Category: local ambles

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local ambles, san francisco

“The Doom Loop “- Walking Through Downtown San Francisco

Downtown San Francisco, we are told, is in a “doom loop”. You probably have heard. Everyday, the San Francisco Chronicle, publishes the latest report on employers leaving downtown, retailers closing their doors, wasted public money on poorly managed programs (2 million dollar toilets!), the latest staggering statistics on homelessness, and so on. And if you didn’t hear it there, the national press loves these stories, … Continue reading “The Doom Loop “- Walking Through Downtown San Francisco

Bob C1 Comment
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local ambles

Neighborhood Stories- 3 Houses

At some point every day, I go for a walk in my neighborhood in Berkeley. It is a modest neighborhood of mostly one-story bungalows , an occasional apartment building, and a scrappy commercial district . But every few blocks, there is a larger house or building that isn’t part of the pattern. And I am fascinated with these exceptions to the rule. The Fish-Clark House … Continue reading Neighborhood Stories- 3 Houses

Bob C1 Comment
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local ambles

100 Years of Houses- Walking Panoramic Hill

One of the conundrums of life during the pandemic has been getting meaningful exercise, something more than a neighborhood walk. Fortunately, in Berkeley, there are some very steep hills, and these walks have provided the necessary heart rate elevation. In fact, one in particular, at Claremont Canyon, is so steep that on several occasions I thought I might need to leverage my watch’s emergency function. … Continue reading 100 Years of Houses- Walking Panoramic Hill

Bob C
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bay area, local ambles

The Green Seam- My Pandemic Therapist

If one were to draw a cross section through the cities east of San Francisco Bay it might look like this. First of course, there would be the Bay itself. Then to the east, the gradual rise of the “flats”, peppered with modest bungalows and apartments, then the sharp climb of the East Bay Hills, dense with rustic shingled hillside homes, and finally, topping those … Continue reading The Green Seam- My Pandemic Therapist

Bob C1 Comment