June 22, 2008
More on spending lottery winnings
One of the aspects of New York City's streets that has me shaking my head: the prevalence of half-stolen bicycles. Almost every block has a utility pole or parking meter with a scavenged bicycle stuck to it; I thought that, should I win sacks full of money by playing the lottery (which I don't), I would cycle around town fixing these bicycles and redistributing them. This idea now strikes me as naïve and optimistic: a more constructive approach would be to repair everyone's bicycle, for free, with priority to people who use the bicycle for everyday work (deliveries, commuting, et c.). Roadies and recreational riders probably don't want me wrenching on their bicycles, anyhow (me, tired after fixing on bikes). I began taking photographs of these, which I call Unhappy Bicycles. See the slideshow of this neglected and picked-apart bicycles of Manhattan.... Read more
June 6, 2008
Where goes the neighborhood
EV Grieve writes about an old New York magazine article lamenting the yuppification of the East Village -- the gritty neighbourhood party to labour riots, to burned-out crack houses, to endless attempts at urbanization and revitalization. Scans of the article are in the blog post: http://sophiesbar.blogspot.com/2008/06/lower-east-side-there-goes-neighborhood.html. How long will it take to get there (or here)? An Avenue C bar owner prognosticated five years in The New York Times: "C will keep its edginess for five more years," predicted Melvina Goren, a partner at Porch. That was two-and-a-half years ago; in a survey of places to drink beer of a Sunday afternoon, Aram and I found all of the contenders overrun with everyone (and thence retreated to the excellent Creative Time installation at the Governor's Island Ferry Building).... Read more
May 30, 2008
The view along 28.9º offset
This should have been a perspective of the setting sun, the disc revealed in its entirety, but clouds moved in late afternoon and spoiled an otherwise spectacularly sunny day. The phenomenon of Manhattanhenge occurs a few times each other, but none as spectacularly as in late May. The term comes from an article in Natural History magazine by the astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson.... Read more
September 15, 2007
In which the weird get stupid
Anna's right: this is a riveting story. The San Francisco Chronicle reports the latest plot developments in a story that began when Ross Mirkarimi of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors intervened during yet another drive-by shooting in his district. The drive-by shooting began with a wronged young man, who called reinforcements in the form of his parents; the parents arrive with a roaring engine and a car full of guns; they chase the son's assailant around Alamo Square, eventually running him to the ground and running him over. The assailant tries to commandeer a passing motorcycle, but the father rams the motorcycle, knocks down the fellow, and finally crashes his car and runs away. Breathless stuff. At some point the valiant Supe-r hero dives in and "reported what he saw to police and got into a patrol car to help them locate the suspects".... Read more
June 30, 2007
In which the police have my back
The SFPD locked down part of Divisadero this afternoon after some hooligans shot at a broomstick-wielding septuagenarian: Police believe the incident involved two men in their 20s who apparently had a dispute with an older man who was sweeping outside a barber shop. The two suspected allegedly chased the older man, who at some point struck one of the two young men with his broomstick. One of the young men then pulled a gun and fired at least once, missing the older man, police said. A 42-year-old old male driving a vehicle a block away, however, was grazed in the head by the bullet. ... Police cordoned off the area to conduct a door-to-door search for more than two hours with information indicating the suspects entered one of the local businesses. Neither were located, police said. Police also were unable to locate the older man involved in the incident and witnesses at the scene were apparently uncooperative.... Read more
June 27, 2007
In which we refuse
One of the aspects of Manhattan that I have always enjoyed are the ubiquitous curbside rubbish bins. Sometimes lined with black plastic, usually a wire mesh receptacle: nothing fancy, but something functional. Baghdad by the Bay has a dearth of these receptacles, and now San Francisco has even fewer trash cans. Why? According to a 2002 study for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, " ... San Francisco has at least twice the number of trash receptacles as New York, four times more than Los Angeles and five times more than Portland ... ". I wonder, then, why I so often find myself staring at piles of trash on a street-corner, needing to call 28-CLEAN, or tucking waste into my pocket for lack of a convenient receptacle. Outside of the downtown (and who goes downtown in San Francisco?), rare are the streetside bins. The heavy, cast concrete bins (with the ludicrous pyramid-of-recyclables atop) make only cameo appearances in the areas around the Civic Center. San Francisco's Mayor has some ludicrous ideas about how this move will encourage business owners to arrange for waste-hauling contracts (did you know that any business that sells a food or beverage must have a waste receptacle outside? I didn't.). Mitchell Brothers have put out a cardboard box. That's classy. The SFist has some words on ditto.... Read more
June 26, 2007
In praise of Craigslist
Spring cleaning has come a little late to this household, but with a two truckloads to a prominent national charity, the massive garage sale a few weeks ago, and a steady stream of posts to Craigslist, we have managed to divest about a tonne of crap and hopefully save it from landfill. I started asking for beer instead of the $5 or $10 most remaining bits are probably worth (why did I have those old Volvo seat covers? the entire stereo system from that late, lamented car?), and now I have a 'fridge full of cold beer. The guys at the corner store are doing a brisk business today. Craigslist is awesome: it connects me and all my random stuff with the divers other folk who want specific pieces of what I have (or, in some cases, hundreds of Ethernet cables, all lengths, colours; dozens of DC transformers and power bricks; cases of cheap wine) and no longer need. (Did I ever?) Fantastic! Historical note: One of the first people I met upon arriving in San Francisco was Craig himself, sociably working from the (now-defunct) Tassajara Bread Bakery on Cole. My brush with someone who changed the way things work.... Read more
May 31, 2007
In which the two tons of metal win over the twenty pounds of aluminium*
The gentle folks of SF Party Party speak out on the smack-down that San Francisco's boys in blue have put on cyclists breezing through stop signs. The video (not available directly, for permissions reasons I do not understand) shows the same intersection where I narrowly avoided becoming part of some jackass's spokes on two separate occasions Tuesday, once in the morning and once at night. The man-on-the-street (bicycle, in this case) interviewed in the video notes that the neighbourhood suffered through two recent murders, and wonders why the police go after cyclists like him who "slow most of the way down". Don't they have anything better to do? he asks. Better than protecting your stop-sign-flouting ass? Probably. But it's not just about you: their job is to protect everyone, and to ensure order and respect amongst the community. That job is in addition to tracking down drug-dealers, murderers, sham artists (of w. we in the Lower Haight have plenty), and ignoring the dope-shops further down the block (lowest-priority). Bringing awareness to the importance of road rules is a significant part of the "gold in peace" job: not only do cyclists die at this intersection after failing to stop, but pedestrians are jeopardized. I am all in favour of the police pulling over all vehicles -- private cars, taxis, delivery trucks, cycles, and skateboards -- that don't stop. In the spirit of American innovation, I propose another solution: instead of the motorcycle police stopping you, how about a Mini Cooper? Don't worry, folks: that cyclist was still breathing when he was pulled away from the wreck. I have seen others die at this intersection, and at others around San Francisco. Die, as in never again able to weave around pedestrians, never able again to flip off a car, never again able to pop a a wheelie. Let us look to the law, the law, and plain ol' common sense. On the other hand, a picture is worth a thousand words -- and I have a half-dozen. * and hundred-seventy-five pounds of hipster flesh UPDATE: jimg (as in yojimg!) sez: Same roads, same rules. UPDATE: I should also point out, in the case that it is not blindingly obvious, that I feel none of the camaraderie that one might expect of people who form cliques based on the "we're all in this together" groupthink. The "we" is every person on the streets: cars and peds and skaters and bikers and weirdos in wheelchairs. I do not have the knee-jerk reaction that cyclists are right, or in the right, because they are not in death monsters or in fossil-fuel-burning SUVs (or hybrids ...); cyclists are right only when they are right, each as an individual. And ditto motorists, to whom I also give a hearty raspberry for blowing through stop signs at the intersection near my house, for roaring down the short block at forty m.p.h., and for blocking the bicycle lane anywhere.... Read more
March 26, 2007
In which we have no independence
The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story on the survival of some few independent record shops in the Bay Area, with only the briefest mention of Down Home Music in El Cerrito (with its new neighbour, Berkeley exile Mod Lang). I am still recovering from the sudden closure of my local shop, Open Mind Music. Village Music in Mill Valley will go out with a bang: "In the meantime, Village Music will get a bang-up goodbye. [Elvis] Costello has agreed to perform in the store sometime in May, and DJ Shadow (Marin resident Josh Davis) has designs on playing every day in September until the doors close for good." The struggle to remain open reminds me of all the book stores that have shuttered in recent years. When I moved to the Bay Area ten years ago, I printed out a forty-page listing (from the Internet!) of local booksellers, and started visiting each of them as often as I could, weeding out the shops that did not interest me (Rex Stout first editions, Greek texts and scholarly commentaries, contemporary American fiction). Now that list might be a fifth as long, and hardly as interesting. Similarly for the record shops.... Read more
February 19, 2007
In which the title says it all
The San Francisco Examiner, which grows more dilute and content-free by the day, ran a decent story with a grabber of a headline: Locals Flunk Parks in New Online Report. Yup. According to the report, 1,621 complaints about 153 different city parks were submitted in 2006 — and 60 percent of them were attributed to vandalism such as graffiti, broken glass, trashed bathrooms and broken sprinklers. “Vandalism is one of the biggest priorities for the department on a day-to-day basis, it is definitely eating up funds in the millions of dollars magnitude. It’s psychologically troubling for the staff and people who use the parks,” said Rose Marie Dennis, spokeswoman for the Recreation and Park Department. ParkScan.org Technical Services & Outreach Coordinator Alfredo Pedroza said most residents reported unsafe conditions at neighborhood playgrounds to be their top priority. A “D” or “F” grade — based on national standards of playground safety — was handed out to 30 playgrounds in The City for their lack of cleanliness and maintenance. Of those 30, five have been closed or slated for renovations.... Read more
February 2, 2007
In which alcohol leads to killing people
Someone was shot in the head legs (nine times, according to this witness) at the intersection of Webster and Haight, just across from Rotee, a few days ago. A woman on the 71 pointed out the spot as we passed it, saying that it's a tough place to live; she got off at the next stop. Our supervisor, Ross Mirkarimi, thinks that curbing alcohol sales in the neighbourhood will produce a corresponding drop in the amount of gun violence. How about curbing the amount of drug sales? The blocks immediately around Webster have dealers lazing on stoops, double-parked at the meters along Haight St., running after each other with guns drawn. Although alcohol and liquor stores may haves some correlation with people capping each other, it seems more likely that illicit activity, literally illicit activity like drugs that involve an element of paranoia and require special protective measure, is really what prompts the sort of killings we have suffered these past few weeks. This is the same Mirkarimi who has acted reluctantly and slowly with respect to controlling the several medical marijuana dispensaries. The Lower Haight can be sketchy. UPDATE: Greg corrected some details on the Tuesday shooting.... Read more
January 23, 2007
In which the louts are getting restless
If it's not one thing, it's another. An assassination attempt at Fifty 24? The Klan in Duboce Triangle? Carlos has some photos (nice b&w! and color!) from the accident.... Read more
October 29, 2006
In which strange things happen as the clocks jump around
Daylight Savings Time, the autumn incarnation, is more interesting to me than the vernal. The mystery of the extra hour: what happens? I was wakened by weeping, loud enough to hear up and down this block, an adult weeping. Four squad cars and an ambulance are now in the intersection of Page and Scott, and the car that was idling on the eastern side of Page St has moved to the kerb. Earlier, the woman who was crying got into the back of the car, perhaps for protection: as I arrived at the window, a man (the driver?) got out and flagged down a passing prowler. Another arrived almost immediately, and then took off with lights ablaze -- perhaps to find the assailant? The paramedics and police all left, suddenly; the woman left with the police, I think; I did not see where the man went, but the car is still parked haphazardly at the corner.... Read more
October 25, 2006
In which our late-night cup overfloweth
