Local News in San Francisco

(News info taken from San Francisco Gate www.sfgate.com)

Tanker fire destroys part of MacArthur Maze

2 freeways closed near Bay Bridge

Demian Bulwa and Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, April 29, 2007
Freeway Collapse

(04-29) 13:49 PDT - A huge ball of fire from an exploding gasoline tanker melted the steel frame of a highway overpass in the East Bay's MacArthur Maze early this morning, causing it to collapse onto the roadway below and virtually ensuring major traffic problems for weeks to come.
The elevated roadway that crumbled carried eastbound traffic from the Bay Bridge onto Interstates 580 and 980 and Highway 24. The broken concrete fell like a blanket over the roadway below, which connects southbound I-80 to I-880.
The single-vehicle crash occurred on the lower roadway when the tanker, loaded with 8,600 gallons of unleaded gasoline and heading from a refinery in Benicia to a gas station on Hegenberger Road in Oakland, hit a guardrail at 3:41 a.m.
Engineers said the green steel underbelly of the I-580 overpass and the bolts holding the roadway together began to melt and bend due to the intense heat -- and that movement pulled the roadbed off its supports.

California Highway Patrol spokesman Trent Cross said the driver of the tanker, James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, was traveling too fast in a 50 mph zone when his truck overturned and burst into flames. Mosqueda, who works for Sabek Transportation in San Francisco, exited the truck on his own after it overturned and hailed a taxi that took him to Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, witnesses and police said. He has been transferred to the burn unit at St. Francis Hospital in San Francisco, where he was reportedly in stable condition. Emergency workers said he suffered second-degree burns to his hands, arms and face. No one else was injured in the crash or fire, authorities said.

Witnesses described a tremendous explosion that engulfed two levels of freeway in a wall of fire before the whole thing collapsed on itself, spilling flaming gasoline down to the ground. Isaac Rodriguez, a 53-year-old sanitation supervisor who works the graveyard shift at East Bay Municipal Utility District's sewage treatment plant, said his supervisor called him about 3:45 a.m. and said to leave work because of a nearby explosion. Rodriguez went outside with a co-worker and saw the lower level of the freeway -- the I-880 connector about 50 feet above -- engulfed in fire with flames leaping to the deck of the top layer of the freeway, the I-580 connector.

"It was massive," Rodriguez said. "I saw movement and there was a man up there. I started talking to the guy. Are you the truck driver? "Yes." He said, "I'm burned. I got out as soon as I could.' ''

The driver seemed disoriented. "It looked at one time he was walking toward the truck again. I believe he was in shock,'' Rodriguez said. Rodriguez said he regretted not thinking to send a vehicle up to get the injured man. He and a co-worker stood for some 40 minutes watching the freeway burn. "It looked like a big slab of plastic because it was melted. It's made of steel and concrete, and it was bent at both angles of the pillar. It really looked fake. ... It was an event last night that I'm not going to forget for a long time," Rodriguez said. "It was incredible because it was a roar. No recognizable sign of the truck remains at the scene. One Caltrans worker there early this morning held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart to describe how big the tanker is now. John Goodwin, a spokesman for the regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission, said the maze is one of the worst spots for traffic in the Bay Area.

"Westbound 80 is already the most congested route in the Bay Area, and it has been for many years," said Goodwin. "Also, the route coming off the Bay Bridge eastbound from Treasure Island is No. 10 on the regional congestion list, and with 580 gone, there will be a huge impact on that already congested route."

Goodwin anticipates that the impacts of the latest disaster will extend to roads far beyond the East Bay.

"This really strikes at the very center of the Bay Area freeway network," he said. "Areas with heavy congestion are presumably going to be even more congested, and then as folks find alternate routes, it will have a ripple effect on commute corridors all over the region. It will put more traffic on the San Mateo Bridge, the Golden Gate and the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge."
Rodriguez said he has heard of other major crashes in the same area. On Feb. 5, 1995, a tanker truck loaded with liquefied gas crashed and burned on the MacArthur Maze, killing the driver, injuring 10 others and creating an all-day traffic jam.
The tanker, which was changing lanes when it skidded out of control, created a 100-foot-tall fireball after it crashed on the connector ramp between westbound Interstate 80 and eastbound Interstate 580, according to witnesses at the time.
Below the two stretches of roadway is a Caltrans property full of equipment being used to rebuild the Bay Bridge.
So far this morning, traffic on all the affected roadways remains light, but major backups are expected today and for the foreseeable future.
"We're screwed, huh? That's going to be rough on everybody," said Joe Dorey, 55, an engineer who lives in Oakland.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, in a press conference in San Diego Sunday, said that he has spoken to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger about the crash aftermath -- and particularly how to accomplish repairs quickly. He said officials plan to "fast-track" the repairs using some of the same short cuts that got the I-10 rebulit quickly after the Northridge earthquake in 1994.

