Up a creek without a permit

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 5/12/6 | Carol Lloyd

[SmithL]

Joanna Graham remembers the exact moment she learned of Strawberry Creek's proximity to her West Berkeley home.

Four years ago, a neighbor knocked at her door on North Valley Street with a petition from environmentalists requesting a study of the 300-foot culvert that surfaced just two houses downstream from her house. In the course of a creek-restoration project, they had noticed huge chunks of concrete falling off the 6.5-by-8-foot pipe into the stream below.

"I told her, 'I don't even know where the creek runs,'" explained Graham, a small woman with salt-and-pepper hair and the seasoned gaze of someone unaccustomed to feeling sorry for herself.

"And she said, 'Oh I do -- it goes right under your house.'" Graham, who bought the modest 1930s home with her husband in the '70s, cracked a painful smile.

"I told her, 'I feel you've just told me I have terminal cancer.'"

In an era when having a home in the Bay Area has taken on monumental financial implications, bad news about one's house can indeed feel like a death sentence. Standing with Graham at the fence at the end of her dead-end road under a sign that reads "Keep Out Creek Culvert Potential Collapse Hazard," I wasn't surprised that she feels dismayed.

Despite the blooming spring weather and a wild turkey strutting down the sun-dappled street, one notices things that would give even the most intrepid homeowners insomnia. Since the culvert's failing was first discovered, 20 feet of creek bank has eroded as the pipe continues to disintegrate. And within the last week, neighbors say they have noticed the distinct smell of leaking gas from an adjacent PG&E pipe, which a fence post has fallen on.

[SmithL]

So, the People's Republic of Beserkely is literally falling down, one piece at a time. But the good news is that they are still deeply committed to being anti-nuke, anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-religion, anti-scouts, and pretty much anti-American.

[nmh]

It couldn't happen to a nicer person:

"So Graham, a self-described Marxist who considers her home a place to live and not a speculative investment, joined with other upstream homeowners to file their own suit against the city. Another neighbor filed a suit in turn, and eventually the courts rolled all of them into one big case."

[thoughtomator]

So Graham, a self-described Marxist,... ... has no one to blame but herself. Marxism is great as long as you stay in the majority.

[battlegearboat]

Ha Ha guy.

[ClearCase_guy]

This is a problem that could be solved.

Unfortunately, everyone with the ability to solve it has moved to Galt's Gulch.