And then a City College of San Francisco student obtained it as a daily driver to get him to the Main Campus reservoir parking lot each and every day for both the Spring and Fall semesters of 2012?
Really?
OMG. (Please note the tell-tale green CCSF parking sticker in the windshield.)
Let’s hear from a Toyota-driving CCSF student earlier this week:
“saw this lambo today at the school parking lot (ccsf). in fact, it parked 3 cars away from me. easily the most expensive car at ccsf…”
And just think, when the owner gets around to registering this car (use tax, baby – $7k), that’ll pay for the education subsidy he’s getting by being a stu at troubled CCSF.
Well, a large crowd showed for today’s noontime rally in support of City Attorney and mayoral candidate Dennis Herrera. It came in reaction to this bit from John Coté and Heather Knight in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle.
Consider this rally, complete with pretty much all of Gay San Francisco (gee, who wasn’t there?), a strong retort.
Click to expand
1 of 4 - Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart and Senator Mark Leno:
2 of 4 – Assemblymember Tom Ammiano: “WTF, Chronicle?” (Ouch.) And then, on a different tack: ”I think we all know who was doing it.” Uh, would that be Ed Lee? And do you think Tom’s talking about Ed Lee here? ”…Healthy San Francisco, supporting it, not trying to decimate it. Honoring Occupy San Francisco and their ability to mediate and to collaborate. How about some fucking leadership?”
And check out Cleve Jones at around 8:00: “And finally, to Ed Lee, whose campaign began with a lie [and] is ending with a lie. And in between the lies, what did we see but cronyism, fake grass-roots organizations coming out of nowhere, vote tampering like we haven’t seen in a long, long time, money laundering, and now we’re ending with a big lie, a slur against Dennis Herrera. And how stupid do you think we are? Please.”
3 of 4: City Attorney Dennis Herrera, the man himself:
4 of 4: Herrera’s closing plus Harvey Milk Club and Alice B Toklas Club, united:
All the deets:
“News conference on Dennis Herrera’s record of support for LGBT marriage equality: TODAY, Oct. 27, 12:00 noon, Harvey Milk Plaza
SAN FRANCISCO (Oct. 27, 2011) — Leaders in the LGBT community and marriage equality movement including Senator Mark Leno, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, Supervisor Scott Wiener, Molly McKay, Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis, Cleve Jones, Julius Turman, Reese Isbell, representatives from both the Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk LBGT Democratic Clubs, and a growing list of others will hold a news conference to defend City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s consistent record of support for marriage equality.
The news conference at noon today is in response to political attacks published in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday from anonymous sources who questioned City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s commitment to marriage equality.
LGBT Community Press Conference
Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market
TODAY – Thursday, Oct. 27, 12:00 noon
Below is a letter issued yesterday from Phyllis Lyon, the LGBT civil rights pioneer. Lyon and her late wife, Del Martin, were the first same-sex couple married in San Francisco.”
Please join Senator Mark Leno, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, Supervisor Scott Wiener, representatives from both the Alice B. Toklas and Harvey Milk LBGT Democratic Clubs, and many other LGBT community leaders for:
LGBT Community Press Conference
Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market
Thursday, Oct. 27, 12:00 noon
With less than two weeks until Election Day, a petty smear campaign is underway to personally discredit City Attorney Dennis Herrera over his years of work for marriage equality. Incredibly, despite all the heroic efforts of Dennis and his office right from the start, anonymous sources have pushed a story in the San Francisco Chronicle that Dennis wasn’t “supportive” of Mayor Newsom’s decision to issue same-sex marriage licenses back in February 2004. It’s not true. These politically motivated attackers are hoping we’ll forget the years of hard work Dennis and his deputies invested — and continue to invest even now, in the federal challenge to Prop 8 — for LGBT equality.
My late wife, Del Martin, and I were the first same-sex couple married back in 2004.
