So I finally got my old camera back and took some photos of the mudslide area on Telegraph Hill. I also took some photos of areas I, being an expert in geology, think are also precarious-living. We sure do live on a crazy, fantastical bit of rock. So here’s a question- the other sides of Telegraph Hill- why didn’t they slide down? Tons of photos on that topic - on my flickrstream.

If interested, you can virtually re-enact the walking tour of mudslides & precarious living, by following this Gmaps-pedometer link. Satellite image of slide: (courtesy of google maps)


Chatted with guy who works in a liquor store on the block. They were closed up so he wasn’t there and didn’t hear it. I asked him if anyone was in Showgirls at the time- and he said that usually they do stick around, with music thumping, way into 4 or 5am. Not open to the public, just counting up receipts and stuff. He said that some tenants in his building thought the mudslide was actually music from the club. He knew some of the displaced folks too, and was following the Chron coverage pretty closely.

Both parking attendant, liquor store guy & I wondered about the condos perched atop the hill, about to fall down - seemingly. Parking lot attendant pointed out that most of the cement balustrade fell down in the damage. I climbed up Peter Macchini stairs (basically Kearny) and along a tiny little alley that is the parking space for the building next to the expensive condos.

Some guy was sitting in his apartment reading a newspaper, and Attendant & I agreed that the cement reinforcement (both of us being certified geologists of course) makes it seem pretty sturdy, so nobody seems very worried. I hiked around to the top of Vallejo, though, right directly on top of the mudslide area, and surprised, or not, at the For Sale sign posted there. These folks have a nice view. Liquor store guy & I agreed that it’s part and parcel of 1) living in Earthquake area 2) having extremely good property investments usually (so once in awhile a mountain slides, it balances it out…) and 3) wacky sinkholes and mudslides happen all the time.

He grew up Millbrae and remembers a house actually falling on another house on a cliff, then a few months later a new house pops up right where the old one was (I think he is referring to this). I remember the famous blue house on SeaCliff, that was tipped over into a huge football-field sized sink hole. The owners were in China and found out about it by watching international news, seeing rescue workers slowly carry out their belongings out of the house before it toppled into the hole. So, just sayin’.

The other side of Telegraph Hill, facing East, has an enormous cliff that butts right up against the Levi Strauss plaza complex and other apartment & corporate buildings. I took a few photos and posted them here- my favorites are these:

This is a street that, when you’re on top of the cliff on it, used to literally just drop off into a mudslide-esque downhill run with cliff included. Now they’ve put up some little highway fences and (?) sage. This is the view from the street below- Francisco and Powell. Probably my top candidate for Mudslide 2007 Version 2- that block (100?) of Chestnut.