First NOPA adds flair to later dining, now the latest developments around The Horseshoe in the Lower Haight promise another late-night restaurant -- a proper restaurant, not a greasy spoon. Not that I have anything against six strips of late-night bacon at Original Joe's, mind you. The Horseshoe burnt last year in a spectacular three-alarm fire. Boris Nemchenok, a sommelier and former manager of Mario Batali's Otto Enoteca Pizzeria in the Big Apple, is bringing the enoteca concept to San Francisco's lower Haight, opening Uva (grape in Italian), in the space of the Horseshoe Coffeehouse (568 Haight St.) next spring. Nemchenok and his partner, chef Ben Hetzel, want the 49-seat wine bar-style restaurant to be family friendly, with lots of antipasti, panini, cheeses and salumi, with prices ranging from $4-$10 a plate. They plan to start with 80 different Italian wines and work their way up to 150. About 25 wines will be sold by the quartino (eight-ounce decanters) for $7-$13. Bottle prices will range from $20-$40. The best part -- Nemchenok wants to serve dinner until 1 a.m. daily. Now that's Italian.... Read more
October 23, 2006
In which the Lower Haight Blocks the House
Today was a beautiful day for the first (annual?) Lower Haight Block Party. Aram, Greg, and David King, one half of the Museum of Small Things Davids, were collectively selling witty t-shirts (Greg looked quite natty in his "Straight Outta Haight" tee), and shared a colourful booth with Sarah and her beautiful glass jewelry, and a woman who stitched great patterns onto handmade bags (-- anyone have her URL?). The street scene had plenty of kids running around, girls on roller skates, the necessary but still unsettling weird clown on stilts, and lots of loud music. The Tamale Lady strolled past with a couple of coolers of her finest. Little other food was available on the street, although most of the neighbourhood restaurants (and MCDs) were in full effect -- I was half-expecting some funnel cakes or italian ice. David took a rattle-can to my duds and put The Bomber, a great design, onto my undershirt. That's street art.... Read more
October 20, 2006
nopa
After several months of rebuffed attempts to get into this place, Anna and I finally sat down in NOPA, first at the long bar and then at a two-top. I got over the ridiculous name ("North of Panhandle" is off by a few hundred meters and a whole New York City concept). The drinks are good, and the menu promising, both for cocktails and for wine (the half-bottle selection is quite decent, even). In fact, the whole dining experience was pleasant enough that it renewed my enthusiasm for eating out in San Francisco. There are few enough honest restaurants of any price; I can think of Papalote, , the delicious pizzerias Pauline's and Little Star, and, the difficult-to-get-into Slanted Door -- well, I can't really think of too many other outstanding places to eat, places that advertise the quality of their ingredients and stick to their principles. The Bay Area has many other fine places to have a breakfast (Ole's, say, or Kate's Kitchen), lunch (Mondo Caffé), and dinner; or to have a glass of wine, a cup of coffee, or even a glass of real ale. But we seem short on honest places to get an unpretentious plate of good cooking. Nopa has yummy, good food made fresh in the kitchen (which we could see from our table), good drinks made right at the bar, and pleasant, attentive staff. I was impressed and pleased. Now if I could reliably get a table ...!... Read more
September 2, 2006
June 26, 2006
I am an entomologist
I had left a few bags destined for compost: kitchen trimmings, last week's flowers, spoiled leftovers. They sat out on the back stair while I was away for a few days, and when I returned to clean them up, they had grown the most fascinating collection of mold I have seen outside of a dorm 'fridge. The bags also supported a collection of insects that momentarily made me reconsider abiogenesis, which I learned to discount at my grandfather's non-Aristotelian knee. Out from one bag crawled a spider the size of my thumbnail; flies (fleas?) buzzed around the bags; earwigs, beetles, and worms trundled about. I stood transfixed for a moment, and then scooped up the bags and chucked them in to the green bin, where all of the grubby little critters will no doubt continue to party until their daddy takes their t-bird away.... Read more
June 19, 2006
In which someone takes pride in the neighbourhood
I frequently slag on the neighbourhood for having a poorly-shared park that smells like poop, for having no respect for its murals, and for I was happy to see that the recently-defaced mural at Future Primitive Sound System has received some repair. Props to whoever painted over the tags.... Read more
June 16, 2006
In which the car, she purrs like a kitten
From the Park Station Blotter: Kitty Rescue Monday, June 5, 2006; 9:41 p.m.; 310 Haight Street A night watch sergeant stopped to investigate why six people were gathered around a car. He found that they were unsuccessfully attempting to coax two kittens that appeared to be trapped inside the engine compartment. The sergeant located the owner of the car and got him to pop the hood, one kitty jumped out and the other required further coaxing. The last reluctant kitten finally did come out no worse for the ware. Animal Care and Control responded and took custody of the two.... Read more
June 13, 2006
In which our neighbourhood needs a vigilante
I am in favour of neighbourhood policing, not just because it affords me the desired opportunity to swing a sack of doorknobs. After Vallie chased down the Gang of Three, the hoodlums who have been wantonly breaking car windows in broad daylight, I realised that we, the Concerned Citizens, can do an effective job of making our presence known. We can sit outside and enjoy the sights and sounds of the 'hood (also known as stoopin'. We can walk with confidence on the streets, and say "hello" to people as we pass. We can let the police know about businesses and residences that repeatedly suffer from vandalism (especially graffiti, in this area. One of these days I will post the collection I have of crude designs scrawled on the grim building across the street). We can sweep the sidewalks, we can let 28-Clean know about litter, and we can keep our buildings well-lit at night. And we can swing a sack of doorknobs.... Read more
June 11, 2006
In which we wager
This week we are betting not on the Belmont Stakes, the desirable third jewel in the Triple Crown, but on parking. The beginner's bet is against a parking meter: a few pennies, perhaps a quarter: that is your bet that you can finish the errand, the meal, picking up whatever, in the few minutes the city provides you in exchange for the coin. The more advanced bet is against the painted kerb. Should you park in a red zone, a blue zone, a yellow-and-red zone, or a green zone, you are flirting with having the car towed. The city's web site sternly warns: "MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES ARE NOT TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION." As for the tow: after several years of scandal around the various shady contractors engaged in the auto-reclamation trade, we have a brand-new downtown impound yard. I chuckle at the euphemistically-named Auto Return, the contractor that the city of San Francisco now has. Some people are not very good losers in this gamble.... Read more
June 2, 2006
In which we call for Hammurabi
Like the mural on the corner of Scott and Haight, the Future Primitive mural on Steiner and Haight was not especially beautiful, but was carefully-done and appealing in its own way. Hoodlums have bombed it with their tags over the past several nights, defacing the now-vacant store. I suppose that in the end, the entire mural will be painted over, suffering the same ignominious fate as its cousin two blocks away.... Read more
May 30, 2006
How to run a neighbourhood business
From the perspective of the consumer, I offer these thoughts on the distinctions necessary for a small or neighbourhood store to succeed. In this bold world of marketing, where small urban stores face competition from encroaching "big-box" retailers, franchise convenience stores, and online shops, neighbourhood stores can still add tremendous value and identity to a neighbourhood. I have found some of my local stores disinterested in offering anything unusual either with service or with selection, and offer some suggestions. Stick to the posted business hours. If your sign reads "Sunday 12-5" and the door is still shut at 2:30, I'm less inclined to try again: how do I know you will be open again later that day? In case of an emergency forcing you to stay away from the store, have a neighbouring store-owner's number, and have them tape a "Sorry, closed for the day" sign on the door. If I see that, I will probably try again another day. This is also known as the "Health Wize" problem Know your customers If someone has come into the store three times and picks up the same items each time, remember that. Offer to have the items waiting for them the next time they come, if they are on a schedule. Make some indication that you know who they are and what they are buying. If they wanted to be surreptitious or anonymous, they would have might as well have bought the items online, or at CVS. If you run a café or a lunch counter, acknowledgement that you have seen the customer regularly come in and order the same drink -- "lemonade, no ice" -- for the past three months goes a long way towards building a relationship. If I wanted bullshit service I could go to Harbucks or Burger King. This is formally described in the literature as the "Bean There" problem. Know your goods Know what you are selling, and hire (and train!) clerks, assistants, and managers who know what goes on in the store. If I come in to Ye Olde Lower Haight Fromble Shoppe, I should well expect to find frombles of some description. If nary a one is to be found, I might reasonably expect the clerk to say, "Oh my, after last week's Fromble Festival we are out entirely, but both British and Scottish Frombles should be back in stock next week." Not: "Dunno if we have any. No, dunno when we will get them in." This is sometimes referred to as the "Naked Eye" problem. I hardly expect small retailers to offer lines of credit, or to immediately special-order items for first-time shoppers, but these attitudes are the hallmarks of small stores. Used judiciously, they make the difference between the bodega and large, anonymous retailer offering similar and identical goods. I do expect local shops to know their stock, to know their clientele, and to offer a level of customer service beyond what I will find anywhere else. Otherwise, I go somewhere else. And neighbourhoods wither. I refuse to support local shops simply because they are local: I will support them because they are local and good.... Read more
May 29, 2006
In which a skateboard becomes a weapon
Several park denizens assaulted a couple with skateboards and knife: a man is in hospital as a result. This is the same intersection where some years ago a man hitch-hiking to Santa Cruz made a vampiric assault on his benefactor. At the moment this is the contentious site of a new supermarket development: will Whole Foods develop a multi-use building on the former Cala Foods lot? UPDATE: The jackasaurus was buying drugs from vagrant youth when he was attacked with the skateboard.... Read more
May 18, 2006
In which we do not participate in the community
The new vision for the Hayes Valley ("Market and Octavia") neighbourhood continues with adjustments to the six-year-old plan. The Planning Department is holding a community meeting on 23rd May to review and discuss the draft plan, as well as the (Draft) Environmental Impact Report. Depending on which poster one sees, the meeting is either at the LGBT Center or at the Bahá'í Center, neither of which seems a particularly appealing place to visit. The LGBT Center is an architectural excrescence at the corner of Octavia and Market: not only for the garish paint job, but for the horrid way in which the builders placed thoughtless modern extensions on the dilapidated Queen Anne rowhouses to make a garish Frankenstein of a building. The Bahá'í Center sits on Valencia across from Zeitgeist. Why would one would choose to go to the former in lieu of the latter? Does the Tamale Lady visit the Bahá'í? Aha. I thought not. Does the LGBT have The Replacements or The Minutemen on the jukebox? In your face.... Read more
April 22, 2006
In which our neighbours play the 'tag -- you're it!' game
The west wall of the New Santa Clara Market at the corner of Haight and Scott streets has long and proudly worn some sort of uplifting mural. About a year ago, some ruffians with impaired aesthetic values tagged the mural: others responded, through the same medium, that tagging murals was lame (and, implicitly, post-modern and thus unhip). And so on, to the point that the mural became a graffiti mess of sprayed tags and balloon characters. I was further dismayed to return to the 'hood and see that the building's owners, no doubt under pressure from the city to remove the offending graff tags, painted over the mural -- but lazily: they painted the lower half of the wall with the same stock brown (the recycled brown from Sunset Scavenger?). Which was promptly tagged.... Read more
March 27, 2006
In which we discover stoopless Brooklyn
Who will make the stoops? "If I can't afford to do somebody's stoop anymore, you know who will? Riff or Raff -- and they'll just dump their stuff illegally," Kiamie said. Every dead-end street will become a dumping ground. There's your follow-up story."... Read more
March 20, 2006
In which I convert to Baptism, so as to guarantee a parking spot for when I go to meet the Lord
These parking permits seem easy enough to make, but the city's seal of authority appears only if they are held by double-parking Baptists. What is the story with their ability to block in everyone else on the street? To block one lane of traffic on Guerrero and Dolores? What secret covenant does the City of San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic have with Baptists that allows them to flaunt the law? I know that they are not members of this community, otherwise they would not be driving and double-parking -- they would easily walk or bike in their Sunday best. Nothing on the DPT's web site suggests that Baptists should receive special traffic-buggering privileges. Were I Presybterian, could I obtain a similar permit? Quaker? Hindu? et c. How do people blocked in by Baptists get out? If they call the DPT, does the dispatcher say, "Oh, worship of The Lord (praise his mercy!) is part and parcel of Sunday in San Francisco"? does the metermaid drive up in the Interceptor, fall to his knees and speak in tongues? What arcane interaction between San Francisco and the collected Baptist Churches makes this possible?... Read more
