Former California State Controller Steve Westly will participate in aat Union Square’s Marines Memorial Club and Hotel on Wednesday, March 10th at 4:00 PM.
The joint is going to be called “Where is My Green Job?” Tickets are still available and the price is right – they’re free.
Steve Westly, Managing Partner at the Westly Group :
All the deets after the jump.
Now, I’m not alone on this or anything, but I just have to say that this whole massively-delayed David de Rothschild Plastiki voyage is looking more and more like a Wes Anderson movie.
Life…
“Sea Trials, December 2009″ via Plastiki:
…Imitates Art:
Good casting for this crew, huh? Lights, camera, action:
(Now, please somebody video or photograph the actual Great North Pacific Garbage Patch / Gyre, if you’d please. As we know, the “patch is not a visibly dense field of floating debris.” So, it would be nice to have just one photograph on the whole Internet showing what the place actually looks like. You know, instead of more of this. Just saying.)
Bon Courage, Bon Voyage.
Here’s the news from the boys and girls at Justice, below.
Patched up and riding high – the last time we saw the Cosco Busan back in 2007. Will it ever come back? She’s called the MSC Venezia these days, currently working in the Canaries.
Oh well, she’s not the first Hyundai to leak oil into San Francsico Bay, and she won’t be the last.
The full release, after the jump
That big residential solar project in the Lower Haight / Western Addition / Hayes Valley from SunWheel Energy Partners just went live. The juice, she is flowing.
See all the deets in this 15 minute video - it’s just like being there.
San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil “The Thrill” Ting was there for the ribbon-cutting…
…as was District 5 Supervisor Ross “The Boss” Mirkarimi:
San Francisco Affordable Housing Sites Power On Solar Energy
Federal, State and Local Officials, Site Residents and Community Members Celebrate Green Energy and New Jobs at Western Addition Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
San Francisco, CA, January 26, 2010 – On Monday, January 25, 2010, Sunwheel Energy Partners, which provides turnkey solar energy systems for urban and community partners, celebrated the commissioning of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems at three affordable housing community sites in San Francisco’s Western Addition and Hayes Valley neighborhoods — bringing solar power, green jobs and financial relief to residents and owners. The ribbon cutting ceremony at Plaza East Apartments was widely attended by a notable group of federal, state and local officials as well as the site’s residents and community members who were hired to install the solar panels.
Dignitaries in attendance included Henry Alvarez, Executive Director, San Francisco Housing Authority; Timothy Alan Simon, CPUC Commissioner; Phil Ting, SF Assessor-Recorder; David Rubin, Director of Service Analysis, PG&E; Michael Carlin, SFPUC Deputy General Manager; Neola Gans, Vice President, SF Housing Authority Commission; Caroline Krewson, Deputy Regional Director, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; Stephen Schneller, Director, San Francisco Office of Public Housing; Ross Mirkarimi, San Francisco Supervisor; and representatives of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer’s offices. Senator Mark Leno issued a proclamation commending the site.
Even more deets, after the jump
I don’t know, these polar bears at first looked to be part of some art installation, but it turns out that that’s just the way the managers of the buildings at 555 and 575 Market Street decorate for Our Winter Holiday.
O.K. fine. But Chevron’s an oil company, right? Most of the employees shipped out to San Ramon a while back, but are there a few left up there?
Oh well. Presenting the Bear of the Decade and Symbol of Global Warming, Ursus maritimus:
This one looks a bit weasly (or ferret-ty), huh?
Enjoy your polar bears, workers at Chevron Towers….
See the tower of the Potrero Generating Plant down Seventh Street on a recent rainy day?
Will it be here a year from now?
Who knows. But, on it goes, day in and day out:
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Remember that Tesla Motors corporation? They were the cock of the walk in the electric car world a few years back. Remember? They finally got a bunch of money from the feds, but they’re going to need to hurry. Why? ‘Cause a real car company is going to start to sell a vehicle that people might actually want to own. The new Nissan LEAF coming soon, so that’s disruptive to Tesla’s business model.
Will it actually go 100 miles on a charge? Maybe not at first, in real life, but it’s a start. Nissan too is getting government money, but that’s only after they’ve put a ton of their own hard-earned yen into the LEAF project.
