The Bay Area is about to get a major dose of 20th anniversary coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake of Oct. 17, 1989, which killed 63 people and injured over 3000.

If you weren’t here, the SFGate website is revving up coverage, and this 10-minute video is a good place to start. In the meantime, here’s a short glossary of terms you’ll hear thrown around for the next week:

Loma Prieta

A 3786-foot peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains (Google map) between Morgan Hill and Santa Cruz which gave its name to the earthquake, the epicenter of which was nearby.

1989 World Series (”Battle of the Bay”)

The baseball championship series between the American League-winning Oakland A’s and the National League-winning San Francisco Giants, Game 3 of which was about to get underway when the earthquake hit. The World Series ensured that the Goodyear blimp and other national TV infrastructure was on scene to cover the earthquake.

Cypress Structure

An elevated double-deck freeway structure, built in the late 1950s, which collapsed during the quake (picture above); part of Interstate 880 through West Oakland. Site of the most deaths from the earthquake.

Marina District

A San Francisco neighborhood built on bay fill soil which liquified during the quake, leading to building collapses, a gas leak, and the worst fire caused by the quake.

If you enjoy living in San Francisco, stop reading right now.

Why? Is he going to tell me something that I haven’t learned in my thirty years here? Something that will make me boogie off to Atlanta or Denver?

No, that’s not the reason.

If you don’t stop reading, you’ll probably come across something you disagree with, then you’ll want to leave a nasty comment, then you’ll realize I don’t accept comments, then you’ll email me, and then I’ll have to ignore your email because I warned you not to read this.

Aw! He doesn’t want to deal with someone disagreeing with him! It’s almost cute.

OK, to save time, here is his worst criticism: San Francisco is dirty and overcrowded, and this implies that the citizens value their delusions about the city and themselves more than they do its residents, especially the residents who are poorer and less privileged.

Don’t be afraid, Alex Payne. I don’t disagree. I think it’s a good argument, and also a true picture of the city. (In fact, you should have stuck to that. The other criticism, that you run into too many other tech industry people and feel you always have to be on, to properly represent your latest business idea or image — oh, come on.)

Comments on Payne’s piece welcome here, even if he doesn’t want to deal with them there.

A personal memory I have of that hotel is the 1990 and 1991 Out/Write conferences, which brought together the whole LGBT literary world for the first time. Searching for some mention of these conferences on the web, I found a lovely piece by Edmund White, in which he gives a glowing description of the 1991 conference.

Also read: Curbed SF on the Jack Tar Hotel

Old Ship Saloon Highway 101 Kearny Post Sutter HSBC House of Nanking flowering blossom tea Muni 30 Stockton 9x AT&T Park Angelina’s 22 Avenue and California fog son mist fog Stanford ELMI McCovey Marichal Mays Cepeda Portsmouth Square Ghirardelli Square Mechanics Institute Library Post Giants Winn Eugenio Velez Bay Bridge Adobe Saint Gregory’s of Nyssa Sara Miles Federal Reserve Bank Powell & Hyde Powell & Mason Van Ness Third & King Chronicle beach siren artichoke hearts salmon Golden Gate 1 Marin Vista Point yes yes yes Saint Francis!

Feel-good story? Not anymore. The woman and her kid are back. Samoval said, “I saw her at the BART station. I was pissed off.”
 
I’ve felt frustrated by beggars too. When I worked downtown I would encounter the same beggars on the same corners literally for years on end. When a familiar face was replaced by another mendicant, only to return a day or two later and reclaim his spot, I joked with co-workers that the unfamiliar guy must have been a temp. On another day, I passed a beggar with an amusing sign, then encountered another beggar a little farther on.

Me: You should have a sign like that guy back there.
Second beggar, unamused: The other day he had a kitten.

