Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Second rate reporter says what?

Nothing worth doing is easy.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

The only way through is to slog through the muck one step at at time.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

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89Comments

  10. 10.

    JeremyH

    San Francisco is just stuffed with great views, they’re around every corner. Nowhere else like it for that, really.

    Have a great time there, it’s an awesome town!

  12. 12.

    Midnight Marauder

    Who are you and why are you posting during John Cole’s “I’m On Break, But Only So I Can Do More Work To Necessity Another Break, Which Will Also Require An Equal Amount of Work And Another Subsequent Break” Extravaganza?

  14. 14.

    goblue72

    As a San Franciscan, I am embarrassed that I can’t quite figure out where this is taken from. I see Twin Peaks in the distance, City Hall in front of that, and then maybe even some of the Nob Hill/FiDi highrises???

    Sheesh, this is embarassing.

  16. 16.

    Blue Raven

    As a happy commuter into the SF Financial District for nearly four years, I do love seeing others enjoying the views here.

  17. 17.

    SiubhanDuinne

    DougJ? DougJ? What the hell is going on here? What happened to John Cole as a front-pager?

  18. 18.

    Tom Hilton

    @goblue72: Union Square-ish, looks like to me (like around Geary & Mason or so). If I had time I’d figure it out with Google Streetview.

    Edit: of course, the GWSF people could figure it out in a heartbeat.

  22. 22.

    handy

    For some reason, I find the Mt. Sutro radio tower in the background of that photo as iconic a part of The City™ as the more famous landmarks like ferry building or Golden Gate bridge. An add thing to associate, I know, but I guess one of my oddities.

  23. 23.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Everybody at this blog is from my home town?

    I had no idea.

    Bought my ticket home this morning.

  27. 27.

    Joshua Norton

    I can’t quite figure out where this is taken from.

    It’s got to be from Moscone. Straight ahead you can see a church on Mission St., the Russ Building, then kind of a little off to the left is Fox Plaza and 100 Van Ness. It looks like it’s a block or 2 south from Market Street.

  29. 29.

    Colette

    @handy:

    For some reason, I find the Mt. Sutro radio tower in the background of that photo as iconic a part of The City™ as the more famous landmarks like ferry building or Golden Gate bridge. An add thing to associate, I know, but I guess one of my oddities.

    À chacun son goût, I suppose. I think of it as Shelob-by-the-Bay.

  30. 30.

    MikeJ

    @Tom Hilton: I had guessed the Hyatt, which is nice. I once got put, against my will, in the shithole Best Western or some such on Union Sq. The only upside was the plaque in my room saying that in the room, Billie Holiday had been arrested for heroin possession. But the room looked as if people were often busted.

  32. 32.

    Sean

    Tom – killer photos. Thanks for sharing.

    goblue72 – you are looking over the Tenderloin from barely on Nob Hill.

    DougJ – you are probably walking distance from Shalimar, which is some good, cheap Indian food. Super casual, solid food. I bet I can guess the hotel….

  33. 33.

    Tom Hilton

    @Joshua Norton: Not the Russ Building–it’s a building that looks a lot like the Russ Building.

    I think it’s actually taken from north of Market. The streets in the foreground are on the NSEW grid–you can see Market angling off on the left (note the triangular building center-left).

  34. 34.

    Linkmeister

    Y’all are pretty upscale. The first time I stayed in SF it was in the Star Motel, just off the Golden Gate bridge on the main drag into town. US 50, maybe?

  35. 35.

    slashdotcom

    Yeah, there are just no bad views in San Francisco, which is why it’s not Real Murika. Real Murika is loaded with horrible horrible boring shit, as I can attest to since I drove across it in September and October.

    Except for Montana, which is both Real Murika and beautiful. (Okay, fuck it, Wyoming and Idaho were nice, too.)

  36. 36.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Sodden memory:

    Walking out of the Ferry Building after getting off a boat, into a crowd I didn’t expect right in front of the terminal which turned out to be watching Joan Baez singing at Herb Caen’s open air memorial.

  39. 39.

    MobiusKlein

    @handy: we always called Sutro Tower “Devil’s Tower” since on a foggy evening, it looks like devil horns poking out over the fog.

