San Francisco – Page 2 – GEORGE ROTHERT

He Was No Dirty Harry

San Francisco detective Frank Bullitt got crossways with ambitious politician Walter Chalmers over the murder of a crucial organized-crime witness under the detective’s protection. Oh, okay, this didn’t really happen. It was a 1968 movie, “Bullitt,” with Steve McQueen in the title role. Lone eagle Bullitt refused to be part of Chalmers’s (Robert Vaughn) machinations. The movie also featured what many aficionados consider the greatest car chase ever filmed.

Steve McQueen himself drove the fastback Mustang, chasing bad guys in a Dodge Charger to their fiery end. (No stunt driver for McQueen. He also gave us the greatest movie motorcycle chase.) The iconic Mustang disappeared shortly after filming ended. McQueen reportedly wanted to buy it, but it could not be found. The car recently turned up in a Mexican junkyard. No one knows where it has been for the last forty-nine years or why it was in Mexico. Experts claim the VIN confirms it is the authentic car. Estimates are that the car, when restoration is finished, could have a value in excess of a million dollars.

Have That Sinking Feeling?

The Millennium Tower rises 645 feet above San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. Umm, make that 643 feet 8 inches. Since the building opened in 2009, it has sunk sixteen inches. Oh, and it’s tilting two inches at its base – fifteen inches at the top… so far. Anchoring it to compressed sand eighty feet below ground instead of bedrock a hundred feet deeper may not have been such a good idea. Owners of the 400 luxury condominiums – local hero Joe Montana is one – have filed a class-action suit against the developers. Of course the developers point the cause of the problem somewhere else: excavation for the adjacent Transbay Transit Center.

San Francisco Giants outfielder Hunter Pence

Along with the building itself, values of the residences are sinking: the asking price of a one-bedroom unit was recently slashed from $3.8 million to $3.6 million. So far there are no takers.

Gentrification in Dogpatch

The Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco is in transition. For a century it was home to blue-collar citizens, many working in the close-by shipyards. Now it’s on the edge of becoming trendy; hipsters are moving in.

We think of gentrification as a once-in-decline neighborhood coming back to life. First arrive the artists seeking lower rents, followed by various craftspeople. Of course, hip people want to be where the artists are. Then come the trendy bars and restaurants, presenting a downscale appearance but with upscale menus. That in turn attracts the trendy and the affluent. Rents start climbing. Well, you know the story.

San Francisco is mostly beyond gentrification. A studio apartment in San Francisco can cost $3,500 per month, gentrified or not.

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