The Transamerica Pyramid is synonymous with San Francisco as the Golden Gate Bridge and cable cars. Arguably one of the most recognized building in the city’s skyline, it graces postcards and street art and has an IMDB credit list any working actor would be proud of. Yet an air of mystery surrounds the 50-year-old landmark. Perhaps that’s because its futurist design was embroiled in controversy when it debuted in 1969, or because only a special few have made it to the very top of the building.

This now well-loved fixture of San Francisco rises from the city’s financial district and spans one whole block on Montgomery Street. The neighborhood was once the center of the city’s life and commerce, but in 2022, in the wake of the COVID pandemic, San Francisco’s downtown was deemed as the most empty in America. That may be changing as the historical landmark undergoes an extensive renovation aimed at revitalizing the building’s interior and the surrounding area.

You’re likely familiar with the Transamerica Pyramid’s iconic shape that defines the city’s skyline, but you may not know these 13 fascinating facts about the famous San Francisco building.

1. The Transamerica Pyramid was opened in 1972 as San Francisco’s tallest building and the 8th tallest in the world

The original design called for a height of over 1,000 feet. At the time, city ordinances for the area imposed a 65-foot height limit and the proposal was met with resistance. Modest compromise with opponents of the building whittled the height down to 853 feet by the time it was constructed.

Still, that was tall enough for the pyramid to spend 50 years as San Francisco’s tallest building. (Sutro Tower is taller, at 977 feet, but technically it’s a TV and radio tower, not a skyscraper.) The Salesforce Tower, which rises to 1,070 feet, usurped the tallest title in 2018. Today the Transamerica Pyramid is San Francisco’s second tallest building and number 68 on the world’s tallest buildings list. It has 48 floors of office space, while the last 212 feet is an uninhabited cone.

Utility Engineer Rafael Ramirez with the “crown jewel” of the Transamerica Pyramid, a halogen 6,000-watts beacon that can be seen throughout the Bay Area.

San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst N/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

2. At the very top lies the “crown jewel,” which you can occasionally spot throughout the Bay Area

The building is topped by a 32-pane, cathedral-style glass top, referred to as the “crown jewel.” Inside the room is a 6,000-watt light — the jewel itself — which is lit for holidays and other special occasions. The crown jewel room, about the size of a cubicle, is accessed by ascending steep steps and two steel ladders, but it’s not accessible to the public (it’s only been visited by a handful of people.)

One SF daredevil Brett Wise recounted his trip to the crown jewel to The Bold Italic, revealing he made it past the top floor thanks to a security guard friend who was about to quit.

3. The building’s interior and surrounding property is currently undergoing a $400 million redevelopment project

It cost $32 million to construct the building, which is currently undergoing a multimillion-dollar renovation by world-renowned architects Foster + Partners, with a team led by Pritzker Laureate Lord Norman Foster himself. The renovation won’t change the building’s exterior, but does promise a private bar and lounge on the uppermost 48th floor, new retail locations in the lobby and the surrounding blocks and an expansion of Redwood Park around the base of the building. The lobby will also receive a facelift, most notably by opening up the ceiling to expose the building’s lattice frame. During construction, the building and Redwood Park are only open to tenants and their guests, but organizers of the project promise “a dynamic new destination for the city” once complete.

The view from the very top of the Transamerica Pyramid, looking through wire-reinforced windows out over the edge of the financial district, the Embarcadero and the Bay Bridge.

San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst N/San Francisco Chronicle via Gett

4. An observation deck on the 27th floor was permanently closed following the 9/11 terrorist attacks

There was once an observation deck on the 27th floor of the building, but it was permanently closed due to concerns of another 9/11-like event. The building may have even been an intended target of a foiled attack in 1995, known as the Bojinka plot.

5. Despite the name, the Transamerica Corporation is no longer even in the building

The Transamerica Pyramid got its name from its founding owners, the Transamerica Corporation, an insurance and financial services company that wanted to convey a sense of forward thinking and stability with its headquarters. Transamerica Corporation moved its headquarters to Baltimore, Maryland, but has kept the building’s iconic likeness as its logo, while touting its San Francisco roots on its website. And in turn, the company’s logo remains on the San Francisco building.

The building is now owned by SHVO, a real estate development and investment firm. Founder and CEO Michael Shvo purchased the building in 2020 in partnership with Deutsche Finance America for $650 million.

6. An elite, private club is coming to the Transamerica Building in 2023

Core, a members-only club (with membership fees of up to $100,000) has plans to expand its NYC and Miami locations to three floors of the Transamerica Pyramid, as first reported by the San Francisco Business Times.