March 12, 2006
In which the Lower Haight is disgusting above all things
Kendall sez it all in his winning entry in SFist's Fake Tales of San Francisco contest. A man in chef's garb passed by, carrying a broken saucepan. "Which way is the pot club?" he asked. As I pointed him up towards the 400 block, I saw the 71 making its way around one of the hourly meter patrols. "Darn, my watch must be slow!" I muttered. ... high-larious.... Read more
February 16, 2006
In which we scrub it green and clean
Today is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's Clean and Green day (you can read the the policy brief). The idea: produce something almost the exact opposite of, say, Market St., or of Octavia Boulevard. And we should reform parking, not only along the lines of "no free parking", but more organised parking, with more aisles for transit.... Read more
January 31, 2006
In which I need to get a new pair of glasses
I just stopped at the local store -- the cheese, dates, and bulk grains store -- to pick up a snack (cheese, dates, and bulk grains, in fact). I was carefully selecting dates from the two bins, medjool on the left and deglet noor on the right, when a woman came into the store, doubling the number of customers. She barrelled straight down the aisle towards me, and I reflexively moved closer to the table with the dates. She stopped, but barely, right against me. I continued with the dates, and she bellowed, "Excuse me!" I looked at her and said, "One moment, I'll be done in a moment," and she glared. I finished with one batch of dates and moved around the table so that she could pass -- and she yelled, "Can't you see I'm too fat to get past?" I am so glad that she neither had the manners to wait, nor the brains to go around to the other aisle (the other side of the table, in fact), nor the shame to not yell about her girth. I felt stunned for a moment after she squeezed past. Good thing I am going to get a new pair of glasses: I will be able to see the fat people coming. UPDATE: The dates were dry and rotten. I wish I had a monkey to taste my dates.... Read more
January 29, 2006
Notes on interactions with the civic government
Sidewalk ownership, rights, and responsibilities http://sfexaminer.com/articles/2006/01/25/news/20060125_ne01_sidewalk.txt Crime maps, which require a specific computer operating system and browser, and clicking two "I agree" buttons: http://www.sfgov.org/site/police_index.asp?id=23813... Read more
In which the hit-and-run is close to home
Anna and I were sitting in a restaurant down the block from Cafe della Stelle when a hit-and-run took out pedestrians and a goodly chunk of the Cafe building itself. Apparently, three of the hoodlums involved fled and disappeared. Upstanding men that they were, they abandonded their injured passenger, a woman. The neighbourhood seems unperturbed when we walked past again this afternoon.... Read more
January 21, 2006
In which we pay the property taxes
The Lower Haight's much-beloved pile of poop, Duboce Park, will go from being like Paris to being like 1920s Shanghai. The Recreation and Park Commission will carve the park into three parts. The article quotes a woman who does not want to scoop her dog's poop: that, she says, is what she pays property taxes for. I do'n't care that San Francisco has more smelly dogs (120,000) than stinky kids (110,000): once a dog poops or pees on a grassy area, there is no way that I would sit down and enjoy a picnic. San Francisco's violently vocal dog owners are all too eager to ignore the perils of hygiene that dogs create, and not only in the parks. Hardly a day passes that I do'n't nearly trip over solidifed shit on the sidewalk. This is why I refuse to wear shoes inside the house.... Read more
January 20, 2006
In which the third world is just around the corner
Since cities developed in the industrial world, became the urban accumulations of filth, pestilence, and illiteracy. I know that begging, thievery, and distrust are part and parcel of a city, and yet I still shudder to see legless men frothing at the mouth, asking for something to eat or some change. The Lower Haight has at least its fair share of begging, thievery, and distrust: a walk along Divisadero, the western boundary of the street, shows it as sordid as Laguna or the 300 block of Haight itself. Drug deals take place at mid-day, day labourers await a scrap of work, and beggars sleep in doorways covered with graffiti tags. Storefronts are perpetually shabby -- did Victorian shops really have a sheen to them? -- and the sidewalks are dirty, uninviting. Cyril Wecht, who first came to my attention when he was sarcastically voted for City Dogcatcher in Pittsburgh Magazine, faces yet another indictment on federal fraud etc. charges. Wecht, has been part of the dog-and-pony show at several circuses, including the Kennedy assasination, JonBenet Ramsey, O J Simpson, and, of course, the Fox Alien Autopsy.... Read more
December 20, 2005
In which we save Duboce Park (for the dogs)
Thanks to the local constabulary, I learn that The Dog Advisory Council unanamously approved the Duboce Park rediesign to include an off leash dog play area and a dog free zone. Kudos to Supervisor Dufty, his aide Amanda Kahn, and many dedicated people for bringing the community together ( there were of course people who spoke in opposition) around a compromise proposal. This took two years and alot of hard work by many people. Its great when the community input process works. Damnit, I am so glad that the Dog Advisory Council are able to superintend planning for a small neighbourhood park which so frequently smells, feels, and (in the least existential sense of the word) is full of fæces that I cannot imagine any desire to have a picnic there, nor take my kids to gambol about, nor even walk through the grassy bits. Never mind the paved paths themselves: they are all too full of mindless dog-walkers too lazy or too inconsiderate to realise that the park is not an off-leash playarea; that they must scoop the poop, not only because the law requires it but more importantly because good hygiene and the community suggest it; and, worst, that a park, once sullied with the poop of the pooch, need not always be so. Perhaps I make a broad generalization, but a small neighbourhood park is not a privy for pets. (Note to passing vagrants: nor is it a bathroom for bums.)... Read more
December 19, 2005
In which we are damned if we don't.
MUNI: Damed if you do, damned if you don't: the second pedestrian in two weeks to die after being hit by a MUNI bus met his end a few blocks from the stoop. Twelve pedestrians have been hit by Muni buses this year. This weekend’s fatality is the seventh pedestrian death from a Muni bus since 2001, according to police statistics. The most recent death before this weekend was on December 5 when Qiong Zhen Yu Zhou, 56, was hit on Van Ness Avenue. Her death prompted officials to announce they would install more “countdown” signals to allow pedestrians to see how much time they have to cross the street and a plan to bar shopkeepers in Chinatown from displaying merchandise on the sidewalk, which forces pedestrians into the street. The countdown signals do not help when the bus passes through an uncontrolled intersection, such as the turn onto Haight St from Cole. And, interestingly, no injury accidents have occurred on Grant St despite the throng of shoppers and pedestrians spilling onto the street. Instead of restricting sidewalk displays, the city should restrict street parking, and use the lane for deliveries and car traffic.... Read more
December 9, 2005
In which I am power-less (Part IV)
The power still has not switched back to mains, and the generator on the corner is looking a little peaked. I wonder why PG&E have not actually informed any of the residents what is happening: being on the brink of (again) losing power contributes to my overall feeling, which is best summed up by "Who Here Will Fight Me?" I'll take all comers. I have put back a vast quantity of dark-roast coffee in the past few hours.... Read more
In which I am power-less (Part III)
The PG&E crew (down to four trucks, plus generator) have been pulling new plastic-sheathed mains cable under the street, to replace the clay-and-paper-wrapped cable from the 60s. The Surly Guy in Truck says that they do not give advance notice of a power cutover in an emergency, since the maintenance is unscheduled. Could he drive a truck up and down the block to let us know? No.... Read more
December 8, 2005
In which I am power-less (Part II)
This morning we woke up at 430 to the hum of a generator at the corner of Page and Scott. A gizmo the size of a semi cab was installed at the corner, feeding the mains deep beneath the street. A generator had arrive earlier in the evening, but "blew up" and a replacement -- with capacity to supply two dozen families -- needed to be trucked up from San Carlos. A note was on the windshield of a car parked on the west side of the street, politely asking the driver to alert the PG&E crew when they might be moving it: they needed access to the manhole beneath the street.... Read more
December 7, 2005
In which I am power-less (Part I)
PG&E has a really nice automated, voice-driven system for reporing electric (and gas) outages, available through 800 743 5002. They even offer wakeup calls, should the power outage last through the night (ours did). They also have a Dashboard Widget. Then again, who does'n't? We used candles, rotary-dial telephones (ah, power from the CO), and could'n't light the stove. Significant power outages happen all too often in our neighbourhood. We have lost power thrice in the past two weeks, but on the previous occasions for less than half an hour each time. Tell-tale signs: the clock on the range is blinking furiously, but the UPS units have not yet begun wailing.... Read more
November 24, 2005
In which no-one has a handgun
The Chronicle reports that "Two men were shot to death in broad daylight today in San Francisco's Western Addition, just yards from an elementary school where children were attending classes." Search Google for news on the San Francisco handgun ban.... Read more
October 29, 2005
In which the vermin are getting restless
As jimg and I sat on the stoop after a customary Monday-evening repast of the deep-fried wings and rings, we saw a passel of ring-tailed raccoons run past, bold as brass. The leaders twain scurried up the fence separating our building from the corner realtor, and along the shoulder-height rail until they reached the back of the property. There they amazingly scrambled straight up a lattice-work wooden fence, and into the garden behind us. A third followed the two, and another pair hesitated in the narrow, ill-lit space between the two building across the street before running through traffic and following the others. I was amazed and horrified: the two biggest were about 20kilos, and fearless. I wanted to follow them and discover their disgusting lair, but the prospect of rabies held me back. UPDATE: Our next-door neighbour, Nancy, reports that a grand total of six raccoons live in her yard. She introduced herself to us by way of saying, "If you hear someone banging on a pie-pan with a flashlight around ten o'clock at night, do'n't call the police." Her intrepid dog, which any of the raccoons could devour without swallowing twice, thinks that he will attack them. Should we call Animal Control or some similar urban pest-eradication group? I recall the night six years ago, when I heard two of them bullying a third to the point of tears -- the terrified screams of the smallest, hanging desperately off the roof of an adjacent building, woke me from sleep. I watched the two bigger raccoons bullying their playmate for several minutes, until they apparently lost interest and wandered away. There was no splattered coonskin on the pavement the next morning, so I guess that the third one somehow hauled himself to safety.... Read more
October 26, 2005
In which bad things happen without good lighting
Although I notice some correlation between outdoor floodlights and an absence of crime in the neighbourhood, I would stop short of figuring that good lights alone will fend off Skid Row: But the lots, which are poorly lighted, are magnets for drug users, prostitution, homeless camps, graffiti and other illegal activities after hours. Neighbors and city officials believe that if the area were well-lighted and more people used it throughout the day, drug dealers and prostitutes would not frequent the lots. For example, I walk along a one-mile stench^W stretch of Market Street, between Sixth and Church, several times each week. Morning, noon, and night, crack fiends, dealers, users, relics, and paraphernalia dot the sidewalk; urine, vomit, and god-knows-wot stick to the sidewalks (despite the elaborate street-cleaning scheme the city embarks on, late anight); streetwalkers, charlatans, harlots, panhandlers, and junkies stretch out in doorways and on corners. And all of this happens on a street that is not only well-used, but a synecdoche for San Francisco itself. Bring on the floodlights, bring on the Farmer's Market (who will buy $6/lb organic apples beneath an overpass? "This heirloom tomato is known as 'Exhaust-fume orange' ; you will love it"), bring on the skate park. Just so I can later pull out an I-told-you-so, you don't win friends by building skate parks. Kids and skate rats will still be shooting the steps at the Armory down the street. The way to make the acreage under the overpass useful is to not build the (elevated) freeway in the first place.... Read more
October 24, 2005
In which it there is always room for San Francisco
I find Liz Hickock's scale model of San Francisco fiendishly exciting -- perhaps because it is made from Jell-O™.... Read more
October 18, 2005
In which we cannot teach an old dog new tricks
