This wasn’t a sidelined bus waiting for help to get back on the road. No no, this was an operating #6 Parnassus heading inbound on Market just the other day.
San Francisco’s infamous jaywalking* peds will now need to keep an eye out for this kind of thing:
Click to expand
*Uh, jaywalking isn’t illegal because of Big Oil. No no, jaywalking is illegal because Big Government wants to protect you from killing yourself. Yet another conspiracy theory debunked…
Here it is:
Oh, the transcripts are in:
“There is a privilege to being white in this country. I’m not saying that if you’re white, you have a lot of power as an individual. But if you’re white, you might be more likely to find* a white President,** a white Senator, a white police chief. I mean I’m just saying, right?”
Have you been to college? This is exactly what it’s like.
I mean I’m just saying, right?
*No comprendo. Do not copy. Repeat transmission, Good Buddy. So if “you” aren’t white, then you’re less likely to find a white…
**Or half-white.***
***I mean, I’m just saying, right?
UPDATE, from the Comments section – Twitter, Randy Shaw, the non-profit mafia, etc:
“sorry bout that, it seems out of context, but she actually wasn’t even asked about race, but rather gender relations…she brought up the race issue all by herself, – out of context
here’s the wider clip with the context:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
you might even find this even more strange, actually…but that’s still not the whole thing…the whole thing is 55 minutes long and it was a meeting at one of randy Shaws hotels, the hartland…in fact, it appears there’s quite a bit of questionable stuff in there, especially about the corrupt twitterloin tax break
two more clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
notice how one of Randy Shaws clients specifically says that it’s ‘unfair to put people that are just homeless into a hotel like that full of heroin addicts, meth addicts and crackheads’ and how THC staff and Jane Kim completely sidesteps the question and takes it to another context:
the tax breaks, including twitter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
it goes on..I’m working on a post myself and making clips…It really looks like the entire mid market tax break is an inside job, controlled by a tiny few non profits
this could really blow up…did she not know she was being taped, with a camera right in her face?”
I’ll tell you, San Francisco doesn’t have too many Republicans but they manage to come out in force during Steve Restivo’s annual Union Street Eco Urban (or is it Urban Eco?) Street Festival.
I can just about assure that the Mitt Romney people will on the scene and out in force, with the ironing boards and whatnot – like this guy:
All right now here’s your Union Street Festival Decision Tree:
“1. Is it sunny outside?
2. Can you stand crowds of overgrown sorority girls and fraternity boys?
3. Can you stand crowded beer gardens filled with the aforementioned?
If you answered yes to the above, proceed to the Union Street Festival. “
Dude, harsh!
But here’s the retort, from a party-lover, here’s the other side of this perfect dramaturgical dyad:
“SORRY FOR:
(1) PARTYING AND HAVING FUN AT A FESTIVAL
(2) NOT BEING A GRANDMA, and
(3) LIVING LIFE A LITTLE.”
So there you go.
The alcohol drinking used to be totally wide open, and then things got toned down a bit, and now I think even the walled-off beer “gardens” are gone. But you can always join one of the annual beer-fueled house parties, why not?
All right, let’s travel back to years past – here are some shots from yesteryear:
“Now here’s what’s funny when the so-called neighbors who own houses near traditional San Francisco street parties, like the Bay to Breakers Fun Run and the Union Street Festival. Inevitably, some of the actual neighbors, the people what live on the street itself, throw open their doors for anything-goes, beer-fueled house parties.
Anyway, today Andrea Koskey has the news about how there will be no more beer gardens at the Union Street Festival 2011, prompting this response from Serg of the Uptown Almanac:
“Yeah because rock and fucking roll brings the “wilder element.” Yeah I bet it must be nuts when your heehaw ass festival gets raided by tall-can wielding dave matthews fans. Ain’t no dancing in this town bitches! We want to sell shitty ass freeway artwork and braclets made out of old rocks and trash to senior citizens and sweater knots. Fucking dumb asses chewing on shitty grilled meat on a stick can’t hang out in beer gardens or do whatever dumb fucking bullshit it is that they do on their lame ass stoops on Union st. Union street can suck my balls, that shit has been herbfest from the gate, amatuer hour trainwreck can stay gone.”
O.K. then.
All right, get your house partay tickets or invites now. (It’ll be a piece of cake if you are popular/cute enough.)
The perils of post-adolescent Union Street Fest shotgunning. The front of this house faces Union:
That entire residence was filled to the brim with partiers in 2008. Ah, memories.