7. The design was almost universally hated when it was unveiled in 1969

The Transamerica Pyramid wasn’t always as loved as it is today. When the design by futurist architect William Pereira debuted in 1969, The San Francisco Chronicle’s architecture criticized deemed it “authentic architectural butchery.” Residents protested the construction by wearing dunce caps to poke fun at its pointed shape. San Francisco’s Mayor Joseph Alioto was one of his most ardent defenders. He predicted its success as a landmark and played a key role in winning approval for construction from SF’s Board of Supervisors.

8. It’s one of the most photographed buildings in the world, with strong Hollywood ties

Not only was the designer from Los Angeles, but according to FoundSF, the Transamerica Corporation had ties to United Artists, which gave its headquarters an in for prime Hollywood placement. The building makes cameos in several films, such as the 1978 remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” where it becomes a visual motif. A computer-generated timelapse depicting the construction of the building gets a scene in the 2007 film “Zodiac.” And you’d have a hard time finding montages of San Francisco that don’t feature the iconic skyscraper.

View of the Transamerica Pyramid, Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and Alcatraz in San Francisco, Calif.

Jeremy Duguid Photography/Getty Images

9. Its futurist design has many features that have withstood the test of time

The Transamerica Pyramid has more than 3,000 windows that are designed to pivot so they can be washed from the inside. The two “shoulders” of the pyramid, located right below the cone, are more than just cool to look at, according to the building manager: one acts as an elevator shaft and the other is for ventilation. The pyramid shape also has benefits: it reduces obstruction to views for any building in Transamerica’s shadow and allows for more natural light and airflow on the surrounding city streets than classic rectangular buildings. In a birds-eye view facing north, the building even acts as San Francisco’s own sundial.

10. San Francisco’s most famous cocktail was invented where the Transamerica Pyramid stands today

Before the Transamerica Pyramid was built, its location was home to the city’s swankiest building, the Montgomery Block, which housed the renowned saloon the Bank Exchange, where the Pisco Punch was invented. It quickly became one of San Francisco’s most iconic cocktails. The saloon closed in 1920 and the Montgomery Block was torn down in 1959. Today, historical plaques surround the building, including one for the Pisco Punch.

11. Sunken ships were excavated around the base of the pyramid during construction

San Francisco’s waterfront used to be much closer to Montgomery Street than it is today, so when construction began, sunken ships dating back to the 1849 California Gold Rush were discovered around where the Transamerica Pyramid now stands. A historical plaque outside the building honors the whaling vessel Niantic, which was excavated from this location.

12. Crushed white quartz on the building’s facade gives it its light color

It will be blasted clean during the renovations.

13. The building shook for more than a minute and swayed a foot during the Loma Prieta earthquake, but emerged damage free

The Transamerica Pyramid is built to withstand earthquakes thanks to its bottom-heavy design and concrete and steel foundations that reach 52 feet deep. In 1989 it received its hardest test yet when a 6.9-magnitude earthquake rattled the city. Though the building swayed more than a foot (as it was designed to do), no one was injured and no damage was sustained.

This story was edited by Hearst National Editor Kristina Moy; you can contact her at kristina.moy@hearst.com.

The post 13 enjoyable information about San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The rain and snow storms that have pummeled California for weeks have taken nearly two dozen lives and caused billions of dollars in damages to public and private property.

The flip side, however, is that they dropped immense amounts of water on a state that has suffered through severe drought for several years. At one point this month, an astonishing 160,000 cubic feet of water—1.2 million gallons—was flowing through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta every second. That’s enough water to fill a reservoir the size of Folsom Lake, about 1 million acre-feet, in three days and doesn’t count water falling on other regions, such as Southern California.

Whether the storms have ended the drought, however, depends on California’s ability to capture enough water to fill its badly depleted reservoirs and at least begin to recharge underground aquifers that have been terribly overdrafted by desperate farmers.

So far, only a relatively tiny amount of the immense storm runoff has found its way into storage. For instance, just a trickle of the Delta’s heavy flows has been pumped into state and federal aqueducts for delivery to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, largely because of rules that limit diversions to protect endangered species such as the two-inch-long Delta melts

San Joaquin Valley legislators have seen President Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom to relax the rules so that more runoff can be either delivered to farmers or placed in storage, such as the San Luis Reservoir, which is now less than half-full.

“This is no time to be dialing back the pumps,” state Sen. Melissa Hurtado and Assemblywoman Jasmeet Bains, both Democrats from Bakersfield, told Newsom in a letter last week. “After several years of drought and low reservoir levels, it only makes sense to capitalize on wet conditions.”

“We have a moral obligation to provide Californians any relief that is within our control,” five Republican congressional members told Biden and Newsom. “Government regulations should not and must not deny our constituents critical water from these storms.”

State water officials, however, say their hands are tied by environmental protection rules requiring that initial winter flows be allowed to flush out the Delta and San Francisco Bay.