The San Francisco Examiner captures some neighbourhood discussion of what to do with the former UC Berkeley Extension site at Haight, Laguna, Herman, and Buchanan. I especially like the plan for housing for aging transgendered folk, who "can age in place" according to the developer. Might as well just stick 'em in a pine box, wot? I realise that the turn of phrase is an epithet for having all of the necessary shops, doctors, and community services nearby, but it sounds so horrible. I still have aspirations of spending my golden years on a decrepit cork farm in Portugal, raising chickens and drinking vinho verde.... Read more
October 16, 2005
In which the neighbourhood has a fence-y plan
I have many fond memories of trips to Paris, all without leaving the neighbourhood. I have little affection for Duboce Park, the junkie- and vagrant-riddled local patch of greenery. The half-block-wide park, valiantly cared-for by the community, is made all the worse by the constant presence of dogs and their ill-mannered walkers. The dogs poop and pee everywhere, intimidate pedestrians and people who might want to play a game or have a picnic (in a park? of all the nerve. Parks in San Francisco are for dogs!): and the people walking them are, as a group, brazen and disrespectful of the notion of shared space. The dogs run everywhere, across paths and along all the pee-stained stretch of grass on the south side of the park, as dogs are wont to do. I cannot stand going to the park, nor even walking past it -- it stinks! We already have a segregated play area for children, and the notion of cordoning off the already-ragged south-east corner of the park for the exclusive use of four-legged friends has raised some hackles. I say build a damn BART station on the half-block area and give 'em what for. Like taking coals to Newcastle it is, to give the Lower Haight another area for dumping fæces. The city has not done an admirable job of handling, either through policy or through enforcement, off-leash dog areas (Duboce Park is not an off-leash area). For their part, San Francisco dog owners have a cutesy web site that gives lip service to the idea that you gotta scoop the poop. ... even if everyone's poop were scooped, the dogs still pee on all parts of the park. I do'n't want to pic-nic there, I would'n't want kids playing there (mine or anyone else's; so broad-minded of me), and I sure do'n't want to stroll about a smallish greenspace which reeks. I have Haight Street for that.... Read more
October 3, 2005
In which we have a web site
Greg mentioned that some of our (now mutual!) neighbours have put up a tastefully-designed community resources web site for The Lower Haight (sometimes marked on maps as The Lower Haight Shopping District, presumably to entice tourists into spending their hard-earned monies on kindbud and outre one-off fashions). Greg stopped over yesterday after chowing down at Rosamunde's, had a glass of beer, and watched us maintain domestic tranquility (read: fold laundry and move boxes around).... Read more
October 2, 2005
In which I am workmanlike
This morning, Anna and I carefully planned our schedules (yes, even of a Sunday) so that we could consolidate errands that required a (much-hated, in principle if not in the particular) car. Much to our chagrin, we returned from some on-foot errands to find the driveway blocked by about a foot of gleaming white bumper. Anna looked desparingly at the car and realised that we could not back out unless the car moved (well, we could back out slowly enough to push the car into the road, and scrape -- literally! -- past: that is an approach more suited to ye poopmobile, however). Without hesitation, I called the DPT, and they arrived within minutes. About an hour later, the car had been tagged and was being towed, and we were just backing out when an unhappy young woman sat down on the stoop next to our and asked if we had towed her car. Beside her was a wailing four-year-old. I said yes, and, under prohibition against engaging people in fights, verbal or otherwise, kept my mouth shut. She walked over as we backed out and apologised, and Anna felt remorse. Slightly exasperated with our calling the dpt and quite probably ruining someone's day -- someone with a kid to contend with while in the painful process of retrieving a car from the pound --, Anna tried to balance our convenience against hers. She figures that it is easier to tow someone argumentative and volatile than a nice mother, but I suggested that regardless of whoever we were towing, they had taken their chances in blocking the driveway. The charm of calling for a blocked-driveway tow has already worn off, and I feel less as though I am acting territorial and more like I just want to finish my errands. Even when the car was going up on the dolly (it was a front-wheel drive, towed from the rear -- ouch), I was in the workshop banging on the kogswell and paying little attention to the hulabaloo outside. I'm calling the DPT Engineering office tomorrow, again, to find out when we can have the kerb painted in official DPT Red.... Read more
September 29, 2005
In which Cody gets the rock-star treatment he deserves
Yesterday (and the day before, to be precise) we rode home in style, in a curiously uncomfortable rock-star bus. The undulating pleather sofas, the massive leopard-print cushions, and the silent big-screen tvs all added to an awkward feeling. Did I mention the stocked bar? The rock-star comforts definitely suited cody:... Read more
September 28, 2005
In which it depends what you want to do
npr broadcast a story about an opportunity to get away from it all (where "it" entails the daily newspaper and the pub, and, quite probably, all other semblance of ... civilisation): "The National Trust of Scotland is seeking tenants for two properties on Fair Isle, the most remote inhabited island of Scotland. Anne Sinclair, a resident and historian of Fair Isle (pop: 65), says someone with knitting or construction skills would have no trouble making a living there. The knitting cooperative, for example, has more orders than it can fill." There's nowhere to run in Fair Isle. Google maps turned up nowt, but ultimately found another map o' the isle. All this could be yours for £300 sterling per annum. And the boat to the mainland runs once a fortnight! (Take that, MUNI!) After getting over the cultural differences (not locking one's door a'nights! aught for a pub!), I imagine settling down o' a morning to paint, to watch birds at the Skree o' Skroo.... Read more
September 19, 2005
In which ninety-five thousands stoop
Analygis have a very cool demo application that collates U.S. demographic information with online maps (using Google Maps, natch). Within one mile of where I live now: 95,000 people; within 5 miles, 797,000. This is twice the density of where I went to college and where I grew up.... Read more
September 8, 2005
In which the Owl catches a Bug
The two o'clock N-Owl pushed this new Beetle onto the sidewalk. The MUNI driver, calm and collected, stood outside the bus door and said "That person must have been drunk when parking." More photos. This has not been a good week to park your car on Haight Street -- and take it from me. I know something about trees falling on parked cars.... Read more
August 21, 2005
In which we again visit with the police (park station)
On our way home in the wee hours of the morn, Anna spotted the contents of a purse spilled across the pavement. We rested up for a bit and then cycled over to the Park Station (did you know they sell tee shirts with a Grateful Dead logo? $15!), where I also learned that one can file a police report online. The purse contents, by the way, included two (expired) driver's licences, three college IDs, a Social Security card, and a punch-card almost good for a free sandwich at a common sandwich chain. Certainly enough to steal this person's identity.... Read more
July 15, 2005
In which it takes a village to make a wiki
A useful wiki, especially if I had a more modern 'phone: the New York Wiki. Oh, if only it used Google Maps, as do so many sites do. Another interesting New York City pedestrian site: New York Songlines.... Read more
July 12, 2005
In which the budget still does not balance
although the board approved the increases, some supervisors are still working to decrease the fees for residential parking permits with further increases to parking costs in commercial areas. The new parking penalty schedule already has a higher fee for missing payment on a meter downtown $50, rather than the $40 fine for overtime parking in other areas of The City. Details on the rate increase appear on the Department of Parking and Traffic's web site. Aside: isn't "The City" a particular area of downtown London? I cannot abide how The Examiner insists on referring to San Francisco as "The City".... Read more
July 8, 2005
In which we are short of sight
A few months ago, I walked the length of Divisadero between Haight and McAllister, photographing the vacant store-fronts. I did ditto along Haight between Scott and Buchanan, and ultimately found the endevaour too unsettling to continue. Meanwhile, our hard-working supervisors have introduced legislation to ensure that this ""vibrant small business sector" continues without improvement. Unlike many residents in this area, I do not want to prevent chain stores from moving in -- our neighbourhood needs more incentives for small and individual business owners to hang out their shingles, but we should not prevent a hated or feared chain store from opening. The corner lot at Hayes and Divisadero, across from a chain fast-food restaurant!, has been vacant these three years because we fought tooth and nail to prevent a chain video-rental emporium from opening there, midway between two locally-owned video-rental places. The old fire house on Oak near Divisadero might have become an outlet for a locally-based chain clothing retailer, but the neighbourhood lobbied against that, as well. The building is now the temporary headquarters for the construction on the site at Baker and Oak. Meanwhile, we have liquor stores, check-cashing stores, and chalkboard cafés. But we have no book-shop, no bakery, no theatre, no delicatessen, no doctors (few professional offices at all) ....... Read more
July 6, 2005
In which we get the scoop on the poop
The San Francisco Chronicle has the latest on the fragrant dung-heap that is Duboce Park.... Read more
July 2, 2005
In which we work on our manners
After visiting the same café more or less every morning for the past nine years (wow! that is how long I have been in San Francisco -- !), I expect that the person behind the counter knows, if not my name, what I drink. So far so good: I walk in, and the nice Italian woman, the always-sleepy-but-very-cheerful German woman, the pleasantly-tweaked tattoed man, and the indie-rock chick all know that I put back a double espresso with hot water, and the mug I prefer to drink from. And they always say "Good morning" and "How are you" or even, simply, "Hello". But this morning I say "Thank you" to the woman with the weird mouth, and she says, briefly, "Yeah." A response that is unexpected and jarring, if not rude. Compounded with her blank stare when I said "Good morning", I felt more intensely disrespected than when I hear "No problem" in response to a polite, straightforward "Thank you". After I greeted her I paused, so that she could say something in return -- she had been bantering with the previous customer -- but she simply stood and stared expectantly. Perhaps I smelled bad? But no: a moment later the man who had been sleeping in the doorway across the street walked in, after emptying out his piss-bottle onto the kerb, and she handed him a cup of coffee. I must smell bad and have another offensive trait. From now on when I see this woman, I will experiment: no cursory dollar bill stuffed into the solicitous cup on the counter, no expectation that she knows my drink, no idle chit-chat. Or I might turn around and walk to the shop down the street. Or I might learn to make coffee for myself at home. The calculus of manners often breaks down in this spectacularly complex and rushed world. I sat down at the airport lounge, and the man next to me leaned over and said, "Hey, are you a football fan?", to which I answered, "No" and wondered "Is it football season?" because all I have on my mind right now is the end of Wimbledon and the beginning of the Tour de France. The man continued: "Well, one of the greatest players in the NFL is over there right now. Curtis Martin." And I started: I attended high school with Curt, and we sat through electonics shop (three periods! every day!) together, often watching his tapes from the previou day's game in the A/V lab (Yes, I was an A/V geek. Big surprise.) He set rushing records throughout high school, then at University, and has become an icon in American football: an elegant, talented football player. I went up to him, nervous for interrupting his privacy but very excited, because -- well, because he is a great guy. And he is: when I said my name, his face lit up and he said, "Yes, from Mr Karsin's class!".... Read more
June 16, 2005
S{t,c}oop
Dennis Flood has a picture that reminded me of the various meanings of 'stoop': http://www.dennisflood.com/photos/pow/2004-11/l-stoop-and-scoop-10088.jpg. Wise words to the crowd around Duboce Park, who have but deaf ears.... Read more
June 10, 2005
Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, Part Two
San Francisco's Recycling program has broadened the variety of plastic containers it can process. The general recycling guidelines are part of the San Francisco Environment web site. I recently started using corn-based self-composting garbage bags, and part of their appeal is the exorbitant retail cost. It provokes me to reflect back down the supply chain: I think before throwing out anything, before composting items, and before recycling. Where did the item come from? How might I avoid throwing out similar items in the future? Might I reasonably reuse what I am about to discard? Might someone else? Where did this item come from, and how much packaging, fuel, and byproducts are associated with it? ... we are pleased to add plastic tubs and lids to the ever-increasing list of products we accept. Check beneath the tub or lid: if you see the numbers 2, 4 or 5 in what looks like a "recycle" symbol, then you can put it in your blue cart along with your other recyclables. These tubs and lids are the ones customarily used for yogurt, margarine, cottage cheese, sour cream, and other food products-just make sure you've eaten or composted any leftover food from the container. The plastic tubs and lids go to a local manufacturer that makes a durable garden edging product called Bend-A-Board. Plastic items collected in San Francisco also get made into auto parts, carpeting, clothing, and of course into new plastic bottles. It's good to buy products made from recycled content because it allows us maintain a market for the recyclables we collect; it's not so good to use products that are not recyclable or compostable. San Francisco: a clean city.... Read more
