Various
1. Well, it seems a group of Serb militants set part of the US embassy on fire in Belgrade. So it goes.
2. grahamsleight, Old Blightey's curse will take on a Banshee's wail amid storm surge this Saturday, apparently. I hope you bring appropriate gear.
3. The Chronicle's Nevius thinks the expensive Chinatown MUNI train plan is too costly.
Well, from my point of view, it boils down to these key factors:
- Anything built in a seismically-risky area like this, is going to be more expensive, especially underground.
- This underground system will be going through some of the most built-up areas of San Francisco, meaning a complicated tangle of property rights and pre-existing infrastructure (and possible archeological discoveries) that one doesn't find in other parts of the city, or the Bay Area, where other transit systems have been built.
- For every dollar spent building it now, it will pale in comparison to the cost of building it later.
- Frankly, it's nearly-criminal to consider how under-served these built-up parts of my fair city are. Given the importance of tourism commerce to my fair city, and the importance convenience plays in that trade - the city is overdue in putting proper traffic-independent transit services in place on Union Square, Chinatown, and connecting to the Caltrain Station down near King Street. Connecting Moscone is also very smart, given the prevalence of business conventions, and the need to compete against other cities for that trade. If central SOMA was still sleepy slums and industrial warehouses, why bother ... but Moscone has put that district on the international business map.
Admittedly, I have some reservations about a connection to Columbus Ave. It's smart for tourism, it's also an important bridgehead to open up the entire NE quadrant of the city to convenient transport, but it also presents a risk to the distinctiveness of those neighbourhoods. Still, it'll probably be more good than bad.
Next: the city should look into financing a tunnel up Geary Ave. A cheaper method might be to create electric bus tunnels, instead of trains. The main value would be doubling the transit capacity on this route (over and under, though I'm sure motorists would like to have more of Geary), connecting the under-served resident-population Avenues with the heart of the city, as well as boosting business for the Tenderloin, Japantown/Fillmore, USF (and nearby hospital), two Kaiser Hospital facilities, and outward to Point Lobos and upper Ocean Beach. These stations could then act as multi-mode centers to better connect surface services to the Legion of Honor, the Presidio (which badly needs to be integrated into the city), and a 'back route' to Haight/Ashbury.
Ideally, I would start the "Geary Tunnel" from the new Union Square/Market St. station to be constructed by this Chinatown stretch.
Compared with the Chinatown project, this will be longer, but also go through fewer property-rights & infrastructure complications, and can be built shallower. On the other hand, it will be going through more geological variation, which will assuredly increase construction costs upon new discoveries.
The 38 Geary bus is good, but frequently is over-subscribed with riders.
Additionally, the Geary route not only connects the previously-mentioned assets, but also a good mix of wealthier and poorer neighbourhoods to make the endevour worthwhile. It might avoid the gentrification fears of the 3rd Street rail, and almost-impossibility of successfully arguing for better-than-bus connections for Visitacion Valley.
Meanwhile, the Mission is fairly well served by both the 14 electric bus and BART, but the old Capp railroad is intriguing.
4. That would-be McCain scandal - I suspect McCain will weather this assault without too much difficulty. This sort of scrutiny is expected. Still, it doesn't help that Vicki Iseman looks like his wife sans a couple of decades (yes, that's pretty rough, considering Cindy McCain is supposed to only be 54). I can only wonder what she thinks about it, given how quickly she convinced him to divorce his former wife for her.
5. Pretty neat e-government from California. Especially the opening jazz number. ;-)
6. Former Guantanamo military prosecutor will become defence witness for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, OBL's driver.
7. Photos of Bush in Africa. I find the second and third photos incorrigibly funny. Why? Just think about it.
2. grahamsleight, Old Blightey's curse will take on a Banshee's wail amid storm surge this Saturday, apparently. I hope you bring appropriate gear.
3. The Chronicle's Nevius thinks the expensive Chinatown MUNI train plan is too costly.
Well, from my point of view, it boils down to these key factors:
- Anything built in a seismically-risky area like this, is going to be more expensive, especially underground.
- This underground system will be going through some of the most built-up areas of San Francisco, meaning a complicated tangle of property rights and pre-existing infrastructure (and possible archeological discoveries) that one doesn't find in other parts of the city, or the Bay Area, where other transit systems have been built.
- For every dollar spent building it now, it will pale in comparison to the cost of building it later.
- Frankly, it's nearly-criminal to consider how under-served these built-up parts of my fair city are. Given the importance of tourism commerce to my fair city, and the importance convenience plays in that trade - the city is overdue in putting proper traffic-independent transit services in place on Union Square, Chinatown, and connecting to the Caltrain Station down near King Street. Connecting Moscone is also very smart, given the prevalence of business conventions, and the need to compete against other cities for that trade. If central SOMA was still sleepy slums and industrial warehouses, why bother ... but Moscone has put that district on the international business map.
Admittedly, I have some reservations about a connection to Columbus Ave. It's smart for tourism, it's also an important bridgehead to open up the entire NE quadrant of the city to convenient transport, but it also presents a risk to the distinctiveness of those neighbourhoods. Still, it'll probably be more good than bad.
Next: the city should look into financing a tunnel up Geary Ave. A cheaper method might be to create electric bus tunnels, instead of trains. The main value would be doubling the transit capacity on this route (over and under, though I'm sure motorists would like to have more of Geary), connecting the under-served resident-population Avenues with the heart of the city, as well as boosting business for the Tenderloin, Japantown/Fillmore, USF (and nearby hospital), two Kaiser Hospital facilities, and outward to Point Lobos and upper Ocean Beach. These stations could then act as multi-mode centers to better connect surface services to the Legion of Honor, the Presidio (which badly needs to be integrated into the city), and a 'back route' to Haight/Ashbury.
Ideally, I would start the "Geary Tunnel" from the new Union Square/Market St. station to be constructed by this Chinatown stretch.
Compared with the Chinatown project, this will be longer, but also go through fewer property-rights & infrastructure complications, and can be built shallower. On the other hand, it will be going through more geological variation, which will assuredly increase construction costs upon new discoveries.
The 38 Geary bus is good, but frequently is over-subscribed with riders.
Additionally, the Geary route not only connects the previously-mentioned assets, but also a good mix of wealthier and poorer neighbourhoods to make the endevour worthwhile. It might avoid the gentrification fears of the 3rd Street rail, and almost-impossibility of successfully arguing for better-than-bus connections for Visitacion Valley.
Meanwhile, the Mission is fairly well served by both the 14 electric bus and BART, but the old Capp railroad is intriguing.
4. That would-be McCain scandal - I suspect McCain will weather this assault without too much difficulty. This sort of scrutiny is expected. Still, it doesn't help that Vicki Iseman looks like his wife sans a couple of decades (yes, that's pretty rough, considering Cindy McCain is supposed to only be 54). I can only wonder what she thinks about it, given how quickly she convinced him to divorce his former wife for her.
5. Pretty neat e-government from California. Especially the opening jazz number. ;-)
6. Former Guantanamo military prosecutor will become defence witness for Salim Ahmed Hamdan, OBL's driver.
7. Photos of Bush in Africa. I find the second and third photos incorrigibly funny. Why? Just think about it.