All right, see you there, or not.
Now enjoy a trip down Union Street Festival Memory Lane:
This thing is biiiig – it will take you a long time to wander about Union:
You know who proved popular was Tom Rigney, “electric violinist, Cajun fiddler, composer, graphic artist, and leader of the American roots music band, Tom Rigney and Flambeau.”
Best in Show – Candy Wrapper Handbags, something like this, as seen on Oprah
Micro cupcakes continue their dominance over the cuisine of the late aughts
Your streetfest four basic food groups are poultry (including turkey legs, they’re not just for renaissance festivals anymore), corn on the cob, couscous (not pictured) and garlic fries (not pictured).
2.5 star-rated Left at Albuquerque [sadly closed now, I think] offered crowd-pleasing beer towers to sidewalk diners:
Now they’re renting out A2B electric scooters to tourists. Do people really ride these things on the Golden Gate Bridge sidewalks at 20 per back and forth to Sausalito? People do. Anyway, Blazing Saddles bike rentals was offering test drives.
Suds on the Roof, but much less than in years past. I think a man partying outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a red cup of suds.
“Eco-Urban” Union Street featured a hell of a lot of gas powered Honda generators, but this year, not so much. Originally, I thought this distribution amplifier was a box full of car batteries, but now I’m at a loss at figuring out how this band got its power. If they had a generator, they hid it well.
What’s this?
It’s an overhead extention cord leading from a Union Street business to one of the food vendors in the middle of the street. Is that an extension cord being used as internal wiring? Cough electrical code cough.
Oh, there it is! One of at least two Hondas in operation today.
But at least all the amplified music won’t disturb this slumbering. ear-protected pooch.
It’s big, in’nt?
And here’s the lateral view from our most-polarizing street fest yesterday, the day with “fewer hooligans” drinking beer according to at least one Sunday attendee:
I’ll tell you, myself, I didn’t see too many “drunken douchebags.” Myself. Anyway, it’s nice to see Union busy for a change.
Lots of swag from our corporate overlords at this street faire:
All right, here are a few of the Repubs. Yes on B and Fix MUNI Now were a few of their issues:
And here are some more. These people were promoting Dana Walsh (no, not the character on 24 and not this cutie, oh no – the Republican Dana Walsh).
As usual, the West End was strictly for kids:
And dogs, of course:
Fandango let people take two free spins on their unfairly-weighted (aka loaded, gaffed, cogged, weighted, crooked, or gag) swag roulette wheel – that was a mistake. Scored a bumper sticker the first try and then a precious $50 credit code the second. Bonus.
And of course, another Mini MUNI Meltdown, right on sked:
San Francisco is the world capitol of aging, somewhat exotic motorcycles, don’t you know.
This view of Scott Street is typical.
Triumph Bonneville T100:
Click to expand
Honda CB200:
BMW R75/6:
Hurray!
At long last, it’s here. It’s the interim menu for our Stow Lake Boathouse & Cafe.
Is this menu too foo-foo yuppie for you? Is $3.25* too much for a “Let’s Be Frank“ grass-fed beef** hot dog?
As always, You Make The Call:
Click to expand
*Well, I’ll tell you, that’s cheaper than what the former tenant was charging. Here’s some more from the clinically-absurd SaveStowLake.org crowd:
“Seniors will no longer be able to gather freely at the boathouse. Prices will be more than doubled on all food items. Middle class and low-income families will be driven out of this spot that is designed to be for all…not just the wealthy.”
I’ll tell you, everything that the Save Stow Lake people have predicted has turned out to be shrill, alarmist bullcrap. JMO.
** “These snappy dogs are loaded with flavor, not junk! Using premium cuts from cattle raised on pasture in California (naturally high in healthy Omega 3 fatty acids!) and organic spices, we’ve crafted a delicious dog that’s lower in fat, calories and sodium than conventional franks. No nitrites, nitrates, hormones, or antibiotics, ever.”
[UPDATE: Rachel Gordon has the deets of Opening Day right here.]
I don’t know, if I had an expired lease with the City and County of San Francisco and they asked me to leave by a certain date, I think I’d leave by that date. But the former tenant at the Stow Lake Boathouse doesn’t roll that way, so he kept on running the place, overstaying his lease, defending an eviction action through the drier $pring and $ummery tourism months. The result is that the new tenant is taking over in Autumn, in the rain. O.K., did that help San Francisco? No.
