Matt Baume
Recent Posts
Tonight: Tour Proposed New Public Spaces with Rec & Park
| | 6 Comments
Get ready to peek into a possible future for San Francisco parks. This evening and next week, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department will lead a tour of four properties being considered for purchase and transformation into parkland. The locations being considered are at 17th and Folsom; Palou and Phelps in the shadow of […]
Touring San Francisco’s Historic Sewer System
| | 5 Comments
The Mission is more than just a meeting point for different cultures: it’s also a meeting point for different waters. Hundreds of years ago, two water sources converged along what is now Folsom Street. During rainy season, fresh water flowed east down from Twin Peaks, aligning roughly with today’s 14th and 18th Streets. Those streams […]
Bike Tour of SF Sewers Plumbs Local Depths
|
It was almost a year ago that San Francisco was surprised by a flash flood that swept up out of the sewer system into the streets. Geysers sprayed from manholes and gushed down into the subway, leaving intersections and tunnels nearly impassible beneath a mixture of rainwater and raw sewage. “People either don’t want to […]
Presidio Parkway Could Revive a Wetland Buried by Asphalt
| | 9 Comments
It may look like a forgotten military landscape, decaying beneath an elevated freeway and overgrown with weeds, but hidden beneath the abandoned buildings and broken pavement, Presidio planners see the potential to regenerate a wetland. Quartermaster Reach is currently so neglected, most people don’t even know it exists. Floating between Lucasfilm’s Letterman complex and the […]
San Francisco Weighs Benefits of Various Masonic Street Upgrades
| | 16 Comments
At the city’s second community meeting to discuss Masonic Avenue streetscape improvements, attendees debated options for redesigning the street from its current configuration into what could be one a model complete street. There was consensus among the roughly 70 community members in attendance that the thoroughfare from Geary Boulevard to Fell Street needs significant work, […]
Judge Expected to Issue Decision Monday in AC Transit Labor Dispute
| | 3 Comments
Photo: Susan Decker Lawyers for AC Transit and the Amalgamated Transit Union squared off in an Oakland courtroom today in the ongoing dispute over a new contract. After two hours of arguments, Superior Court Judge Judith D. Ford indicated she would issue a ruling as early as Monday, but AC Transit attorneys predicted a final […]
Bike Tour Taps San Francisco’s Water Innovations
| | 4 Comments
Blair Randall shows off the rain barrels. Photo: Matt Baume When most San Franciscans turn on a faucet, they’ll see water that’s traveled as far as two hundred miles from Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. But that’s not the case for some locally-minded gardeners, for whom careful water stewardship is as important as […]
New Study Recommends Augmenting the Benefits of Private Shuttle Service
| | 27 Comments
Photo: Matt Baume With Bay Area public transit languishing, market forces have evolved a "shadow industry" solution: fleets of shuttle buses, operating outside of any agreement with public transit agencies, carrying employees between work and home with greater efficiency and comfort than Muni could ever hope to offer. Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Genentech, Adobe, and Advent […]
Geary Neighbors Welcome Future Target Store, Voice Some Concerns
| | 9 Comments
Supervisor Mirkarimi addresses the crowd. At last night’s community meeting, held by Target execs interested in opening a store at Geary and Masonic, there wasn’t a NIMBY in sight. Instead, the prevailing sentiment was, "YIMBY: Yes! In my backyard! How soon can can you move in?" Target’s executives must have been surprised that not one […]
In Humboldt County, It’s Redwoods Versus the Phantom Wall-Mart
| | 14 Comments
Drive north from San Francisco for a few hours, and the 101 will gradually melt into a slim road between giant sequoia trees. You’ve found your way to Richardson Grove State Park, where you can see thousand-year-old redwoods, the South Fork Eel River, and lots of campgrounds, but you won’t see any big box stores. […]
Elsbernd Muni Reform Measure Has Money and Signatures to Spare
| | 17 Comments
Supervisor Elsbernd displays his abundance of signatures. Photo: Matt Baume. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd triumphantly delivered eighteen Bankers Boxes full of signatures to the Department of Elections on Thursday, signifying the successful completion of the first phase of a Muni reform campaign that many had claimed was politically impossible. Elsbernd’s drop-off date was no coincidence: on […]
San Francisco Company Seeks to Expand Street Trees’ Reach
| | 12 Comments
San Francisco’s urban forest may look bushy and green, but below ground it’s suffering. In order to pave a street, parking lot or sidewalk, the soil has to be tightly compacted to support the weight of asphalt and vehicles. Faced with hard-to-penetrate soil, tree roots have a difficult time expanding beyond their planting area — […]