May 29, 2005
How to clean up after your dog
Although I'm often joking that Duboce Park reeks unto the Paris of the 17th century, the park now faces a crisis of Noe-Valley-esque proportions: apportioning spaces of the small, smelly park for dogs and for children. The sanitary condition of the park depends on dog-caretakers cleaning up after their dogs, but would you sit down where a dog has just left a odiferous coil of poop or a steaming sizzle of urine? Dogs de facto own territory by marking it with their spoor. The attendant discolouration of grass definitely indicates the area where a child should not play. If the proposal entailed something along the lines of New York City's dog run in Washington Square Park, perhaps the world could get along. But Duboce Park is too small for separate off-leash dog runs and child play areas.... Read more
May 27, 2005
These are the people that you meet Pt XII
The frightening, curly-haired woman in front of us in the queue for coffee this morning turned around and screamed "boo!", but she really frightened us when she said she once "made a souffle, just to watch it fall." The precious few waking minutes that Anna and I share on week-days we spend at the café. We see many of the same early-morning faces: the woman with the blue windbreaker, walking a handsome dog; the man who drives a pickup laden with ladders, and who sits outside to read and smoke a cigarette; the man with sideburns, who sometimes arrives on a motorcycle and sometimes in a van; the man who cannot control his yellow Labrador, the dog invariably following him inside with its tail wagging.... Read more
May 19, 2005
"We really tried"
In a textbook illustration of schadenfreude, I chuckled when I saw today that Las Mesas has breathed its last. After (temporarily) losing their beer-and-wine licence, they never recovered, despite opening occasionally for "Mexican breakfast". After initially welcoming me and others last July, the shop's owner disappeared, replaced by a changing stream of hapless, arithmetic-impaired waiters. If they didn't forget to put chicken into your chicken enchilada, they gave out wrong change -- or both. The last time I visited, they confusingly deducted tax from the refund they gave after they realised they didn't have the ingredients to make the dish I had requested. Although I am sad to see the chic décor and the lush outdoor garden go, Las Mesas never made good use of either. Good riddance to this mediocre restaurant. Some local businesses have saddened me greatly when they closed, especially when it happened prematurely. Opening a small business of any kind, not just a restaurant, takes great courage: running it effectively and building a loyal clientele takes an impressive amount of dedication and energy. Las Mesas, however, squandered its great location, cheap an' easy food, and nice décor by providing indifferent food, shabby service, and erratic opening hours.... Read more
May 10, 2005
Fire on Haight St
Just afer 6.30 this morning, a great conflagration swept through the building on Haight St. that houses the Horseshoe Café ("Under New Management"). Smoke billowed through the sunshine, and a half-dozen hook-and-ladder trucks, ambulances, and prowlers converged on the block. Trolley buses were halted at Divisadero, but an unfortunate few are stuck between Steiner and Pierce. Others with diesel backup engines motored along Waller or Page, creating emergency transit zones.... Read more
April 30, 2005
On the enforcement of parking regulations
With these handy print-able pamphlets, San Francisco hopes to keeps the streets in order. Why is this enforcement critical? San Francisco needs to maintain its sidewalks clear for pedestrians. Even as more sidewalk ramps are put in place (never mind the man in this neighbourhood who habitually steers his red wheelchair through the streets). Did you know that during peak hours, having a tow will take more than two hours? So the most important thing is avoiding the need for a tow in the first place. Although it is possible to have a private company tow an offending car, but it's more complicated, since there's no DPW citation.... Read more
April 28, 2005
These are the people that you meet Pt X
Almost every morning, an older man (I hesitate to call him a gentleman) walks up to the café with his handsome Labrador retriever. He invariably wears old denim jeans and a grey sweatshirt, covers his white hair with a blue baseball cap, and carries a rubber chicken. He walks in the front door, drops the dog's leash, and admonishes him to "Stay!". The dog looks as his master walks towards the counter, and then follows, tail a-wagging. Of course he will. The man turns around, inept and furious: "Stay! I said sit!", but the dog wanders towards the counter, tongue out. For reference, the café has hitching posts outside the door where customers typically attach dog leashes. The sign on the door,"No dogs allowed by order of the Health Department", has faded and torn.... Read more
April 25, 2005
Would you like to see pictures of the cat?
... and more photographs of Sprout!... Read more
April 22, 2005
After the bell tolls
Dammit. Why am I always hungry for dinner after everything within three blocks has closed? What about ten o'clock tells restaurants to turn off the gas and shutter the windows? Even Rosamunde, blessèd be ye name, kills the sautée pan for the onions well before the bells chime in for ten. Now my choices are the "we-serve-alcohol-to-minors-and-then-lie-about-it" crumby taqueria Las Mesas, or the strangely doughy and tasteless Mythic Pizza. I suppose that Ali Baba, who put fried potatoes in the shawarma, are also open. Perhaps I do have choices, but I'm just irritable. I want a juicy burger without having to walk down to Sparky's. Ooooh: burgermeister!... Read more
March 18, 2005
Adios to the second dutchess
Someone stole the gold Flying Dutchman bike from my apartment last night. Goddammit. I'll give you money to get it back. My beloved bicycle was stolen from my apartment last night. It's a scratched-up gold Flying Dutchman frame with a worn Brooks Pro saddle, Phil Wood front and rear hubs, and a fixed-gear. It has a HEAVY sticker on the downtube and an red upper playground sticker on the seat-tube. You can see it here: stolen flying dutchman: http://flickr.com/photos/salim/4684590/ I am offering a generous cash reward, no questions asked, for its return. Over the past few weeks, as I have divested myself of other and sundry bicycles (arrivederci, Ciöcc i Bianchi! bon voyage, Raleigh!) I decided to whittle the collection down to two: the custom-made courtney and the dutchess. They have awesome relaxed geometry, gorgeous details, and work well everywhere that I ride 'em. I've been loudly singing the praises of the Dutchess, an odd lilttle 80s steel frame that's has completely enchanted me. I rode its twin, the blue dutchess, for many tens of thousands of km., until the downtube snapped at the bottom bracket (wow!). This recalls my enthusiasm for moby, the volvo I thought I would have for ten years. I bought that waggon, thinking it would serve me well, and then a tree went and fell all over it.... Read more
March 14, 2005
If they don't burn this whole place down
Arrived home twice within twelve hours to see otherwise sensible young men urinating, one across the street on Mario's house, and th' other on my side gate. When I approached him, he shrugged and moved out of my way. I had the mild satisfaction of chasing him, fly open, into the street while he yelled, mildly, "But there's nowhere to pee around here!" Anna said that I should have asked him where he lived, so that I could go pee on his house. The ever-present public urination, defecation, and eating all make up one of the facets of this city, which, eight years after I moved here, continues to enchant me. On consecutive weekend days in March, I rode my bicycle around for pleasure and for errands; I sat outside with friends in the park; ate a wonderful meal within view of the bridge, the western hills, and the docs of Oakland; and I read in the sunlight with the windows open.... Read more
February 19, 2005
City beautiful, but it'll cost you
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette surveys the state and expense of trees, and gives props to my old stoop: It was a relief to get to Beech Avenue in Allegheny West, widely regarded as the city's prettiest street, with its well-kept historic houses and herringbone brick sidewalks. But what really sets Beech Avenue apart is its abundance of trees, which form a tall, lacy canopy over the street. The tree canopy on Beech is so lush because the lindens were planted on both sides of the street and allowed to reach their full height, thanks to federal funding that paid for relocating utility lines and poles to the rear service alleys. But even streets that carry power lines can have one tall tree canopy, with lower-growing trees on the utility side.... Read more
February 17, 2005
Gardening in the Lower Haight
The day I looked at my first apartment in the Lower Haight, I arrived early for the showing and walked around the block to get a feel for the neighbourhood. I walked in to the Sunrise Market to pick up a drink, and when I walked out a man was peeing against a tree. This morning I was walking down the same block, and another man was watering the garden, nonchalantly, in the middle of the sidewalk. The Lower Haight: it isn't just for the dogs, even when it comes to pooping and peeing on the sidewalk. Addendum: Yesterday evening, two men were standing on Haight St., outside the weird metal condos in the middle of the block between Steiner and Page, rolling a huge joint. This morning, in more-or-less the same spot, two other men were talking about some drug delivery device (a zepplin? a dirigible? something like that ... ) which involved nitrous and marijuana. Oh yeah, that spot is just outside The Vapor Room ("... emphasizes non-carbonizing vaporizers as a healthier way of introducing THC into the body ... "). And this morning, around 6.45: I was one of three people sitting in the coffeeshop. A dirty-looking sort stuck his head and said to the man sitting at the nearest table: "Is that your bike? It isn't locked up." The man said yes, it is my bike, and I didn't lock it. (I don't like my bike outside the café, either. I don't know why.) The smelly interloper nodded and mumbled his way back out the door. Just now I saw him again, pushing a bicycle past the construction site across from the DMV. Reminds me (again!) of the Neistat Bros. short about stealing bicycles in New York City.... Read more
February 13, 2005
These are the people that you meet Pt VIII
Down at the café this morning, I saw familiar faces: Jacob cycled past, helmet-less as always and en route to shoot hoops; Francine hovered near the door, waiting for something; the smilingest mom in the world walked her fussy three-month-old at the corner; and two cyclists on what couldn't have been the first but was perhaps the second date talked, ostentatiously, about raw food and Blue Bottle coffee. The corner book-seller, absent these past several months, rolled a shopping cart past his former corner. The cart was empty save a ghetto blaster blaring reggae, and he himself wore a skewed Santa cap. UPDATE: He returned a few hours later, and I picked up a handful of books, including interlinear translations of Livy and Ovid, and an Old-English grammar.... Read more
February 11, 2005
Better neighborhoods
I saw a sign on my way to the bus th' other morning. The URL it listed, www.betterneighorboods.org, pointed to San Francisco's inscrutable civic web site and a trove of planning information for the Market and Octavia area. The housing density vs. car ownership pictures made me laugh.... Read more
February 7, 2005
I like Paris in the the spring
There will be a meeting regarding the installation of children in the Lower Haight's renowned dog-shit pile, offically known as Duboce Park. Whenever I think, "Oh, I should take a trip to Paris ... in the 17th century," all I need to do is walk down to the corner of Steiner and Duboce, and the air is heavy with humid feces.... Read more
February 6, 2005
Harding Theatre
The languishing Harding Theatre is now on its way to becoming condos in the Western Addition. Although it's touted as our "best neighborhood secret", for as long as I've lived in the area it has been nothing more than a dilapidated eyesore -- well, perhaps also a reason for Baptists to double park. UPDATE: Turns out that the Harding Theater (sic) is a cause célebré. It's a trifle disingenous to claim that it is the last remaining single-screen theatre in the 'hood, because it's hardly a theatre. And if it were revived as ditto, how long would it last before Crunch (or, shudder, Curves) took it over?... Read more
January 31, 2005
Continuing Haight St closure
From the Octavia Boulevard project: Haight Street to remain closed through Friday, February 4th. Due to rain delays, this block of Haight Street will remain closed at Octavia an additional four days. During the closure, local traffic will access this block of Haight from Laguna St. This block of Haight will be a temporary “dead end” street. For further information, please call the project hotline at 554-5440. The project web site has lots more information, but still can't account for why the hell I voted for this monstrosity (debacle? boondoggle? absurdity? pork barrel? auto-centric-foolishness?). Yes, the boulevard does end, abruptly, in front of Flippers on Hayes St. Don't believe me? Look at artist's rendering.... Read more
January 29, 2005
Halfway house to hell
As I was walking between Anna's apartment and mine, two blocks along Haight St., I passed a 40-ish man wearing a fleece jacket. He looked around nervously and then walked up to a woman looking in the window of Doe. He said, "This place is like a halfway house. Come on, I don't want you walking here alone."... Read more
January 9, 2005
A matter of public health?
