Articles: Journals, Periodicals and Newspapers

Gray’s Articles on the Web
links to other sites

“We’re all Venice now”, MarkCrispinMiller.com, Nov 5, 2012
Three days after superstorm Sandy devastated New York CIty and New Jersey, an exceptionally high tide flooded nearly 60% of Venice but few outside its region noticed.

The fading genius of the US post office, The Guardian U.K., Aug 2, 2011
The superb post offices of the New Deal era are a monument to America's democratic ethos. Now we’re selling off FDR's legacy.

New Deal's legacy in danger of being ruined, San Francisco Chronicle, Mar 27, 2011

Revisiting the WPA to Remind America of its Potential, New Deal 2.0, Feb 17, 2011

Home sought for 1940 3-D map of San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle, Sep 6, 2010

Two Views of the New Deal: The Pitfall of Low Expectations, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec 19, 2008

News Analysis: Public Relations (Again) Trumps Public Safety at UC Berkeley, The Berkeley Daily Planet, Oct 16, 2008

Excavating The Buried Civilization of Roosevelt’s New Deal, Newgeography.com, Aug 13, 2008

Forgotten Foundation: The New Deal for Bay Area Parks, Bay Nature, Jan-Mar 2008

New Deal Legacy Remains Visible and Vibrant in East Bay, The Berkeley Daily Planet, Jul 6, 2007

Full-text Articles

“Necessitous Men Are Not Free Men” Bridging Ruskin’s Thought and the New Deal
Download the PDF.

The Guttering Promise of Public Education, U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography Commencement, May 16, 2009

Hollywood as Propaganda Machine: Context for Gabriel Over the White House, Pacific Film Archive, Apr 15, 2009

Yoo’s Presence and the Faculty’s Silence, Berkeley Daily Planet, Apr 15, 2008

Building on Sand and Goo Again, 100 Years Later, Berkeley Daily Planet, Nov 23, 2007

An Evening on the Edge of the Western World, a talk given at Piedmont’s “Wildwood,” an estate designed by Bernard Maybeck for Frank C. Havens, Mar 3, 2007

Willa Baum Memorial, Remarks by Gray Brechin, Morrison Room, U.C. Berkeley, Oct 22, 2006

Changes at California Monthly Threaten Magazine’s Independence, Berkeley Daily Planet, Feb 4, 2005

Keeping the Faith, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan 27, 2005

The Great Endarkenment, talk given to the International 9/11 Inquiry at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, Mar 26, 2004

Manifest Destiny At San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PDF), Aula2, 2001

Conserving The Race: Natural Aristocracies, Eugenics, and the U.S. Conservation Movement, Antipode, Jul 1996

The Way We (Almost) Were: The Rise and Fall of the Hearst Memorial, California Monthly, November 1993

Termites [the raiding of the Pribiloff seal herds], Upriver, Downriver, Fall 1993

Ruins and How They Get That Way, New York Times, Aug 11, 1991

Imprisoned By Dreams: Reagan, Focus, and Consumer Media, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dec 28, 1989

USS MISSOURI: The Big Questions Remain, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Aug 12-19, 1987

Defying the Growth Gods, San Francisco Focus, Oct 1986

Built by FDR: How the WPA Changed the Lay of the Land, San Francisco, Jan 1990

San Francisco Is Sinking, or the Revenge of Mission Bay , San Francisco Focus, Oct 1985

"High Head in the Deep Below," ,a paper co-presented with Noel Kirschenbaum on underground power production in the Comstock mines at the National Association of Mining Historians' Organization in Aberystwyth, to be published in forthcoming NAMHO Proceedings.

“The Broken Promised Land," Terrain, Summer 2002.

"Manifest Destiny at San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition," Aula 2, 2001.

"Power Elites: How UC Berkeley — and Stanford — were founded of, by and for the ruling classes." San Francisco Examiner Magazine, Jan 30, 2000

"How Paradise Lost" [from Farewell, Promised Land], Mother Jones, Nov/Dec, 1996

"Conserving the Race: Natural Aristocracies, Eugenics, and the U.S. Conservation Movement," Antipode, Jul, 1996

"The Destruction of Knowledge in the Age of Information," The Ampersand [Quarterly of the Pacific Center for the Book Arts], Spring/Summer, 1996

"Unfinished Business: Bernard Maybeck's Phoebe Hearst Memorial for Cal," California Monthly, Nov, 1993

Review of Guide to Eastbay Creeks," Museum of California Magazine, Fall, 1993

"Ashes to Ashes: Bernard Maybeck's Fireproof Houses," San Francisco Chronicle, Nov 24, 1991