So I remember the heartfelt and tireless work that Dennis, Chief Deputy City Attorney Terry Stewart, and the City Attorney’s Office committed to defend our marriage from day one. Yes, it was an uphill battle. We all knew it, and we all expressed doubts. But that doesn’t mean we weren’t “supportive” of marriage equality!
That’s why these anonymous political attacks are such an outrage.
It’s not just insulting to a good man and longtime LGBT ally. It insults the intelligence of LGBT voters who know that Dennis has been a consistent and effective champion for our community for years:
In the 1990s, as Police Commission President, Dennis established groundbreaking protocols to require police to treat transgender detainees with the dignity and respect they deserve.
Dennis successfully defended our landmark Equal Benefits Ordinance in his first years as City Attorney, finally defeating challengers who opposed domestic partner benefits.
In 2002, Dennis and the Assessor ended tax re-assessments homeowners faced after the death of a domestic partner — so LGBT survivors on fixed incomes wouldn’t lose their homes.
Dennis’s heart has always been with us. That’s why he was elected and re-elected City Attorney with overwhelming LGBT community support. That’s why he’s now the only candidate for Mayor endorsed by both the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club (#1) and the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club (#2).
Dennis Herrera never shrank from defending the LGBT community — not once. Now, it’s our turn to defend him.
Please join us at Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro and Market, Thursday, Oct. 27, at 12:00 noon.
Sincerely,
Phyllis Lyon”
~
Mark Leno:
DJH with wife Anne:
And here’s part of the crowd descending the steps of Castro Station:
And, bonus, a special hug for Harvey and Alice:
So, uh, who’s the “political genius” who thought it was a good idea for former Gavin Newsom staffers to go to the Chron a few days back?
Because this whole affair, well, it’s not good for Ed Lee.
Not good at all…
*I swear, I don’t really get photojournalism and that sole shot presented is a good example of why. It doesn’t really transmit all that much info, it doesn’t really show who was there, and it’s not arty or anything. But it does juxtapose “applause” and “Herrera” so I guess that’s telling stories with photos and I guess that’s what PJ is supposed to be about. I suppose. (Is that day’s work, BTW?) Anyway, I prefer the camera-held-level-at-two-yards-altitude, you-are-there look.
Most considered it a massive failure, but somehow the welcomed death of the Waller and Page Street traffic circles was “sad,” or something, for some people:
“Coalition project manager Josh Hart, however, acknowledges the circles may need some fine-tuning to better protect pedestrians and bicyclists. ‘People should give them a chance,’ he said. ‘It would be really sad to see this experiment fail.’”
No fine tuning was needed as fine tuning wasn’t the problem. The problem was the traffic circles themselves.
Well looky here. They’re ba-ack. Or at least some people somewhere want them to come back in some kind of recent fever dream / workshop.
See?
(That’s Page on the right – imagine a big arrow with an N next to it pointing to the left.)
This plan would ostensibly convert this part of Scott into a “slow shared street” but of course it’s a slow street and a shared street right now already, so I don’t know about that.
I’ll tell you, the San Francisco Fire Department would take a dim view of this plan, but oh well.
IRL back in the day, you’d never know what car drivers would do at traffic circled intersections - sometimes they’d stop anyway at each circle, sometimes they’d treat the circle like a Formula 1 road race chicane and cross over the crosswalks without slowing down. The promised gardens in the middle of the intersections were supposed to make the neighbors happy but that didn’t work.
The graphic also mentions deterring ”cut-through traffic” on Scott Street, but isn’t that the whole point of Scott Street? You know, so people can cut-through from one part of town to another?
Oh well.
Now here’s Market, Duboce, Buchanan which is no picnic for cyclists these days, particularly people using the Wiggle route inbound going behind the Church Street Safeway:
You make the call on this one. I’ll just note that the current situation is a mess.
I don’t think I’d favor slowing down Market Street traffic any more than it’s being slowed down now by, among other things, nearby Octavia Boulevard, which for some reason takes the lion’s share of the minute and a half traffic signal cycle.
[UPDATE: So is Zendesk the only San Francisco company that hasn't threatened to move out of San Francisco lately? Apparently, see the Comments. BTW, did you know that:
Oh, and here’s your chance to get in on the land rush:
“Central Market Street and Tenderloin Area Payroll Expense Tax Exclusion is now publicly available and can be found on the Office of Economic and Workforce Development website, www.oewd.org, as well as on the new Central Market Partnership website, www.centralmarketpartnership.org. Applications are being accepted now, and the deadline to apply for the 2011 tax year is November 1, 2011. Please contact the Office of Economic and Workforce Development at 415-554-6969 with any questions regarding the application for the Payroll Expense Tax Exclusion.”]
I don’t really get this one here. Zendesk needed corporate welfare to move into the Mid-Market and it wasn’t going to do so anyway, do I have that right?
Now, is it possible that ZenDesk didn’t need that subsidy to move into the Twitterloin? Sure seems that way. Mmmm…
And let me assure you that nothing has substantively changed betwixt Dot Com Era I of the late 90′s and our current Dot Com Era II as far as stock options are concerned. Obviously, a San Francisco company going public might not want to deal with the 2004 tax signed into law by Gavin Newsom. Obviously. So what’s changed the past seven years?
So why did Gavin Newsom sign his tax into law back in aught-four? Did he do it to “punish companies?” Did he do it to “kill jobs?” Was Gavin Newsom a “job killer?”
Apparently.
Hey, how about this? Why not treat all companies the same? Why not get rid subsidies for biotech? Why not address concerns about Mid Market without corporate welfare?
“SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 31, 2011 — Zendesk, the leading provider of proven, cloud-based help desk software, today announced a $1 million pledge to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.
“Zendesk was founded in Denmark and moved to San Francisco in 2009,” said Mikkel Svane, Zendesk’s CEO. “We have been humbled by the wonderful way we have been welcomed to this city and its vital high-tech community. As Zendesk continues its rapid growth, we want to share our good fortune with the city and people that helped make it possible. As a father and client of the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, this charity is especially meaningful to me.”
Zendesk is kicking off this year-long effort with a sponsorship of the Salesforce Foundation’s Concert to Benefit the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital to be held on Thursday, September 1, 2011. Zendesk will host its customers, partners and employees to attend this charity event. Throughout the next year, Zendesk will donate a portion of its sales, as well as hold other fund-raising events, to deliver on its $1 million pledge. In addition, its employees will participate in volunteer programs for the hospital.
“The Salesforce Foundation has been an inspiration to us on how to integrate philanthropy into a company’s culture,” Svane added. “Today’s announcement is just the first of many demonstrating Zendesk’s gratitude to the city of San Francisco. Having just moved into new headquarters in the Central Market, we also look forward to making our new neighborhood a better place to work.”
“It’s great to see Zendesk, one of San Francisco’s rapidly growing tech companies, already giving back to the citizens of San Francisco,” said Mayor Edwin M. Lee. “We are grateful to them for their generous pledge to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital.”
About Zendesk
Zendesk is the leading provider of proven, cloud-based help desk software. For growing organizations, Zendesk is the fastest way to enable great customer service. More than 10,000 Zendesk customers, including Adobe, MSNBC, Sony, OpenTable and Groupon, trust Zendesk with their most valuable assets, their customers, partners, and employees. Founded in 2007, Zendesk is funded by Charles River Ventures, Benchmark Capital and Matrix Partners. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.”
All right, work with me here, “Interim Mayor” Edwin Lee is now saying that San Francisco’s unique stock option payroll tax scheme is a kind of “business punisher,” right?
“We have kind of a unique taxing system here in San Francisco where historically we’ve actually taxed employees’ growth, and that’s kind of a business punisher, if you will. If you’re going to grow the employees, why would we punish that?”
So, how can we reconcile this? Here’s a stab at it, again from Mayor Lee:
“Now, we’ve never really distinguished stock options; we’ve always taxed compensation just like any payroll tax would. But we didn’t realize that stock options was something very special to the tech companies. And as they’ve grown, they’ve educated us about how valuable those stock options are.”
But didn’t we have stock options and tech companies about back in the dotcom era? Yes we did. Has anything changed since then, are stock options new? No, not at all.
I cry foul.
And I’ll tell you, I don’t see a way out of this one. Tell me, Gentle Reader, how can we reconcile dese tings?
(Also, note how the Supervisors voted back int the day. Do you think Sean Elsbernd, if he had gotten his current gig just a little earlier, would have voted against this “job punishing” biz tax back in the day? Don’t know. It’s hard to imagine him defying Gavin Newsom, but anything’s possible, I suppose.)
Ordinance amending the Business and Tax Regulations Code to: (1) amend Article 12-A (Payroll Expense Tax Ordinance) to (i) conform Article 12-A (Payroll Expense Tax Ordinance) with the amendments to Article 6 (Common Administrative Provisions) and (ii) consolidate exemptions, definitions and other administrative provisions, as amended, that apply to Article 12-A (Payroll Expense Tax Ordinance) and other Articles of the Business and Tax Regulation Code, and place them in Article 6 (Common Administrative Provisions); (2) amend Article 12 (Business Registration Ordinance) to conform business registration requirements with amendments to Article 12-A (Payroll Expense Tax Ordinance) and Article 6 (Common Administrative Provisions); and (3) amend Article 6 (Common Administrative Provisions) to (i) clarify common administrative provisions and conform them with amendments to Article 12-A (Payroll Expense Tax Ordinance) and Article 12 (Business Registration Ordinance), (ii) consolidate exemptions, definitions and other administrative provisions that apply to Article 12-A (Payroll Expense Tax Ordinance), Article 12 (Business Registration Ordinance) and other Articles of the Business and Tax Regulations Code, and (iii) eliminate the Board of Review. (Treasurer-Tax Collector)
PASSED ON FIRST READING by the following vote: Ayes: 11 – Alioto-Pier, Ammiano, Daly, Dufty, Gonzalez, Hall, Ma, Maxwell, McGoldrick, Peskin, Sandoval”
Anyway, the place was awash with rabid Disney fans, with some of them talking about their memories of Opening Day despite the fact that they didn’t look older than 55.
So, just what you’d expect, an extensive recap from a fan, here it is at Jim Hill Media.
And here’s a list of the speakers:
Diane Disney Miller - daughter of Walt Disney Tony Baxter – current SR VP of Creative Development for Disneyland Jack Lindquist – former President of Disneyland Dick Nunis – Disney Legend and former Chairman of Walt Disney Attractions Matt Ouimet – former President of Disneyland Resort Buzz Price – Economist who helped Walt Disney find original site of Disneyland Craig Russell- Current Chief Design and Project Delivery Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering Marty Sklar- Disney Legend and former Vice Chair of Imagineering Bruce Vaughn- Current Chief Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering
This was the first day, down in the multi-hued movie theatre that you can rent out parties, I think. This was the Founding Members Only discussion with Walt’s daughter Diane Disney Miller, Disney Legend Buzz Price, and Disney historians and authors Katherine and Richard Greene as they discuss Walt’s idea, concept, and how Disneyland became a reality:
Photography by Joseph Driste, Courtesy The Walt Disney Family Museum
Former Disneyland executives Jack Lindquist and Matt Ouimet were joined by Senior Vice-President of Creative Development for Disneyland Tony Baxter as they discussed the development of Disneyland, its impact on America, and Walt’s legacy with former Vice Chair of Imagineering Marty Sklar:
Left to Right – Tony Baxter, Jack Lindquist, Matt Ouimet and moderator Marty Sklar. Photography by Joseph Driste, Courtesy The Walt Disney Family Museum
Disney Legends Dick Nunis and Marty Sklar, along with Craig Russell and Bruce Vaughn , currently executives with Walt Disney Imagineering, explored how Walt Disney’s new concept in family entertainment was a catalyst for parks around the world:
Photography by Joseph Driste, Courtesy The Walt Disney Family Museum
How will they top this in 2015 during the Diamond Jubilee of Disneyland?
