50 Hikes at 50

A few weeks ago, I turned 50. I think because of the anticipation, the actual moment was , not surprisingly, rather anti-climactic. I am sure at some point there will be more to say on this, but so far , I’m enjoying it. Many have said, “oh, you don’t look 50″ which is nice, as they never say “oh, you don’t look 49″. And as my own family is pretty long living, most live well into their 90′s , its just halftime.

In the weeks leading up to the big date, I had probed the intertubes with various queries about how others had marked the day, or period, but nothing really leaped out at me. The usual array of cruises and parties. I myself was given a great party last week, and a stupendous weekend trip to Big Sur at my birthday that was very memorable. But I wanted to do something over the course of the entire year, and chronicle it here. So, I thought I would take 50 walks or hikes over the course of the year, an average of about one per week. These might range from short to epic, from down the street to on another continent, from urban to very rural., and these will slot in well to urban ambles. The first two have already occurred, and the entries on these will come soon.

Hopefully, these reports will carry something more than just another  chronicle of just another hike. And I expect as well, as there is much transition in my life now, will serve as mileposts for what promises to be, at the least, an interesting journey in 2012. Welcome to my 50 at 50, and hope you enjoy.

The New Hood

I think it all started one night last fall, still living in San Francisco, when, retreating to our glorious rear deck, we were treated to this.

Our landlord, having removed a viable means of removing trash through his hair-brained remodel of the building, had run out of options. And under the cover of a workday, installed this trash-chute, destroying an otherwise stupendous deck. After two years of endless house  shaking demolition and construction, this was it. This was the moment. It was time to go.

The Return of Urban Ambles

After having precious few spare moments the last 6 months, time has freed up. And there is much new subject matter to expound on, which dear reader, I am anxious to share in the weeks ahead. The last few months have seen, a move for us to Berkeley, the beginnings of what I hope to be a new and exciting chapter in my career, and last but certainly not least, turning 50. This last item is of particular note to this space, as I intend to go on 50 hikes in the next year to commemorate this event. Some will be epic, others more modest as they fit around life’s other demands. Hike One was completed today, and I will have a chronicle of that shortly. So much to explore and share, as urban ambles reboots for 2012.

The Taylor and Jones Shimmee

During the past year, I have described travels down a single street, and the changes one encounters along the way. We traveled from the bottom of Market Street to the top, and journeyed up Polk Street from one end to the other. I took that up again last week, getting out for a trek along Taylor and Jones Streets. It started amidst the insanity of Mid-Market , shimee-ed up and over Nob and Russian Hills, and then spat us out in a different kind of mayhem; Fisherman’s Wharf. Here’s the  route:

Author’s Note: As some have followed these tours previously, I should caution that the first part of the trip, at least from Market to O’Farrell, should not be taken at night. Also, this walk, about 2.5 miles all told, traverses several hills, including a couple of pretty steep blocks. I’m just sayin’ .

Part 1- Stepping Tenderly

We begin our trip at the confluence of Taylor Street, Market, and 6th Streets, one of the more colorful intersections in our fair city, to say the least. There is much to take in here, a goodly portion of it legally questionable, at a minimum. One of the best places to take this all in is the newly opened ShowDogs on the corner; you can sit in the prow of the building with a fine Porter or Stout and contemplate the madness in front of you. 5 star street theater. Think of it as a bracer for the hike ahead. Taylor Street begins at Market, and in these parts is standard issue Tenderloin, chock-a-block with low-rent fleabag hotels  next to some terrific new affordable housing; and community serving non-profits next to dive bars (also community serving). The sidewalks are usually full with locals walking, talking, and yes, sometime staggering and sleeping.

Bar Names are dispensed with down here, just an address. No chaser.