An epidemic has manifested in the Lower Haight: glaucoma. I see many young men going in to noisome nearby clinics, sometimes several times each week, to receive treatment. When will our public-health officials take notice of the matter? Am I putting myself at risk to have my sight stolen?... Read more
December 27, 2004
These are the people that you meet Pt VIIa
Can you meet your neighbours online? And then in the 'hood qua hood? I'll give an ice-cream cone to anyone who can tell me how Meet The Neighbors is better than -- or functionally different from -- putting up flyers in the lobby, on the corner telephone pool, or sitting on the stoop and hollering at people who walk past. Meet The Neighbors is not just a website - it's a call to action! We provide the tools for you to take some very simple steps, right where you live, to create a vibrant, real-life community with the people you share the same walls and roof with. We help YOU take these steps - but you actually have to take them if this is going to work for you." Hmmm. I'm not convinced: I entered in a full-on 9-digit zipcode, and the system thinks I'm in the Upper Haight. For the love of mike, I'm even wearing my genuine Lower Haight cap, which you can't get online. As far as hoods go, I'd definitely draw a line between the patchouli-drenched, street-urchin-laden Upper Haight, and the vapour-inhaled-ganja-drenched, schizophrenic-vagrant-laden Lower Haight. Oh yeah, and we gots the hair salons and the Toronado. Beat that, you Amoeba-hustling, Jerry-Garcia-mourning Ashbury tourists. I think I prefer the L B Jeffries approach to getting to know one's neighbours.... Read more
December 19, 2004
On the non-lethal application of beanbags
I'm frankly quite glad that the police subdued, rather than killed, the deranged man who was setting fires in our local (chain) drugstore Police on Saturday arrested an incoherent man whom authorities said tried to set several items on fire inside a pharmacy before attempting to hold police at bay with a crude flamethrower. The man, whom police did not identify, rushed the counter at Walgreens, 499 Haight St., at 11:15 a.m. and knocked medicine bottles from the shelves, police said. He then doused several items, including a display of teddy bears, with lighter fluid and started a small fire, said San Francisco police Sgt. Dan Linehan. When police arrived, the man attempted to ignite one of the bears and throw it at the officers, then made a primitive flamethrower by spraying the liquid through a flame, Linehan said. Officers then shot the man with a nonlethal beanbag shotgun and handcuffed him. The suspect was arrested and transported to San Francisco General Hospital. One officer was slightly injured when he was bitten by the suspect during the scuffle. He was being held Saturday night on suspicion of attempted murder of a police officer, arson and burglary.... Read more
December 10, 2004
Round-up
What's what in the neighbourhood: The turbulent bulan modern live-work space on Haight Street now contains several beauty-parlour chairs. This 'hood needs another beauty salon like it needs another marijuana dispensary. I'm ready for my tombstone: as I was heading out of the office last night, one of my colleagues hollererd down the stair after me: "Hey, Salim, how do you say 'bike path' in Latin?" and I yelled back "Via velocipedis!". I can see it now: RIP. He knew Latin and bicycles.... Read more
December 8, 2004
On the interpretation of (parking) signs
This morning the duallie white pickups were double-parked thick and deep on Scott St. A policeman stopped by and said that he had a mind to tag the cars, so I called the DPT. The contractors' pickups were double-parked because the curb spaces reserved for their use were taken, despite the No Parking easels and work permits which have been outside since August. A dutiful DPT officer (the local chief, he proudly informed me) came out, tagged the two cars, and called for a tow. He checked the plates on the cars, and told me that the first one belonged to someone who lived nearby; would I mind if he tried ringing their bell? Of course not -- as long as the cars moved soon, I didn't care how he did it. (Aside: I remember being woken up early one morning when Arshad's car alarm almost had cutie towed from a spot next to Brother-in-Law's; I was impressed that the police were so diligent.) A few minutes later an angry woman stormed up, steamed because she said that she's seen people parking there for the past several months. I could hear her arguing with the DPT officer outside; he told her on no uncertain terms that she needed to move the car before the tow-truck showed up. He reminded her that other people's behaviour is no excuse for her not heeding signs. She walked into the basement, where I was reviewing some work with a HVAC contractor. Things got worse: she refused to leave the basement, and I tried moving towards the door but she wouldn't budge. She suggested that I have more respect for my neighours; I reminded her that a city-mandated mailing had gone to all property owners and tenants in May, when we applied for the DPT permits, and that the permits themselves, along with standard warning posters, had been posted since August. This didn't carry water with her. I kept moving towards the door, and she had to step backwards. She railed against the ticket; I pointed out that the signs read "Tow Away No Stopping". She said that she couldn't read signs. The DPT guy calmly told her that if that was the case, she shouldn't be driving. The car that she moved was filled with trash bags and miscellany: even the driver's seat had a rubbish bin on it. I didn't recognise it (this woman usually drives a blue minivan), but know the woman. I even believe that she can't read the No Parking signs, but also know that the signs are visually useful, even if they're not literally understood. Everyone understands getting towed, though. I was looking forward to seeing at least one car up on a tow, but the other driver came along just as the first woman left. He was all in a hurry to have the contractors move their trucks, so that he could leave. The contractors gave him hell, saying "If you knew how to read a sign, this wouldn't be a problem."... Read more
November 23, 2004
Both men were known to the police.
First time as I can recall shots being fired west of Fillmore on Haight. And it was the cops that done it.... Read more
November 21, 2004
These are the people that you meet, Pt. VII
Left the casa this afternoon to walk down to the Mission with Jonathan: saw Leda and Yasmin down by the coffee shop; Erica at the burger joint; Tom driving slowly near the Pilsener looking for a parking spot; Chris (with hair! and a girl!) near Cama, the new bar on 16th; and the waiter at the Sunshine, where we ultimately ate, who asked where'd I'd been lately ("we haven't seen you in so long!"). On the return trip, saw Eric (who always circulates in that neighbourhood) and his translucent hip-top; while we were chatting, Greg rolled past on a blue blue bicycle.... Read more
November 10, 2004
November 6, 2004
October 30, 2004
Life during blackouts
A California Court has found PG&E at fault for last December's massive blackout.The yellow bands on the first floor are jimg's yellow plastic; I don't think there was any ambient light except the odd passing car.... Read more
October 28, 2004
October 25, 2004
Photographing your city block
Heard a talk by Marc Levoy et al. from Stanford today, presenting their CityBlock project. Some other sites which present panoramic city views: Cambridge Live; and Seamless City, in which the photographs are manually stitched together.... Read more
October 24, 2004
Density calculator
Isn't dense house expensive? And there are 22 candidates running for Supervisor in District 5 alone. Now that's density. No pun intended.... Read more
October 23, 2004
In which we do not ask for his life story
For more than a decade, I have had a curious poem by John Updike hanging in my apartment (through three Chicago apartments, one in Pittsburgh, and two in San Francisco): "Sunday in Boston". Here, then, is "Sunday in San Francisco": The dykes on bikes -- the lemon-lime fixed-gear, a real track bike -- and the upperclass with their derailleurs and yoga mats The aspiring hippies with patchouli drenched on their clothes and the vapours of medicinal magic all around The fags and their gay dogs purposely walking down to the Park and I smile a beery hello from the stoop, the real catbird seat... Read more
October 21, 2004
September 11, 2004
... and this is my receipt for your receipt
A few weeks after I had filed yet another complaint with the CPUC, the Chronicle ran a great article on how PG&E sends estimated rather than actual bills to its customers. Morally as well as fiscally bankrupt. Utilities should not only fall under public oversight, they should be a completely public -- owned and operated -- service. Free enterprise is for beer and house-painting services, not for critical civic infrastructure. I'm going to go watch Brazil now. PG&E says it sends out almost 70,000 estimated bills each month -- frequently for amounts higher than actual usage would warrant -- because customers' meters are inaccessible. But current and former insiders say the utility deliberately bypasses some neighborhoods to save itself the expense of hiring enough people to handle the workload. State regulators worry that ratepayers are being overcharged on a routine basis. They said an investigation into PG&E's billing practices already is under way and that the utility could face significant fines or penalties. PG&E spokesman Ron Low said that while meters in a particular neighborhood may go unread due to employee illness or traffic conditions, no policy exists to estimate customers' bills as a cost-cutting measure. "Our policy is to read every customer's meter each month," he said. "We have the proper staffing level to allow us to do so." Depending on the person I speak with at PG&E, I am told, variously, that my meter has not been read in eighteen (18) months, that the meter readers cannot find the meter, that the meter reader was unable to find anyone at home, that the dog ate their homework, etc., etc.... Read more
September 5, 2004
on the catwalk
Found out that a friend of mine is a successful model:... Read more
August 8, 2004
One man's junk
In the time-honoured San Francisco tradition, I had a garage sale today. Or, more accurately, I had a wish-I-had-a-garage sale in which I didn't really sell much. If other people could use the stuff that I found in the basement, it shall be theirs. I did put a smile on someone's face by selling them a dual-deck cassette player (ooh!) and a box of cassettes ("Van Morrison? The Cure? You're selling this?" he exclaimed) for $1; a 5-disc CD changer went for $5; and then I got tired of thinking about money and put up a "you want, you take" sign. A heavily-tattooed man with a backpack started pawing through a box of old office toys, and stared at a Happy Meal three-dimensional Yoda thingy for a while. "Whoah." he said. "Maybe it's because I'm stoned, but this is waaaaay cool." When I told him he could have it, he lit up. "Oh, that's great. I'm a found-art collage artist, and I'm on kind of a bender today." He walked off with a box full of the geegaws and whatnots that were piled around my space at Topica. Another fellow stopped by, his Pirates hat framing a sunbeaten face. "How much for the bike?" "Free. You'll need to give it a clean and put some air in the tyres." "Oh, this will be great for Burning Man!" and off it went to a happy home. I gave the grandson of the guys across the street the old Maguro trainer I bought in Chicago (off a newsgroup -- what a concept!). Someone picked the skewer off it, but I think that a bike shop will sell them a replacement for a few dollars.... Read more
August 7, 2004
He will never go hungry again
On the side of the high-rise at Steiner and Haight, southwest corner, Romanowski has started painting a beautiful, bright mural: While I walked up to it and out of habit began taking snaps, the artist was doing ditto. We talked for a moment, and agreed that the site was perfect for a mural: the wall, next to some ramshackle steps, is only too easy prey for taggers. The strong colours of his mural fit in well with the neighbourhood, and the fish and icons representing local businesses form a subtle tribute.... Read more
July 21, 2004
These are the people that you meet Pt VI
Stephan, who is opening a new bistro called Las Mesas, collared me on the street this morning as I was walking home from an errand. Named for its tables, which feature images from loteria, Mexican bingo cards, his restaurant is the first business to occupy the building in four years. The beautiful backyard won't be available for seating, though, nor will the restaurant have an on-site licence for selling alcohol. Neighbourhood objections prevent this. (Yes, there's a full-service bar on each of the neighbouring blocks; and yes, we are in sore need of outdoor cafés in San Francisco.)... Read more
Uh-oh, cops!
