Rosalea Barker: One or two or three for the road

::Wherefore art thou Samoa?::

I confess to being very puzzled about the news on television that “Samoa” has switched to driving on the left-hand side of the road. Even local TV news bulletins carried the story, which must have been a shock for an American audience. The only Samoa they know is the one that is a US territory. What on earth were they to make then of the news that Samoa had stopped driving on the right-hand side of the road because Australia and New Zealand drive on the left?

This is the stuff of diplomatic incidents!

::Hit the road, Van!::

The news that East Bay local Van Jones resigned his post as Obama’s Green Jobs czar in the dead of Saturday night certainly has prompted an outpouring on Huffington Post. Nearly 15,000 comments have been posted there over the weekend. Several hundred were posted on a local SFGate blog, as well.

What you would not have seen unless you watch television here is an interview with former California Assembly Speaker/former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who remembered Van Jones as a thorn in his side. Brown is a powerful force in the local Democratic Party and he was positively gleeful at Van Jones’ demise. I’d say that current SF Mayor, and Brown protégé, Gavin Newsom can kiss goodbye to any Bay Area support for his bid for California Governor next year.

Apart from his proctological references to Republicans, Van Jones’ big sin, it seems. was to sign a 2004 9/11 Truth Out petition requesting an inquiry into the events of that day in 2001. The website has reprinted the petition—which is couched in entirely reasonable terms—in its press release today. The 2004 petition, complete with list of signatories is online here.

::The Secret of the Old Grey Lady::

It’s a long weekend in the US of A, and here in the East Bay there’s only one thing on everyone’s mind this Labor Day: Will the Bay Bridge, which connects us with San Francisco, be open at 5am Tuesday morning as promised? The answer, I’ve just heard on the 5pm news this Monday evening is No.

Before I left my job in SF last August, I used to travel by bus daily over that bridge. Each day, I could see a little more progress being made on creating what is known as the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, linking the eastern side of San Francisco Bay to Yuerba Buena Island. YBI is the anchor point for both the eastern and western spans—the latter, which continues the drive into San Francisco—is a suspension bridge, much like the famous Golden Gate Bridge, but painted grey and with diamond shapes between the uprights.

The eastern span is a cantilever bridge, not nearly so elegant. During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake part of its upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck, so it is being replaced for safety reasons. This weekend, the Bay Bridge was closed from Thursday evening so a part of the old bridge could be slid out and a specially constructed piece could be slid in to create a slight detour at the YBI end in order to allow construction of the last portion of the new bridge, which isn’t due for completion for another four years.

I have to say that from the statements made by Bart Ney, the CalTrans spokesman, at intervals over the weekend, I’d begun to wonder if he’d missed his calling. Surely he should be producing Hollywood suspense movies! First, there was the problem that it was more difficult than expected to ease out the existing piece because of the pressure that the bridge was exerting on it. While I slept on this news, the Cartoon Fairy left a disturbing image under my pillow. In it, the new piece was popped in only to be forcefully ejected by the Old Grey Lady, fly through the air, and land—all 2300 tons of it—on top of the MacArthur Maze, a spaghetti junction in the East Bay that funnels traffic east, north, west, and south.

But… all was well. With the aid of Teflon and dishwashing liquid, the new piece was slid into place by Saturday evening and the work of laying the road beds and reconnecting utilities was underway.

It’s about here that I must mention my father. He spent a couple of days in San Francisco in the 1930s and to the end of his days never tired of telling us about watching the concrete being poured for the bridges in San Francisco Bay. He also had a thing about Teflon and dishwashing liquid, both of which he was convinced contained carcinogens. To this day, I use only enough dishwashing liquid to achieve its aim—break the surface tension of water—and then rinse, rinse, rinse those dishes and pots and (non-Teflon) pans!

I confess that I secretly hoped the detour would be completed by today, Labor Day, and I’d be able to take a bus across to San Francisco just to be one of the first across it. But alas, the Old Grey Lady had a secret. High up on one of the cantilevers, a crack had appeared and it has to be repaired before the bridge can be opened again. According to Bart Ney, the amount of rust in the crack indicates it has been there for several months, but it was just a matter of a phone call to a company in Phoenix to get a steel saddle made and flown here for installation. It is this repair that will delay the bridge’s re-opening.

--PEACE—

rosalea.barker@gmail.com

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