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It started as a quest to make Bay Area highways more beautiful. Plus, three other bonus questions!
Reported by Jessica Placzek and Olivia Allen-Price. Bay Curious is Olivia Allen-Price, Jessica Placzek, Suzie Racho, Penny Nelson, Paul Lancour and Julia McEvoy. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller.
Ask us a question at BayCurious.org. Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.
This week the Bay Curious podcast is celebrating our one-year anniversary with a lightning round of questions and answers!
Is it true that George Lucas was inspired to create the AT-AT because of the cranes at the Port of Oakland?
No. Sadly, this is not true.
George Lucas told the San Francisco Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub, “That’s a myth. That is definitely a myth.”
Hartlaub also followed up with Phil Tippett, the stop-motion animator who oversaw production of the AT-AT sequence. Tippett allows for a small chance that somewhere in the process someone looked at the cranes, but added that the original vehicles actually looked nothing like container cranes, and more like garbage trucks.
Sidenote on Phil Tippett: He was credited as “Dinosaur Supervisor” at the end of “Jurassic Park” and has been the topic of several popular internet memes. Poor guy has spent years now explaining what the “supervision” element of his job actually was.
Question submitted by Bay Curious listener Matteen Mokalla.
How did the Tenderloin get its name?
In the mid-1800s the Tenderloin was a great spot to spend a night out on the town, but by the late 1800s, crime had crept into the neighborhood. It was around this time that people began calling the area the Tenderloin.
So how did it get the name? Was it a reference to the “tender loins” of prostitutes who did business there? Or maybe something to do with the shape of the neighborhood?
No. According to the Tenderloin Museum, the name came from a New York City police captain named Alexander Williams who supposedly called vice-heavy areas the “tenderloin”, in reference to all the bribes he would get for turning a blind eye to illegal activities. Williams was quoted as saying, “I’ve had nothing but chuck steak for a long time, and now I’m going to get a little of the tenderloin.”
He hoped to buy nicer meat with his bribe money.
Question submitted by Bay Curious listener Kevin Beach.
Is it true that the original voice of Popeye died in a San Jose trailer park?
Yes. The gruff voice of William Costello was the original voice of Popeye the Sailor Man.
But the show’s producers wanted a softer voice for Popeye, and Costello was becoming difficult to work with. One day, while the show was in the middle of production, Costello asked for a vacation and he was fired.
After that, Costello had a long career as a musician. According to his obituary, Costello worked with Ginger Rogers and Bing Crosby and went on to play in over 100 orchestras.
In the late 1950s, he retired to manage a trailer park in San Jose. He remained manager until he died in 1971 at the age of 73.
Question submitted by Bay Curious listener Peter Caravalho.
Why Are There Rainbows on the Tunnel Between S.F. and Marin?
We answered this question in a separate post. Check it out!
Legend has it, El Camino Real is an ancient road that connects the Spanish missions. But is it true?
Reported by Rachael Myrow. Bay Curious is Olivia Allen-Price, Jessica Placzek, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho and Julia McEvoy. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller.
Ask us a question at BayCurious.org.
Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.
Reported by Jon Brooks. Bay Curious is Olivia Allen-Price, Jessica Placzek, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho and Julia McEvoy. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller.
Ask us a question at BayCurious.org.
Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.
What does containment mean? How are wildfires named? What happens after your house burns?
Reported by Lindsey Hoshaw, Jessica Placzek, Sukey Lewis and Olivia Allen-Price. Technical director is Paul Lancour. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller. Many songs in this episode were by Petaluma artist Gio Benedetti, and proceeds from their sale will benefit wildfire survivors. Find and buy his music here: https://giobenedetti.bandcamp.com/
Ask us a question at BayCurious.org.
Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.
Spend some time walking around San Francisco, and you'll probably notice the large, brick circles decorating the pavement at some intersections. What are they for?
Reported by Sarah Craig. Bay Curious is Olivia Allen-Price, Jessica Placzek, Paul Lancour, Suzie Racho and Julia McEvoy. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller.
Ask us a question at BayCurious.org.
Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.
How an S.F. drag artist founded one of the biggest and most bejeweled charities dedicated to LGBTQ causes.
Reported by Chloe Veltman. Bay Curious is Olivia Allen-Price, Paul Lancour, Jessica Placzek, Suzie Racho, Penny Nelson and Julia McEvoy. Theme music by Pat Mesiti-Miller.
Ask us a question at BayCurious.org.
Follow Olivia Allen-Price on Twitter @oallenprice.
Bay Curious listener Marcy Ballard wrote to us wanting to know more about the 442nd Regimental Combat Team — a segregated, Japanese-American unit that fought for the U.S. during the Second World War.
She’s pretty sure they must have some remarkable stories to tell.
After all, these were men considered to be enemy aliens by the government because of their Japanese heritage. Offensive Anti-Japanese propaganda was circling everywhere. Many were forced to live in internment camps, surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by armed guards. And yet, they volunteered to fight for America.
Soon after, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was created. Its Japanese-American members proved themselves to be valiant soldiers.
They took control of strategically important towns in France, and aided in the liberation of Rome. They broke stalwart German defenses, and discovered and freed prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp. They were regularly sent to the front lines to fight in some of the war’s bloodiest battles.
Some have said they were chosen to fight in these battles because their superiors considered them expendable. But few have questioned their heroism.
By the end of the war, the team had earned over 18,000 awards, including 21 Medals of Honor and over 9,000 Purple Hearts — making the 442nd the most decorated military unit of its size in U.S. history.
Learn more about the 442nd and hear stories from two members in this week’s Bay Curious episode, which you can play at the top of this article.
Picture a set of binoculars — only a pair the size of a low-rise building. That’s the shape of BART’s Transbay Tube — the dual-bore, 3.8-mile passageway that connects the West Oakland Station to San Francisco’s Embarcadero Station. Every weekday during peak commute hours, more than 60,000 BART riders cruise through the tube. What most don’t know is that they’re in a trench on the floor of San Francisco Bay.
Bay Curious listener Jennifer Schulz rides through the tube a lot and can’t help but to think: What if there was an earthquake? How safe is the Transbay Tube? Would it crack? Would bay water flood into my jam-packed BART car? Could I be trapped?
Since 2005, BART has been undergoing a major earthquake retrofit. The final phase is expected to begin next year, finishing up some time in 2023. The cost? So far, $1.3 billion.
KQED’s Tena Rubio spoke with Tom Horton, BART’s earthquake safety manager.
Is the Transbay Tube safe during an earthquake?
What I can say is that it’s safer than most other places people are going to be in their working day. I mean, some of the buildings downtown are obviously built to very modern standards and can survive a large earthquake. But most of the buildings in the Bay Area probably would be collapsing in the size earthquake we’re talking about.
Walk us through what happens if there is an earthquake.
First, we reduce the speed of the train down to 27 mph, which gives an operator plenty of time to see what’s in front of him, and see if there’s any cracking or anything of that nature. But our goal is to not stop in the Transbay Tube. If for some reason folks have to exit the train, we have protocols in place to do that.
What would happen? Would it leak?
The tube does get leaks every now and then, as all tunnels do. And BART actually has an active program to plug those leaks when they happen. During the earthquake we expect that the earthquake forces will cause the liner to crack and then you’ll get leakage. Now the tunnel doesn’t collapse. The tunnels are plenty strong enough to stay up. But if you get too much leakage, it fills with water and that’s what we’re trying to prevent.
So if it did crack, can it fill with water and flood?
We have a pumping system. Part of the retrofit is to increase the size of that pumping system so you can at least slow down the rate of fill. The idea is that you can slow it down enough so that people can get out well before the tube floods.
So it sounds like you’d almost want to be in the tube? That it’s safer than other areas?
Unless it’s a very, very large earthquake you’d probably want to be in the tube. Now we talked about the flooding problem. So if you’re in an earthquake that large it would be problematic, but then so is everywhere else in the Bay Area. So it’s kind of a wash, if you will.