Ideally, you’d have the original muralist come over and do a touchup for free. Ideally. But the long-lived tagging on Gold Mountain has epoxy in it, so it’s really hard to take off of the wall without erasing everything. And then after you do a fix-up another tagger will come along, despite your use of anti-graffiti coatings and whatnot.
Now honestly, I’m not sure how much good putting up video cameras would do unless you had somebody to watch a live feed 24-7. I mean the value of showing the SFPD grainy night-time footage of some skinny, 5′ 8″, hoodie-wearing hood isn’t much, right?
For all I know these tags are still there today, with more added on, possibly. I’ll check it out the next time I’m in the area.
The Gold Mountain Mural is located at Romolo Alley, near Broadway and Columbus, on the side of the Swiss American building owned and managed by Chinatown CDC. It is the joint effort of Ms. Ann Sherry, the muralist, and Chinatown CDC depicting the lives of Chinese Americans in San Francisco. It was created in 1994, and once restored in 2004 due to heavy tagging. At that time, to honor her, we added the image of our local heroine, Ms. Betty Ann Ong. Ms. Ong is the American Airline stewardess who was the first one to contact ground crew informing them of the plane being hijacked on that fatal flight into the World Trade Center on 9/11.
Recently, this historic mural caught the eyes of the President of the National Museum of Murals and Mosaics in Philadelphia, and will be featured in their online museum website.
Once again, due to tagging, we will start restoring the mural in the near future. We have so far secured some funding to install surveillance cameras to safeguard the mural. Once restoration is complete, we will daily monitor the mural and assist the SFPD to apprehend taggers. (Volunteers interested to help can contact Cathie Lam at 415-984-1461.)
All right, fair enough. But I can recall a time when Gavin himself was hacked off over a certain photograph depicting marriage equality being on the AP wire.
Leave us travel back to aught-four, when gay weddings were going on all over City Hall. At the time, some folks from Room 200 were very sensitive about the idea of the Mayor being photographed or filmed while he himself was officiating weddings. For whatever reason.
So when he agreed, as a courtesy, to officiate the wedding of a couple of blondes in his elegant office*, the press was emphatically banned despite the fact that they (quite reasonably) felt that they were invited to the ceremony. The media were forced to bide their time waiting just outside the Mayor’s Office.
And this was the scene of the scrum in the hallway afterwards. You might find Waldo in there, but not Gavin:
This particular photo was processed, emailed, released to the AP, and published in podunk newspapers within hours, to the consequent consternation of the mayor’s people. It seems perfectly cromulent now but, at the time, this kind of scene was seen by some as Too Hot For Publication.
Of course that certainly was a bold move Gavin made in 2004, no doubt about it. I’ll tell you, back in the 1990′s I took a course from a local professor who, in 2003, strongly supported and volunteered for Gavin’s brainy opponent in that year’s mayoral election. But soon thereafter, said professor’s opinion of Mayor Newsom did a 180 solely because of the marriage equality issue - the prof. would go on and on about how much he appreciated Gavin’s actions, and later on, he actually supported Gavin’s reelection (along with the good bulk of everybody else) in 2007.
So nobody doubts the mayor of San Francisco really stuck his neck out on this issue back in the day. But students of history should be foregiven if they can’t square their memories of 2004 100% with what’s being said in 2010.
Just saying.
*Hello, Maureen’s fact-checkers in New Yawk? Starting up a “boutique wine shop in Napa Valley” makes about as much sense as opening a coal shop in Newcastle. How about a Napa Valley wine shop in San Francisco – that would be a lot closer to the mark. Just saying.
