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Jacket3ree, I spent many years living very close to the Newell St. bridge over San Francisquito. In the 70's, the creek seemed virtually dry as a bone, and as a kid, I spent summer afternoons chasing Swallowtails in the creek and finding the occasional salamander in the few muddy areas one could find. There were other strange things that people had deposited into the creek in the 'dry' era - for a while, there was an old Dodge Dart chassis there, later an abandoned van, plenty of tires, construction debris, and discarded washers/dryers. In later years after the 70's drought had receded, I can remember 2-3 times where we walked over to the bridge and watched the water come basically within a couple of feet from the bottom of the bridge but without much actual flooding. It was pretty frightening to see that much water following through a creek that I had spent so much time walking around in. And, I knew how deep it was as it wasn't exactly easy to get down to the creek bottom.

I had left the area by the time of the '98 flood, but I heard from friends that the water flowed right down Newell and ran through through Edgewater and Hamilton Ave. properties including through a friend's garage. They were intensely gratified to find out that the low point of their property wasn't their living room.

Once, I bumped into someone from the city who had come out to look at the water level at the Newell bridge during a storm when there was some minor flooding. I remember asking him if there was a fix and he shook his head and said that all the properties along that part of the creek were vulnerable and that Newell was so low that there wasn't a great option as far as rebuilding the bridge. He said the fix for the water level needed to happen 'elsewhere.' I didn't ask him what that meant. I bet you have informed opinions on that.

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Jacket3ree, I spent many years living very close to the Newell St. bridge over San Francisquito. In the 70's, the creek seemed virtually dry as a bone, and as a kid, I spent summer afternoons chasing Swallowtails in the creek and finding the occasional salamander in the few muddy areas one could find. There were other strange things that people had deposited into the creek in the 'dry' era - for a while, there was an old Dodge Dart chassis there, later an abandoned van, plenty of tires, construction debris, and discarded washers/dryers. In later years after the 70's drought had receded, I can remember 2-3 times where we walked over to the bridge and watched the water come basically within a couple of feet from the bottom of the bridge but without much actual flooding. It was pretty frightening to see that much water following through a creek that I had spent so much time walking around in. And, I knew how deep it was as it wasn't exactly easy to get down to the creek bottom.

I had left the area by the time of the '98 flood, but I heard from friends that the water flowed right down Newell and ran through through Edgewater and Hamilton Ave. properties including through a friend's garage. They were intensely gratified to find out that the low point of their property wasn't their living room.

Once, I bumped into someone from the city who had come out to look at the water level at the Newell bridge during a storm when there was some minor flooding. I remember asking him if there was a fix and he shook his head and said that all the properties along that part of the creek were vulnerable and that Newell was so low that there wasn't a great option as far as rebuilding the bridge. He said the fix for the water level needed to happen 'elsewhere.' I didn't ask him what that meant. I bet you have informed opinions on that.