From the “BERNAL PUBLIC SAFETY ALERT!” flyer making the rounds, with a “PROPOSED DEVELOPMENT PUTS LUXURY HOUSING AHEAD OF PUBLIC SAFETY” sub-header and the not so subtle graphic above, all emphasis as printed:
“If you live, walk, run, garden, ride your bike, push your stroller, or fly your kite around Bernal Heights, you may have entered the 600-foot Radius Blast/Fire Zone of a proposed Bernal southeast slope development of two luxury homes below the Community Garden. A 26-inch PG&E gas pipeline runs through it – the same type that blew up in San Bruno. Many residents think this development – which benefits from a questionable exemption of SF street safety grading codes – would recklessly endanger public safety.”
The proposed development and plan will be presented at the East Slope Design Review Board meeting on Wednesday, April 9 at 7PM.
Oy. Burn-all Hill has a lot more to worry about than a luxury home development when it comes to fire danger.
And PG&E smart meters cause brain cancer! IZ A CONSPIRACY!
oh, now I understand why all those smart cars flipped over.
If they are truly afraid of the dangers, then they should probably not live there and move. The magnitude of the San Bruno explosion would destroy (from looking at the aftermath pics) any and all concrete/housing structures already in place.
Probably coming from the next door neighbor who would be loosing a view.
That pipeline bisects Bernal running from Alemany along Folsom to Bernal Heights Blvd to Alabama to Precita.
Both PG&E and the National Pipeline Mapping System have viewers showing major pipelines like this one.
http://www.pge.com/safety/systemworks/gas/transmissionpipelines/
Poor poor Bernal people, having to put up with someone’s freedom and choice to build new housing.
Can’t wait to see these two new homes built and sell for record prices.
These people are seriously pathetic.
The gas line is only 26 inches wide– I doubt it goes directly under the homes. Since the builders are well aware of the pipeline, I’m sure they’ll take care to avoid it.
“Since the builders are well aware of the pipeline, I’m sure they’ll take care to avoid it. ”
Don’t you bring your logic here! We are panicked! They’re trying to blow up babies and grandmas just to make a buck! We must stop them.
They learned from the “No Wall on the Waterfront” campaign, which spread fear that the development would disrupt high pressure sewage pipes.
Maybe these NIMBYs can give me a job, I can make much better propaganda than them.
“Research has shown that the use of any and all types of construction equipment/tools not only reflects the light of Venus in such a way that confuses migratory birds into committing suicide, but it ALSO can alter the tides and cause a run away nuclear reaction, which would level the entire city in a combined tsunami and nuclear explosion. That’s right, drowning and burning, AT THE SAME TIME. Stop all construction forever, and save the pretty birds and the city of SF from certain doom at the hands of greedy developers!”
I think that people are genuinely concerned about the PGE line being a potential explosive hazard, i.e. struck by excavation equipment for foundation work. The 1963 explosion was not that long ago for many Bernal residents.
That being said I’m sure PG&E would be on site during work to oversee the dig and/or reject building plans as needed.
Views are [not] protected.
I see the crazies are at it again.
OH MY GOD! SF General Hospital was built in a BLAST ZONE too! (There are high-pressure gas lines surrounding the hospital!) Evacuate the patients now!
Thankfully, my tinfoil hat will protect me.
Opportunistic? Perhaps. But this is not tin-foil hat territory. The SF Gate story about the PG&E explosion on Bernal from back in the day is in my name URL.
I agree that there is always some risk from pipelines like these. But I would not be so worried about a breach during construction – when there will be extraordinary steps taken to ensure that the gas lines are untouched. Now during or after a major earthquake, or perhaps even at a random time if PG&E failed to test and properly maintain the pipes (as was the case in San Bruno.) But I don’t think the proposed homes are really a factor that creates any greater risk than is already present. That’s the craziness I was not-so-clearly referencing.
Geez, I should really proofread. During or after a major earthquake, or perhaps even at a random time in PG&E failed to test and properly maintain the pipes — THAT’S what I would worry more about.
So yes, attaching PG&E’s pipeline to the issue of this new construction is completely opportunistic and even silly, though the underlying pipeline issues are ones which residents of the area should certainly take seriously.
I don’t know if I’m asking a stupid question, or maybe the most intelligent, relevant question there could be for this situation, but:
How, exactly, would the presence of two houses here increase the ‘explodability’ of this gas pipe?
If you think about it. Almost every major street has a high pressure line. You have to get the gas to every house and business.
Annon 5:42 The nimbys noobees and hippies twist and lie and twist the facts and pull stuff out of their arces.
That’s true inclinejj but the standard high pressure lines beneath almost every street are much smaller than the big fat trunk pipes. When a smaller pipeline breaks it is not capable of delivering the volume of gas that was involved in the San Bruno disaster.
In another time and place, people wouldn’t even consider fabricating something like this because it would harm their reputation for credibility in the future. Now, it is all about winning and if it works, you’re a genius. Guess the BOS could pass a law prohibiting such behavior – that’s been the approach they take when people can’t get along on their own (see: Discretionary Review, Board of Permit Appeals, dog leash laws, Castro nudity…)