Freeways San Francisco

Bay Area commuters have this advice for Los Angeles drivers fretting about post-quake traffic congestion: Get used to it. Since the Loma Prieta quake in October, 1989, not a single damaged freeway here has been completely reopened. Of the four battered freeways in San Francisco and Oakland, one has been demolished and obliterated from route maps while work on the other three double-decked highways is years from completion.

Mohammed Nuru cruises past the notorious downtown corner known as "6th and Mayhem," on the lookout for behavior he says has no place on any city street. Things like dealing drugs and smoking crack, shooting heroin and tossing away the spent needle as though it were just some crumpled hamburger wrapper. Or using the soiled and smelly back alleys as outdoor restrooms.

His masterpiece has been on display for decades in a place no one wants to visit, admired by a rough crowd of critics who study its beauty and nuance for years on end -- or until the parole board lets them out. Alfredo Santos was a two-bit hood when he landed in San Quentin State Prison in 1951 for selling heroin. But he left his mark on the state's oldest prison by painting a collection of nearly 100-foot-long murals in the inmate cafeteria, a flowing picture book of California's history.

A fiercely blowing rainstorm tossed ferryboats and snarled the freeways, but commuting to and from work in the Bay Area Monday--although mighty unpleasant--was actually manageable as many quake-shaken people heeded warnings to stay at home. "We've got gale winds, heavy rains, and heavy traffic--your basic nightmare conditions," California Highway Patrol Officer John Lash said as the morning commute began before dawn. "Somebody up there doesn't like us."