But generally I found them not a source of amusement but a pain in the ass. I told myself that they were lazy, that it was their fault they were there, that if it wasn’t their fault then they probably had something wrong with them that couldn’t be helped by my small donation. A story like the one about the woman and her son who were shipped to Pennsylvania only to return to the streets of San Francisco seems to reinforce that idea. If a ticket back home to relatives won’t help, then what good can I do by giving a dollar, or even a hundred dollars?

Finally I realized that all these projections on my part were futile. If I give someone a quarter, or a plane ticket, they don’t owe me anything in return. They don’t owe me improved behavior, or recovery from whatever is oppressing them, or disappearance from my sight. They don’t owe me anything. A gift is just that.

If I want to be pissed off by the fact there are beggars on the streets, there are plenty of good targets for my anger: start with Proposition 13 and the war on drugs, and go from there.

The California State Supreme Court tomorrow will issue its decision on the constitutionality of the state law banning gay marriage, which was enacted by the voters as Proposition 8 in November. Some local activists are meeting tonight to plan civil disobedience after the announcement if the decision upholds the law, and another group announced plans to march no matter what the outcome.

The court convenes at 10:00 a.m. and the decision should be known shorter thereafter.

Drivers should avoid the downtown area between Van Ness Ave. and Second St., covering Civic Center and the retail center, where large demonstrations are expected.

After the San Francisco Zen Center ordained three new priests last month, Zen Center blogger Greg Fain pointed out that a University of Chicago survey found that clergy had a very high job satisfaction rate, even better than firefighters. “We beat firefighters! Whoo-hoo!!!” he exulted.

Other newspapers are still reprinting the piece: for example the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, whose website today highlights one curious 1930s San Francisco landmark: Alcatraz, which opened in 1934. Their headline says Wonderful creations emerged during the hard times of the ’30s, with a picture of Alcatraz right underneath. Somehow I doubt the copy editor who wrote that headline has been to Alcatraz.

Anyway, the piece nicely totes up the number of Diego Rivera murals in the city, including the one at the San Francisco Stock Exchange (”What were the stockbrokers thinking?”) — and the one at City College.

@abc7newsBayArea
News and notes directly from the ABC7 newsroom in San Francisco.

@BayAreaCheap
Twittering great stuff to see and do “on the cheap” in the (not so cheap) San Francisco Bay Area.

@bunsandchou
Buns and Chou Chou are rabbits who host their own TV show: Rabbit Bites.

@CheapandEasySF
Because San Francisco’s Not Just for Rich People

@CityofSF
CityofSF is a Twitter service to update people on current events and happenings in San Francisco

@CurbedSF
Curbed SF, the San Francisco nabe and real estate blog. We like architecture and planning, too.

@GhirardelliSQ
More than just the best chocolate! Wine tasting, great food and fun shopping

@INGB2Breakers
I’m Amy @ ING Bay to Breakers in San Francisco. Sharing race updates, costume ideas, fun giveaways, etc.

@munidiaries
Muni Diaries – a place to share and read rider tales

@NinersNation
49ers Blogger for SB Nation

@odcsf
ODC is a groundbreaking contemporary arts institution with longstanding roots in SF and home to our Dance Company, ODC School/Rhythm & Motion & ODC Theater

@sanfranfeed
San Francisco – News Feed

@SFBRAVOCLUB
San Francisco Opera’s BRAVO! CLUB is a group of young adults, aged 21-40, dedicated to building a new audience for San Francisco Opera.

@SFBusinessTimes
Covering businesses headquartered in San Francisco, Oakland, East Bay and Marin

@SFChron_alert
Get breaking news alerts on the Bay Area’s biggest stories from the San Francisco Chronicle.

@SFstandup
Guide to comedy in the San Francisco Bay Area

@Shopping_SF
Follow me for all the freebies, cheap events, and funtastic events..from SF’s hit Shopping! The Musical..Now in its fourth hit year!

@SJMetblogs
San José Metblogs is part of a worldwide network of city-specific blogs, where authors write stories about life in their city from a personal, local perspective

@tskifeed
Tahoe Ski Feed