Grab Bag #72
Cool-building Grab Bag with a transcontinental bicyclist and freeway tossed in.
Guess Where
Time for the Grab Bag’s most popular feature (as voted on by a selection of its newsletter peers) the Guess Where. From San Francisco’s illustrious history I give you The Chickery:
When and where would 50 cents get you a half chicken “plus?” If you’ve been in this town for any amount of time you probably have passed this building, which still stands in 2026.
Friends of Woody get the answer at the bottom of the post beyond the forbidden gateway, the least popular feature of Grab Bags as voted on by a selection of non-Friends. All problems can be solved, however—just join us in buddy-buddyness by signing up:
Welcome to San Francisco
A park plan to replace Embarcadero Plaza at the foot of Market Street has been hatched by THE POWERS THAT BE. (Think backroom handshakes between big corporate execs, mayor, and public agency reps and you have the general idea.)
There is talk of this new park being named for Art Agnos. Already this year the former mayor has seen a commemorative labeling of a Potrero Hill block in his honor.
Agnos was not a popular mayor and only served one term, but he is getting lots of love these days for presiding over the decision to tear down the Embarcadero Freeway.
I try to remind myself that I am older than most San Franciscans and that many of you don’t remember the double-decker freeway which blocked the Ferry Building and the waterfront.
In my 2023 Annual I wrote this:
“Elevated freeways thrilled me. Whenever we returned from some exotic adventure in the east (say, Oakland, where my father co-produced the California State Karate Championships), we magic-carpeted among landmarks in the city’s skyline.
“When my father wanted to give us a treat, especially at night, he would detour onto the Embarcadero Freeway to glide past the Ferry Building’s tower and land on Broadway so my brother and I could see Carol Doda’s neon nipples and Big Al holding his machine gun. Then the Broadway tunnel—tunnels were always special.
“Some people protested the demolition of the Central and Embarcadero Freeways after the 1989 earthquake, mostly merchants in Chinatown and westsiders upset at losing their expressway to home. But the eradication of those view-blocking concrete snakes is now universally considered a good thing.
“I agree. Good thing. And also wish I could fly along the Embarcadero one more time.”
I suppose it’s nice to have things named after you, as long as you die before the future decides you were, actually, not someone who should be honored, and strip away said naming. Art Agnos knows better than anyone that Embarcadero Plaza used to be named Justin Herman Plaza after the lauded-then-reviled former head of the Redevelopment Agency.
But after the beatings he took from the press as mayor between 1988 and 1992, Art might be all in to enjoy a few hearty handshakes from the powers that be.
More Salt Water
It always happens this way.
Just days after putting out that story on the Olympic Salt Water Company, I found the above photo in my files. That’s the Muni building/headquarters, being constructed on Geary Street between Presidio and Masonic avenues in 1912.
Let’s zoom in to the background: