November 2008 Archives

      It's hard to believe that the Tea Fire, burned 1,940 acres, destroyed 231 residences, and caused an estimated $6,100,000 to fight, was caused by a group of college students who didn't fully extinguish their bonfire.
     
      "It's carelessness, it's negligence, and it's illegal," says Captain Eli Iskow of the Santa Barbara Fire Department, the team that led the investigation of the Tea Fire. Iskow has seen people lose their lives and end up in critical condition as a result of unintentional fires. "We could have several of those a year. It's not uncommon. It's carelessness that does it."
     

      Before the celebration and crowds that erupted over the Bay Area on election evening, the atmosphere on election morning in San Francisco was quiet excitement. Polling stations were opened across the city, but the most crowded polling station was the basement of San Francisco City Hall. Although this polling station drew the most people, the lines never got a chance to develop because the number of volunteers that turned out seemed to equal the number of voters. The volunteers ranged from Senior Citizens to children as young as young as twelve years old who are shown handing out "I Voted" stickers as people entered and left the basement of City Hall.
            Upstairs in the ground level of City Hall, couples were getting married atop the large flight of steps while people passed by down below en route to the voting booths. Outside, people gathered in the community garden and cheered in front of City Hall holding signs supporting Obama, Nader, No on Proposition 8, and Yes on Proposition K.
      At another popular polling station off of Castro in San Francisco's Castro District, where a house with a sign reading "Heart of the Castro" was transformed into a voting station.
      At Northpoint Coffee Co. in Sausalito, people quietly read the morning paper while shadowed by portraits of political leaders lining the walls of the coffee shop.The graphite portraits are done by Amanda Pirot as part of her collection "Politicals, Leaders, and Cultural Icons."