Author: Jeff Diehl

I Want to Go to There: Bayview Park

Bayview Park, Sutro Tower, San Francisco

With the mild renaissance of Candlestick Point Recreation Area, you’d think there would be more interest in the conspicuous hill that juts up from the far side of the football stadium. It’s called Bayview Park (or Bayview Hill, alternatively), and it sacrificed its eastern slopes in the 1950s as fill on which to plant the arena.

It has suffered from neglect and harsh urbanization throughout its history, and it it’s barely appreciated even now by San Francisco residents, despite its natural beauty and kickass vistas. But it is getting attention by some for its high diversity of native plant species, including coastal scrub, oak groves, and the largest population of rare Islais cherry trees around.

Bayview Park, Cityscape, San Francisco

There are also a number of area and migratory birds that frequent the hill; I spotted a big, fat Horned Owl when I went last weekend.

I also went off-trail a bit and discovered the ruins of a makeshift structure:

Bayview Park, Fort Ruins, San Francisco

I don’t know if it was a kid’s fort or a homeless encampment, but it was cool. I’m not gonna tell you exactly how to find it – because what fun would that be? – but if you decide to go looking, be sure to wear shoes with some tread.

For anyone who claims to be fan of SF’s hilltops, this spot simply must be visited and explored.


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The Week on Twitter, 2010-06-04

Hey BART, is This Really Your New Signage?

BART Signs, San Francisco

A few weeks back they painted the Powell/Montgomery/Embarcadero BART stations. Great, right? Well, in the process, they changed the signs. Not that they were so great to begin with, but the ones they replaced them with had me convinced that these were temporary ones until they were able to hang some fantastic new signs that would match the new paint scheme.

I can be naive.

So now it’s a couple months later and we still have these signs, and let me say: First off, is that sign laser-printed onto a sheet of copier paper? I think it is. Secondly – and I don’t expect BART to have a designated typography designer on staff or anything – but exactly who printed this thing off and thought, yeah, people will be able to read that from across the platform; no, wait, maybe I better squish it a little more and re-print them. Finally – and I’ve seen this happen multiple times now – since these signs are posted at a height that is below the height of a BART train, when there’s a train in the platform, the signs are completely obscured; so what happens is there will be either some tourists on board the arriving train with me, or someone who was sleeping and just woke up, and the person will jump up when the doors open, in a panic, and look to see what station they’re at – no luck.

Stuff like this makes me sad. It makes me sad because sometimes I like to entertain the notion that San Francisco is a special place where the people who live here and the people in charge of stuff actually give a damn, that they’re proud. This blog is based on that innocent premise. But other times, I’m reminded that, to a large degree, it’s just not the case, that we are one big earthquake away from Louisiana status. Not that useful signs in the BART platforms would change anything, mind you, make us any safer in a disaster. But, c’mon, can’t SOMEONE who works at BART pretend that they care about the little stuff (although, tell the tourists who end up crossing under the Bay only to have to find their way right back that this is a little thing)?

Cheer me up in the comments.

Skaters Do San Francisco New Jersey Style

We met these kids while exploring Fort Miley a couple weeks back, and although they are way too nice and friendly to behave like their Shore-lovin’ brethren from the Tellievision – figuratively, they kind of Snookie-punched our fair town in the face.

This video has all the key ingredients of a superb skate reel: ballsy stunts/wipeouts, great tricks, sweet camera work, SF, and a puppy!

Hat’s off to Joe Zevallos, Kenny DeVoe, Sean Cornetto, and Kevin Makwinski. Look us up next time you’re in town, guys, we’d love to follow you around for a while.

This Synthetic Bacteria Thing-a-ma-jiggy

This is an interview conducted in my living room in Hayes Valley for a webzine and a podcast I produced back in 2007. (Here are MP3s of the whole interview: Part 1, Part 2)

In it, Dr. Alan Goldstein, a professor of bio-materials at Alfred University, proposes that the creation of synthetic biological life would in fact be our First Contact with alien life.

He also explains that such an endeavor represents the height of hubris if we assume that we can predict what will happen after that point, and whether it will work out well or not for our species.

I wonder how he thinks the newly-announced self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell fits in the context of his A-Prize, a contest meant to emphasize safeguarding humanity against over-ambitious researchers in this field.

Most of the commentary in the media is already being filled with the same old paranoia about “playing god,” and it falls as flat as ever. That’s because we rarely dig down to the existential issue at the core of the fear – our own mortality.

The Week on Twitter, 2010-05-21

Original Video: Pre-Summer Sunday in Dolores Park

Pre-Summer Sunday in Dolores Park from Spots Unknown on Vimeo.

Unknown? Admittedly, hard to make that case.

I mean, I could weave a clumsy tapestry of ugly logic suggesting that, even in spots that are “familiar,” elements of those spots can still reveal themselves – how much is truly “known” of any spot? And when you’re at Dolores Park, do you have any clue what’s happening a few hundred feet away?

Furthermore, time changes everything. Maybe we’re documenting DP for future times, after The Big One, when the park will have long become a memorial to those brave hipsters who tumbled into a fiery chasm while texting or shotgunning beers. “In Your wisdom, Lord, You took them… So say we All…”

But, to be honest, this is red meat and we know it.

Shot last Sunday, May 2nd, this video is the first collaboration between myself and hotshot local video dude, Daniel Jarvis. Daniel was featured around the blogs a while back for his stunning footage of Dia de los Muertos. Give him some love:

Document Document
Welcome to the Stage

We’re going to be producing a series of video pieces providing off-angle views onto the spots we cover, so stay tuned here, or follow our Twitter and Vimeo feeds.

The music in this video is “You Hid” by Toro y Moi.

The Week on Twitter, 2010-05-07

The Week on Twitter, 2010-04-30

  • video by Warholian on Banksy Chinatown piece – also, police NOT investigating. http://bit.ly/alj5QI #
  • [vid] Blek Le Rat on Banksy: http://bit.ly/cXUWxr #
  • Bird nerds: just spotted Wilson's Warbler on Mt. Davidson. #
  • today's group expedition = success. two spots you don't know: Brooks Park, Shields Orizaba Rocky Outcrop. shouts to Joel, Daniel, Amy, Tony #
  • bar unknown: "Pass Time," where thoughts of mortality and forgetting await. http://bit.ly/dx5onw #
  • [pics] meet the birds of Mount Davidson. http://bit.ly/9Rjo2Q #
  • pics of S.F. dating back to the 1880s. Lower Haight then vs. now! http://bit.ly/dDaUz8 /via @haighteration #
  • [vid] corporate "viral video" recipe reverse engineered to save San Francisco. http://bit.ly/du9iij #