What’s been happening, or not happening, during the weeks-long deluge indicates that California needs some new plumbing to take advantage of the periodic “atmospheric rivers” that bring immense amounts of precipitation.

Meteorologists believe that due to global climate change, the state will experience more erratic weather – prolonged periods of drought interrupted by occasional storm events such as the ones California has been experiencing.

That means we need more storage, such as the Sites Reservoir on the west side of the Sacramento Valley that’s been in the planning stage for several decades and sinking basins to recharge aquifers. The long-dormant, $4 billion Sites project now has the ardent support of state and federal officials, as well as some serious money.

The relatively large diversions from the Delta now allowed by law, meanwhile, bolster the case for the “Delta Conveyance,” which would allow more water to be diverted into the state and federal aqueducts, and thus into downstate reservoirs, without running afoul of environmental restrictions. The project has kicked around for six decades, first as a “peripheral canal,” later as twin tunnels dubbed “Water Fix,” and now a single tunnel.

California water managers will have another chance to fill reservoirs in a few months, when the immense Sierra snowpack that’s twice the historic average and still growing melts. We can only hope that Mother Nature releases the snowpack’s water slowly enough to avoid destructive floods.

CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to Commentary.

The post Storms inform California to improve its plumbing – Redlands Day by day Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

1.

In 2001, the band KISS unveiled the world’s first-ever fully-endorsed coffin, which was named the KISS Kasket (not gonna lie, it’s pretty clever). Band member Gene Simmons encouraged people to use it as a cooler before death. “You can have your last ride with your favorite band. But while you’re living, you can have a cold one,” he said. “Why not have a daily use for the caskets? Why not watch your favorite ball game on TV, invite your friends over and open the Kasket to get a drink?” Several KISS super fans were eventually buried in the caskets, including “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott, a member of the band Pantera. Abbott had been murdered by a fan during a concert in 2004, and had requested the coffin in his will. Simmons ended up donating the coffin prototype to Abbott’s family.

2.

On August 9, 1996, filming on Titanic took a turn when nearly 80 members of the cast and crew were hospitalized after eating clam chowder. While many initially believed that they had food poisoning, a newspaper in Nova Scotia, where the scenes were being filmed, reported that the chowder had actually been mysteriously laced with PCP. Both actor Bill Paxton and director James Cameron were among those who ate the chowder.

Paxton told Entertainment Weekly that he rarely ate the on-set catering, but decided to share a quick meal with Cameron. He said that the effects of the laced chowder became apparent after about 15 minutes. “Some people were laughing, some people were crying, some people were throwing up,” he said. Paxton said that both he and Cameron eventually jumped in a van heading to a nearby hospital. “One minute I felt okay,” he said. “The next minute I felt so goddamn anxious I wanted to breathe in a paper bag. Cameron was feeling the same way.”

Despite Paxton telling the media that Cameron accompanied him to the hospital, Cameron later said that he was able to avoid getting medical attention. So, who laced the chowder? Investigators were actually never able to figure out what exactly happened. Some thought that an angry chef was at fault, while others believed that someone laced the meal in order to get revenge on Cameron, who was allegedly a tough director to work for.

3.

The world’s oldest living bird is a Laysan albatross named Wisdom, who is at least 70 years old. Wisdom was first identified and tagged in 1956. She returns to the same nest every year on Midway Atoll in Hawaii, home to the largest colony of albatrosses, to deliver her chicks. Biologists estimate that Wisdom has delivered between 30 and 36 chicks in her lifetime, including one most recently in 2021.

4.

While you probably already knew the basics of President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination in Dallas, I dug up some surprising details from the tragedy that might not be as widely known. First Lady Jackie Kennedy normally did not travel with the president for political trips but decided to accompany him on his visit to Texas. CBS was the first TV station to break in with the news, just 10 minutes after Kennedy had been shot. After that, all three networks — CBS, NBC, and ABC — aired nothing but coverage of the assassination for four straight days. It became the longest uninterrupted news event until the TV coverage of 9/11.

After Kennedy was shot, Jackie refused to change out of the pink suit she had been wearing. “I want them to see what they have done to Jack,” she allegedly told Lady Bird Johnson. The blood-stained suit has never been cleaned and is in the National Archives. It will not be seen by the public until 2103, as part of the Kennedy family’s wishes. Although Jackie refused to part with the suit, she reportedly did remove her wedding band and put it on her husband’s finger so it could be buried with him. However, she later asked an aide to get it back for her.

Kennedy’s death was the first presidential assassination since the creation of the Secret Service. Secret Service members allegedly fought with Dallas police over who would retain possession of the president’s casket. The Secret Service ended up with the casket, which was on board Air Force One when Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president. This also marked the first and only time a US President had been sworn in by a woman. Although the assassination was all over the news, there was one person who had no idea that the president had been killed. The New York Times reported that the Kennedy family decided not to tell Mary Josephine Fitzgerald, Kennedy’s 98-year-old grandmother, about her grandson’s death.

