Transbay.

Transbay is the largest public works project in San Francisco since the Golden Gate and Oakland Bay bridges were constructed in the Great Depression. It has been ongoing for a couple of years and will take at least a decade more to complete, culminating in a massive overground bus terminal, an underground rail terminal and half a dozen 40+ story skyscrapers. Occupying several city blocks on the east of San Francisco bounded by the business district to the north, it is heavy construction redefined.

So naturally I wanted to be a part of that.

Early in the year I approached the bureaucrats managing the project explaining that I wanted to document the people and construction at no charge, as a gift to the people of San Francisco. The City’s efforts in this direction are beyond pathetic, comprised of one very poor quality webcam placed atop an adjacent tall building. They have no official photographer and no plans to retain one. A priceless historical document will never be created owing to this short sightedness.

I was asked to submit a portfolio of my snaps of the city of San Francisco, which I did and they said they liked.

I then pushed for closure but heard nothing for months. Finally, a liaison officer (those who can, do; those who cannot do, teach; and those who can do neither, liaise) contacted me with a raft of concerns.

Q. It will cost the city money.
A. No I will do everything no charge.

Q. We think you want to make money from this.
A. No, It’s not for profit. I would like to hold an exhibition and publish a book, and the City can have all proceeds from those efforts.

Q. We will have to assign a chaperone to you when on the project which will cost us money.
A. I will pay the chaperone’s wages.

Q. We are concerned about liability if you get hurt.
A. At my cost I will have my attorney draw up a complete waiver, indemnifying the City of any costs in the event I am injured or killed.

Q. We are concerned you will not spend time on this work.
A. I will commit two days a week for the next ten years to this effort.

Q. We will need to vet your work.
A. All work will be provided to you for screening before any reproduction.

Q. How will you start?
A. I propose to hang 20 30″ x 40″ studio portraits of the hardhats on the project around the periphery of the site for all passersby to enjoy. At my cost.

Well this sort of crap went on for several months until these people finally agreed to meet and confer. My many requests to attend the meeting were not responded to and finally I got a blank rejection.

“We think your safety would be threatened” despite all the commitments and indemnities I had offered. The bottom line is that there was no benefit for these losers from retaining me and screw the people of San Francisco.

So I wrote to the Mayor of the City of San Francisco. No reply.

Then I wrote to the Congressman for the Transbay District. No reply.

Finally I wrote to my Senator. Like you expect my elected official to actually respond? How big exactly was my campaign donation?

So the idea died and with it the City has lost the opportunity to gain a priceless historical document.

Unconscionable.

Meanwhile, here are some snaps from around the periphery of the project which I took in 2011 and early 2012 while the above nonsense was going on. For obvious reasons, my interest in taking any more has fallen to zero. And as you can see, these jerks are buying Chinese pipe at the taxpayer’s expense. Like America no longer makes steel pipes?

Snapped mostly on the Panny G3 and Nikon D700.