I have proposed several designs for San Francisco. I usually do a drawing with an explanation and send it to the Chamber of Commerce and a few political leaders.
None of my suggestions have born fruit so far. I just want to point out that I always see the world around me with possibilities. Part of the repertoire of a good activist.
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My first suggested design was in the early 1970’s. I considered the Alcatraz prison and adjacent buildings to be ungodly ugly. I had visited it several times. I stayed over night a few times when a close friend was the guard after the prison was closed in 1963. I visited it in my sail boat to deliver food to the Native Americans who occupied it in 1970.
I suggested a 200 foot fountain of Bay salt water. I calculated the amount of power and the annual cost, which was minimal. My goal was to wash away the prison over a century and have a beautiful landmark with the streaming cloud from the fountain stretching miles to the East toward Berkeley.
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My second suggestion, in the mid 1970’s for San Francisco was for a spherical building in downtown right next to the TransAmerica pyramid. I wanted it to have a mirror surface on the sphere to light-up the downtown streets. It would have formed a visual memory of the Trylon and Perisphere of the New York 1938 World’s Fair.
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My last proposal in the early 1980’s was for a 1.5 mile stand alone woven bridge for pedestrians and bicycles that would stretch over the center of the city from Nob Hill to Corona Heights. See photo for a similar woven bridge.
These ideas are pretty much dead. Alcatraz makes money with over one million tourists a year.
Preservationists politically own the land next to the TransAmerica pyramid.
Every Luddite in the city (nearly everyone) would have a reason to oppose the stand alone bridge.