The San Francisco Citizen

Today’s Pandhandle Bike Swap and Summer Party had a huge turnout with hundreds of cyclists doing all sorts of things. Check it out here.  

The First Annual Dustin Long Tubeball Toss was a smash success:

What’s a tubeball? This is. It’s surprisingly heavy:

At the end of the day, people pedalled off with bike frames, tires and wheels.

See you next year!

Cycles of Change Bike Benefit Party and Swap Meet

Sun., Aug. 17 | 12-5pm, Panhandle blacktop, corner of Masonic and Fell

Come out on Sunday for a day of bike-related fun! Cycles of Change and a few of your local SF cyclists are putting together a bike benefit party promoting the organization. Cycles of Change is an East Bay cooperative that builds bikes for kids and teens and promotes bicycling as a more viable form of transportation. Donate your old bike parts to help CoC continue to assemble more bikes for children. Come for a the big bake sale, fun game events (like Chainring toss) and swap meet with fellow SF cyclists. For more information, please visit www.summerbikeswap.blogspot.com

San Francisco Unified School District Commissioner Eric Mar soundly won the sole endorsement of the San Francisco Democratic Party to replace Supervisor Jake McGoldrick this week, and now it’s his birthday. So he had a party at the Toy Boat Dessert Café on Clement in the Richmond District today.   

Alicia Wang and Sue Lee are the other major candidates in the race

This is Eric’s platform and this is his schedule for the week:

5:30 PM: Monday Night Phonebanking

7PM: The Peaceniks Benefit Concert for Eric Mar

5:30 PM: Wednesday Night Phonebanking

10AM: Coffee with Eric 3:30 PM: Meeting of the Select Committee of the Board of Supervisors and Board of Education

6PM: Young Voters for Eric

6PM: San Francisco Board of Education Meeting

5PM: “I ACCEPT” OBAMA SPEECH WATCHING PARTY

It was on this morning at the OFFICIAL 2008 NorCal Region SMART RALLY & Lombard St. Photoshoot in San Francisco. The whole thing was just like critical mass, but for cars instead of bikes.

How many Smart Cars can fit into one block of Lombard Street in scenic Russian Hill? This many, or about a hundred-something as long as you park them six inches apart and side-by-side, as if they are loading onto Noah’s Ark. Kiltbear ably captured the mise-en-scene.

Click to expand:

Photo taken by drdrtsai - check out the entire set on Flickr.

The Obamamobile was there - could this have been an opportunity for Obama to campaign? No matter, look for Smarts all over the Bay Area today.

Proposed Agenda:
-7:00 to 8am staging area (address released to registered smarties)
-8:30 line up at Lombard street
-10:30-11:30am start scenic cruise Fort Point
-12:00am meet and greet (East parking lot of Spinnikers in Sausalito)
-12:01-2:30pm lunch and/or continued meet and greet
-3pm *Optional drive down highway 1

It’s the Marin County Civic Center as designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Check it:

Portions of the science fiction films THX 1138 (1969) and Gattaca (1997) were shot on location in the Marin Center. In addition, the buildings (especially those in the fairgrounds) served as a direct inspiration to those of the planet Naboo in the Star Wars films.

This building is perhaps best known these days as the location of one of the offices of Senator Carole Migden. Here’s what it looks like from above.

As seen from the the 101 freeway from the north. Click to expand.

“The long horizontal buildings gracefully link the crowns of three separate hills. The circular theme is evident throughout the complex. Materials throughout the Civic Center are simple. Floors are custom-colored composition tile. Walkways and stairs are terrazzo, and partitions are sheet rock. The barrel-arched roof is of pre-cast concrete. The roof is a blue that blends with the sky. Walls are sand beige. Basic construction is pre-cast, pre-stressed floor systems with combined steel and concrete vertical supports. Exterior balconies run down the outsides of both buildings. The decorative arches create a sense of rhythm, and are made of cement stucco on metal laths.

“Gold spheres outline the entire interior and exterior rooflines. They create the effect of rhythmic unity and exemplify the Oriental influence Wright displayed in his work. They have been likened to raindrops and called, by some, a string of pearls.