A Journey To The Googleplex

A couple of months ago, I set out on my latest “Grand Tour” Amble. But this was no ordinary amble, no this felt more like a journey to the center of the earth. For on this day I was traveling to Google’s world headquarters, or as it has come to be known, the “Googleplex”. Here’s the route, and as always, it was accessed via public transit, in this case, via CalTrain’s San Antonio station, and included a sojourn out to nearby Shoreline Park. Here’s the 5-milish route, and, of course, courtesy of Google ™ :-/

As you might imagine, in these parts, walking through this suburban neighborhood to get there can generally range from bland to grim to inhospitable, and that was the case most of the way, though there were sidewalks at least:

I was really not sure what was waiting for me. I knew the Googleplex was some kind of campus. The notion of the suburban corporate campus is a relatively recent one in the grand arc of building design, really taking off in the 1950′s. One of the prime examples was Eero Saarinen’s General Motors Technical Center outside Detroit. Of course, in the hands of the 1950′s modernist, the campus was meant to embody the promise of the corporation, expressed in a pristine modern language, with every detail reinforcing the whole.

But the champion of  every detail re-enforcing the whole was Frank Lloyd Wright. Mr. Wright often insisted, and was often given the chance, to design everything down to  the napkin holders. His most noteworthy shot at the corporate campus was the Johnson Wax Building, with its infamous wax-like interior columns:

But of course, that was the 50′s. Its a different world, not to mention this is laid back Silicon Valley, and Google. I wondered, was there security? Was it gated?  Was it more of a collegiate campus, a “traditionally bland office park”, or a new model, an emerald city on the hill, pointing us all in a new direction, whilst embodying the company’s internet ingenuity.

I was not sure where the ‘campus’ began, or when I had entered its hallowed grounds, but suddenly two people whooshed past me- and not in a car, but on bikes, painted suspiciously with Google’s telltale rainbow. Then I saw a sign, then another, and that was it, I apparently, had arrived. I was underwhelmed- it did as it turns out have the styling of a very bland 80′s office park. In fact, here is it what it looks like from the air , and of course, courtesy of GoogleMaps  ™:-/ :

The only real hint that this might be a bit different than your run of the mill office park were the bikes. But I intended to venture in , look inside if I could. Again, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but when I thought about what I might find, I couldn’t shake this image:

Uh , Mr. Oz, why does my Google Ap keep crashing?

Tenderhouse

I walk everywhere, and sometimes I think I’ve walked every block in the city. And then, I’ll discover something I’ve never seen, and realize that’s not the case. Here’s the latest example.

Now, I really like the Tenderloin, but I guess there hasn’t been much call for me to be on the 600 block of Ellis Street. But I was headed to the Civic Center, and there you go. And there, on that block, I could not believe my eyes. There, in one of the densest neighborhoods in the United States,and  THE densest west of the Missisisppi, sits this:

A single family home. Well, I guess if you count the teepee( WTF?) in the front yard, its a duplex. I did some research. the house is 1,600 sf, and sold a couple of years ago for $530,000. As you can see, this price gets you the house, a driveway, a concrete “yard”. Not sure if the port-a -pottie was included. The mind imagines the conversation with the realtor  (So, ummm, tell us about the neighborhood”).

When you pull away a bit, you can get a better sense of just how odd this is:

So, surrounded by 4-7 stories of apartments, resident hotels, liquor stores, and no doubt the ever-present crack dealer, a single family home perserveres in the Tenderloin, a bizarre testimony to the American Dream

Paradise Lost- A Visit To The Salton Sea

Is there a stranger sensation than coming upon a large body of water in the middle of a desert. The sight of Lake Mead suddenly appearing after hours traversing the lonely Nevada alkali, or Lake Powell emerging from the Colorado Plateau, studded with pontoon boats and jet skis. And then we have our own version, here in California:

Its surprising how unfamiliar many Californians are with the largest body of water within the state; the Salton Sea. Last month, while down in Palm Springs, I spent the day out near the Salton Sea, a truly bizarre and beautiful place. The Sea is an accident- it was formed in 1905 when the Colorado River, swollen from rain and snowmelt, overflowed the headgates of a canal, and flowed unimpeded into the Imperial Valley and the Salton Sink. The water flowed into the sink for the next two years , thus creating this massive new lake. Here’s the map, and you can just see the Colorado at the far right:

Paradise Lost

This vast new lake soon became a target for development, and a vast recreation mecca was dreamed of, and began to be realized. Huge developments along the north and east shores of the sea were planned and developed in the late 50′s and early 60′s. One can only imagine the optimism as developers envisioned the booming metropolis to the east sending a steady stream of recreation enthusiasts east to these new resorts.

