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Day 4: Oakland and San Francisco

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I decided to blow off the conference today. Everything was happening in Berkeley and there weren’t many sessions I cared that much about. So I went over and took care of everything I wanted to do in San Francisco instead.

Highlights:

  • Had my big, artery clogging breakfast for the week at the Buttercup Grill in Oakland.
  • Visited my old Kinko’s to print out some paperwork I needed.
  • Took a long walk down Market Street and into my old neighborhood.
  • Did a little record shopping in Upper Haight.
  • Had lunch at Pancho Villa, and then walked Mission street from 16th to 24th. Despite all the gentrification in the mission, Mission Street proper seemed relatively unaffected.
  • Went back to Oakland for a bit before returning to San Francisco to see a friend who now lives in Oregon.
  • Mmmm. Shawarma.
  • Experienced a double BART meltdown on the way back.

I’m leaving the Bay Area tomorrow just in time to avoid Pride. I’m headed for Los Angeles on Saturday. Not 100% sure where I’ll spend tomorrow night yet. but I have arranged a meeting at the Safeway corporate offices tomorrow afternoon related to some material for that other site. I’m kind of excited about that.

Day 3: Oakland

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Presentation day. Spent most of the day at the conference Things went quite well.

Other highlights:

  • Lunch at Rosamunde in Swan’s Market.
  • Reception at the Oakland Museum of California. Free beer and I got to keep the glass. And the California history gallery was nice too.
  • A nice long stroll around Lake Merritt, which reminded me that I always did like Oakland. if I’d stayed in the Bay Area, I’m pretty sure that’s where I would’ve ended up.

I think tomorrow may involve a bit of shopping Berkeley and San Francisco. And maybe some Pancho Villa.

Back to the streets of San Francisco

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So I have ventured into the Bay Area for the first time in nearly five years.

Quick assessment:

  • Yeah, in some ways it does feel like a visit home. In other ways, not so much.
  • San Francisco has not become quite the completely foreign environment I expected from things I’ve been reading lately, at least not its physical form. But it’s on the way.
  • The pizza at Gaspare’s is still a wonderful thing.
  • I have absolutely no desire to live there again. Were it not for a few remaining friends whole live there (if only part time), I wouldn’t even see visiting again as a huge priority.

So, about Days One and Two of David’s California Adventure 2015? Let’s go with another pair of bullet lists, starting with Monday:

  • Uneventful and (dare I say it?) almost pleasant cross-country flight once I resigned myself to a $75 upgrade.
  • BART from SFO is nice. It was in place before I left the Bay Area but I’d never used it before.
  • I like my “much cheaper than the convention center and right across the street” hotel.

Tuesday:

  • Watching Mornings on 2 was strangely comforting.
  • Damn. The humidity is intense. I went for a long walk this morning and was soaking when I got back, even though it was only in the low 60s out. I don’t remember things being like this when I lived here. Maybe the drought is only an issue because all the moisture is in the air.
  • There’s lots of construction in Downtown Oakland but precious little visible evidence of large scale gentrification. And my newsstand is still open.
  • Lunch with my friend and ex-roomie in Berkeley. Good food and I only had to ridicule one patron with a topknot.
  • Rode back into SF with Dan across the new Bay Bridge. Saw his renovated flat, and walked around in the neighborhood a bit.
  • Dinner with Dan and Jamie at Gaspare’s, with a stop by Green Apple Books.

Today I will actually be paying attention to the conference I’m here for. My presentation is this afternoon at 4:30.

Long day

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5:15 – Wake up. Make coffee.

5:30 – Realize I’m supposed to be at the TV station fifteen minutes earlier that I thought. Shower quickly.

5:50 – Leave the house.

6:10 – Arrive at Channel 2. Sit. Wait.

6:45 – Interview begins.

6:47 – Interview ends.

6:48 – Leave Channel 2. Grab breakfast. Kill time until library opens.

7:30 – Go to work.

10:30 – Leave for oral surgeon.

10:45 – Arrive at oral surgeon’s office. Complete paperwork.

11:05 – Begin examination.

11:07 – End examination. Pay $88.00 to find that my dentist was mistaken and that there’s nothing wrong with me.

11:15 – Leave office. Grab lunch.

12:00 – Back at work. Actually get things done.

3:30 – Start a project that really could have waited till tomorrow.

4:30 – Do not finish said project. Leave work. Drop coworker at mechanic.

4:45 – Home. Beer. Leftover soup.

5:30 – Really creepy movie on TCM.

8:00 – Too early for bed. Too late and too tired to do much of anything else, though I’m seriously contemplating doing at least one more thing that lasts two minutes but requires an hour’s prep.