Interview with three Bay activists, Bay On Trial, Spring, 1991

"Florence Boynton's Temple of the Wings, SF, Apr, 1991

"The Cabins at Echo Lake," Countryside, May, 1991

"Prayers From the Past: Early Synagogues of San Francisco," SF, Nov, 1990

"Good Earth: The Terra Cotta Creations of Gladding, McBean, SF, Oct, 1990

"Henry Doelger Builds the Sunset," SF, June, 1990

"Architectural Treasures of Alameda," SF, May, 1990

"San Francisco's Unbuilt Megafollies," SF, May, 1990

"Phoebe Hearst's Plan for U.C.," SF, Apr, 1990

"New Deal Landscapes," SF, Jan, 1990

"Public Monuments of San Francisco," SF, Nov, 1989

"St. Francis Wood," SF, Sep, 1989

"Curse of the Downtown Stadium," Bay Guardian, Aug 23, 1989

"Hetch Hetchy's Temples of Water, SF, Jul, 1989

"Petaluma Palimpsest," SF, June, 1989

"The Stones of Colma," SF, May, 1989

"North Beach of the Senses," Focus, Feb, 1989

"Mercury's Lasting Legacy," Peninsula, May, 1988

"The Lost Creeks," Peninsula, Mar, 1988

"Restoring Streams in California's Cities," Headwaters, Mar-Apr, 1988

"Frank Lloyd Wright in Northern California," Northern California Home and Garden, Nov, 1987

"Aces Wild," California Monthly, Nov, 1987

"Public Gardens of the Bay Area," Focus, Jul, 1987

"Sermon on the Mountain" [Mt. San Bruno], Focus, May, 1987

"Public Art Restoration," Focus, Mar, 1987

"The Global Garden," Focus, Mar, 1987

"A Span for All Seasons," Focus, Jan, 1987

"Let's Build A Library!" Focus, Dec, 1986

"Choreographer of Space" [Larry Halprin], Focus, Aug , 1986

"New Wave Organ" [Frank Oppenheimer], Focus, Jul, 1986

"Monadnock Renewed," Focus, May, 1986

"Forgotten Father" [Charlie Starbuck], Focus, Apr, 1986

"Body Politics" [San Francisco cemetery removal]. Focus, Mar, 1986

"Freeway Follies," Focus, Jan, 1986

"State of Grace," Focus, Dec, 1985

"Space Saver" [Frederick Law Olmsted in California, Focus, Nov, 1985

"The Wrong Stuff" [Philip Johnson critique], and "Revenge of Mission Bay," Focus, Oct, 1985

"A Matter of Trust," [Tim Such and the public trust doctrine], Focus, Sep, 1985

"The Fort Mason Renaissance," Focus, Aug , 1985

"A Case for Books," Focus, June, 1985

"San Francisco: History of A Dynamo," Christian Science Monitor, May 29, 1985

"Crippled Creek Champs" [urban stream restoration], Focus, Apr, 1985

"Kingdom of the Dolphins," Focus, Mar, 1985

"A Tale of Three Cities" [San Francisco, New York, and Venice compared], and "Earthly Delights" [David Attenborough], Focus, Feb, 1985

"Praising the Preservationists," Focus, Jan, 1985

"Sulla Collina: Una Casa di Irvin Goldstine," Abitare, Dec, 1985

"Toward A City Worthy of Its Name," Focus, Dec, 1984 [First of the series called Cityscapes.]

"Down the Drain" [Kesterson poisoning], Focus, Aug , 1984

"Sick Transit," Focus, Jul, 1984

"Living the Dream in Berkeley," California Monthly, Mar-Apr, 1984

"Hold on to Herbst," San Francisco, Mar, 1984

"Progress in San Francisco: It Could Have Been Worse," San Francisco, Oct, 1983

"South of Market: The Irrelevance of Urban Planning," San Francisco, Jul, 1983

"Fair Extraordinaire," California Monthly, Dec, 1982

Book review of Building the Dream by Gwen Wright, California Monthly, May, 1982

"1360 Montgomery," Metro, Sep, 1982

"San Francisco Bay: Progress and Threat," Defenders of Wildlife, Aug , 1980

"Mono Lake," Sierra Club Yodeler, Feb, 1979

"Mono Lake," Defenders of Wildlife, Aug , 1980

"Attic Treasures" [Outdoor theaters and pageants in California], California Monthly, Dec, 1978

"A Little Place in the Country" [Victorian estates on The Peninsula], California Monthly, Oct, 1978

"Epitaph for a Dying Lake," California Living, Oct 1, 1978

"Classical Dreams, Concrete Realities" [Mediocritizing the Berkeley campus], California Monthly, Mar, 1978

"History of the Aeolian Harp," Folk Harp Journal, Mar, 1977