The verdant wetlands along E. B St. are covered with brown feathery clumps, the sleeping bodies of Canadian geese, their beaks buried between their folded wings. Graceful, willowy necks sway up and down in search of snails, grubs and earthworms. Discordant honking and clucking fills the air as a dog appears off-leash. It’s that time of the year when they stop over in Benicia for some R & R. I can never get it straight. Do they fly south for the winter? Is this the end of their journey or a midpoint? Increasingly, many geese live here year-round due to the smorgasbord of easy food, safe habitats, and mild winters. Some of them will fly northward again in the spring to reach breeding grounds with a range of up to 2500 miles. Their motivation is to be safe, have enough to eat, and to raise families. So far, our borders continue to be open to all migrating birds, whether from Canada, Mexico, or Venezuela.
Lingering on the porch at Elisa’s Cottage on First St. rustling through her scarf box, I ran into my friend Joe. “Here she is,” I heard him say as he handed me the phone. Artist and long-time Benician Pam Dixon was calling from her new home in Scottsdale, Arizona. “I miss all of you but love it here,” she said. She is buying an adobe house set amid two-million-year old boulders near Phoenix.
“There are javelinas (pronounced “havaleenas”) running around all over the place!” Pam said. Javelinas are not Olympic athletes of the female persuasion but pig-like beasts with a snout, canine teeth, and short legs. They emit a musk smell in order to identify family members as their beady little eyes can’t see worth a darn. Pam was used to four-leggeds on leashes or in strollers around our town. She’s now in the wild West where the skies are not cloudy all day and stuff roams.
A mom and pop hat shop is coming to First Street, to be located between Benicia Fitness and Twodays Jewelry. The new owner of the Majestic Theater has something going on. Scaffolding covers the back of the building along with a huge refuse chute dropping several stories, presumably to facilitate removal of old construction. Double Rainbow has moved to Dianna’s Bakery location on First at W. G St. The front room that served as a store is now the dining area. A nifty new seating counter has legs designed to look like giant sugar cones where chocolate fudge appears to be dripping off the top. An example of Pop Art, it’s a delightful centerpiece in the spacious new shop.
My friend Sherry and I took the Vallejo Ferry Friday to see a show at SFMOMA. Such a deal! If you have a Clipper Card and are a senior, student, or low income, you get 50% off the paper ticket price — one way for only $4.70. It delivers you to the Ferry Building where exotic food stores, fine cafes, and cutting-edge boutiques stock the very best that the Bay Area has to offer. It’s a destination in itself. From there the City is your oyster.
“Would you like to try a Waymo?” Sherry asked. “Sure.” The app told us to meet our car on Drumm St. across from the Hyatt Regency. We walked up a few blocks and had to ask a young man waiting for a light to interpret the walking instructions on her phone. Looking down the street we saw our vehicle with what looked like a flying saucer with a big nob on top waiting by the curb. My friend’s initials were shining from a beacon of light on the roof. We hopped in the sleek Jaguar, sliding over the buttery black leather seats, fastened our seat belts, tapped a screen, and were off without a word.
“What kind of music would you like to hear?”
“Jazz,” I said as the mellow strains of Miles Davis playing “My Funny Valentine” filled the cab.
The ride was leisurely and smooth, not at all like taxis that often dart between lanes and scare you to death. It was weird to see the steering wheel move with no one there. We told the imaginary driver that he was good looking, and got no response. Within a few minutes we were dropped off across the street from SFMOMA. Post exhibit, we tried it again. We could see our car patiently waiting for us a block away. This time it took another route, seemingly way out of the way. Was the nonexistent driver taking us for a ride? Evidently not, as the final fare was even less than the previous ride. They must be programmed to take the most efficient route.
“I loved it. But why can’t it pick us up and deliver us in front of our exact location?” I asked.
“Don’t know. We’ll look it up when we get home.”
Chat GPT gave me an elaborate but reasonable answer to my question. Pickup points are carefully mapped and tested so the car knows exactly how to approach, stop, and re-enter traffic. Stopping anywhere on demand would introduce too many variables. In San Francisco you have narrow streets, heavy double parking, bike lanes everywhere, steep hills, blind corners, constant construction, temporary curb changes, and lots of pedestrians.
My next question was more obvious. “Are they safe? How do they compare with, say, taxis?” It is widely accepted that human error is the biggest cause of vehicle crashes. Independent data shows that with autonomous vehicles you have 80-90% fewer crashes than a cab and 92% fewer injuries to pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.
A few days earlier I had listened to a program on KQED revisiting the story of the recent power outage in San Francisco. Waymo didn’t have sufficient staff to immediately rescue people whose cars were stuck in intersections and blocking emergency vehicles. Autonomous vehicles are not perfect. Power outages can impact traffic sensors and signals. The tweeking continues.
At the moment, Waymo is the only AV cab service in the Bay Area. Tesla is right behind it, close to getting its permits. Alphabet is the parent company of both Waymo and Google which was founded on the premise — “Don’t be evil.” Tesla, on the other hand, is owned by someone who might disagree.
Letters From Benicia 