Outside Lands 2018
I’ve avoided working this concert in Golden Gate Park for two years, but my boss seemed especially short handed this year, so I took a Saturday shift.
I think I’ve become known in my company as the “man who works Hellman Hollow,” which is the area known before Warren Hellman’s death, as Speedway Meadow. We have three -- possibly four -- dumpster locations at OL and I’ve always worked the ones at Hellman, behind the east most stage (which would be Banjo Stage at HSB). The layout of the dumpsters wasn’t quite as good as it was three years ago when I crew chiefed here for all three days -- and ended up with a repetitive stress injury to my right hand. Otherwise the work hadn’t changed: Most of the bags arriving are either close to pure compost bags (still don’t know how the group that subcontracts us manages that) or bags of recycling that are mostly contaminated with compostable cups. Those can be dealt with quickly and tossing the green compost bags deep into the compost dumpster is one of the pleasures of the job. Assuming the bags aren't too heavy.
The final class of bags are the ones that are mixed and need to be hand sorted. Most of these come from the vendors -- as always. I think it was between 10 and 10:30 that we finally managed to get caught up, including the pile of bags we had found when we arrived at 3pm. Almost immediately massive, end-of-the-night loads of fresh bags started arriving, many from the vendors, so when we left at 11:30 the bag pile was larger than it had been when we started. Such is life.
As much as I hate table sorting, there was one thing I was looking forward to as I headed to the park on Saturday... I wasn’t going to have to deal with the public. Our crew was consistently in a better mood than the other crew that was out in the crowd collecting bags. And there were no scavengers! Recology got all the aluminum and plastic cans and bottles for once. And we didn’t have a constant stream of thieves thanking us for letting them steal the recycling. My Golden Cynicism is still a work in progress.
One odd thing this year, we were told to not open the doors at the end of the big dumpsters because last year one dumpster wasn’t closed properly and the load was dumped on a street, after Recology picked it up. This is silly for two reasons, we open and secure these doors at most events we work -- it’s not rocket science. And most importantly, it’s the responsibility of the driver to make sure his load is secure. I guarantee that the driver this happened to last year -- if he wasn’t fired -- will be checking every load carefully for the remainder of his career. Anyway, someone had thrown a bunch of bags full of mixed recycling into the recycling dumpster before we arrived and I don’t climb in and out of these monsters anymore, so I opened the doors and sorted it out. Often it’s hard to get the doors open or closed properly because they get bent and otherwise damaged, but there were stacks of metal staging poles stored next to us and I used one to hammer the door closed when I was done. That puppy was not coming open by accident. (The doors are also secured by two chains... there’s nothing subtle about these doors.)
While it’s always nice to be working in Golden Gate Park, especially when you get to enjoy the sun going down, the mix of sound from a variety of stages, made the enjoyment of the music very hard. Still, I was surprised by how many Florence and the Machine songs I recognized.
For my generosity in working this event, I rewarded myself with lunch (breakfast) at the Pork Store and a taxi ride home when I got off at 11:30pm. By a miracle, there was a taxi waiting at the light when I reached the edge of the park, so I didn’t even have to call.
When I drove a taxi, I preferred a minivan as I could fit in large families or most anything else -- wheelchairs with the 9000 ramp vans -- but it was a Prius that I flagged down last night and it certainly had a lot going for it as a taxi. First off it was so nice and quiet, especially when stopped at lights. As I have speculated, the regenerative braking may be the best feature for a cab driver as it not only provides power but it saves on wear of the “brakes.” Back in 2002, our brakes were always a problem. I wanted to ask how much gas cost him per shift, but he didn’t have enough English to make conversation easy. If I were still driving I would be delighted to get to drive a little taxi like that.
The fare was exactly $20, so $25 with tip, which was more than I had expected, but very much worth it. I get off several hours earlier for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, but I might be tempted on Sunday night if I don’t feel as strong at the end as I did last year.