"You are not going to go interact with those police!" said Mary to Aram, as we all stood on the stoop and watched a fixie rider explain to two SFPD how a fixed-gear bicycle works. Greg had ridden his new bicycle over to the stoop, and Aram and Mary pulled up in their shiny just-washed car, and just as jimg walked up, the police blazed by with bullhorns roaring. The outcome: the cyclist got a lecture and a ticket; the policemen got a bewildering explanation of how a fixie works; and Aram did talk to the police (after the tickets were written and the cyclist on his way).... Read more
July 16, 2004
July 11, 2004
These are the people that you meet Pt V
Down at Zeitgeist, Thomas told me about how Irish transportation infrastructure emulates American: sprawling suburban developments, built without thought to non-private transportation. I like this place: I walk in, the bartender looks up and says, "The usual?" even though I haven't been coming here regularly since last year. A couple of drinks later, I wandered over to the food counter and Derek smiled and said, "Hey Salim, what'll it be today?"... Read more
May 28, 2004
Written on the walls
... long have I sought to build a site like grafitti.org. Curiously, there's not (yet!) a Walls/US/San Francisco section.... Read more
May 12, 2004
Togs
Do the clothes make the man? Today I'm wearing socks with a warthog on a fixie and a t-shirt with a buffalo +... Read more
May 8, 2004
Adventures in larceny
An early morning: as Anna and I were walking down to Kate's to meet Aram and MD MD, they rang up: "The Kate's doesn't open until 830." So we agreed to detour to Cooper's, where we sat outside an enjoyed the first cup of coffee. Over a plate of the Fruit Orgy, I wondered what would remind me of my love for this country. Aram promptly said, "The Minutemen." They wrote songs that expressed quiet optimism, while acknowledging the frustration of the Reagan era. Anna had a soccer game: we walked over to her apartment to pick up her gear on the way to the Polo Fields. Her apartment building has a locked iron grate, and a locked inner door: we passed through these and traipsed up the stairs. On the landing of the third floor, I saw a new-looking pair of Camper trainers. How odd, I remarked. As we approached the door of her apartment she stopped short. Her smelly turf shoes were gone. The shinguards remained, but someone had just absconded with her Adidas (and left their Campers in exchange, apparently). Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise: after Anna put up a very polite sign asking if someone had taken (she didn't write 'stolen') the shoes, she grabbed her cleats -- fortunately, Saturday was a nice day and the game was out-of-doors, so the loss of the turf shoes was a big irritation but not catastrophic to enjoying the day's game -- and scooted over to the playing field. I rode over to meet her. While the team were playing (and they won, 1-0), I chatted with another cyclist. Upon hearing the story of the purloined sneaks, he said, "You should go over to the Sports Basement, where my best friend works. You can't miss him: he's got a beard out to here." And indeed, we went down to the shop looking out on Crissy Field, and Anna got a very comfortable ("better than the Adidas!") pair of turf shoes. And then we got ice cream, dipped in chocolate.... Read more
Shakes alive!
While sitting at home this evening, I felt a minor quake centered near San Simeon.... Read more
April 26, 2004
These are the people that you meet Nr. 4
Although not literally my stoop, Coopers might as well be. The concrete-and-board benches outside welcome many of my neighbours: this morning Anna and I were sitting and enjoying some mutant macchiato when Jay rhymes-with-grimace and Sara(h) walked up. On to the Kaltrain with the Kogswell! Addendum: in the evening, as I was pushing the pedals back hom'ards, received a call from Aram, who was "seven minutes away". Just after he pulled up on the Carleton, Mary and Arshad drove up onto the sidewalk, and we played a little music through Arshad's car and sat on the stoop. Next-door neighbour Logan learned a little about skateboarding, watching Aram ollie endlessly ("Can you tick-tack?" she asked.) And Amanda and David walked past with Pilot, who's not 22/7 or irrational in the least bit, and an exhausted jimg came home.... Read more
April 20, 2004
Going 'round in circles no more
The traffic circles will go away. Alleluia.... Read more
April 19, 2004
Pride before a fall
I got a new un-stained-with-coffee hoodie today. Meanwhile, Aram and Mary got new 'phones.... Read more
April 18, 2004
All you punks and all you teds
Rolled up to the house after a test run on a freshly-tuned Dutchess, and a grungy bearded man was sitting on the stoop, drinking from a 40 and eyeing a bicycle leaned up against the house. No, it wasn't Aram; it was a ruddy-faced man, grey and dirty, who was doing pretty much as Aram or I might: sitting on the stoop, knocking back a beer, and working on a bike. In fact, when I first sped past the house I thought he had stopped because of bike problems -- perhaps he saw the sprocket charm on the threshold? -- and I pulled over to ask: "Is everything OK?" but he said, "I'm painting my bike." Even as I asked I knew that he was a bum, and the belligerent tone in his answer bespoke that. I suggested that he move on -- I needed to get past him just to get into the house -- and he began a mock-polite argument. He ended up taking his gold paint pen to the house next door, yelling at me that I couldn't push him away from the neighbour's as well, could I?... Read more
An engaging conversation
Stopped in at the Casa Jender-Vollrath for some merriment and house-warming. Little did I know that Pete (Mr Full-of-Wrath) had given Jen the biggest engagement ring ever.... Read more
April 17, 2004
It's the heat, not the humidity.
Something about this morning in the 'hood was fraying my nerves. I went out for a ride early in the AM, stopping for a cup of coffee on my way out. While I was pedalling past the beautiful mural in the Duboce Bikeway with the steaming coffee in one hand, I turned to get past a sleeping drunk. Just a little coffee splashed over the edge of the cup and all over my nice grey sweatshirt. It only takes a little to stain. That's twice in one week. Later in the day, I was walking across the idiotic roundabout at Waller and Steiner. Two uniformed SFPD riding bicycles cut through the roundabout, neatly coming within a few inches of hitting me. I yelled at them, but they didn't stop. Mere seconds later, at the intersection of Waller and Pierce, a squad car stopped southbound on Pierce, and then forcefully turned east onto Waller, where I was already well in the intersection -- and quite nearly a hood ornament on car 1100. I hollered after the cop that he almost hit me, generalizing that cops were jerks. He agreed and sped onwards.... Read more
April 11, 2004
Let the voters speak.
If ballot measures and propositions can pass by narrow margins, eventual second-guessing shouldn't come as a surprise. So why is the public outcry over Pier 39 redevelopment, Central Freeway / Octavia Boulevard (re-)construction, and Golden Gate Park Concourse demolition such a surprise? Bitter words and legal action surrounds all three, even after public opinion, committee meetings, and acrimonious votes. California's system of ballot propositions brings democracy into false consideration. Rather than allowing only policy experts and civil servants to solve problems, uninformed, rabble-rousing, and reactionary public groups must be heard. Does this make participatory politics useful? From the reaction to the Octavia Boulevard plan, no; ditto the Garage under the Concourse; ditto the new retail development at Pier 39. The problem is that by putting the vote before the public, the apparent seal of approval is placed on the project yet the actual constituents don't decide the fate of their local resources. Did the residents around Octavia Boulevard, and those people who actually use the Central Freeway, make the decision?... Read more
April 5, 2004
This used to be my playground.
Before too long, in addition to the Lower Haight Shopping District, we may well have the Upper Wal-Mart neighbourhood. Hell, we already have Upper Safeway, the energetic triangle stretching north-west between Mint Hill and Duboce Park. The bullying approach that Wal-Mart takes in shoe-horning its union-busting, wage-cutting, immigrant-exploiting stores into California make me shudder.... Read more
March 17, 2004
Living too late?
Utility undergrounding in San Francisco moves at a snail's pace: one or two miles per year, at a cost of $3 million per linear mile. This doesn't include the thousands of dollars that homeowners must pay out of pocket. DPT and PG&E plans call for 390 (of 920) linear miles of San Francisco streets to have underground utility cabling complete by the end of 2004. Expect homeowners all across our 47 square miles to rejoice on New Year's Eve, 2219.... Read more
March 14, 2004
These are the people that you meet (Pt. Three).
While working 'round the house this morning, I was seated deep in thought when I heard the doorbell ring. A lycra-clad figure in dark glasses waved up at me: lo and behold, Matt had ridden around the south part of the city and stopped in on his way back home. We sat out on the stoop and watched the neighbourhood roll past, this lazy, unseasonably warm and sunny Sunday. When Mark and Jeremy from the café walked past, I started: was it already past one? Indeed. I dashed off to the furniture shop down the street, mindful that I absolutely had to get something in the way of a cosy guest bed before I split town on Weds. The man behind the counter was basking in the sunshine streaming through the shop windows. Did he have such-and-such model in stock? Indeed. And could he deliver today? Happily. Don't you charge for delivery, I asked, pointing to the sign on the wall. No, he replied; you're just up the street. As I was signing the paperwork, he nodded towards the new Indian restaurant across the street. Have you tried that place? No, but I'm going there tomorrow. I'm looking forward t When he delivered the boxes and mattress, he was still cheery and smiling. Have a good time at Naan'n'Chutney tomorrow!... Read more
March 11, 2004
Parkin' in the 'hood.
The SF Neighborhood Parks project now uses Park Scan technology: ParkScan volunteer observers visit their parks on a regular basis (at least once per month). Using handheld computers loaded with an aerial image of their park, along with routes to follow, they observe park features and rate their condition. In addition, the volunteers use digital cameras to photograph park conditions they observe, both good and bad. Survey results and photos are sent to a central database at the Neighborhood Parks Council. Dangerous conditions noted in the survey are immediately forwarded to the responsible Managing Agency (most often the Recreation and Park Department) for attention. Other unsatisfactory conditions are returned to the observers to have the importance of each condition prioritized. The entire survey is then forwarded to the Managing Agency. Survey results are available to the public on the ParkScan website ... I noticed this information posted on a new signboard in Duboce Park, which frequently smells like hot dog shit. On days like today, more humid than most, it smells like steaming poop. If anyone ever claims that San Francisco is "European", point them at the Parisian piles of poop in the parks. Point out the massive homeless encampments in the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park; or the irritating and massive feral cat population throughout the western end of the city.... Read more
March 8, 2004
It's just down the freeway.