Also, the old tenant charged $25 per hour for paddleboats and $20 for rowboats until he got caught, even though the contracted rate was for $20 and $15 per hour. O.K., did that help San Francisco? No.
Oh, and the workers for the former tenants left little surprises for the new tenants haha. O.K., did that help San Francisco? No.
Oh, and the trial pitting the former tenant against all of us is skedded for March 2012.
Moving on…
Your new Stow Lake Boathouse & Cafe will open on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011, rain or shine, boats and food. It’s official ‘n stuff.
Meet your new fleet:
1. Electric boat – lead-acid type batteries, like from Your Father’s Oldsmobile;
2. Paddleboat – Captain and First Officer/Stoker facing forward with two passengers facing rearward;
3. Rowboat
Click to expand
And actually, the forecast is for Cloudless Skies on Wednesday, so you’ll be richly rewarded if you skip out of work to see the soft opening.
See you there!
Well, it seems that rain has delayed the planned quick fixes to our historic Stow Lake Boathouse, so don’t expect it to open by the promised October 6th deadline. The place is a ghost town right now.
Oh, and there were a few unanticipated electrical issues in the kitchen too.
Oh, and a little while back there was a hole in the Stow Lake levy that cropped up right near the boathouse during the long-planned repaving job for, among other places, the Stow Lake area and a good section of JFK.
Oh, and the swan boats, well, you’re going to have start a petition to get those any time soon. But they’ll have plenty of regular, non-avian-themed paddle boats.
In any event, work proceeds. Get all the deets on the new and official website.
Click to expand
And if you want to rent a bike in Golden Gate Park, you’ll need to go to the new vendor:
You’ll find them operating behind the bandshell in the Music Concourse betwixt our de Young Museum and California Academy of Sciences.
Their Grand Opening will be next week but they’re open for business now, even during these rainy days.
Bon courage, SLBH and ParkWide.
Well, per the people at the Stow Lake Boathouse, the joint will reopen soon:
“We will reopen operations with food service and boat rentals no later than October 6th.”
Here’s how it looks today, with a fresh layer of asphalt:
Click to expand
Here’s the Twitter and the Facebook and the blog.
And here’s the manifesto:
“A trip to Golden Gate Park isn’t complete without a sojourn to Stow Lake Boathouse. Join us for a relaxing boat ride that will transport you to an idyllic retreat in the heart of San Francisco. Share time with friends and family at our nostalgic boathouse café. Invite the peace of nature to your day with an excursion to one of America’s most visited city parks.
We are very excited about our proposed vision for the Stow Lake Boathouse and Café. Our highly sustainable new café, improvements to the boathouse itself, and our new and improved fleet of boats offer a number of benefits to the City and visitors to Golden Gate Park.
Stow Lake is a valuable part of San Francisco’s heritage and it needs to stay that way. It should remain a venue for grassroots and other volunteer organizations, while becoming a place where future generations can learn firsthand about the variety and complexity of nature. Stow Lake is also home to many plant and animal species. It hosts so many natural wonders, that it’s hard to believe such a marvelous ecosystem exists so close to downtown San Francisco.
We pledge to be outstanding stewards of Stow Lake, and to work with our community partners in order to further the awareness and appreciation of this beautiful microenvironment. By establishing meaningful partnerships with local groups, we plan to continue and curate the legacy of Stow Lake for the San Franciscans of today as well as tomorrow. We are dedicated to meeting and exceeding existing stewardship standards in order to preserve and protect the richness of these plant and animal species, as this community has done in the past.”
OK then.
But at least 36 people on Gaia’a Green Earth don’t approve of the new tenant:
“It’s not over yet! The civil lawsuit begins March 2012 and will expose the truth about all the many laws that Rec & Park broke in order to bring in an out-of-state chain, with no boating experience to take over this historic boating recreation site.”
March 2012, huh? Sounds like a long ways off at this point.
Anyway, bon courage, new Stow Lake Boathouse and Café.
Just so you know.
Click here to get an idea on what to expect on Union Street in the Cow Hollow / Marina this weekend, June 4-5, 2011.
But keep in mind that you will be venturing onto the northern slopes of NIMBY Mountain, the Fortress of Reaction, you’ll be dealing with the Specific Whites of Pacific Heights Adjacent, so forget about walking around with an open container all obvious the way you can at other City-sanctioned bacchanalia.
You gotta be sly fox, like this gal. The SFPD is totally cool with this:
Click to expand
Great. Now you’re all set to party with the attractive denizens of the Marina, where even the fat slobs are appealing in a Jack Black / Judd Apatow kind of way.
