Abandoned Lot in Oakland, part of my visit this morning

I had to go take measurements at an abandoned building today. It’s been vacant for years, and as a result people go in and out of the building to tag the walls and steal anything that isn’t bolted down (and most of the stuff that was bolted down has been stolen too). It is also damp and it looks like some dogs have been inside relieving themselves.

It was so dirty in there, my hands smelled for the rest of the day no matter how many times I washed them. I tried several different types of soap, ranging from institutional to floral, and nothing could totally eradicate it. It reminded me of that episode of Seinfeld where the valet with B.O. contaminated Jerry’s car and he ended up having to sell it, except I can’t sell my hands.

If you live in the Bay Area, you must have heard the news: THE WORST STORM EVER IS COMING! TAKE SHELTER! A bearded man was spotted lining up pigeons, squirrels and feral cats in pairs and leading them on to a wooden boat in Golden Gate Park (that’s actually something you could see almost any weekend in the park here though).

The latest from the National Weather Service (capital letters mean it’s SERIOUS):

SOUTH TO SOUTHEAST WINDS WILL INCREASE ALONG THE COAST AND IN THE NORTH BAY HILLS THIS AFTERNOON TO 20 TO 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 55 MPH…AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH TONIGHT. THE SECOND… MORE POWERFUL SYSTEM WILL BRING EVEN STRONGER WINDS TO NORTHERN AND CENTRAL CALIFORNIA. WINDS ALONG THE COAST AND VALLEYS WILL INCREASE EARLY FRIDAY MORNING TO 30 TO 45 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH POSSIBLE. WINDS IN THE HILLS ABOVE 1000 FEET COULD POSSIBLY GUST TO HURRICANE FORCE…75 MPH ON FRIDAY. WINDS WILL DECREASE FRIDAY EVENING.

Perhaps you’ve never head of a sourdough bread lobster? I hadn’t, and I live in San Francisco… part of its natural habitat. In an effort to satisfy tourists’ insatiable appetites for both seafood and sourdough bread, some enterprising baker invented (get this) bread in the shape of a crustacean. My co-worker Brandon received one of these masterpieces and decided to share it with the office. As you can see in the following photos, the claws and legs are definitely the most appealing part:

noon

2pm

3:30pm

5:00pm- somebody needs to put this thing out of its misery

I also made it over to Oakland this evening for drinks and dinner, and on the way back I spotted The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival next to the West Oakland BART station. I was skeptical when I heard that tickets were $40, but upon seeing the size of the flames generated and the elaborate stage setup I have a new level of respect for the event.

Despite a sad lack of content, my blog appears to be (for the most part) working.

I spent part of yesterday afternoon in East Oakland touring a vacant pasta factory. It is part of the project I am working on at my office- eventually it is going to be renovated in to low-income studio apartments and art studios.

When I arrived at the site yesterday with two other people from my office, we were met by a woman from the Oakland Housing Authority at the chain link fence that is around the building. She informed us that the alarm had been deactivated and it was pretty obvious that the building had been occupied in the recent past. There were gang tags painted on the outside and all of the (formerly closed and latched) upstairs windows were open.

To make a long story short, the housing authority police never showed up so eventually we just went inside anyway and found the scene below. Thanks to Daniel Simons for the photographs (oops, I forgot my camera).