It was a total whiteout on the Golden Gate Bridge, but as soon as I got to the north bay, it cleared right up. I went back into the fog for the ~800 foot climb up Hawk Hill before breaking through and getting some amazing views from the top:

I saw a fighter plane zoom into the city, which made me briefly think that it was Fleet Week. Not so! (It’s in October.)

The ride down the back side was misty, beautiful and frighteningly slick. All in all, I left at 7:40 and got into work with a change of clothes right around 10.

One more view from the top:

SimCity 2000’s Plymouth Arcology

The de Young Museum’s observation tower.

The analogy struck me when I saw the de Young Tower from the aptly-named Grand View Park. Maybe the resemblance isn’t quite so clear as it was in my mind.

Also, arcologies? Anyone want to hazard a guess what fraction of people familiar with the term learned about it from SimCity 2000? I’m going to say 99.

Here they are. I’ve been to the bolded places. The links go to Yelp.

Within one block (3/4):

1. Cafe du Soleil
2. rotee (Indian)
3. S&W Market
4. Two Jack’s Seafood

Within two blocks (8/13):

1. Chili Cha Cha’s Thai Food
2. Cu Co’s Restaurant
3. Estela’s Fresh Sandwiches
4. Indian Oven
5. Kate’s Kitchen
6. Lo-Cost Meat and Fish Market
7. Metro’s Caffe
8. Nickie’s (bar)
9. Roland’s Bakery
10. Squat & Gobble
11. Thep-Phnom (Thai)
12. Three Twins Ice Cream
13. Volare Pizza

Within three blocks (12/23):

1. Abe’s Market
2. Bistro St. Germaine
3. Burger Meister
4. Cafe International
5. Castro Coffee
6. Golden Natural Foods
7. Hanabi Japanese Restaurant
8. La Carreta Taqueria
9. Love ‘n Haight Deli & Cafe
10. Mad Dog in the Fog
11. Memphis Minnie’s
12. Molotov’s (bar)
13. Mythic Pizza
14. Naan and Chutney
15. Noc-Noc (bar)
16. O’Looney’s Market
17. PeaCock Lounge (bar)
18. Raja Cuisine
19. Rosamunde (“the sausage place”)
20. Tacqueria El Castillito
21. Toronado (bar)
22. Uva Enoteca
23. Whole Foods Co

Now that I have a list, there’s no excuses!

I plugged in my cross streets on the San Francisco Library’s digital photo archive and found this picture. The image is mislabeled. The street in the foreground is actually Fillmore, not Webster. Which means that this photo, from 1945, was taken from my roof!

This past weekend, Miriam and I did a Now and Then shot. There’s a higher-resolution image there, but you can fade between them using the slider here:

1945

2008

There are more trees now, more cars and more power lines, but one less cable car. But the coolest difference is only noticeable if you look at the tall building in the upper right. It hasn't shrunk. No, the trees in Buena Vista Park have grown!

I’ll post pictures when the move happens after September 1. For now, you’ll have to settle for maps. Here are the places that are twice as close to my new place as my old:


View Larger Map

That includes:

• Buena Vista Park
• Alamo Square
• The Panhandle
• All of the Mission

For comparison, here are the places that are two times closer to my old apartment:

View Larger Map

Most of that is underwater. It even includes a piece of Alcatraz!

The images offer a fascinating tour of San Francisco history, from Chinatown in 1952

to hippies on Haight street in 1967:

The real coup, though, is to find an image of your own block or apartment from the photographic past. To that end, I’ve put the Cushman images which include a street address on a Google map. There aren’t any pictures here from my block, but maybe you’ll be luckier! Here’s the map:

View Larger Map

If you catch the old photo bug, the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection is another great place to look. Here’s a photo I found of my block in 1926:

Just look at those cars!