  40. 40.

    Joshua Norton

    @Joshua Norton: I take that back. Now it looks like it a little north of Market. That building with the white dome looks like the Golden Gate Theater. So it has to be someplace between Powell and Civic Center. The dreaded Mid-Market area.

  43. 43.

    BethanyAnne

    Sigh. I’m in exile in Texas, as I got poor last year. Seeing that photo made me homesick. Must… find… way… back!

  46. 46.

    Colette

    @Peter J:

    What kind of countertops does the hotel have?

    Black marble – at least when I stayed there quite a few years ago. The bathrooms seemed palatial to me. They were about the same size as the rooms, and featured two phones.

  47. 47.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Linkmeister: Well yeah but you were basically in the Marina, pretty damn upscale yourself.

    Not that it seems much like it at that motel I realize, but we’re talking about some of the most expensive real estate in the country, just a block away.

  48. 48.

    Llelldorin

    Cool! You’re looking right at me!

    (I’m sitting beyond those hills in a Starbucks in Linda Mar, at the south end of Pacifica. If I’m looking at your image right, at the extreme right of your picture you can see the Sunset, the location of SFSU, where I got my MA before heading to Berkeley.)

  50. 50.

    Linkmeister

    @Tom Hilton, @Bill E Pilgrim:

    True enough. It was about $50/night at the time (1985, maybe? Sounds right.) And yeah, now that Tom mentions it, it was 101, because I came down from the north where I’d been cruising the Oregon Coast for ten days. Crossed that bridge in San Rafael or somewhere which is an upside-down “U;” you can’t see the downside as you’re driving up. My vertigo did not approve of that bridge.

  52. 52.

    goblue72

    I swear I’ve walked by that L-shaped red masonry building in the foreground countless times and I can’t put my finger on what corner its near.

  53. 53.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Linkmeister: Looks at Tom Hilton and blinks.

    “Upside down U”? San Rafael?

    Okay this is going to drive me nuts.

    Okay, driving from Oregon to San Francisco……

  57. 57.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Tom Hilton: Ah perhaps. Sears Point Road. Well, you could wind your way down from… hmm, not sure either. But who knows.

    Funny you forget how many bridges in the whole area, ones you never see, haven’t seen in ages, etc.

  58. 58.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    That would be kind of a fun thread, post a picture of something, somewhere, and see who can track down where it is in the world.

  61. 61.

    Colette

    @handy: He must have known what he was risking by posting that picture. Now if he were actually staying at the Ambassador, I’d be worried for him (it’s an SRO/low-income housing building).

  62. 62.

    Origuy

    @Linkmeister: When you said US 50, I thought that must have been a long time ago, because it’s ended in Sacramento since 1964. Before that, it ran down what is now I-5, across the Altamont Pass, and up what is now I-580.

    I can’t think where that bridge might be. There’s a few pretty steep overpasses, but nothing like that. Maybe on a side road? Could you have been on US 1?

  66. 66.

    Todd

    I know I’m late to this thread but did no one notice the truck on the roof of the building?

    Edit: It says parking outside, it’s probably a parking garage. I wish it weren’t…

  67. 67.

    Colette

    @Todd: You’ve never heard of the famous San Francisco trucklecopters? Yeesh, what a provincial. We use them for earthquake rescues.

  68. 68.

    Tim in SF

    Help!

    I have a friend coming into SF tomorrow and he asked me for recommendations on hotels. I have no idea what to tell him!

    His two qualifications were inexpensive but not so much that one would be afraid to walk around barefoot.

  69. 69.

    Origuy

    Are there other Bay Area Juicers that do the Chinese New Year Treasure Hunt? I’ve done this for several years with the same group. They give you a map, a street index, and a list of clues to locations in the downtown/Chinatown/North Beach area. You have to figure out where the clues refer to, go to each of those places, and solve more clues that you can only understand when you get there. If you get to the right place, you can answer a question such as the year a certain plaque was installed. Oh, and you do this while the Chinese New Year Parade is going on.

