Fireworks

Thursday night, January 17, 2008. It was the night that the gallerys and design showrooms in the Jackson Square district were having their annual "walk" open house. I had been down to the district earlier in the evening aroundf 6 pm and then headed back to the Sunset for a meeting of the Taraval Parkside Merchants Association. After the meeting ended I headed back towards the Jackson square district looking for the bar where there was supposed to an after party - a bar I had never been to befor so I wanted to check it out. I was driving towards the Bay on Broadway around 9:00 pm when all of a sudden I see fireworks going off over the Bay! I hit the gas and then the brakes and pulled over to park in the lot at the corner of Broadway and the Embarcadero and ran across the Embarcader. I set my camera down on the railing and started snapping away! Next thing I see, a camera man from Channel 5 pulls up next to me and asks "me" what the heck the fireworks are for! I sure don't know. But I see a tour boat parked out on the bay, and speculate that it is some kind of private party on the tour boat that ordered up this huge fireworks display. It was really awesome, just like the show for KFOG's Kaboom or for the 4th of July. And the public didn't know about it!!!!

Now here's the issue: I'll admit it, I'm a democrat, born and bred in the middle class and rather sympathetic to the union/working kinda guy. So I'm thinking that these rich folks have their nerve!!! They throw a giant fireworks display and don't even tell the public about it.

But maybe that's not the way it came down. Maybe, whoever paid for the fireworks, wanted to tell the public about it but the SF City Government wouldn't allow it?

Later that night I wandered into the Cigar Bar Club where some European club was having a party. Some of the young folks there said they saw the fireworks display while driving on the bridge and just simply thought how cool it was to see the fireworks!!!

I don't know. What can you say about SF....now there are towers built next to the freeway on Rincon Hill blocking the views of the Bay Bridge from Twin Peaks and from the Top of Dolores Park ....places where you used to be able to snatch a pretty cool free view of the bridge. Now, you got to pay a million bucks to get the view. And fireworks over the Bay for private tour boats. Is it a trend? I don't know. Well, out in the Sunset we can't see the Bay anyway so I'm not going to worry about it.