San Francisco Bay Area Related Blog Launched

Happy Holidays from the City by the Bay! Please pardon the dust while I assemble this new site dedicated exclusively to the people, places, politics, culture, history, and happenings of the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

For starters, I have included San Francisco related content from my companion blog, The Journalist-Citizen (www.journalistcitizen.blogspot.com). As it has since its July inception, J-C will continue as a platform for sharing vignettes and images related to my travels, observations, and search for far-flung locales and forgotten heroes across the country.

I remain grateful for the high level of support and interest in both blogspots! And, as always, please feel free to share your comments and suggestions with me via e-mail at cjgoepel@gmail.com.

Cheers ... Christian Goepel

Witch Way to San Francisco?

San Francisco, California: October 22, 2008

When an unlucky witch donning snow boots and striped stockings smashes into a utility pole in San Francisco’s Parkside neighborhood, folks take immediate notice, even if Halloween is just around the corner. Motorists slowing for the four-way stop at the intersection of 26th Avenue and Vicente Street pause longer than usual to gawk, amused school children point and smile, and a stroller-pushing mother snickers. An elderly gentleman suggests it is really Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin traveling incognito.

Of this mysterious display, only one thing is for certain. Someone in a festive mood used equal parts humor, creativity, wing of bat, and eye of newt to brighten what might have been an otherwise ho-hum day in a quiet residential district.

San Francisco Tagger Recognizes Financial Crisis

The controversial Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - passing 74-25 in the Senate and signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 3 - allows the US government to purchase distressed bank assets to the tune of $700 billion. This move will allegedly stabilize the faltering economy and bail out Wall Street in the midst of a lingering financial and subprime mortgage crisis. Some economists believe this downturn represents the largest domestic financial calamity since the Great Depression. Its ill-effects have spread not only to Main Street, but to the global economy as well.

Mere inches above the pigeons, detritus, and homeless encampments scattered along Florida Street in San Francisco’s Mission District is a fresh political message questioning the legitimacy of such action by Washington.

A Treasure Island Medley

San Francisco, California: September 3, 2008

Created to provide real estate for the Golden Gate International Expositions of 1939 and 1940, and later hosting a US Navy base from 1941 until 1997, San Francisco’s manmade Treasure Island presently offers limited public housing and recreational opportunities. Little wonder that developers are fixed on this underutilized decommissioned military property. The views of the skyline, bridges, and San Francisco Bay are unparalleled, a fact not lost on tourists, photographers, and movie makers.


Anchored in choppy San Francisco Bay, the ghostly silhouette of Alcatraz stands against the bucolic hills of Marin County at sunset.


A spiral staircase provides access to the roof of a storage tank at the Treasure Island Water Pollution Control facility. The island remains peppered with utilitarian infrastructure and architecture typical of World War II era military installations.




Artificial Treasure Island connects to natural Yerba Buena Island, through which the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge burrows. The iconic double-deck suspension span has connected East Bay communities with San Francisco for nearly 72 years and provides the sole vehicular access to Treasure Island.