  70. 70.

    keestadoll

    @Tim in SF:

    San Francisco Central Travelodge

    1707 Market Street
    Market St. & Valencia
    San Francisco, CA 94103 US
    Phone: 415-621-6775

    I cannot think of anyplace centrally located and relatively inexpensive that a person could walk barefoot, but I’ve stayed there and it’s nice.

  71. 71.

    Origuy

    It’s not centrally located, but the Presidio Travelodge is on the edge of Presidio National Park; he could go barefoot in the park.

    Travelodge at the Presidio of San Francisco
    2755 Lombard Street
    San Francisco, California 94123
    Phone: (415) 931-8581

  72. 72.

    Margarita

    The tallest building in the shot (from that perspective) — the one with the flag on top — is McAllister Tower on McAllister and Leavenworth. I can see my old apartment, where I rode out the ’89 earthquake on the 13th floor. That church with the pink roof in front of it rang bells, lots of bells.

  73. 73.

    goblue72

    @Colette: Oh dear god yes it is. I thought that photo looked Tenderloin-y.

    And I work one block from there and walk down Eddy Street past it. Every. Fricking. Day.

    ME = Moran.

  74. 74.

    Turgidson

    That photo kinda looks like an optical illusion to me. As a recent UC Hastings grad, I am very familiar with that beige tower with the flag on top (just to the left of the Mt. Sutro radio tower). I had classes there and a lot of Hastings students live in that building. It’s hard for me to visualize an angle from which the tower would be to the LEFT of the City Hall dome.

    It’s obviously looking out to the west, but I just can’t quite pinpoint where that is, since City Hall is southwest of the Hastings tower, yet in this picture appears to be north of it. I’m really confused.

  76. 76.

    Nylund

    I grew up south of the city. Every time I drive in, it absolutely shocks me how much it looks like a post card, especially when the skies are clear and blue. It looks too airbrushed and perfect to be real. That isn’t quite so true this time of year when things can be quite gloomy and grey.

    I’ve been here for about 3 weeks dealing with family stuff but in a few days I must return back to my life in Texas. The thought of that is making me so incredibly depressed.

  77. 77.

    Turgidson

    @Nylund:

    Bummer. Hope the family stuff comes to a positive resolution. If you have some time to yourself before you go back, do some of your Bay area-specific things before you go. Eat some food you can get here but not in Texas, take in some of the scenery, whatever. Might cheer you up a little.

  80. 80.

    Linkmeister

    It was 25 years ago, so I don’t remember the bridge’s location all that well. It doesn’t have to be San Rafael.

    I drove down 101 from the Oregon border; I was trying to stay off the Interstate. I was feeling romantic or sentimental because I wanted to be sure I found a way to come into the city over the GG bridge, so somewhere north of SF I came across that bridge. It’s what my grandmother used to call a “jumping off place” because you just went up one side, staring straight into the sky through the windshield, then finally hit the crest and started down.

  83. 83.

    handy

    OK. I’m just going to say something and then flee the room: I prefer NYC to the SF. I’m leaving it there.

    I’m kind of a baby when it comes to heat so SF > NY humid summers. But otherwise both are great cities in their own way, NY definitely getting the edge just in its sheer energy.

    Now Chicago OTOH–vastly overrated. Now it’s my turn to duck and run.

  84. 84.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Linkmeister:

    It’s what my grandmother used to call a “jumping off place” because you just went up one side, staring straight into the sky through the windshield, then finally hit the crest and started down

    I think you just got confused and were already in San Francisco, driving for the first time on one of our lovely hills.

    God knows that’s how it felt the first time I drove up some of those, and I grew up there.

  86. 86.

    justme

    Heh. I had Eddy guessed from the pic pretty quick. It took a bit of google map to get Mason. Not quite in the Tenderknob, but close. Just across the street, really.

    I’ve been here too long.

    Nahhhh.

    I love me some NY as well, but the weather is just so much better here, and the drive up the coast… oh my. The whole rocky, wild cliff thing is very nice. One of these days I might move back. I hear the call now and again. For now, I’ll take the foggy place.

  87. 87.

    ruemara

    @asiangrrlMN: You would see me fleeing with you. I’m from NYC. I moved to SF and was amused to see the big city was so…small. I’ve grown to love parts of it-like Oakland and Alameda. :P

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