Review: A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport, by Eric Porter

Abstract

Book Review| November 01 2023 Review: A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport, by Eric Porter Eric Porter. A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport. Oakland: University of California Press, 2023. Illustrations. 304 pp. Hardcover $29.95. Mitchell Schwarzer Mitchell Schwarzer MITCHELL SCHWARZER is an urban and architectural historian. He is professor emeritus at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, and most recently author of Hella Town: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption (2021). Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar California History (2023) 100 (4): 131–134. https://doi.org/10.1525/ch.2023.100.4.131 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Mitchell Schwarzer; Review: A People’s History of SFO: The Making of the Bay Area and an Airport, by Eric Porter. California History 1 November 2023; 100 (4): 131–134. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/ch.2023.100.4.131 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentCalifornia History Search The enveloping nature of the airport and airways hit me a little over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic. Traveling from my home in Oakland to New York City ushered me into an enclosed series of paths that began with an AC Transit bus and continued via the BART train to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the ticketing zone at the International Terminal, the security line in front of the A gates, the concourse leading to my flight, the jet bridge, and the corridor of the Jet Blue Airbus A321 leading to my seat. Once at JFK in New York, a like set of passageways took me toward my rental car and the out-of-doors, my first mask-free breath of fresh and presumably virus-free air. I had negotiated this ten-hour-long route many times before, yet that day I became acutely aware of the sequestered nature of the airport/airplane and the ancillary... You do not currently have access to this content.