YEAH, YEAH, ANTI-WAR PROTESTS IN SAN FRANCISCO. I took a few shots from work today and thought I'd share them. We have a pretty decent view of the intersections of Fremont & Howard and Fremont & Folsom.


An overview of the area. Photos were taken from the orange star, in the directions of the blue arrows. The red arrows are the on- and off-ramps for I-80.

Protesters at Fremont and Howard around 10:30am. Shortly before this one of these friendly people started beating on the hood of a car stopped at the light, but the red-vested observers dragged him off pretty quickly.

Same time, on Fremont about halfway between Mission and Folsom. A cluster of cycle cops blocking the protesters from the ramps to the freeway.

Skip ahead to 6:35pm. A huge mass of people are again making for the freeway ramps. Police have Fremont & Folsom blocked off, stopping the protesters and a lot of commuters as well.

A little better view of the above. The cycle cops are coming off I-80 by way of the bus ramps at the transbay terminal. Apparently some protesters came up through the terminal to the bus lanes and tried to get to the freeway that way (see the right-hand side of the overview map).

Motor units head for the terminal proper, lit up like Christmas trees. There are very few people in the intersection for Fremont and Howard on the right-hand side of the image, but the buses at the light have been stuck there for 10-15 minutes now.

The buses are making their way slowly though the intersection, as another cluster of cycle units pass them on the left.

The last good shot I got. Fremont and Folsom is opened up as the protesters head back towards Market Street. Starting around 6pm the sky was full of aircraft -- at least four helicopters and three fixed-wing private planes. Even if you couldn't see the protesters you always knew where they were because the helicopters were overhead.
My guess is that we'll be in for another round of the same fun tomorrow -- and if the war is still in full swing next Friday, Critical Mass is going to lay the city to waste. I'd be willing to bet they manage to shut down the Bay Bridge at least once.

It's wonderful to see so many people stand up for what they believe in, but let's try to keep the random destruction and intentional expulsion of vomitus to a minimum next time. Like the streets of the city need to smell any worse.

Previously at Studio Nibble...

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