Matt Charnock, Author at Underscore

This Is Such a *Wild* Weather Radar Picture of San Francisco

24Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis

This Is Such a Wild Weather Radar Picture of San Francisco

An intact tropical storm system descended on the SF Bay Area on March 21st, bringing with it textbook behavior and astonishing satellite imagery. San Francisco saw nearly hurricane-level winds this week that blew windows off buildings, sofas off porches, and cause more trees than we can shake a stick at (pun intended) to fall across the seven-by-seven. It just feels like we can’t get an atmospheric break these days; yet another weather event is likely to descend on the SF Bay Area next week — bringing with it even more winds, even more rain, and even more seasonal depression. If anything, these past few months have proved we *really couldn’t make it* living in Portland or Seattle. Infrastructure-shattering gusts aside, what was perhaps the most spellbinding radar imagery eve...

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Has Hella Secrets

24Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Nature + Climate Crisis

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Has Hella Secrets

Spoiler alert: There may be a Nessie in SF's Stow Lake. And bison numbered in the hundreds at Golden Gate Park. San Francisco is a bastion of weird-ass shit, a cornucopia of Muni missteps and quirky, out-of-sight gems. But one of the city’s most well-known and Instagrammed locations, Golden Gate Park, has its own share of historical weirdness to add to the misfit melting pot. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and shine a spotlight on some of the park’s most interesting historical footnotes and facts. A 60-foot cross is (somewhere) behind the foliage at Rainbow Falls In 1894, the Prayerbook Cross — an enormous sandstone cross inscribed with English excerpts from the first sermon of the Book of Common Prayer in California — was given to the city as a gift from the Church of En...

This Old Chevy on Lombard Street Is Pure San Francisco Nostalgia

21Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

This Old Chevy on Lombard Street Is Pure San Francisco Nostalgia

Look at SF's Coit Tower looking all kinds of cute in the background! I find it increasingly hard to envision a San Francisco that wasn’t defined by tech companies, sky-high rents, and the presence of wildfire smoke (the latter of which, thankfully, hasn’t been as severe this year). Times when the city’s innate bohemian, free-wheeling spirit coincided with affordability. The days when you could make an earnest wage and comfortably rent a two-bedroom-one-bathroom domicile in Nob Hill — for $250 a month. Alas: Windows into a San Francisco that didn’t include the City failing thousands of unhoused people and pee-soaked sidewalks are fleeting, brief flashbacks that never mirror the present moment. But when I yearn to see San Francisco framed in gentler years, I turn to Reddit. And a rec...

This Tenderloin Mural Is a Celebration of SF’s Working Class

20Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

This Tenderloin Mural Is a Celebration of SF’s Working Class

You’re technically considered a ‘low-income earner’ in San Francisco if you make less than $82,200 a year San Francisco has become insurmountably difficult for anyone not making about twice the average U.S. salary to carve out a living — let alone flourish. Even the smallest of studio apartments in the city will require the lessee to make upwards of $80,000 to responsibly afford. (Don’t get us started on how much you’d need to make to afford a statistically modest two-bedroom, one-bathroom unit.) It’s an abundantly sad, and, quite frankly, demoralizing reality that’s now synonymous with SF life. But a new mural at 455 Eddy Street titled “Pesca Pesca Redouble la Force” by former SF-based artist Erlin Geffrard is shedding a light on the working class. You know: The socioeconomic cohort...

20Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Essays, Nature + Climate Crisis

An Ode to Winter Fog in San Francisco

March 20th is officially the last day of the astronomical winter for 2023. So let’s take some time to wax poetic about San Francisco’s omnipresent atmospheric anomaly. On what’s the last day of winter, there’s a sense of nostalgia that wraps around San Francisco’s fog this time of year. Sure, “Fogust” is a thing — something I’ve looked forward to since arriving in this city. Grays contrast verdant evergreens. Hugs red still; reflects soft moonlight; greets you with a familiar cool leaving your building. San Francisco’s winter fog is a constant that we can rely on. In a world rife with impermanence and volatility and unwanted happenstance, it’s a consoling presence. Something akin to a text from a childhood friend, whom you speak to a few times a year. A hug from a passed loved on...

(Most of) the SF Bay Area Is Drought-Free. But That’s Not All.

17Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis

(Most of) the SF Bay Area Is Drought-Free. But That’s Not All.

The recent onslaught of rain has been both good and bad, across the board. Teetering on the better side: California's major water reservoirs are in their comeback era. Hallelujah: For the first time in over three years, the San Francisco Bay Area is not experiencing any drought levels. 44% of California now also falls in that same drought-free category. The most recent atmosphere river dropped inches of rain across California, all while sending 50-plus mph winds across San Francisco; residential buildings saw panes of glass fall hundreds of feet to the ground; a local beer company took the heavy winds to produce some *chef’s kiss* social media content that surely attracted customers. As a result, drought conditions that have plagued the Golden State continue their path to improvemen...

FYI: This Surreal Victorian in SF’s Dolores Heights Is Stunnin’

17Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Nature + Climate Crisis

FYI: This Surreal Victorian in SF’s Dolores Heights Is Stunnin’

Constructed in 1900, the house was among the few residential homes in San Francisco to survive the 1906 earthquake Don’t get us wrong, we love Alamo Square Parks’s Painted Ladies. (This drone footage that goes inside the sister at 712 Steiner street has only deepened our fascination with the city’s architectural landmarks.) However, more often than not, they hog the spotlight away from other residential gems in San Francisco — like the gorgeous John Welsh-designed flats at Capp and 22nd streets. Case in point: Y’all ever hear about or seen the fantastically blue, 121-year-old Victorian at 3919 20th Street? We hadn’t. But that all changed though, thanks to Instagram’s algorithm. Looks like one of the neighbors also found the home’s blue paint scheme attrac...

What If We Got Rid of All the Parking Lots in the SF Bay Area?

15Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories

What If We Got Rid of All the Parking Lots in the SF Bay Area?

For one: There would be enough space left to create 60 public greenspaces the size of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. It’s been over a month since my Prius was stripped of its catalytic converter. The part is *at least* a few months out because people are assholes and stealing these at a dizzying, maddening, unrelenting rate. By proxy, I’m effectively now car-free… sans the few times a week when I force the engine into a lion’s roar and move the car a few blocks. My relationship with car ownership has never been more forced — honed in, zoomed out, dissected. I grew up around cars; I was born in the suburbs of North Texas, after all. And over my three decades on this mortal coil, I’ve owned seven vehicles… half of which were totaled by either an act from a Higher Power or a no-fault a...

A Lil’ Rundown on San Francisco’s Invasive Flora and Fauna

15Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis

A Lil’ Rundown on San Francisco’s Invasive Flora and Fauna

The SF Bay Area’s alien animal and plant neighbors are as diverse as the city's residents... and didn't chase six-figure salaries to get here. San Francisco’s green spaces and waterfronts are crammed with a myriad of flora and fauna. We have seals, native dolphins, whales, and even the breathtaking San Francisco garter snake slithering south of SOMA. Not too long ago, there was even a gator living its best life in Presidio’s Mountain Lake. Interestingly, most of the beautiful species we San Franciscans see on a daily basis didn’t come from here. San Francisco Bay has one of the highest concentrations of invasive species anywhere in the world. And as a self-knighted ecologist, I’ve always found this San Francisco quirk interesting—and sometimes worrisome. Let’s get to know some of ou...

Some LEDs on the Bay Bridge Literally Won’t Turn Off

15Mar

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

Some LEDs on the Bay Bridge Literally Won’t Turn Off

"The Bay Lights" installation along the Bay Bridge is so broken, even the switch to turn it off was "on the fritz" until Monday night. But some LEDs refuse to go dark. It’s been over a week since “The Bay Lights” — the 25,000 LED art installation on the Bay Bridge that beamed for just over a decade — went dark. Backdropped by a gloomy, chilly, rain-soaked evening, the vast network of glowing diodes was turned off amid financial woes. A recent fundraising campaign started by Illuminate, the nonprofit behind the public artwork (as well as many others in the Bay Area), has raised over $107,000 toward “The Bay Lights 360” project, which would see the Bay Bridge light up with LEDs again come fall with a host of improvements; the fate and likelihood of the artwork again lighting up the Bay ...