Category: California and Beyond
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Cruising The Avenue
10 years ago, after many years residing in San Francisco, we moved to Berkeley, across the Bay. After years of regarding Berkeley and the East Bay as being closer to Europe than just across the bridge, we quickly changed our tune as we discovered the joys of the place. Berkeley…
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Walking Across Berkeley- 12 Stops During A Pandemic
For some time, I wanted to write a post about walking all the way across Berkeley. Essentially, the walk would be a cross section, starting at the Bay , winding through our flatland neighborhoods, and then on up to the campus and the hills. And I finally got around to…
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Dogpatch and Mission Bay
Tucked all around San Francisco Bay are curious little villages that surround old industrial centers. You can find these surviving villages in places like Point Richmond, ,Alviso, and Crockett. And in San Francisco, there is the old Dogpatch neighborhood centered along Third Street near 20th. I had always been intrigued…
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Field Notes- Downtown Oakland- A City In 9 Movements
Each day for the last 6 years , I have taken the train to downtown Oakland , and headed up to the 13th floor of the office building where I work. I sit in a corner, with a panoramic view of downtown, and the Bay Area beyond. It’s a nice…
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Dreaming Of Summer -The Intimacy of Rome
I have , on these dark wet winter days , taken to dreaming of summer. One such daydream has me wandering around sun-baked European towns and cities. It seems another lifetime, not just 5 months, that we found ourselves in Italy, each day some variant of that. I decided I…
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Summer in San Francisco’s Richmond- The Art Of The Inside Day
When I first moved to San Francisco many years ago, there was much to grab my attention. Places and people new, different, even exotic. And I was kind of prepared for that. But there was one thing that I didn’t know about, and the was this- the fog. I was…
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The Everyday Urbanism of East 14th
A few years ago, I walked the length of San Pablo Ave in the East Bay. It was a fairly ridiculous endeavor, a walk done over 2 days that covered 23 miles . The starting point for the walk was downtown Oakland, and , as Oakland has a loosely radial…
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Travelogue – 10 Stops Through The American West
At the end of last year, the pull of the wide open spaces of the American West was too great, and I once again undertook what has become an every 2 year ritual, a road trip through part of the American West. North of Palm Springs, and home, the tiny dot…