I can’t believe this video documenting life on Fillmore Street was pulled from YouTube. (This screengrab still looks like a movie still to me.)
Oh well.
(Oh, and by the way Union Street Festival, you might be Urban, but you’re not Eco, not in the least, especially because everything’s Eco in 2011. Just so you know.)
And oh kids, stay out of the West End of Union, as that’s reserved for the little ones. Party People should stay on the other side of Fillmore.
Have fun…
Now here’s what’s funny when the so-called neighbors who own houses near traditional San Francisco street parties, like the Bay to Breakers Fun Run and the Union Street Festival, complain about traditional San Francisco street parties like the Bay to Breakers Fun Run and the Union Street Festival. Inevitably, some of the actual neighbors, the people what live on the street itself, throw open their doors for anything-goes, beer-fueled house parties.
Anyway, today Andrea Koskey has the news about how there will be no more beer gardens at the Union Street Festival 2011, prompting this response from Serg of the Uptown Almanac:
“Yeah because rock and fucking roll brings the “wilder element.” Yeah I bet it must be nuts when your heehaw ass festival gets raided by tall can weilding dave matthews fans. Ain’t know dancing in this town bitches! We want to sell shitty ass freeway artwork and braclets made out of old rocks and trash to senior citizens and sweater knots. Fucking dumb asses chewing on shitty grilled meat on a stick can’t hang out in beer gardens or do whatever dumb fucking bullshit it is that they do on their lame ass stoops on Union st. Union street can suck my balls, that shit has been herbfest from the gate, amatuer hour trainwreck can stay gone.”
O.K. then.
All right, get your house partay tickets or invites now. (It’ll be a piece of cake if you are popular/cute enough.)
The perils of post-adolescent Union Street Fest shotgunning. The front of this house faces Union:
That entire residence was filled to the brim with partiers in 2008. Ah, memories.
All right, see you there, or not.
Now enjoy a trip down Union Street Festival Memory Lane:
This thing is biiiig – it will take you a long time to wander about Union:
You know who proved popular was Tom Rigney, “electric violinist, Cajun fiddler, composer, graphic artist, and leader of the American roots music band, Tom Rigney and Flambeau.”
Best in Show – Candy Wrapper Handbags, something like this, as seen on Oprah
Micro cupcakes continue their dominance over the cuisine of the late aughts
Your streetfest four basic food groups are poultry (including turkey legs, they’re not just for renaissance festivals anymore), corn on the cob, couscous (not pictured) and garlic fries (not pictured).
2.5 star-rated Left at Albuquerque [sadly closed now, I think] offered crowd-pleasing beer towers to sidewalk diners:
Now they’re renting out A2B electric scooters to tourists. Do people really ride these things on the Golden Gate Bridge sidewalks at 20 per back and forth to Sausalito? People do. Anyway, Blazing Saddles bike rentals was offering test drives.
Suds on the Roof, but much less than in years past. I think a man partying outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a red cup of suds.
“Eco-Urban” Union Street featured a hell of a lot of gas powered Honda generators, but this year, not so much. Originally, I thought this distribution amplifier was a box full of car batteries, but now I’m at a loss at figuring out how this band got its power. If they had a generator, they hid it well.
What’s this?
It’s an overhead extention cord leading from a Union Street business to one of the food vendors in the middle of the street. Is that an extension cord being used as internal wiring? Cough electrical code cough.
Oh, there it is! One of at least two Hondas in operation today.
But at least all the amplified music won’t disturb this slumbering. ear-protected pooch.
It’s big, in’nt?
And here’s the lateral view from our most-polarizing street fest yesterday, the day with “fewer hooligans” drinking beer according to at least one Sunday attendee:
I’ll tell you, myself, I didn’t see too many “drunken douchebags.” Myself. Anyway, it’s nice to see Union busy for a change.
Lots of swag from our corporate overlords at this street faire:
All right, here are a few of the Repubs. Yes on B and Fix MUNI Now were a few of their issues:
And here are some more. These people were promoting Dana Walsh (no, not the character on 24 and not this cutie, oh no – the Republican Dana Walsh).
As usual, the West End was strictly for kids:
And dogs, of course:
Fandango let people take two free spins on their unfairly-weighted (aka loaded, gaffed, cogged, weighted, crooked, or gag) swag roulette wheel – that was a mistake. Scored a bumper sticker the first try and then a precious $50 credit code the second. Bonus.
And of course, another Mini MUNI Meltdown, right on sked:
