 172 apartments. In a city desperate for more housing, that was a big setback.

Backyard Birds

There are always ravens. Please click.

Action!

It's the time for migrating.

These are too.

And then there are the whirlybirds. There are two major freeways to the east of Bernal Heights and whenever there's a police chase or a big rig jackknifed on the blah-blah, the local news shows have to send out helicopters. The local affiliates of the three major networks seem to each have their own helicopters and they tend to hover over the bureau, which can be annoying.

 I have no idea which chopper belongs to which station.

I'm just happy that, so far, they've managed to not fly into each other.

Art In Public

This floral display is in a gallery window on Valencia Street. Please click.

Another angle.