On Sunday, I took some more photographs of the entropic balcony:

• viewed from the east
• viewed from the south

Now, if you'll look at the image of the balcony when viewed from the east, then you'll see that the south-eastern support post was attached to the balcony by way of a plate. The plate was affixed using two nails, one top and one bottom. I say was in each case because the displacement of the post has caused its nail to be pulled.

Most places in the universe are not Bella Italia Fragrances. But there's a place in Hillcrest that in its own special way is not Bella Italia Fragrances.

Here are a couple of pictures of Bella Italia Fragrances, at 3852 4th Avenue, captured by Google for their street view: It sold soap, shave brushes, and so forth.

One day, walking along the 3800 block of 4th Avenue for the first time in many days, I found this carport. I was amazed. As you can infer by looking to the left and to the right, the carport was where Bella Italia Fragrances once was. But the carport also appeared to have been where it was for years.

Evidently, a shop had been implanted into the carport. The decorative bushes at the entrance, and the scrubby bush at the curb served to disguise what had been done. And evidently the implantation was highly reversible.

On Friday or on Saturday, the balcony that I keep photographing took another hit. I took some photos last night or this morning: The rough-and-ready repair applied on 20 October was a matter of simply pulling or pushing on the supports in a linear way, and it was none too precisely done. Now, with the south-eastern support and its base twisted, more skill would be required to get things even back to the poor state of 21 October.

Yester-day, a sort of rough-and-ready fix was applied to the balcony supports. Perhaps by the land-lord; perhaps by a desperate tenant; perhaps by an architectural vigilante.

Well, it's still standing, but… Notice that the south-eastern support has now been so displaced that its base is now cocked.

(I earlier posted an image from 14 August and some from 15 September.)

This photo was taken at night, in the yellow glow of lights illuminating a parking lot. It's of the same building that has the collapsing staircases and balcony photographs of which I've posted to this 'blog.

There was a seemingly derelict fellow on a bicycle in the parking lot as I set up to take the photo. He was amazed that I would want to photograph the building at all. I responded that the building had many interesting features. He declared that an amazing feature is that shown here: I'm not sure what sort of room is immediately on the other side of that window, but beyond the pile of stuff there is what appears to be a shower curtain. The fellow on the bicycle has decided, in all seriousness, that the pile of stuff is being thus hidden by the occupant from his friends, in a shower stall or tub — a theory which seems to imply a distinct lack of privacy for anyone previously using the shower, and that the occupant doesn't anticipate his friends ever looking into that window.

The bicyclist and I discussed the exterior staircases and balcony. He railed against the landlord, and thence against rental prices in San Diego. He opined that the Arabs (pronounced /ˈeɹæb/) might be responsible.

As I packed-up my stuff, he pedalled off into the night.

You might recall the balcony whose photo I posted on 14 August. I noticed to-day that in the last month there has been a further decline. Here, showing the bottoms of the two eastern supports, is a detail from a photo taken then: The south-eastern support was the big problem. Here's the base of the north-eastern support: Here's a photo from to-day: The south-eastern support is still the worst of the four, but look at the base of the north-eastern support: The concrete base has been moved a bit, and the wooden post has been further moved in the same direction, so that it's no longer fully on the base.

My guess is that the problem is of the posts repeatedly being hit by vehicles. In any case, unless there's some intervention soon, that balcony isn't likely to stand another month.

In my opinion, San Diego is now seriously over-built. Condominia are going unsold all over town. But development continues none-the-less. Through-out the country, the real estate market has been driven by more than simple considerations of supply-and-demand. And San Diego is one of the places where the results have been notably grotesque.

I often pass this granite building: Erected in 1912, at the south-east corner of the intersection of Robinson Avenue and Third Avenue, it was originally the First Church of the United Brethren in Christ. According to what I've read, it served a Free Methodist congregation from 1950 until the late '60s or early '70s. (In 1946, the United Brethren in Christ had merged with the Evangelical Association to form the United Evangelical Church; perhaps they'd consolidated places of worship.) From 1971 until 1988, the building housed a gallery for art (with a theme of the American West), and still has doors carved to read Thackery Gallery. In the late '90s, it was turned into six apartments.