69 posts tagged “san francisco”

Favorite local subject right now is Street View on Google Maps.

Link to my favorite weird shot so far.

Runner up: Of all the times to be leaving a strip club...

Wired has a collection of inadvertent urban snapshots you can vote on.

You can still ride for free on BART during Spare The Air days -- but only until 1pm, and I couldn't be happier about that. The transit agency said that between all the complaints from regular riders and the increase in petty theft on those days that enough was enough. I've had the occasion to ride on two free BART days so far and I vowed to swim across the Bay and then walk to my destination before I'd consider doing it again. Crowded, late trains turned into instant rolling asshole conventions thanks to bored teenage kids with nothing better to do. No thank you.

SFGate: Spare The Air trims will limit free rides

Also joining in on the 1pm cutoff are Caltrain, Altamont Commuter Express and all ferry operators. All other transit agencies will continue to allow all-day joyrides.

And good morning to you, Internets!

Went out late last night to see the latest in Pirates of the Caribbean. I have not been that extremely bored at a movie in... well, I can't even remember when. About 45 minutes in, little pools of light can be seen in the audience as people start playing with their phones. As this is the first movie I've seen in San Francisco since 2004, I'm not sure if it's because everyone else is bored or if it's typical behavior for SF audiences.

At an hour and fifteen minutes, my group decides that this is so not worth suffering through to the end so we get up, walk out and hail a cab to The Stud. Gay dance party was not happening. Weak, weak, weak. This is how San Francisco kicks off a three-day weekend? I'm concerned for the party health of my community!

Club Six, located on San Francisco's notorious stretch of Sixth Street slums and SROs, is not exactly what you'd call a welcome neighbor at this point. Residents say they've had enough of the noise and the crowds and the crime, and they're pushing for a license revocation -- or some other means of getting the club owner to adhere to the letter of the good neighbor agreement he signed.

The people who want to "save" Club Six may have some legitimate arguments, but frankly the stunning displays of nastiness and classism from that group have turned me off to whatever validity their messages might have. According to many of them, being poor and living on Sixth means you're a junkie or a derelict and that you shouldn't deserve some relative peace and quiet. Never mind that if it wasn't for the Shitty Sixth and SF's social welfare network, many of the artists and musicians that make the SF scene so vibrant never would have had a launching pad, but that's something for another blog entry.

No one expects Sixth to be suburban quiet. The street has its problems and noise and crime and the people who lived there are used to dealing with that going on constantly in the background. The neighbors are saying that what goes on at Club Six has crossed the line and I think their claims deserve legitimate and level-headed examination.

In the meantime, enjoy some of the out-there comments from someone by the name of Yogo, in SFist's entry about the drama. He (or she) is convinced that the neighbors don't want Club Six around because they're all junkies and derelicts, and that "the clubs scare off the druggies."

Yes, San Francisco nightclubs are truly paragons of clean living where nary a snort or a toke is observed.

Of course, that accusation came from someone who also believes that the Coalition on Homelessness "seeds" parts of town to prevent gentrification (if so, it doesn't seem to be working very well). Would we expect anything less?

To be fair, Tony Hall does have some government experience, having represented District 7 for four years, give or take a few months. The Chron says he's not doing this as a grudge match, honest. Wha? Oh, seems there's some bad blood between Hall and Mayor Hairball; SFist does a good summary:

Tony Hall's been famously irritated with Gavin Newsom ever since Newsom dumped him off at the Treasure Island Development Association to give his Supervisor's seat away to Sean Elsbernd and the Office of Emergency Services office to Annemarie Conroy, and then had him fired after the two of them got in a fight over Newsom's lack of commitment to the island and Newsom's accusations of Hall's financial improprieties.

Oh, and he's also a staunch conservative. Not that theres anything wrong with that (electable SF conservatives are typically moderate and non-wingnutty), but it's the sort of quality that works better representing a district than trying to get a citywide majority. Whoever wins, I'm certain we'll get the government we deserve.

As I discovered during my move from Seattle to San Francisco, wifi in the car makes the trip -- and finding stuff along the way -- much, much easier. Tom set up his own wifi solution (a Sprint EVDO router), which is trivially easy to do. Since mobile wifi seems to be the sort of thing that is quite handy when traveling, it makes sense that Avis is now offering it with car rentals from SF International Airport.

