San Francisco's colorful history has been explored so extensively that it is surprising to note that its moved buildings remain one of the city's best-kept secrets. Reports are widely scattered in newspapers and architectural references; yet, despite the fact that the city's relocations are second only to Chicago's, there are no books in print concerning this curious history--until now. And it is a long, lively tale indeed. Beginning in 1850 and continuing today, it involves hundreds of moved structures, from houses and apartment buildings to churches and schools. Buildings were relocated for many reasons, from street modifications in the early 1900s to the advent of freeways and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) in the 1950s and 1960s. Buildings were cut in half and moved in pieces, disassembled and moved brick by brick, or (more commonly) moved intact--some as heavy as 9,000 tons or as long as 110 feet. Buildings moved to San Francisco via ship around Cape Horn, traveled across town using horses and wagons or (later) trucks, and were barged over the Bay.

Deals with the movement of people from their homes in California, Washington, and Oregon, to assembly and relocation centers, and at greater length with their eventual movement from the centers back to the normal stream of American Life. Traces the development of relocation policy and procedure, delving into agency thinking at various stages and describing the techniques and approaches adopted to achieve the purpose of this program. Describes the workings of the program in the centers and in the field offices, making significant comparisons in problems encountered, techniques employed, and achievements realized.

In an era of unique baseball stadiums, the Polo Grounds in New York stood out from the rest. With its horseshoe shape, the Polo Grounds had extremely short distances down the foul lines and equally long distances up the alley and to center field. Some of baseball's most historic moments--Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard Round the World, Willie Mays' Catch, Fred Merkle's infamous blunder--happened at the Polo Grounds. This book offers descriptive text and photographs that give a sense of the glory of this classic ballpark. Additionally, it contains historical articles and memories submitted by more than 70 former players who played at the Polo Grounds.

San Francisco is perhaps the most exhilarating of all American cities--its beauty, cultural and political avant-gardism, and history are legendary, while its idiosyncrasies make front-page news. In this revised edition of his highly regarded study of San Francisco's economic and political development since the mid-1950s, Chester Hartman gives a detailed account of how the city has been transformed by the expansion--outward and upward--of its downtown. His story is fueled by a wide range of players and an astonishing array of events, from police storming the International Hotel to citizens forcing the midair termination of a freeway. Throughout, Hartman raises a troubling question: can San Francisco's unique qualities survive the changes that have altered the city's skyline, neighborhoods, and economy? Hartman was directly involved in many of the events he chronicles and thus had access to sources that might otherwise have been unavailable. A former activist with the National Housing Law Project, San Franciscans for Affordable Housing, and other neighborhood organizations, he explains how corporate San Francisco obtained the necessary cooperation of city and federal governments in undertaking massive redevelopment. He illustrates the rationale that produced BART, a subway system that serves upper-income suburbs but few of the city's poor neighborhoods, and cites the environmental effects of unrestrained highrise development, such as powerful wind tunnels and lack of sunshine. In describing the struggle to keep housing affordable in San Francisco and the seemingly intractable problem of homelessness, Hartman reveals the human face of the city's economic transformation.