Funny Lady filming locations Part 1

WTF? Pardon my French, but my blood boils every time I look at this image of the Funny Lady train station. And then I feel depressed.

This is what is left of the 16th street train station in Oakland, California. As you can plainly see, the station has been abandoned, boarded up and vandalized.

I've only been to the outside of this station. The whole area has been fenced off and topped with barbed wire. I could see an area where the wiring had been removed, but I still didn't feel like climbing over the chain link fence. The windows were boarded up, too. I probably could have found an access point somewhere to the inside. But I didn't want to deal with what I might find. God only knows what was there- bums, crack heads, prostitutes, gang members- you get the idea. In addition, it was overcast the day I visited. So limited source of light (and-you got it- there's nothing without the light.) Oh yeah, there's also the issue of trespassing.

According to an article on the internet, the city of Oakland was planning on restoring the station, but they had issues. The train tracks had been removed, so it could no longer serve it's intended purpose. There was damage from the '89 earthquake. The surrounding neighborhood was blighted (don't walk there at night!).

The article talking about the restoration was about three years old and from the outside it was obvious nothing had been done. With the current financial worries in California, it doesn't look like a restoration is coming anytime soon.

Hope this photo isn't too much of a downer. I like Barbra Memories postings to be more light-hearted and whimsical. Who was it that once said "what's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget"? Apparently they haven't seen this photo.