Change Along The Water

These days, I find myself plying my trade in Mission Bay, the new and ever evolving community south of downtown San Francisco. After several years in the wilderness, its great to be back and involved in such high profile work. Last week, I took the newish T-Train to the new UCSF campus, and made my way south through the Mission Bay neighborhood where I am now working, and along the Embarcadero downtown. Here’s the route:

It wasn’t too long ago, in this neighborhood, that I was hanging out in a shack by the water , remodeled by an architect friend into a folk art wonder.  His neighbors seemed to be a mixture of pirates and outlaws in this backwater. But, time marched on, and this neighborhood, so close to downtown San Francisco, has been swept by a wave of development, now, for the time being, keeping me employed. So it is here that we begin our walk. We exit the T-train at the UCSF campus exit at 3rd Street, and we are surrounded by a campus less than 5 years old. What strikes me about this campus is that I seem to like the non- academic buildings the best; parking garages, water pump stations, and the student housing. The academic buildings are all very well done mind you, they just don’t seem in any way to aggregate  to something greater, the way buildings at Stanford of Berkeley do. I know, an incredibly unfair comparison, because I think in each of those cases, mature landscape plays a dominant role. Nonetheless, a scattered collection here.

The heart of the UCSF campus is the student center, which we come to quickly. It functions very well as a distinct building and embraces an active gathering space.

Those Damn Residents, If They Would Only Listen

A new condo building went up in the neighborhood recently. Here it is:

I like this building’s reinterpretation of a two apartment wide block of flats with bays. I think its interest lies in its tweaking of the massing, angled center section with bays rising to the top, rather than contained within, the main box of  the building, as well as the use of materials- steel and concrete in particular. It’s received a fair amount of adulation in the press, which surprised me a bit, since despite my comments above, the building really doesn’t break any significant new ground. What it does do impeccably, is reflect the current fashion of the day, namely checkerboard window and textural patterns , oriented vertically if at all possible, something poor XIP Cleaners next door doesn’t have going for it.

This building is a crisply detailed modern building, and as such, one of its key features is the floor to ceiling glass. This glass does 2 things, it lets a large amount of light (and heat) into these south-facing rooms, but it also lets the passerby glimpse in, perhaps, at the hoped for exquisitely furnished modern digs. And herein lies the classic problem for the modernist, controlling the interior. For in the condo, building, once its  sold and you turn over the keys to a buyer, they likely have their own ideas. So architects hurry to get the interior photos shot before someone moves in. So how has this turned out here:

Spam Haiku

Well, not too surprising, but a full time job has had the expected effect on the blog. Cue the image of the deserted building, screen door flapping in a hot dusty wind, tumbleweed drifts by. Yup, hard to find the time.  As for the job, for now, lets just say it takes most of my time . But I’ve got material, still ambling, and am going to try to post more in the weeks ahead.

But god bless the internet, it  never sleeps, and even though I have been inactive in this space lately, my site is still out there, my little booth on the information superhighway. People still read it, and spammers still adhere to it like flies to flypaper. The spammers leave their tracks in the form of comments, and in my time away from it, there is an impressive list. Each in a way  its own bit of exquisitely baffling poetry that we have all seen. A sentence begins rather benignly with compliments, and ends ruminating on aliens. One of my first comments was just such a mashup- I eagerly read an account of how someone’s life had apprarently been changed by reading my blog!!- but then the reader was  struck by lightning and now lived underground with a secret community of mastedons. But still has an internet connection! Hmmm- well- thanks for reading!!!!!!

My favorite two in this latest batch:

“Good post. But are you sure?”

And this:

“I have been really working extremely vigorously during the past two months to try and pay down several of my personal credit card debt so that I should be able to quit my job and be a blogger full-time.”

Here’s a few screen shots from some recent comments. Look for more soon, and for god’s sake, watch out for lightning.