Nissan had to choose where to sell the first LEAFs (or is the plural LEAVES?) and they chose the bay area and and handful of other places. O.K., maybe our Quimby-esque Mayor hectored them into doing so and that’s the only reason they’ll be selling LEAFs in town, I don’t know. IMO, Nissan is doing the vast majority of heavy lifting here while San Francisco is simply spending a couple mil. we got from the feds. Is that a public-private partnership? It’ll do, I s’pose.
General Motors / Saturn never really had its EV1 / Impact electric vehicle available for lease to rich people (GM just didn’t lease them to all comers – you had to prove to GM you were worthy) in the bay area back in the day because of all our hills – that was a major factor. (The few people that got EV1’s here were always worried about running out of gas, so to speak, causing them to drive at night without the headlights on and/or guide their crippled steeds into bus zones for temporary parking, and later on, DPT towaway. Remember that, G? Good times.) Getting a LEAF will be a much easier affair.
You already know the Nissan Versa. The LEAF will be a swoopier version and, of course, electric powered:
Here it is. The LEAF is a babe-magnet, apparently.
How much will it cost? Don’t know. Should you install a charger station now, while the permits are free? Don’t know. Will this be a popular car in the bay area? Probably.
Anyway, the deets after the jump.
Phone books – they’re useless, right? What are they good for? Absolutely nothing. I’ll say it again. Hooot! Absolutely nothing.
So let’s hear it for Dr. Leland Yee, Ph.D, Assistant Senate President pro Tempore Extraordinaire, the fightingest Senator in California, as he takes on the Telephone Book Industry on behalf of The People.
A brief wait on the doorstep for a few days until someone puts all these things into the recycling:
Your days are numbered, you mandatory telephone books.
Read all about it:
San Mateo County Leaders and Environmental Advocates Call for Consumer Choice on White Pages
Yee and Papan: Mandatory delivery of white pages wastes paper, energy, and scarce local government resources
SACRAMENTO – Following the successful efforts of Cleveland, Ohio and Miami, Florida, California could become the largest jurisdiction to give telephone customers a choice in receiving the white pages directory. Today, Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) and Millbrae Councilwoman Gina Papan announced they will pursue state legislation to prohibit telephone companies from delivering the white pages unless the customer opts-in to receiving it.
“The requirement that phone companies must deliver the white pages comes from an era before the internet and other means of obtaining phone numbers,” said Yee. “At a time when Californians are looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint, we should give them that choice, particularly when very few customers still use the white pages.”
“Ending the unnecessary distribution of the white pages is a step forward that we can take at the local level to address the global issue of climate change. I am proud to take the lead on this issue to help save the environment and reduce local recycling costs,” said Millbrae City Councilmember Gina Papan. “I would like to thank Senator Yee for his responsiveness in taking on this important legislation on our behalf.”
All the deets, after the jump
You know me, I’m a regular Eli Whitney on a lawn mower and I love my French fries, so imagine my shock when my weekly potaters from the Lucky Super got wrapped in a plastic shopping bag yesterday.
So let’s see here, San Francsico’s “new” Lucky started off a few years back with red and white shopping bags (oh no! Ed Jew! – yes, he was there that day, along with the undercover Federales who were stalking him at the time) that fell apart easily, then, I don’t know, they had paper bags, then paper bags with handles, then paper bags without handles recently, and now this:
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They’re free. They’re built to last. They have a Halloween theme. What more could you ask for?
How about a commercial for “Got Your Bags?” These bags also have that.
You know me, I’m a firestarter, a twisted firestarter, so I like the convenience of having a ready supply of paper bags to use as accelerants when I’m arsoning parked cars. But if this is the future of shopping bags, I can live with it.
These things should last a long time and be very easy to pack up for reuse.
So, hurray for the new bags, I guess. At least they don’t fall apart with a quickness the way the older plastic bags did.
Read all about it, after the jump.
Hundreds of folks showed up to join San Francisco District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s District Five Community Clean Team on Saturday. People met up in the Western Addition, the Panhandle, and the Inner Sunset to work with the DPW to do a big clean-up.
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Near the old Fell / Oak Street onramp / offramp:
Ross Mirkarimi and friends:
San Francisco Housing Authority Executive Director Henry A. Alvarez, III lending a hand on Eddy Street:
All in all, a successful event.