5.

Queen Elizabeth II refused to let uncomfortable shoes ruin her day. Instead, Angela Kelly, the Queen’s stylist, would purportedly first wear the Queen’s shoes to break them in. The breaking-in period involved some very specific rules: Kelly was required to wear a pair of beige ankle socks and was only allowed to walk on carpet while preparing the shoes. “The Queen has very little time to herself and not time to wear in her own shoes, and as we share the same shoe size it makes the most sense this way,” Kelly wrote in her book, The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe.

6.

If you think you’re into astrology, I’m pretty sure Grace Kelly has you beat! On Saturday, November 15, 1969, Kelly, the American actor who later became the Princess of Monaco, threw the “Scorpion Ball,” a Scorpio-only bash. The Scorpion Ball served as Kelly’s 40th birthday party, and the guest list was comprised of only Scorpios or plus-ones who were married to Scorpios. Notable attendees included actors Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor was only allowed to come to the party because her then-husband, Richard Burton, was a Scorpio.

Kelly also strictly enforced a red and black dress code, colors that have both been associated with the Scorpio star sign. The party’s decorations included portraits of famous Scorpios from history, including Edgar Allen Poe and Marie Antoinette. This wasn’t the first time Kelly’s penchant for astrology came to light. During her acting days, Kelly was photographed on movie sets with Carroll Righter, an astrologist and horoscope writer. Kelly was even mentioned in Righter’s obituary as one of his notable clients when he died in 1988.

7.

Elements of Yoda were modeled off Albert Einstein. Stuart Freeborn, a special effects artist who worked as a makeup supervisor on Star Wars, took inspiration for the beloved character after spotting an Albert Einstein poster in an office. “The wrinkles around Einstein’s eyes somehow got worked into the Yoda design,” special effects artist Nick Maley said. “Over the course of this evolutionary process, Yoda slowly changed from a comparatively spritely, tall, skinny, grasshopper kind of character into the old wise-spirited gnome that we all know today.” Freeborn also reportedly took inspiration from his own face when designing Yoda’s other traits.

8.

Every November, the White House holds a presidential turkey pardon to spare a live turkey from becoming a family’s Thanksgiving dinner. So, how did this tradition start? In 1863, Abraham Lincoln’s son Tad allegedly got upset when he learned that the live turkey his family was going to eat for Christmas dinner was going to be killed. Lincoln reportedly spared the turkey’s life to appease his son. From that point, people around the country began sending turkeys to the White House in hopes of it becoming the bird that would end up on the First Family’s Thanksgiving table.

Many incorrectly attribute Harry S. Truman as the president who held the first official pardon. While the National Turkey Federation sent Truman a Thanksgiving turkey in 1947, Truman allegedly ended up eating the bird instead of sparing its life. In 1963, John F. Kennedy received a turkey with a sign reading, “Good eating, Mr. President!” around its neck. Upon receiving the bird, Kennedy reportedly said, “We’ll just let this one grow,” and sent the bird to a farm. The Los Angeles Times called Kennedy’s gesture a “presidential pardon.”

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush made the pardon official by assuring animal activists, who showed up at the White House to protest the event, that the bird would not be eaten. Since then, there has been a presidential turkey pardon held every year. The pardoned turkeys are selected by the National Turkey Federation. After the ceremony, they are sent to a farm or a veterinary college to live out the rest of their days. Sadly, the turkeys rarely live longer than a few months after their pardon, as turkeys bred for consumption have much shorter life expectancies than wild turkeys.

9.

In 1900, thousands of spectators lined up to watch the annual Thanksgiving Day football game between Stanford and the University of California, known as “The Big Game.” Many fans, most of whom were children, decided to climb onto the roof of a glassblowing factory overlooking the field to take in the game after the stands were full. James Davis, the factory’s superintendent, was allegedly aware of the potential for people to climb on the roof and had reportedly been given six free tickets to the game so long as he kept people off of the roof. Soon, over 400 spectators had climbed onto the roof.

Factory workers tried to get the fans off of the roof and later recalled that the police refused to help them. About twenty minutes into the game, the roof collapsed, creating a loud crash that could be heard from the field. One spectator in the stands allegedly called out that the crash was a planned distraction, and the game continued on. Meanwhile, dozens of people had fallen through the roof, with some of them tragically landing on the factory’s burning furnace. Over 20 people were killed during the crash, while dozens more were injured. Most of the victims were children. This remains the deadliest disaster ever at a sporting event.

10.

Turkey wasn’t always the Thanksgiving food of choice in the White House. In 1926, president Calvin Coolidge received a raccoon that he and his family planned to eat for Thanksgiving dinner. When Coolidge saw the raccoon, he allegedly became smitten with it and decided that he was going to keep it as a pet. Others say that Coolidge had never eaten raccoon before, and was a little wary of trying it for the first time for Thanksgiving dinner, which is why he ultimately spared the animal’s life.