SF Supervisor Aaron "sources say" Peskin is offering a ballot measure that he says will improve MUNI. The unions are already screaming a blue streak about it, which means it just might be effective, if approved by voters.

We're a little funny, a little kooky, here in California. One of our wacky beliefs is that the people who represent us at the city level should actually live in that city. The San Francisco City Attorney isn't quite sure if SF Supervisor Ed Jew (whose offices and home were searched by the FBI last Friday for clues in a corruption investigation) actually lives in the city. The Chronicle helpfully points out that water to his primary San Francisco residence wasn't turned on until 60 days after residency requirements kicked in, and that neighbors rarely, if ever, see him or his family in the neighborhood.

I can admit that sometimes I'm too self-conscious for my own good, and that I especially hate making mistakes or looking like a complete fool in public. Whenever I'm in a new place and situation, I tend to hang back and watch what other people are doing before I dive into the fray, so that's why I really like this quick list of San Francisco "guides for n00bs" as written by one Yelp contributor. I think I'll do my own Yelp reviews in this format from now on.

If that's not to your taste, perhaps you'll appreciate a subjective list of "REAL Chinese food in the Bay Area."

San Francisco Supervisor (that's the equivalent and then some of a city council member for non-residents) Ed Jew's home office was raided by the FBI this evening. According to the front page blurb on Fog City Journal, the feds said they're looking for information related to tax evasion.

More information: Metroblogging San Francisco and SF Gate.

MUNI means business: Nat Ford sent out a diplomatic (and leaked) memo to his management team requesting "that everyone participate in representing the best interests of our organization, the City, and our patrons by following SFMTA's standards for performance." In the business world, this are usually the type of memo that arrives a few months before mass firings begin (at which point everyone realizes "oh shit, management means business" and real change occurs).

Bay Area foodies are kinda-sorta-yes-really pissed off at Slow Food maven Carlo Petrini for slamming the organic wares of the Ferry Building's farmers market as being tailored for "a clientele whose social status was pretty clear: either wealthy or very wealthy".

In the why-bother department, a major hotel chain approached Rosas Farms about using their organic and grass-fed beef in that chain's restaurants. All went well until they demanded all incoming meat be irradiated as part of "a risk management thing." The Rosas showed the hotel executives the door and Erin Rosa wrote some informative words about irradiation.

Democrats may be the Congressional majority (by a slim margin), which at least allows us some point-and-laugh room

when the more shrill of the wingnuts start ranting. This time, Sadly, No! mocks the latest utterances of Debbie Schlussel -- she's some sort of columnist, I guess -- who has decided that Muslim doctor = medical terrorist. Stay classy, Debbie.

And speaking of things that make wingnut conservatives scream, read an excerpt from Al Gore's upcoming book The Assault On Reason.

In the latest chapter of the ongoing serial known as Oh My God Best Buy Sucks, the kids over at Consumerist feature a letter from the latest happy customer victim of the Big Blue Box. It's titled Best Buy Stole My Computer and I think you can figure out the contents on your own.

This Link Lounge is not brought to you by Dee's Nuts, the salty snack treat that's been filtered through a pair of breasts.

Masked men break into the DMV's Oakland office, steal a bunch of registration stickers and disabled permits that are within weeks of expiring.

NYT asks "Why are so many chefs at all price points — who wouldn’t dream of using vanillin instead of vanilla bean and who source their organic baby vegetables and humanely raised meats with exquisite care — using a synthetic flavoring agent?" The additive in question is truffle oil which, as it turns out, doesn't actually contain truffles.

Controversy! Debate is raging over whether San Diego burritos are better than Mission-style burritos served in San Francisco. According to the comments, the Mexicans cooking in San Diego (land of the horrifyingly disgusting and tragically overrated "fish taco") are more authentic than the Mexicans cooking in San Francisco.

There be whales in Sacramento. The Marine Mammal Center is trying to figure out why the pair of humpbacks is attempting to reach the state's capitol. Maybe they want to have a chat with Arnold?