Jeremy Brooks

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 10: North Beach.
City Lights is an independent bookstore- publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin (who left two years later). Both the store and the publishers became widely known following the obscenity trial of Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg’s influential poem Howl and Other Poems (City Lights, 1956). Nancy Peters started working there in 1971 and retired as executive director in 2007. In 2001, City Lights was made an official historic landmark. City Lights is located at the nexus of North Beach and Chinatown in San Francisco.

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 9: North Beach.
This art piece is called Language of the Birds and is located at the northwest corner of Broadway at Columbus. The piece is a flock of 23 flying, illuminated books made of translucent polycarbonate and designed by artists Brian Goggin with Dorka Keehn. Underneath the books are words and phrases in English, Italian, and Chinese that appear to have fallen from their pages.

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 8: Chinatown.
The Imperial Palace Restuarant at 816 Washington Street was the site of the Golden Dragon Restaurant, famous for the Golden Dragon massacre.

The Golden Dragon massacre took place in San Francisco, California on September 4, 1977 inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant. At 2:30 AM a longstanding feud between two rival Chinese gangs, the Joe Boys and Wah Ching came to head when a botched assassination attempt by the Joe Boys at the Golden Dragon Restaurant led to the death of five people, including two tourists, and injury to 11 people, none of whom were gang members. The assassination attempt happened after members of Wah Ching vandalized the graves of Joe Boys’ members, breaking a taboo of disrespecting the dead.

The Golden Dragon Massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department’s Asian Gang Task Force.

Five men from the Joe Boys were arrested and convicted for the crime, with three of them still serving prison sentences. An ex-Joe Boys member, Bill Lee, wrote about the incident and his life as Joe Boys gangster in his book, Chinese Playground: A Memoir.

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 7: Chinatown.

The shops along Grant Avenue lure in the tourist crowds.

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 6: Chinatown.
Portsmouth Square is located on the site of the first public square established in the early 1800s in the Mexican community of Yerba Buena, whose name was changed to San Francisco in 1847. During the Mexican-American War, when the Americans were bent on acquiring Alta California, Captain John Berrien Montgomery of the USS Portsmouth was ordered to seize Yerba Buena. On July 9, 1846, the first American flag was raised near the Mexican adobe custom house in the plaza that would eventually be named Portsmouth Square in honor of the ship.
Today, the square is considered a part of Chinatown, earning it a nickname "Heart of Chinatown." The park features many markers and statues. A marker for the first public school in California, a marker for the Eastern Terminus of the Clay Street Hill Railroad Company, a marker for the raising of the American flag, and a monument to Robert Louis Stevenson are located inside the park to commemorate its history. Also, a statue of the Goddess of Democracy, a gift from the San Francisco Goddess of Democracy Statue Project to the city, sits in the park.
It is a popular gathering place for groups of people playing and watching various games such as Xiangqi, or chinese chess.

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 5: Chinatown.

Built in 1970, this gate is the southern entrance to Chinatown. It is inscribed with the saying "All under heaven is for the good of the people," by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 4: Financial District.
555 California, formerly the Bank Of America Center, sits in the heart of the financial district. At 52 stories and 779 feet, it is one of the tallest buildings in San Francisco.

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 3: Financial District. The Transamerica Building is one of the most recognized landmarks in San Francisco.

My Neighborhoods photo collaboration project, week 2. This is the Financial District.

As if I didn’t have enough to keep my busy, I’m also participating in Justin Korn’s My Neighborhoods photo project.

I like this one because it will force me to get out and see some of the areas of San Francisco that I never get to. This is my first shot for the project. The neighborhood that I am shooting this month is the Financial District.