Saturday, June 8, 2013

Monday, May 13, 2013

253 Parker Ave, between Geary and Anza.


If S.F. grants this new building the requested "sidewalk encroachment, 5 feet,  the upslope will  be
32 degrees..... 10% steeper than Duncan Street, as seen below. Without the Encroachment:
37 Degrees.




These two pics show  Duncan Street, in Noe Valley, between Diamond and Douglass Streets,  a 28 degree slope....

If S.F.  does not grant a "5 foot sidewalk easement to  the new "'three unit condo building at 253 Parker, the resultant  up-slope driveway will be a 37 Degree grade...  37 Degrees!  ..making the garage only accessible  to "mountain goats".




Tuesday, May 7, 2013

A beautiful example of  "Sidewalk Encroachment" now possible via the DPW  "Green Sidewalks"  efforts.

New "Double Encroachment" In the name of landscaping….. I would do this in a minute, on Parker. - jackbarry99@gmail.com - Gmail

New "Double Encroachment" : A Greener San Francisco Sidewalk….


This gorgeous  "sidewalk encroachment"  is at 1430 Ninth Avenue, steps south of  Ninth and Judah.

Note that there is a "two square walking space", between the landscaping, and still one more square beyond the landscaping, next to the curb,....for entry to parked cars.

Note that the landscaping  nearest to the house is the first like them on the block, from end to end.
It is hoped that other home owners will follow the lead of these  "home owner- artists."


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Sunday, April 14, 2013

Construct a triangle with the angles A=90 B=59 C=31

Construct a triangle with the angles A=90 B=59 C=31:

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This 31 degree slope would be the result of getting a 5.5 foot sidewalk encroachment in the 22 foot sidewalk. (90% of all sidewalks in SF are 17 feet wide, or less.)
It would be, then, equal to the two most well known  "Steepest Streets" in SF...: Filbert at Leavenworth and  22nd Street at  Vicksburg on Potrero Hill.

If the City refuses, the resultant  35 degee slope will be 13 % steeper, and too steep to be safe, and usable.
  The result:  the occupant's cars will be parked on the street,  negating the reason for having garages.

It is surprising that the SF DPW ignores these points and just says "NO.  We simply have a total policy of not approving  an encroachment, if it would be the first one on that side of the block, no matter how wide the sidewalk.  < Across from 253 Parker is 252 Parker which DOES have such an encroachment, but the DPW  ignores that, for no understandable reason.)

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Here is how to construct, on your computer a precise, 35 degree down grade, the complement to Angle B, below...which is, itself, 55 degrees..That 35 degree downslope is what DPW wants to be built on Parker Ave. Who would use it?


Construct a triangle with the angles A=90 B=55 C=35





Thanks to the website,  "Mathinary"...for this calculation and image.

So, from B to C is the downslope that DPW is saying has to be the 35 degree slope into the garage.
Picture doing that daily, or, more daunting, picture backing up, to come out to the street.




Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Cole Porter - Anything Goes Lyrics

Cole Porter - Anything Goes Lyrics:

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Man, when one is in a "pout", due to the numbskulls at City Hall.....there is nothing better than a Cole Porter set of lyrics : To Wit:

ANYTHING GOES!

 Times have changed
And we've often rewound the clockSince the Puritans got a shockWhen they landed on Plymouth RockIf today, any shock they should try to standSteada' landing on Plymouth RockPlymouth Rock would land on them
In olden days a glimpse of stockingsWas looked on as something shockingNow heaven knowsAnything goes
Good authors too who once knew better wordsNow only use four-letter wordsWritting proseAnything Goes
The world has gone mad todayAnd goods bad todayAnd blacks white todayAnd days night todayWhen most guys todayThat women prize todayAre just silly jiggalo's
So though I'm not a great romanceI know that I'm bound to answerWhen you proposeAnything goes
The world has gone mad todayAnd goods bad todayAnd blacks white todayAnd days night todayWhen most guys todayThat women prize todayAre just silly jiggalo's
So though I'm not a great romanceI know that I'm bound to answerWhen you proposeAnything goesAnything goes

Read more: ELLA FITZGERALD - ANYTHING GOES LYRICS 

SF Dept. of Building Inspections: " You must have one garage per unit."....SF DPW, Bureau of Street Use and Mapping: " Your driveway must be 35 degrees downslope."....

Joseph Heller, author of "CATCH TWENTY TWO",  should have lived in San Francisco..

If so, he could have written a sequel :  "Catch  Thirty Five"...

