Joe DiMaggio's Sand Box

The (San Francisco) Historic Preservation Commission had voted to make the North Beach branch library a landmark, but forgot to say why, according to San Francisco Chronicle. I have to wonder what made it a landmark.

When I lived in North Beach, I used that branch often. It is very small and cramped. It boasts no significant architectural distinction, it doesn't really fit into the richness of Italian-American neighborhood North Beach like gloves. It is dilapidated and in urgent needs of expansion or replacement.

I don't like the modernistic design for the replacement but that should not be the excuse of keeping this deplorable old facility. I believe that one of the reasons for some to keep it was due to Joe DiMaggio factor - he used to play there, in a tiny sandbox no bigger than your flower bed, perhaps. I don't think a library is a fitting tribute to a baseball player, however, if one insists, wouldn't a statue of DiMaggio a better monument than this pathetic, outdated little barn?


St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, San Francisco © Matthew Felix Sun