The Coolidges, who were known to be huge animal lovers, became enamored by the raccoon, which they named Rebecca. Members of the White House staff said that Rebecca was a “regular Houdini” who often escaped from her cage. The Coolidges even built a wooden house in a tree for Rebecca, located just outside of Coolidge’s office window. In 1927, Rebecca was sent away after allegedly biting Coolidge’s arm, but returned weeks later. In 1928, the family got another pet raccoon, named Reuben. Soon, Rebecca started escaping from the White House grounds and was eventually donated to the National Zoo.

11.

Roses are one of the oldest living plants in the world. Archeologists have found rose fossils that date back 35 million years. Meanwhile, the world’s oldest living rose clocks in at over 1,000 years old. The rose can be found growing on a wall in the Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany, and even survived a bomb during World War II.

12.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a holiday staple. The parade first started in 1924 and was held to promote the department store ahead of the Christmas season. It became a hit, drawing a crowd of nearly 250,000 people, so Macy’s decided to make it an annual event. By 1927, the parade began incorporating balloons, with a rendering of Felix The Cat being the first-ever Macy’s balloon. The issue? Macy’s had no idea what to do with the helium-filled balloon once the parade was over. They decided to let it float into the air, where it eventually popped.

The next year, Macy’s decided to once again allow the balloons to float up into the air but added a new twist. The company added release valves to the five balloons, which meant that the helium would slowly leak out over the course of a week or so. They stitched a return address to the balloons and told customers that if they found a piece of the balloon, they could bring it into Macy’s for a $100 reward. Three of the balloons landed in Long Island, one drifted into the East River, and the final one was never found. Macy’s continued with the balloon release method until 1932, when a piece of one of the balloons wrapped around a plane’s wing.

13.

I personally could not imagine anyone but Julie Andrews playing Mary Poppins, and turns out, Walt Disney couldn’t either. After Disney saw Andrews on Broadway in Camelot, he knew he wanted her to play the iconic role of Mary Poppins. When he first offered Andrews the role, she turned it down because she was pregnant. Disney decided to hold production on the film until Andrews was ready.

14.

The iconic TV dinner actually originated due to a surplus of Thanksgiving turkey! In 1953, Gerry Thomas, a Swanson salesman, noticed that the company had over 260 tons of frozen turkey left over after Thanksgiving. The turkeys were kept in refrigerated railroad cars, which only worked when the trains were in motion. This allegedly sent Swanson executives in a “tailspin,” as they had to keep the trains moving at all times while trying to figure out what to do with the surplus of turkeys.

Thomas had the idea to put the turkey in partitioned aluminum trays with stuffing and vegetables to create a frozen meal that families could reheat. While the technology existed to create frozen dinners, their planned release to the public had been scrapped during World War II. 1954 marked the first year of full production for the TV dinners. Swanson ended up selling 10 million trays, and soon, companies like Banquet Foods and Morton Frozen Foods rolled out their own spin on the TV dinner.

15.

Just two months before NASA launched Apollo 11 into space to reach the moon, the crew of the Apollo 10 performed a dress rehearsal, going through all of the steps required of reaching the moon without actually landing. There is a theory that NASA purposely under-fueled the Apollo 10 spacecraft to ensure that the crew didn’t actually try to land on the moon. “Don’t give those guys an opportunity to land, ‘cause they might!” Eugene A. Cernan, the flight’s lunar module pilot joked. The Apollo 10 crew successfully performed the dress rehearsal, paving the way for the historic moon landing just a few months later.

16.

If you’ve ever wondered why Thanksgiving is now always held on the fourth Thursday of November, blame it on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Prior to the 1940s, Thanksgiving had always been celebrated on the final Thursday of November. In 1939, it fell on November 30. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt felt that the relatively late Thanksgiving would shorten the Christmas shopping season too much, and decided to move the holiday up a week to Thursday, November 23.

When Roosevelt announced the proposed date change in August 1939, people weren’t quite sure how to feel. The president was accused of “shattering another precedent,” received criticism for altering a “sacred” date, and was even compared to Adolf Hitler for the change. The NFL was also angry with Roosevelt, as his proposal messed up their already planned schedule. Many governors refused to celebrate the new Thanksgiving. Charles D. White, the mayor of Atlantic City, declared November 23 would be “Franksgiving.” Only 23 of the 48 states ended up celebrating the holiday on November 23. In 1941, Congress officially ruled that Thanksgiving would always be held on the fourth Thursday of November.

17.