Ten years after

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With all the family drama this week, I managed to miss the tenth anniversary of my milestone departure from San Francisco after thirteen years there. I had originally planned to get all philosophical about it, but the past few days have been really exhausting and frankly I’m just too fucking tired to bother tonight. Maybe later this week. Probably not.

For now, suffice to say that even though things didn’t turn out exactly as I’d planned ten years ago, I still think this move was one of my better decisions in life. San Francisco was over for me; it was well past time to leave. Despite the fact that a lot of really shitty things have happened to me (personal, health-related, and familial) in the past ten years, a lot of really good things have happened, too. I am pretty genuinely happy with where I am and who I am now. And that wasn’t really something I could say in San Francisco.

For what it’s worth, I’m not as fat now either, although I have managed to find some of that weight I lost over the past year or two.

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If you’re in the mood, please feel free to relive the cross-country excursion, with all its neon signs, roadside food, and automotive drama.

I love LA…

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Now that my first tenure portfolio draft is mostly behind me, I’m letting myself get excited about my trip west. I’ve pretty much officially decided not to go northwest toward Seattle and Portland after the conference. It’s just more driving than I want to do; I’ll probably do them on a later trip, maybe next year and maybe involving a side journey to Alaska. Yes, that’s a pretty big maybe.

I’m really looking forward to some significant time in Los Angeles, which is someplace I never seem to get enough of. Also on the agenda is some road-tripping around the other parts of California that I actually miss and haven’t had a chance to see since I moved.

I probably won’t be spending any real time in San Francisco or the Bay Area except for the few days I’m in Oakland for the conference. I may do a little exploring in the East Bay, but that’s about it. I may spend a day or two in Sacramento as well, and I may actually venture southward on the 99.

I should probably book a flight this weekend. Should be a fun trip.

Gate City Boulevard

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Word on the (ahem) street is that High Point Road and Lee Street in Greensboro will become something called “Gate City Boulevard” starting this summer. This does not thrill me, as I’m generally not in favor of changing longtime street names in cities just on principle. I’m especially unimpressed when there’s no good reason for the change (like, say, to honor a historic individual or event) or to make navigation easier. This change will do neither.

I think this post from six years ago still holds up pretty well with respect to changes on the main drag of my old (and once again current) neighborhood. I still say High Point Road could stand a helping hand, but all in all, it’s a street that works well for its surrounding area and I’m not in favor of some grand scheme that will ultimately fail by trying to transform it into something it’s not. High Point Road is a working class boulevard serving an extremely diverse population from a variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds. It’s never going to be an upscale retail strip, no matter how many trees you plant on it. I’m all for adding desperately-needed sidewalks, and I’m fine with some cosmetic upgrades, but I don’t want to see the city lose sight of the fact that High Point Road is not some abandoned ghetto strip. It’s a street where most storefronts are occupied by businesses that employ people and serve the area. Any changes need to take these current occupants into account.

But back to the whole renaming thing. Greensboro has generally been kind of anal about renaming streets to serve navigational goals (i.e. not having streets change names every few blocks like in Charlotte). Your urban spatial history lesson for the day:

  • The most ridiculous example is the extension of Elm Street south of its form intersection with Eugene. The two streets did not intersect until Eugene was extended out from downtown in the early 1970s, at which point the city felt compelled to rename five or six miles of Elm Street south of the fork “Elm-Eugene Street.”
  • Holden Road used to run only from Friendly Avenue to where Wendover Avenue is today. The thoroughfare now known as Holden Road consists of new roadway plus chunks of what used to be Oakland Avenue, Pinecroft Road, and Osborne Road.
  • Friendly Avenue is made up of what use to be known as Gaston Street (downtown), part of Madison Avenue (Sunset Hills and Westerwood), and Friendly Road (from Aycock Street west).
  • Church Street downtown south of Summit Avenue used to be known as Forbis Street, while Summit Avenue from Elm to Forbis used to be called Church Street. Confused?
  • Randleman Road was originally Ashe Street within the city limits, and Ashe Street originally ran all the way downtown, ending along what is now called Federal Place.
  • Most of Merritt Drive was originally known as Pomona Road. the part that was actually in Pomona had another name, whose name escapes me now.
  • United Street was originally the westernmost of Oakland Avenue until the connection was broken by Wendover Avenue and the new Holden Road.
  • Yanceyville Street south of Wendover (through the Aycock neighborhood and by the old stadium) was called Bagley Street.
  • Murrow Boulevard was formerly part of Pearson and Percy Streets.
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive was originally called Asheboro Street.
  • Vandalia Road contains pieces of what used to be Rocky Knoll Road and Freeman Mill Road. Creek Ridge Road and Branderwood Drive also have chunks of what used to be Freeman Mill Road.

I’m sure I’m missing a few. Feel free to chime in. And if you’re interested in seeing old maps of the city, this link should be fun for you.