A friend of mine is building three flats, and had to insert a three car garage, even though the City's
"DPW Dept, in effect, said  "Your Driveway slope has to be  35 degrees, not the 31 degrees that you would have, if we let your driveway encroach 5 feet into the 22 foot wide sidewalk...

Now my friend has to eat  the big expense of an appeal to the Permit Appeals Board, or live with a useless driveway..

31.5 degrees

31.5 degrees


37 degrees

41 degrees, Bernal Heights.


Darker is steeper.
37 degrees.
Halfway from 30 to 40 degrees is what DPW  demands.
!

Edit posts - Blogger Help

Edit posts - Blogger Help:


I am a BIG non-fan of "Blogger", the  program by Google that is supposed to be the "cat's meow" of blogging....

Well, my cats meow a hell of a lot more plain spoken that Blogger manifests itself..

I can post up a new blog.  Easy...  but don't ask me to post a pdf file onto the blog... No way in hell is it evident that that can or CANNOT be done.

Am I alone in my frustration with BLOGGER?

ps:  Their pitiful "Help Section"  rots, too.

jb

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I do not fear death - Salon.com

I do not fear death - Salon.com:

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This is the essay by Roger Ebert, who quotes Brendan Behan liberally....  Great stuff.  Read it, please.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

3111 Trumbull Street, Detroit MI - Trulia can be bought for $75,000.

3111 Trumbull Street, Detroit MI - Trulia

For those with a creative spirit.... Detroit is the place to move to... Home prices are crazy cheap, as  heavy industry has moved away, big time.

If you want to see what you can get, cheap, here, contact me....

jack barry

Thursday, February 14, 2013

What buyers and renters need to know. (Also: call me, @ JackBarryRealtors.com...415 235 7897.

Should Madison Square Garden's Permit Be Renewed? - Archicritics - Curbed NY: "URBED'S GUIDE TO BUYING AND RENTING

Curbed University delivers insider tips and non-boring advice on how to buy or rent a house or apartment.
Curbed’s Guide to Buying in New York City
Co-Ops vs. Condos vs. Condops vs. Pied-a-Terres
Meeting the Beast: The Co-Op Board
Here’s the Lowdown on Mortgages
Closing the Deal
Curbed’s Guide to Renting in New York City
The Lowdown on Leases and Tenants’ Rights
How Not to Get Screwed by a Rental Broker"

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Picasa Web Albums - Jack Barry

Picasa Web Albums - Jack Barry: Photos by Jack Barry,  aka:  Red Rider, in the countryside, turning his back on ???? ...but still looking like a Champ in the Making.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Renters vs. Owners...Why is it always a see-saw?

Many San Franciscans view it as a battle, a turf war.... the topic being  "renter goals" and "owner goals".

The Board of Supervisors has to pick  one side or the other, so it seems...  We, due due to our  political system, view things as "us vs. them"...

What if ways were devised, with the goal being "A real win-win for both sides"..., in any given scenario.

Renters fight to see that the supply of "rent-controlled rental units is not shrunken, by conversion of those units to either condos or "TenancyInCommon units".    Why not create an algorithm that would fund the creation of new, "rent controlled units", from the profits of converting old ones to "owner units, either condo or TIC.?"....

This is what I am working on, with,...I think....Supervisor Scott Wiener, of the SF Board of Supervisors.

If you have comments, complaints,  ideas, and so on, or want to be on a "Renters-Owners Win-Win"
mailing list...

drop us a line.

Cheers,
Jack Barry
jackbarry99@gmail.com

Doctor Heather Pon-Barry, it is now, from Harvard

A couple of months ago, in November, 2012,  Harvard University certified that our daughter,
Heather Pon-Barry, age 31,  is now a Ph.D., in Computer Science.

Heather started in, as an Assistant Professor, at Arizona State University, in Tempe,  last month
She is leading a Seminar on Natural Language Processing. .   The goal of all this is to make computers as productive as humans, at conversing with humans.  It's pretty easy for a computer to  record the student's oral answers, in  a Question and Answer dialogue, and to label the answers as either correct or incorrect....    A human can also infer, ---to varying degrees---from the student's  tone of voice, and pacing, etc... the "mental state of the student"...  (excited, unsure, bored, hostile, calm, certain, etc. )... Bringing the computer's "Inferring Skills" up to that of the human...was the focus of Heather's  work at Harvard...   You can google her name for the details... It's the future.   

She can be reached at ASU, for further details...

Way to Go,  Doc!

signed:

signed:
Unjustifiably Proud Dad.