One aspect of table sorting we’ve lost in the move to roving sorting, at the front end of the event, is the socializing around the table. This is, I believe, considered a loss by some people, though not by me. I was working with a guy I actually like who was talking about conspiracy theories. I had a vague recollection of our having run aground on this topic before, I can think of some other cases as well. Thinking about this seeming tendency or desire to believe conspiracy theories, I can’t help thinking it’s related to the human tendency to believe in invisible sky-fairies. It’s both a way to explain things we can’t otherwise understand -- or don’t want to understand -- and a way to bond with a group. If we both believe in a conspiracy by invisible lizard overlords to run the world, we can spend hours debating if they are blue or green lizards.
Salesforce Transit Center
(Formerly Transbay Transit Center)I toured the new facility today. It is semi-finished. The park on top is quite nice. The bus level is great for East Bay bus drivers who can now come and go without getting into downtown traffic.
For bus riders it’s a mixed bag: You’re protected from winter rain and shaded from the sun on those rare days when it’s hot. And you can get from SF bus to East Bay bus without crossing traffic. On the other hand, there’s no view to speak of and there’s a long escalator or short elevator ride between bus levels. Greyhound and Amtrak have not made the move yet, which is awkward if you want to make a cross country to local connection.
The first and second levels are supposed to be retail, but no one is stupid enough to open there before all the construction in the neighborhood settles down. And the train connections intended for the lower levels of the structure are a decade or more in the future. If they happen at all.
I eventually ran into someone who seemed fairly knowledgeable about the building and asked where the escalators to the train level were going to be, as it wasn’t immediately evident. I was told they couldn’t say for security reasons. Since he did say that the area had been paved over, it isn’t clear to me how this knowledge would be dangerous. My guess is that he just didn’t know. But since he made it more interesting by saying he couldn’t tell me, I raced down and figured it out in a couple minutes. It’s not like there are an unlimited number of places openings for sets of escalators could be. I was even able to confirm my guess based on something missing in the paving in those sections.
My favorite thing at STC was the water “sculpture.” Jets of water that are triggered by buses moving on the bus level below the park. When buses arrive, you can see the jets of water approaching until the bus pulls into its bay. But this is where it gets good -- when the bus leaves it pulls out quickly and the jets resume without warning. People standing out in this area taking photos -- and it’s tempting to do this -- can then be caught by surprise. I can see myself taking a picnic down there just to enjoy the sun (ha) and watch tourists get soaked. I predict there will be sweatshirts soon, “I Got Drenched at Salesforce Transit Center.”
The urban view from the park isn’t bad, and it will get better as the projects approved to fund the Transit project continue to get built. By the time they are finished, I suspect the majority of commercial space in downtown will be within a few blocks of STC and there will be a significant amount of new residential as well. (Though not as much residential as I would like to see.)
So, was it worth all the trouble and expense? Still unclear. Economically, the STC probably requires at least one of the two planned train systems to arrive to be profitable -- and to attract retail to the first and second levels. But the odds of our ever getting both trains is quite low, and even the Caltrain extension is far from certain as it requires an immensely expensive tunnel from Mission Bay to STC. And, on top of that, the entire Caltrain route needs to be electrified and all the locomotives (at least) replaced. This might “pencil out” if the cost is shared with High Speed Rail, but if they have to fund it all themselves, I have a hard time seeing it happen.
On the other hand, the saving grace of the project is all the high rise development that got approved to fund the STC. An amazing amount of land wealth has been created in the vicinity of STC and all these buildings, and their neighbors, will be paying property taxes from now on. That is really the upside of STC. The promise of trains may prove to simply be the bait that got all these buildings built in a city that likes to say “no!”
Here are some photos of the park above the bus station,
This is from the escalators that rise from street level to the bus level.
Some views of the neighborhood from the park,
I wonder if there's a betting pool on how long it will be before that happens?
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