No one is quite sure how the idea that black cats are bad luck originated. In fact, in Great Britain and Japan, black cats are believed to be symbols of good luck! There is evidence that people began linking black cats to the Devil during the Middle Ages. During the plague, people killed black cats, which turned out to be a bad idea, as the cats often killed the rodents that were spreading the disease. In later years, black cats became linked to witches.

18.

On November 25, 1976, the Band performed The Last Waltz, their farewell concert that would later be made into a concert film by Martin Scorsese. The issue? The show landed on Thanksgiving Day. Despite the fact that the show landed on a holiday, the Band ended up selling over 5,400 tickets to the show. Included in the $25 ticket price was an entire Thanksgiving dinner for anyone who showed up to the concert before show time. They even hired a staff of 300 people to serve the meal. Talk about dinner and a show, right?

According to memoirs by several members of the Band, the meal included “220 turkeys (with 500 extra drumsticks), 90 gallons of gravy, 2,000 pounds of peeled yams, 40 crates of lettuce, 18 cases of cranberries, a special dressing (made of 70 bunches of parsley, 5 quarts of garlic, 10 quarts of sage, 100 pounds of butter, 500 pounds of celery, 500 pounds of onions and 350 pounds of croutons), 1000 pounds of potatoes, 400 gallons of cider, 400 pounds of pumpkin pie, a stew made from six crates of vegetables and 300 pounds of Nova Scotia salmon.” Bob Dylan allegedly brought the salmon from New York all the way to the show in San Francisco.

19.

Despite being regarded as one of the most intelligent people of his time, Benjamin Franklin’s formal schooling ended at just 10 years old. Franklin learned how to read at a young age and reportedly spent one year at grammar school. He then had a private tutor for a year before his formal education came to an end. By the time Franklin was 12, he had embarked on a printing apprenticeship under his older brother, where he eventually taught himself how to write.

20.

And finally, Maya Lin was the Yale architecture student who created the winning design for the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial in Washington, DC. Lin’s parents had both fled China during the Communist takeover in the 1940s and met once they moved to America. They raised Lin and her brother in Athens, Ohio, where they both worked as professors at Ohio University. Lin eventually headed to Yale to study architecture. She designed a blueprint for the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial as part of a class project. Lin eventually decided to submit her project to the design competition, where it beat out 1,200 other entries. She was just 21 years old.

Lin’s design was seen as untraditional and received major backlash when it was announced. At the dedication ceremony for the memorial in 1982, Lin’s name was never even mentioned due to the controversy. She eventually returned to Yale as a graduate student. After graduating, Lin went on to create more large-scale art and architectural work including the Langston Hughes Library for the Children’s Defense Fund in Clinton, Tennessee, the federal courthouse in New York City, and a Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. In 2016, Barack Obama awarded Lin with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

The post 20 Surprising Details That Despatched Me On A Deep Dive appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The data showed that after increasing quickly from less than 5,700 in 2013 to over 8,000 in 2019, the number of homeless individuals decreased slightly to 7,800 in 2022. The decline was largely attributed to the city’s huge investment in supportive housing over the last several years.

The post Key details about homelessness in San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The post Key details about homelessness in San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Raised on the Mohawk reservation in Akwesasne on the border between New York and Canada, Richard Oakes learned at a young age the respect that his Native Americans had. When he was old enough to do something about it, he became a key figure in the American Indian rights movement – largely through the occupation of the dormant Alcatraz prison. Take a look at five things you might not know about Oakes and his tragically brief struggle to recapture his culture.

1. HE WAS A KEY FIGURE IN CREATING NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES IN COLLEGES.

Born in 1942, Oakes moved to San Francisco in his late twenties to study at San Francisco State University. As a student, he found that the lethargic curriculum neglected the Native American contribution. Working with the faculty, he helped develop and launch one of the first Native American Studies departments in the country. Oakes and fellow students also encouraged Native American elders in the ward to take classes.

2. ASSISTANCE IN OUR OCCUPATION OF ALCATRAZ ISLAND.

At SFSU, Oakes appeared to have found his calling in gathering both students and members of the Native American community. To draw attention to the need for further education and awareness of their forgotten history, Oakes and several others traveled to Alcatraz Island in November 1969 to symbolically claim it as Indian land.

3. HE BECAME “MAYOR OF ALCATRAZ”.

Though originally intended as a brief statement, Oakes realized that the dormant federal prison location might actually support long-term occupation. UCLA students helped educate the 100 or so Indians who settled on the island. After people settled in, an elected council was set up and inmates took on a variety of jobs in the abandoned prison facility: cooking, hygiene, teaching, housing, and childcare. Oakes, a charismatic leader, was appointed chief or mayor of the occupation and demanded the charter for the island. Federal agencies didn’t give in: the occupation ended in 1971 after police evicted the country’s remaining residents. (Oakes, whose 13 year old step daughter died there after falling)he stairs 1970, was already gone.)