“Rotline” Question of the Week « The Solana Center Composter

“Rotline” Question of the Week « The Solana Center Composter:

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There's nothing so "down to earth" as getting your hands into  mature compost.....  It started out as gross kitchen scraps, and comes out as    "crumbly delite"  for your garden....  I have two black compost bins going, all the time...  Call me (235 7897)  and I will give you the  Nickel Tour...


jack barry

Saturday, January 12, 2013

The American Poetry Diorama.


I think it is fair to say that American poets have really dominated the poetry scene in the 20th century. Some of the most remarkable and groundbreaking poetry has come from US poets living in or away from home. Below is a sampling of the work of 10 of the greatest American poems from the 20th century.
1. the Wasteland – T S Eliot
Eliot was born an American, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at the age of 25), and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39.
April is the cruelest month, breeding 
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
2. Howl – Allen Ginsberg
Ginsberg is best known for Howl (1956), a long poem about the self-destruction of his friends of the Beat Generation and what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in United States at the time.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by 
madness, starving hysterical naked, 
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn 
looking for an angry fix, 
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly 
connection to the starry dynamo in the machin- 
ery of night, 
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat 
up smoking in the supernatural darkness of 
cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities 
contemplating jazz, 
who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and 
saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tene- 
ment roofs illuminated, 
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes 
hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy 
among the scholars of war, 
who were expelled from the academies for crazy & 
publishing obscene odes on the windows of the 
skull…
3. Daddy – Sylvia Plath
Along with Anne Sexton, Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry that Robert Lowell and W.D. Snodgrass initiated.
You do not do, you do not do
Any more, black shoe
In which I have lived like a foot
For thirty years, poor and white,
Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

Daddy, I have had to kill you.
You died before I had time–
Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,
Ghastly statue with one gray toe
Big as a Frisco seal
And a head in the freakish Atlantic
Where it pours bean green over blue
In the waters off beautiful Nauset.
I used to pray to recover you.
Ach, du.

4. The Snow Man – Wallace Stevens
Stevens’s first book of poetry, Harmonium, was published in 1923. He produced two more major books of poetry during the 1920s and 1930s and three more in the 1940s. He received the National Book Award in 1951, and 1955.
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time 
To behold the junipers shagged with ice, 
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think 
Of any misery in the sound of the wind, 
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land 
Full of the same wind 
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow, 
And, nothing himself, beholds 
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

5. This is just to say – Carolos Williams
Dr. William Carlos Williams (sometimes known as WCW) (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963), was an American poet closely associated with modernism and Imagism. Williams has a theatre named after him in his hometown Rutherford, called “The Williams Center”
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold.









6. Somewhere I have never traveled, gladly beyond – E E Cummings
Edward Estlin Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962), popularly known as E. E. Cummings, was an American poet, painter, essayist, and playwright. His body of work encompasses more than 900 poems, several plays and essays, numerous drawings, sketches, and paintings, as well as two novels.
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look will easily unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

7. The People, Yes – Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, historian, novelist, balladeer, and folklorist. He was born in Galesburg, Illinois of Swedish parents and died at his home, named Connemara, in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
The people yes
The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
You can’t laugh off their capacity to take it.
The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas.
8. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost
Frost’s work frequently used themes from rural life in New England, using the setting to examine complex social and philosophical themes. A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
9. Shine, Perishing Republic – Robinson Jeffers
John Robinson Jeffers (January 10, 1887–January 20, 1962) was an American poet, known for his work about the central California coast. Most of Jeffers’ poetry was written in classic narrative and epic form, but today he is also known for his short verse, and considered an icon of the environmental movement.
While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening
to empire
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the
mass hardens,
I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots
to make earth.
Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence;
and home to the mother.
You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly
long or suddenly
A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains:
shine, perishing republic.
But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening
center; corruption
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there
are left the mountains.
And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant,
insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught – they say –
God, when he walked on earth.
10. For the Union Dead – Robert Lowell
Robert Lowell (March 1, 1917–September 12, 1977), born Robert Traill Spence Lowell, IV, was an American poet whose works, confessional in nature, engaged with the questions of history and probed the dark recesses of the self. He is generally considered to be among the greatest American poets of the twentieth century.
The old South Boston Aquarium stands
in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded.
The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales.
The airy tanks are dry.

Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass;
my hand tingled
to burst the bubbles
drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish.

I must give a tip of the hat to Ezra Pound who is brilliant, but the lawyers of his estate work very hard to ensure that his poetry is not available on the internet.




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