OAKLAND

never mind: "Vehicle access to Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island for residents, employees
and visitors will be maintained via special permit from San Francisco."

If you were also wondering.

they haven't closed the bridge for almost exactly 20 years right?

no, they closed it a few years ago during the same weekend.

so glad I live AND work in the east bay now

guess I'm the only fan of infrastructure-repair-related traffic-and-transit-snarls then

also, 24 hour BART!

I would be a bigger fan if I didn't drive across that bridge so often.

I predict BART won't be that bad tomorrow on account of everyone saying 'fuck this, I'm not coming in'. At least, that seems to be the dominant paradigm at my place of employment.

I'm hoping all the SOMA eateries will be dead tomorrow from all the east bay commuters staying home. No lines!

I have a gig in SF tomorrow night, and will brave the San Mateo bridge ...

Lotsa luck. Realized I drove over that section of the Eastern span for the LAST TIME EVER last night. I seriously stressed out about playing some appropriately cool music while doing so.

They also seem to be doing a bunch of construction on 880 and 24.

Is it that center divider stuff on 880? That's been going on and annoying me for awhile. 880 is the worst freeway in the Bay Area, by the way.

280 is the best.

I spent several years commuting from Oakland to Hayward ... oh how I loathed 880.

downtown sf is a fucking ghosttown rn

would be an A+ night for critical mass

OOh boy, can't wait to take my early out at work here, hop on BART, have a couple beers and get rolling with the extended weekend in isolated SF!
(sorry this isn't all that Oakland related, but hey, since that's where the bridge closure came up...)

280 really is the best.

although there are stretches of heading right out of SF where people drive like maniacal assholes

"downtown sf is a fucking ghosttown rn"

My office is ridiculously empty even for a a Friday.

Sounds like the bridge may not re-open on time:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/06/california.bridge.closed/index.html

that would be great, because then my boss won't come to work, and I won't have to feel bad about not finishing this crap on time.

Time-lapse:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTM6Ux8Viak

that's awesome

Mehserle trial being moved out of Alameda County

Jacobson said his "deepest concern" was the possibility that jurors would have to walk past protesters outside the courthouse each day of the trial demanding "justice for Oscar Grant."

He really thinks simply moving the trial will dissuade protesters? Or quell the anger that will ensue if Mehserle is found not guilty?

hey it worked for in Simi Valley lolz

er "those cops in" Simi Valley

I just think it's kinda fucked up that Oakland via OPD has ended up bearing so much expense of babysitting/handling protesters when it was BART's fuck-up that brought it about. Meanwhile BART from Oakland to SF costs 3 times as much as in 1997.

Yeah I couldn't help but think about that during the protests downtown. Of all the lousy situations for BART to drop on Oakland's doorstep.

for a while they were having protests weekly near City Hall on the same day I was working for a client in the Tribune Tower. I could tell they were running out of steam when for half an hour some guy was going on about the only way to prevent travesties like this is by an authentic Socialist Revolution.

god those international socialist party people are the worst

19th Street Station was covered in these this morning,

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1940/barttp.jpg

lo....l?

whoa shit.

in other downtown oakland news, the lady at the NY deli on the corner of 14th and franklin insisted i and another customer pay her tomorrow instead of using card or a big bill to pay today. bad sign for a really great lunch place.

Why's the Bay Bridge falling down?

some repair fuckup from that crack they found during labour weekend. apparently a big cable or something came loose and crashed out on 3 cars. bridge expected to be closed for the next 24hrs.

the bay bridge twitter says that the bridge is closed indefinitely. i wish it had said, "aahh!!! in so much pain!!! snapped cable and it hurts so much!!!"

i don't want to go to work tomorrow anymore. bart gonna suck.

Ugh, goddamnit.

hmm... BART will be crowded, but on the other hand so many people will be late to work tomorrow that I can probably take it slow. All in all, not so bad.

for future reference, people who live in oakland as i do now: when this sort of bullshit happens and it's post-BART, which way do you take to get home? we did the san mateo-hayward bridge tonight and it wasn't bad, but i wonder if the golden gate to san rafael-richmond bridge isn't faster?

golden gate to san rafael-richmond tends to be faster, yes.

i mean, we were also in potrero hill/dogpatch. so even then? i just tend to believe that the more one can avoid 'streets' on such a drive, the better. but i also hate stopping for lights.

well, it obviously depends on traffic. i think they're doing a bunch of road construction on 880 right now (or they were fairly recently), but it seems like they're doing road construction just about everywhere.

http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2009/10/28/mn-bridge28_252__0500771534.jpg

well, it obviously depends on traffic. i think they're doing a bunch of road construction on 880 right now (or they were fairly recently), but it seems like they're doing road construction just about everywhere.

― sarahel, Wednesday, October 28, 2009 1:40 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Yeah, they still are. At some point before the entrance from the San Mateo bridge onto the 880 North there's a lot of construction. The exit to the 880N is the middle lane, and 880 South is the right lane. Signs don't tell you until right before, and since the traffic is completely backed up, switching at the last minute (as people inevitably do) causes a lot of anger. Haven't driven it yet since the Bridge closed, but the girlfriend reports tonight. She might be pissy.

Last New Year's Eve, the San Francisco Area rung in the New Year with a bad start. A police officer working for the BART transit system shot and killed an unarmed man already restrained and facing down on the ground. Now that former cop, 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle stands trial for murder.

With all the media attention and community reaction--some crazy riots--the climate in Bay Area was too intense to hold the trial there. Therefore a judge ruled to move it to downtown Los Angeles. The family of the victim, Oscar Grant, is happy with the decision. Mehserle's lawyers are not.

"Citing the reaction to the 1991 police beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles, [defense attorney Michael] Rains also argued that the trial could drag that city back in time, and into 'the boiling cauldron we wanted to get out of in Alameda County,'" explained the San Francisco Chronicle. Rains also argued that with L.A.'s backlog of cases, the trial won't happen for some time and that it would be better to move the case to San Diego. Others argue moving it to San Diego would result in a not guilty verdict.

I think this is OK. They couldn't have found 12 impartial jurors in AC anyhow. I doubt this will be Rodney King II, but no doubt there will be some street activity during the trial regardless of where it's held. In any event, Oakland doesn't need another round of riots anytime soon.

This sounds like a good compromise to me, too.