Traffic on the affected roadways remains light this afternoon, apparently because many drivers cancelled plans that would have required driving. But major backups are expected, especially tonight when the Golden State Warriors take on the Dallas Mavericks in the fourth game of their playoff series and Oakland's Oracle Arena. The Oakland A's are playing Tampa Bay at 1 p.m. at the coliseum next door.

The damaged I-580 connector is now a smoldering ruin, with the lanes draped like a blanket over the northeast edge of the I-880 connector and touching the ground below that.
Henry Geronimo, 44, of West Oakland watched the cleanup operation from a fence along Mandela Parkway.

"Coming home is going to be a big big problem," said Geronimo, who commutes to work in San Francisco as draftsman. "Do you know how many terrorists are looking at this? They're getting ideas."

Wanda Realegeno, a 42-year-old Richmond resident, said she isn't looking forward to her commute to school near Oakland Coliseum, which normally takes her onto the I-880 connector that the truck was on when it crashed.

"This is amazing," she said. "It's almost as bad as the earthquake. I'm just thinking: how am I going to get to work tomorrow? I was trying to figure out my path."

Chronicle staff writers Carolyn Jones, Michael Cabanatuan, Rick DelVecchio and John Wildermuth contributed to this report.

The Birthday Pie And Not The Birthday Cake

Our birthday celebrant LBB is not a cake fan so I decided to bake him his favorite lattice apple pie. If it were the cherry season, it would have been a cherry pie for him. Here it is!

Taken of good note: In the mail today came a gift certificate for LBB worth $100.00 for a dinner at Joe Dimaggio, our neighborhood Italian joint, managed by the family of the late Joe Dimaggio, ex-husband of Marilyn Monroe.

BTW, known Hollywood director, Francis Ford Coppola is cooking for a dinner party in our parish. It is a fund raiser and a plate is $150.00 per head. Wanna try it? Come by!

Hollywood stars who have grew up here in our North Beach neighborhood: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola and Nicolas Cage- to mention a few. Robert De Niro owns a vineyard in Napa Valley, an hour's drive from San Francisco.

Happy 54th Birthday, Little Boy Blue!

Doll Face

A machine with a doll face mimics images on television screen in search of a satisfactory visage. Doll Face presents a visual account of desires misplaced and identities fractured by our technological extension into the future. Watch this powerful video- now!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY

Good Buy At Chinatown, San Francisco

Do you know that Chinatown in SFO is the largest Chinatown in the world outside of Asia?

Some of the stuff I bought this noontime in Chinatown:

1. Sesame Sauce- I have not tried using this, but in the Chinese Recipe Book that I borrowed from our North Beach Library, this is an essential spice in traditional Chinese cooking. So I bought this!

Last week, I purchased plum sauce and hoisin sauce. I tried using them with the stir fried vegetables I cooked and husband loved it! He said the taste was very good- he didn't even have to go look for meat in it. According to him, it was so tasty!

When cooking vegetables, I seldom use meat. These days, upon seeing and tasting the veggies at the Chinatown restaraunt we like, Yee's, I noticed that they use big fish like sole fish for the stir fried veggies. I tried it and it is delicious! Try it!

2. Spicy Cracked Beans - this is a very crunchy and very spicy snack! Great with beer, soda or any cocktail drink- with alcohol or virgin drinks. It is only 99 cents but in the groceries and supermart it is thrice the price. I love shopping in Chinatown. Cost of commodities are reasonable plus poultry, fish, seafoods, fruits and veggies are fresh!

3. Brown Mushroom- for stir fry cooking. This is $2.49 a pound. This has a peculiar taste more than the white mushroom. I cook this with oyster sauce. First I fry the garlic then I pour the mushroom, add a bit of water and chili powder the presto- it's yummy!

4. Enoki mushroom- This mushroom is eaten as a variety mix in garden salad. I learned to it this when I was posted in Tokyo, Japan in winter 1992. This is priced for 99 cents a pound.

5. Crab mushroom- this is my first time to see this musroom. They are $1.40 a pound! I learned to eat raw mushrooms here in the USA. I only associated eating raw mushroom if they are small like the Enoki mushroom above. This should taste good as well. Happy cooking!


BTW, thanks to TITO and CELIA for making an overseas call to me tonight. Ciao!

Exotic Food That Invites You To Eat

I went to the market today in Chinatown. While there, I saw some vegetables that made me remember our traditional Filipino food. There were eggplants, “ampalaya” a.k.a. bitter gourd, or bitter melon and morning glory ("kangkong"). At once, I bought them as I was anticipating about eating, cooking and coming home ASAP. I was starving because right after attending mass at 12:15 noontime at Ss Peter and Paul, I went to the market, impromptu. There, I also found and bought “bagoong” or shrimp paste. As soon as I arrived in our flat, I started to unpack and prepared to cook the boiled veggies. I ate them for lunch. After relocating here for three years now, it was my first time to buy shrimp paste and to cook it!


