Friday, September 25, 2009

treasured

Had a great day with Morgan-- first we went to Treasure Island, simultaneously one of the most beautiful and post-apocalyptic places I've been in the Bay Area. Morgan and I decided we wanted to build a shack with a farm there, not on the radioactive part of the island though. I looked up Treasure Island on wikipedia and was both delighted and dismayed that someone already thought of our plan... plus some other unique developments:

In 2005, Lennar Corporation, one of the largest developers in the United States, proposed to build a self-sustaining city on Treasure Island. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the proposal has 5,500 units of housing in several lowrise buildings, restaurants and a ferry terminal facing San Francisco. The plan also contains several midrise towers, four 40-story towers and one 60-story tower called the Sun Tower (formerly Treasure Island Tower). It also has an organic farm, a wind farm, parkland and tidal marshes. The proposal is designed to be as car-independent as possible, with the ferry terminal and basic goods within a 10-minute walk of the residences. A toll of $5 has been proposed to deter non-residents from driving onto the island. This is a change from the original plan which was more car-dependent and had only one highrise tower. The Navy has signed two "Findings of Suitable Transfer" or FOST documents which allow development plans to continue.

The San Francisco Gaelic Athletic Association has recently leased land on the island to create athletic fields which will be used mainly for Gaelic football and hurling. The 3 fields will be home to future North American Championships as well as visits from Irish All-Star teams.

Uhhhhh.... and in this one paragraph my plans have been totally blown out of the ether. Anyways, after our Treasure Island experience we went to Oakland, ate strawberry shortcake on a curb, perused the shelves of Urban Ore and went to Essex, a secret ladies-only backyard bathhouse in Berkeley.

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