September 2020 in San Francisco started with smoke. Lots and lots of wildfire smoke. By the 14th, we experienced 28 consecutive spare the air days - a record number. Many of the fires in the Bay Area had been mostly contained, but large fires as far away as Oregon and Southern California blanketed the entire West Coast under a blanket of toxic smoke on a scale never seen before. If 2020 was not already stressful enough, seeing evidence that the world around us was burning up added a whole new layer of anxiety.
During this time I was working long days, and with the all the smoke I had little motivation to get out and take pictures. I did take a few opportunities, and the first was on the weirdest day ever. On September 9th, we woke up to darkness. Something was definitely wrong. As the morning wore on, the sky lightened a bit, but became a deep shade of orange. It was unlike anything we had seen before. The first three images below are from that day.
The rest of the images are of various pieces of street art that I took walking back from the farmers market.
This was the view in front of the building where I live on the morning of September 9th.
Looking down Powell Street on the morning of September 9th. Notice how few cars and people are about downtown at 10:30am on a Wednesday.
Stockton Street meets Blade Runner 2049.
Black Lives Matter artwork by Donavon Brutus adorns a door on the Donatello Hotel.
Evolution flags on the side of the U.C. Hastings Law School building on Leavenworth Street.
The artist who does these posters continues to come up with material that is more bizarre and disturbing.
Mario Brothers street art on Post Street.
Who ever is posting these has a sense of humor.
The eyes have it outside of Yogi Food Market.