4. HE Suffered VIOLENCE AS A RESULT OF HIS FAITH.

After leaving Alcatraz, Oakes joined other American Indians in their struggle for equality. He allied with the Pit River Tribe in California and turned against utility companies who claimed their land for their own purposes. Oakes fell victim to tear gas and truncheons. When he returned to San Francisco, he was involved in a bar fight that had rushed him to the hospital.

5. HE WAS GOT SHOT AND KILLED AT THE AGE OF 30.

Oakes undoubtedly had decades of activism and education ahead of him, but he never had the opportunity to experience them. On September 20, 1972, Oakes got into a confrontation with Michael Morgan, a YMCA official whom Oakes alleged abused the young Native American contestants for whom Morgan was responsible. During the argument, Morgan drew a gun and shot Oakes, killing him. A jury later ruled that Morgan had acted in self-defense. He was acquitted.

Despite the tragic end of his life, Richard Oakes achieved a great deal for the Native American people. While he failed to take Alcatraz, the occupation brought new attention to the matter: hundreds more protests were staged, and then President Richard Nixon returned 48,000 acres of land to the Taos Indians. Today, the Richard Oakes Multicultural Center at San Francisco State University is dedicated to Oakes, who dedicated his life to spreading the idea that Native American people determine their own destiny.

The post 5 Info About Native American Activist Richard Oakes appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

In 1977, a charismatic camera shop owner named Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francisco board of directors. The triumph made him the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the state of California and one of the first openly gay people to hold public office in America. Despite being a local race, Milk had a nationwide impact on the LGBTQ movement – both in life and in death.

1. As a young man, Harvey Milk worked on Wall Street – and Broadway.

Harvey Milk was a man of many interests. Born May 22, 1930 in Woodmere, New York, Milk loved opera, played several sports, and wrote columns for students at his alma mater, New York College for Teachers (now known as SUNY Albany). After graduating from the 1951 class, Milk built a formidable resume: Wall Street Research Analyst, Public School Teacher, and Associate Broadway Producer were among the various job titles he received before moving to San Francisco in 1972.

2. The Vietnam War changed Harvey Milk’s political ideology.

When Milk won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Directors in 1977, he ran for Democrat. But his earlier forays into politics were on the other side of the aisle. More than a decade earlier, Milk had been recruited into Republican Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign. It was the Vietnam War that changed his policy. “The day Nixon invaded Cambodia was the day I had to speak out against war profiteers, big corporations and so on,” Milk told NBC News in 1978. “And so I got rid of my Wall Street career … and when I went through that door, I moved on.”

3. Harvey Milk became known as the “Mayor of Castro Street”.

By the time Milk made its mark on Castro Street in San Francisco, the famous street – and the neighborhood around it – was already a hub of the city’s gay scene. In 1973 Milk and his then partner Castro Camera opened a small photo shop that developed into a meeting place in the neighborhood. Milk used the store as a campaign hub throughout all of his public office applications, which eventually earned him the nickname “The Mayor of Castro Street.”

4. Harvey Milk and the San Francisco Teamsters union worked together to organize a beer boycott.

In 1973, half a dozen large beer traders collectively refused to hire union truck drivers. The following summer, Allan Baird of the San Francisco Teamsters Union asked Milk to convince the city’s gay bars to participate in a mass boycott of these companies. Milk happily agreed, explaining, “If we in the gay community want others to help us in our fight against discrimination, then we have to help others in their struggles.” With Milk’s help, San Francisco gay bars blacklisted the vendors which caused five of them to reverse their attitudes towards union drivers.

5. Harvey Milk wasn’t the only LGBTQ politician to succeed in the 1970s.

Milk’s political success didn’t come overnight. Prior to the 1977 elections, Milk had unsuccessfully campaigned for a seat on the San Francisco board of directors and had not been elected California MP. However, Milk wasn’t the first open member of the LGBTQ community to win an American election. That honor goes to Kathy Kozachenko, who was elected to Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council in 1974. Then came Elaine Noble, the first openly gay candidate to hold national office in the 1975 General Assembly.

6. Harvey Milk helped kill a government initiative that would have banned LGBTQ teachers.

After being sworn in on January 8, 1978, Milk quickly threw himself into the fight against California Proposition 6. Better known as “the Briggs Initiative,” this election was championed by Orange County Senator John Briggs. If it had happened, California public schools would have had to fire all gay and lesbian teachers, teaching assistants, counselors and administrators in their service. Not only did Milk publicly debate the measure with Briggs, he also called on then-President Jimmy Carter to condemn it. When the Californians voted in November, the initiative was rejected by more than a million votes.

7. Dog poop was a big headache for Harvey Milk.

“I don’t want to put anyone in jail, I don’t want to pay anyone a fine. I just want to clean up the mess, ”Milk told KQED News in San Francisco in 1978. He sponsored a bill that imposed fees of $ 10 or more for dog owners in the area who didn’t restrain their pets. Milk’s ordinance, nicknamed the Scoop the Poop Act by future mayor (and current US Senator) Dianne Feinstein, was passed unanimously by the board of directors.

8. Harvey Milk was murdered by a colleague in town hall.

Former firefighter and police officer Dan White was another new addition to the board who was elected on the same day as Milk. The two overseers seemed to get along well at first, but things turned sour after Milk voted to open a troubled youth facility in White’s District. Citing financial problems and other concerns, White later resigned from the board. Then, in an abrupt twist, White asked Mayor George Moscone to reappoint him to the position that had just become vacant. Ultimately, the mayor refused.

Moscone’s decision was influenced by some of the more liberal board members, including Milk, who opposed White’s reappointment. On November 27, 1978, White – armed with a .38 revolver – climbed through a basement window in City Hall. Inside, he killed Moscone, reloaded his gun, and murdered Milk.

9. The trial of Harvey Milks killer led to the “White Night Riots”.

Despite the murder of two senior officials, White was never charged with murder. Instead, he was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, a lesser offense that earned him seven years and eight months in prison. About 5,000 demonstrators marched to City Hall, feeling that White had escaped justice. This was followed by the so-called “White Night Riots” of May 21, 1978, in which 124 demonstrators and 59 police officers were injured as a result of the controversial outcome of the process. (As for Dan White, he committed suicide on October 21, 1985, less than two years after he was released from prison.)

10. The US Navy named a ship in honor of Harvey Milk.

Milks name now graces a New York high school, an airport terminal in San Francisco, and street signs on the west coast. And then there is the USNS Harvey Milk, a marine replenishment oiler that is currently under construction. Milk himself had served in the Navy before being forced to resign because of his homosexuality.

“The naming of this ship after Harvey Milk is a fitting tribute to a man who was on the front line for civil and human rights,” said former Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus in 2016 about the namesake of the ship.

One version of this story ran in 2020; it has been updated for 2021.

The post 10 Heroic Info About Harvey Milk appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Regular plumbing maintenance and repairs are vital to ensure that you and your family live comfortably in your home. But as a subject, it’s pretty boring. Law? Not correct. The folks at Victoria Plum have given us some fun facts about the area and special skills. and it’s not all as boring as dish water. Tap on the facts below and soon you will be telling all your friends about your plumbing expertise.

Photo, Jacek Dylag.

1st way back in 3,000 BC Historians have traced the beginnings of plumbing back to the 3rd millennium BC. We are talking about the early to the middle Bronze Age. When the ancient Sumerians were among the first to make tools and weapons in this prehistoric era, a form of installation was also invented. Archaeologists have viewed this era as the “Indus Valley Civilization” and it is believed that their installers at the time have lineages in northern India and Pakistan.

What is fascinating is that this was at least a thousand years before the Giza Pyramids were formed. Humanity had some form of proto-sanitary system long before any of the world’s “advanced” ancient civilizations made its greatest achievements in history.

2. Modern sanitation was a little late: Modern sanitation saw amazing innovations in the 16th century. In this remarkable part of said century, John Harrington invented what was then and still is known as the “flush toilet”. Another reason why a colloquially accepted pseudonym for the flush toilet is “John” has to do with the name of its inventor.

3. Pipe insulation works: Are you all too familiar with turning on the faucet and wasting sparkling water until it reaches the warm temperature preferred for your bath? You can avoid heat loss and water waste by having your home’s pipes insulated. Pipe insulation is generally used at freezing temperatures. But you can also rely on this in cold weather. Pipes are generally “wrapped” to prevent them from getting cold and / or frozen.

This allows the water flowing through them to get less cold. Waiting for the tap to warm up will take less time if your house has insulated pipes.

Photo, Kazuky Akayashi.

4. Flushing toilets is one of the most wasted water in a household Source: Did you know that flush toilets are one of the appliances in your home that wastes the most volume of water? This does not mean that you should stop flushing. Oh no no However, there is a practical solution to this problem. Instead of building it yourself, call your plumber and have them check the toilet flush.

If too much H20 is being used than is required per flush, they can set up a rigging to act as a stopper. In this way, the water stops bubbling unnecessarily after the flushing mechanism has already taken place.

5. Wastewater drip taps more than you know: You may think that leaky faucets don’t need to be fixed. According to studies, unattended, leaky faucets waste about 8 ounces of water every 15 minutes. To put that in perspective, that’s 768 ounces (six gallons) of water lost every 24 hours. As a result, it is recommended that you contact your plumbing professional to have them checked for leaking faucets in your home as soon as possible.

The post 5 Enjoyable Details About Plumbing. Actually. It is Not All as Uninteresting as Dishwater. appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.