The confused, contradictory charm of Yerba Buena Island

January 13, 2015 12:10 PM

A lovely meditation / photo essay about California's Yerba Buena Island.
posted by Chrysostom (15 comments total)

Wonderful article. Despite the amazing views, the island is usually quite empty, and worth a visit just to drive/walk around. I'm sorry to hear that they want to add housing to it. Make it a park!

The graveyard was moved to the Presidio (park/former military base/home to Lucasfilms near the Golden Gate Bridge) because the designers of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition didn't want visitors to see the graveyard as they entered the Exposition. I had a relative I had heard was buried there and it took me a while to figure out where he ended up.
posted by eye of newt at 12:36 PM on January 13, 2015

Nice weather. That's actually the most of the Golden Gate Bridge anybody's been able to see since October.
posted by maryr at 12:49 PM on January 13, 2015

I love San Francisco so damn much.
posted by entropicamericana at 1:07 PM on January 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Stupid bridge bike path ends just short of getting you to the actual island.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:25 PM on January 13, 2015

This was magnificent. I was born and raised in Frisco and even as a long time resident, there were times when you'd be just walking on your way somewhere and without warning or expectation you'd look up and have your breath cleanly taken away from you. This essay brought back that same feeling.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 2:08 PM on January 13, 2015

That happens to me in SF too, Slarty, but it's less the view and more the unexpectedly steep hill behind it.
posted by maryr at 2:37 PM on January 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Oh, this is wonderful. I'd been to Treasure Island a couple of times some years ago but I've always been curious what YB is like. Just recently moved back to SF and am rarin' to go have a look now!

Yerba Buena Island seems to exist mostly in between, not just literally (on the way from Oakland to San Francisco), but also metaphorically. After decades as a connector, it’s trying to become a destination. Here, nature and technology claim an equal stake, and the military heritage coexists uneasily with mundane residential presence.

The funniest thing about this is that there's momentum toward completing a pedestrian/bike lane on the Bay Bridge... but only on the eastern span, which will mean the islands--which belong to SF--will only be directly accessible on foot from Oakland.

Nice weather. That's actually the most of the Golden Gate Bridge anybody's been able to see since October.

Er-wha? I've biked across the GG Bridge twice this week and both times the weather has been crystalline.
posted by psoas at 3:22 PM on January 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was born and raised in Frisco

Not talkin' like that: Herb Caen just killed a kitten.

TI and Yerba Buena are great weird places, TI moreso in the late-base, early-transition period. That effing onramp was no joke.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 3:44 PM on January 13, 2015 [4 favorites]

I was always scared of the ramp and never went. This makes me want to go. Thanks!
posted by sety at 3:58 PM on January 13, 2015

This feature is co-authored by the excellent Marcin Wichary. We've previously appreciated his article on the Phelan building. He works at Medium and has a fun series of essays on Medium's web typography. I particularly like his obsessive efforts to make underlines typeset correctly.
posted by Nelson at 6:03 PM on January 13, 2015

Oh, gosh, I should have mentioned I found this through Nelson's Twitter feed!
posted by Chrysostom at 6:52 PM on January 13, 2015

Those are gorgeous photos. I haven't been to Yerba Buena, but my friend took me to the Treasure Island flea market once and I was ridiculously excited to get to actually go there. Meanwhile my friend was all, "you can only go to the one area and then you can't go anywhere and you have to leave," and that ramp was genuinely scary, particularly trying to get back ON the bridge as the crowds race by. Sigh.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:18 PM on January 13, 2015

If you are in a hurry you should scroll to the end because those are great shots of the new and old east spans of the Bay Bridge temporarily sitting side by side.
posted by bukvich at 6:37 AM on January 14, 2015

Er-wha? I've biked across the GG Bridge twice this week and both times the weather has been crystalline.

Sorry, I'm teasing. When I've been in SF the bridge has generally looked more like this.
posted by maryr at 8:27 AM on January 14, 2015

Forgot to mention Bill Couch is the other author on this article. He has lots of neat photos on Flickr.
posted by Nelson at 11:17 AM on January 14, 2015