To hear more from Tom Horton and the safety of the Transbay Tube, listen to the full episode of Bay Curious at the top of this article.
A Response Plan, Ready and Waiting
All that talk about earthquakes got us thinking — what if something catastrophic did happen in the Bay Area? After the big one, it’s not going to be easy for anyone to get around. So what will happen to people who really need medical care?
Reporter Eli Wirtschafter learned about one unusual tool San Francisco has to address that problem: old Muni buses that have been turned into giant ambulances.
The idea was first used on New Year’s Eve 2010, when big celebrations were planned at the Embarcadero. To provide extra medical support, the San Francisco Fire Department borrowed a 40-foot Muni bus and turned it into a makeshift mobile clinic, treating people who might have partied a little too hard.
From that time on, the idea of having a bus-sized ambulance “just stayed with us,
For years Martin Kunz has been looking down the hill from his office at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, out over the water, at one of the longest piers in California — the Berkeley Pier.
“I see this every day from my office when I have lunch, and I was curious what the history behind this is,” he said. He submitted a question to Bay Curious, so off we went to find the answer.
Lately, the Berkeley Pier has primarily been used as a fishing pier, but decades ago it had a very different purpose.
Berkeley’s Population Boom
Back in the early 20th century, Berkeley was growing fast. Its population went from 13,214 residents in 1900 to 56,036 in 1920. Thousands of refugees from San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake found homes in Berkeley, the University of California experienced rapid expansion and an electric train system connected Berkeley to other Bay Area cities, such as Oakland.
Berkeley was establishing itself as an urban center, yet many of its residents still worked jobs in San Francisco. To get there, workers commuted by train to Oakland and then by boat to San Francisco — an inconvenient journey that makes today’s commute look like a cakewalk. So, in 1926, the Golden Gate Ferry Co. began building a pier that would bring auto ferries to Berkeley.
When the construction was finished, the dock was 3½ miles long, making it one of the longest piers in the state. Why so long? Parts of San Francisco Bay are very shallow. Underneath the pier, the water is between 7 and 9 feet deep. The pier needed to reach parts of the bay where the water was deep enough for a ferry to travel.
“A longer dock also meant that the ferry company saved a lot of money. In other words, you had to drive all the way out to the end of the pier and use your gas instead of them using gas for the ferry,” says Chuck Wollenberg, professor of history at Berkeley City College.
Ferry service began at the pier in 1929. The three boats were named Golden Bear, Golden Poppy and Golden Shore.
Car Talk
The 1920s saw tremendous growth in the number of Americans driving personal automobiles. Ford’s assembly line made cars more affordable, and it wasn’t long before cars surpassed trains in popularity. After all, this was a time when Republicans claimed that Republican prosperity had brought “a chicken in every pot. And a car in every backyard.”
As more cars hit the road, more cars relied on the ferries at the Berkeley Pier, and lines could be long. Whenever Stanford played football against Cal at UC Berkeley, lines would stretch beyond the 3½ miles of pier.
“The mother of all traffic jams in the Bay Area occurred at the end of the Labor Day weekend,” says Wollenberg. “There was a four-hour wait. When people tried to cut in, people would take out revolvers and threaten people.”
But the same thing that created demand for the ferries also brought about the dock’s demise. With the rising popularity of cars, California legislators decided to create a bridge between Alameda County and San Francisco. The same year the ferries started running, engineers began laying plans for the Bay Bridge.
The Bay Bridge opened on Nov. 12, 1936. Former President Herbert Hoover watched as California Gov. Frank Merriam cut the ceremonial chain opening the bridge . The Golden Gate Ferry Co. would last only two more years, eventually calling it quits and giving the pier to the city of Berkeley. In total, the Berkeley auto ferries had run less than 10 years.
After the Bridge
Berkeley officials used state and city funds to convert the pier into a recreation area. It opened in spring 1938 and in the first year attracted 50,000 people. The Berkeley Recreation Department charged an admission fee of 10 cents for pedestrians and 25 cents for automobiles.
Fishing became a popular pastime on the pier and kids were encouraged to learn.