"Every place in L.A. is twenty minutes!", or, as Duane Delacourt (once Carter's Secretary of Symbolism) put it, "It's just down the freeway." This is California: beautiful, but congested with cars. While driving (!!) through a pleasant suburban town's main street, I saw plenty of attractive sidewalk cafés, broad pedestrian passages, but all faced with cars, parked and moving. The café tables looked at parking meters and busy streets; pedestrians must needs wait upon cars. Although the Doonesbury archive no longer provides a free search, alas, I can recount the strip following Duane's relocation to La-la-land. He and his wife are sitting on the deck, about to dip into the ubiquitous Jacuzzi, when he says, "I'm going to the store for some chips and guacamole." "O.k." "I should be back in 3 days." "What?" "It's just down the freeway." This coloured my initial impressions of California; this strip, and the early memories of watching a dragon dance in Chinatown, of riding a cable car (must have been the Hyde St. line, as I remember one particular broad curve). Cultural differences: ask a Catalonian how the distance from Reus to Barcelona, he'll say "80 km"; ask a San Franciscan the distance from the Mission to the airport, and he'll answer "25 minutes ... depending on traffic conditions."... Read more
March 6, 2004
I need a kamera.
I live in a beautiful city, and I have lots of cameras. My first cameras were all digital, but lately I've been buying Polaroids in various sizes, LOMO multi-lens cameras, and now I have a hankering for a traditional SLR. But were it not for lo-tech, would I have made a cameo appearance in a photo blog? Yo warning: 400k image file... Read more
March 3, 2004
You're it!
Six years of taking digital photographs of local graffiti, and I plumb forgot to snap a picture the first time my building was tagged. Props to my next-door neighbours for sending me email about this: I read their note on the way home, marched straight into the basement to get the house paint and a brush, and bob's your uncle.... Read more
March 2, 2004
The sticker is its own reward
I encourage my neighbours, colleagues, and friends to vote: one great way is by wearing an "I Voted Today" sticker, a simple and direct reminder that we're participating in the electoral process. Another way that casting one's vote is made easier in San Francisco is through the provisional voting: a voter may participate at any polling place, as long as they present proper ID. I've brought some of my colleagues, who might have otherwise lingered too long at work, to my polling place. But the poor organisation of polling places combined with the lack of training or uniform instructions for officals at the polling places leads to an offensive voting environment.... Read more
February 24, 2004
An otherwise inaccessible location
The oddly-placed Frank Curto Park along Bigelow Boulevard in Pittsburgh ("put it in H!") always made me wonder: who was this poor fellow, that the city would feel an obligation to honor him, but to do so in a slipshod way? Create a narrow park along a busy highway on a bluff over the train tracks, and expect the public to use it? The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry found a suitable use for the park: installing an Art Garden. Visitors can contribute their own plants to the garden, like a magic penny from the Malvina Reynolds song. Fitting, as Frank Curto was the curator of Phipps Conservatory during the 1970s.... Read more
February 16, 2004
Ground-breaking.
Construction has begun in earnest at the Bank of America branch at Fell and Baker. This project, several years in the making, will develop the half-block between Divisadero and Baker and Fell and Oak into a mixed-use area: some underground parking (much needed in the neighbourhood!), ground-floor commerical, and three or four stories of residential, mixed-income units. Anchor tenants discussed early on in the project included Falleti's, late of Fulton St. (and now replaced by a similar project, involving Albertson's and the City of San Francisco).... Read more
February 14, 2004
Raised to a new height.
I have long said that the only commerical enterprises lacking in this neighbourhood (The Lower Haight) are a donut shop and a bookstore. The two Eritrean women behind the counter told me that the Haight Donut Breakfast opened yesterday. Although the donuts are baked offsite (the Mission somewhere?), the several (ahem) I ate tasted fresh and warm. And delicious: none of the tired All-Star or Inga Donut action here. The Haight Donut Breakfast occupies the storefront on Haight next to The Top, once home to Botana, and is open from 7 ack emma to 10 pip emma.... Read more
January 29, 2004
Those who cannot remember the past ...
The phoenix rising from the ashes of San Francisco's venerated Emporium will feature franchise stores, a $410MM shopping center, a department store, and a multiplex movie theatre. Within eyeshot (or spitting distance, which might be more appropriate to this neighbourhood) is the Metreon, Sony's failed experiment at an urban vertical mall. Will the new shopping centre create synergy with its physical neighbours, as the Metreon failed to do? Will the centre entice people to spend a day in various errands and past-times, not only in the centre itself but in the neighbourhood?... Read more
January 15, 2004
Take a memo.
Arrived home this evening to find a memo from the The Mayor's Disability Council of San Francisco, soliciting public comment on the ">recently-installed traffic circles. The meeting is set for a day and a half after the memo was delivered; I can't make it, but I'm going to send my comments via email. A few weeks ago, the city distributed a questionnaire about the impact of the roundabouts. The online version doesn't work as a webapp, but one can print it out and send it via fax or post.... Read more
January 2, 2004
Lost in transition?
A piece on Pittsburgh's fiscal crisis, from the New York Times. Letter From Pittsburgh: Decade After Big Steel's Demise, a City Lost in Transition January 2, 2004 By JAMES DAO PITTSBURGH At the Carnegie Museum of Art, a series of paintings by Aaron H. Gorson capture what many people still consider the quintessential images of this city that industry built. A coal barge plies murky waters. A blast furnace scorches the dark heavens like a supernova. Smoke-belching stacks shroud the horizon in brown haze. But the paintings are a century old and the Pittsburgh they depict no longer exists. The big steel mills along the Monongahela River, save one, gasped their last breaths a decade ago. Shopping malls, gleaming office parks and upscale town houses have replaced some. Others lie vacant, the hulking skeletons of a dying species. Call Pittsburgh Steel City these days, and many residents will take offense. Pittsburgh, they say, is now home to "clean industries" like bioengineering and robotics. The bleak Dickensian tableau of big steel is virtually gone. But so are most of the hand-dirtying, high-paying union jobs that once made steel the fiscal marrow in Pittsburgh's bones. And now the city is broke, relegated to junk-bond status. Despite layoffs and service cuts, Pittsburgh will face an $80 million budget gap in 2004 and needs to raise taxes, officials contend. For residents, the crisis is a reminder that despite the city's efforts to remake itself in a postindustrial world, it has not quite replaced all those manufacturing jobs. This is a city lost in transition, rooted in steel but struggling to be reborn as something higher tech and less gritty. "We're a tale of two cities," Mayor Tom Murphy said. "We've had over the last nine years an unprecedented level of development. On the other hand, the underlying financial structure reflects a city that doesn't exist anymore." During those years, the city underwent a striking face lift, building new football and baseball stadiums along the Allegheny River and a new convention center downtown. And shoppers now browse upscale shops at the Waterfront Mall on the site of the former Homestead steel plant, where union workers battled Pinkerton guards a century ago. Yet in a striking indication that Pittsburgh is striving to move beyond its past without completely forgetting it, the developers left 12 towering smokestacks that are brilliantly lighted at night adjacent to the mall's movie complex. "Schizophrenia might be the right word for what we are going through," said Frank Giarratani, director of the Center for Industry Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. "We are a steel city. But people don't know why they think that anymore, except for the history." The immediate causes of Pittsburgh's fiscal crisis are hotly debated here and in Harrisburg, the state capital. Mr. Murphy points to what he calls an archaic tax structure and weak national economy. His critics say excessive borrowing and overly generous labor contracts are to blame. To relieve the budget crunch, Mayor Murphy has closed recreation centers and public pools and reduced street cleaning, rodent control, police patrols and bus service. And, next year's marathon has been canceled. Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, has asked the state to designate Pittsburgh "distressed" under a law that would give the city expanded taxing powers, including on commuters. Gov. Edward G. Rendell, also a Democrat, seems inclined to support the request, but many legislators, including some Democrats, contend that the designation would only stigmatize Pittsburgh. "It's frustrating to many of us, because Pittsburgh has become a dynamic region," said State Representative Jeffrey E. Habay, a Republican from Allegheny County. "We've come through the era of big seel, and it's been difficult, but we've stabilized our job base. We're not fiscally distressed, we're fiscally mismanaged." Experts say that while a mixture of outdated taxes and poor management precipitated the current crisis the region's long-term economic health has been shaky for some time, largely because of those silent mills. From 1974, a peak year for steel employment, to 2002, the industry hemorrhaged more than 75,000 jobs in the Pittsburgh region, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the same period, the city shrank to 334,000 residents, from 520,000, leaving it with roughly the same population as a century ago. Shrinking population has meant a shrinking tax base. Today, 40 percent of the city's real estate is tax exempt, owned by nonprofit churches, universities and hospitals. Two-thirds of its 300,000 workers live in the suburbs, subject to a small $10 annual commuter tax that was set more than 30 years ago. And half of its corporations are exempt from the local business tax. "The city puffed itself up in the 1990's and said, `We're not a steel town, we're an education town, a health-care town, a high-tech town,' " said James D. English, the international secretary-treasurer of the United Steelworkers of America, which has its headquarters here. "But from my perspective, the city's problems today are related to the absence of those good-paying manufacturing jobs." Muhammad Hafiz, 34, says he has been hurt by the passing of those mill jobs. His father worked in steel, and Mr. Hafiz assumed he would as well. But a union job never materialized, and today he hawks newspapers on the street. "We used to call Cleveland the Mistake by the Lake," Mr. Hafiz said wistfully. "But no more. I'm thinking of going there myself." Still, some people are coming back, drawn by the growing number of high-tech start-up companies and a rich pool of technological expertise centered on the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Aldo Zini is one. A Pittsburgh native, Mr. Zini returned from California three years ago to help create a company, Aethon Inc., that makes robots that transport supplies from hospital storage rooms to nursing stations. It has only 16 employees but expects to expand. "I was drawn back to this area because of the talent, the things going on here," Mr. Zini said. He is emblematic of a... Read more
December 28, 2003
Gettin' stoopid, winter-stylee.
Thanks to a lunch-time visit to Citizen Cake, a rare treat, I discovered a delicious new concoction: spiced cider with bourbon! It's tastier than eggnog, even! Bring some cider to boil, add clove, cinnamon, a sprinkle of allspice if you'd like, and fill a mug three-quarters full with the frothing cider. Top with bourbon and garnish with a cinnamon stick. Retire to the stoop and enjoy San Francisco in the winter-time! Guaranteed to keep the rain out.... Read more
On the street in the 'hood.
Today I was walking back from the coffee shop, and saw a man standing unsteadily between two cars. As I drew nearer, I saw that he was completing his toilet in the relative privacy afforded by an SUV. I held my breath and walked around the corner; I could hear him shuffling after me. As I walked past the Vapor Room, I saw a woman waking up from a night spent at the bottom of the stairs leading to the medicinal-marijuana dispensary; the man rounded the corner and called after her, asking if she wanted a bowl of cereal. She did, and stirred herself up the stairs and in his direction.... Read more
December 26, 2003
You comb my hair into a french chignon.
Drinking wine and eating cheese, reading the Western Neighborhoods Project web site.... Read more
December 21, 2003
Do not go gently, PG&E
(lights go out, etc) One of my neighbours commented that -- aside from the red glow of the Marina afire -- the outage reminded him of '89. This was before we had any idea of what caused the darkness. Even Davies, the squat grey monstrosity at the end of Scott St., was dark. Slackers suffered: not all of our hardware is robust enough to come back up on its own. A restless night babysitting the systems, and they're still not all in apple-pie order.... Read more
November 7, 2003
Taking out the trash.
Literally. After years of waiting (and numerous phone calls to Sunset Scavenger), my neighbourhood finally received its own shipment of the colour-coded recycling bins. The mandate that San Francisco recycle 50% of its garbage by 2001 is slowly being met; San Francisco city government is patting itself on the back for htting 40%. The California Integrated Waste Management Act (AB939) required all cities and counties to recycle 50 percent of their waste stream by January 1, 2000. As part of the agreement the city has with the Altamont Landfill, San Francisco must also recycle as much of its waste as other contributing counties. Between the two units, we have three curbside recycling bins: Even if San Francisco and Sunset Scavenger are running late with the project, they're in better shape than Dade County, FL.... Read more