FYI, the Thais eat shrimps paste, too. However, they don't cook the shrimp paste as we Filipinos do. Thais make their version to be a bit watery and they add some local herbs that makes it very aromatic. They serve this with fried fish, assorted mix of boiled veggies and steamed rice.

If you were not born in Asia you won't want to eat this dish as this might not taste delicious in your palette at all as it is an acquired taste. But for the hundreds of Caucasians that I worked with overseas, over a period of time, they learned to eat the local food of the Filipinos, Thais, Burmese, Indians, Vietnamese and Koreans.

The shrimp paste I bought is from China. It is is creamy. In the Philippines, you can still see the texture of the tiny shrimps (they are a different variety, they are as small as a pin) and they are meant to be cooked only as shirmp paste or bagoong. Now I remember how those tiny shrimps are called- "ALAMANG!"

My paternal grandma whom we called "Nanay" (mother) instead of "Lola" (grandma) cooked it differently not as shrimp paste but as a regular viand. She fries the minced garlic first, then adds the onions and salt. After that, she pours the "alamang" until it gets a bit toasted. While it's being cooked, you can smell it- it's good and not stinky unlike the shrimp paste! Sometimes, she adds Italian coriander or Chinese celery to add flavor to it. My version is I do the above plus I add chili pepper. I want my food to be burning hot with chili pepper!

How did I cook the shrimp paste today?

I sautéed it in garlic and onions, added chili pepper and sugar plus vinegar to taste. Once cooked, I cooled it then placed it in the bottle. While cooking, I had to turn on the exhaust fan in the bathroom plus the kitchen exhaust.

Why did I turn on the fan despite the fact that it is so cool and breezy today in San Francisco?

Because shrimp paste is so stinky, I hope my neighbors were not scandalized by the odor. Hahahaha! To camouflage the odor, I lighted two huge aroma- therapy candles (apple flavor) and lit my honey suckle air freshener that boils with the tiny round candles underneath it. After 3 hours, the odor was gone! Gosh, talking about sacrifices to be able to eat my local delicacy, I had to do it to satisfy my gastronomic delight! Have a great day!

Church of St. Francis of Assisi

THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI, located in San Francisco’s historic North Beach district, bears witness to Christ at the heart of the beautiful city named for the Poverello of Assisi.


At the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi, it seeks:

• to offer spiritual nourishment, reconciliation and an encounter with God’s love to all people who enter our sanctuary of quiet and prayer;
• to provide a rich experience of the sacramental life of the Church for the faithful who come seeking grace;
• to reach out to communities of faith and social organizations throughout the nation by bringing them the insights of the Catholic Faith and Franciscan spirituality.

The Renaissance Project

The Renaissance Project is an inspired plan to bring the Shrine to its true potential, in four phases, by creating:
• A replica of Saint Francis’ porziuncola chapel from Assisi, Italy, right next to the Shrine’s main Church.
• A welcoming piazza on Vallejo Street, featuring the renowned Benny Bufano statue of Saint Francis.
• A beautiful upgrading of the exterior and interior of the Church — a preservation of our national treasure.
• An international spiritual center with programs that express Franciscan prayer and thought.

NOTE:

The DEMOLITION PARTY we attended tonite was for the benefit of this project. Where we live, aside from St. Francis Church, three other churches are within our radius...they are all Catholic churches. These are:
1. Saints Peter and Paul Parish- this is *our parish*

2. Old St. Mary's Cathedral

3. Notre Dame

Demolition Party at North Beach

The Saints Peter and Paul Parish in North Beach~ On Filbert Street in SFO

My husband and I love our church and we are proud of our parish! It is Gothic in design, and an architectural icon in our community. It never ceases to amaze, intrigue, inspire and delight the countless visitors we have in our neighborhood. Please click this photograph to enlarge.

Photo credit: Gerald Augustinus

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Decorating Your Veranda

My veranda is nothing great or big...it is just a series of plain vertical lines made of wrought iron and was created simply as something to accentuate the basic design of the flat we live in. When we checked out this unit ten months ago, it was this veranda that caught our attention. I visualized this to be filled with plants and vines. Now, it's lovely! I hanged my ivy plants on the exterior and as the ivy has grown through the ten months since we relocated here, I tie them with the garden string on the wrought iron to connect them safely. I water them when I don't see anyone walking by down our alley. I make sure no car is passing by when I do it or I'd be in big trouble. Lol!




My mint that comes in hiding when it gets too chilly here in the city, starts sprouting like endless silk in the spring. I used this hanging container of onions, garlic and potatoes from my kitchen in Ripon and recycled this as my plant holder for my sets of mint in the pots. It worked well!

Can You See The Insects In This Flower?

Yellow mums





Checkout the tiny spider or whatever you call them, left upper side and bottom right of the insde petals...click the photos here to enlarge...



Japanese umbrella a.k.a. palm