Posts Tagged ‘Ambassador’
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
Yep. See below.
Observations:
1. Can somebody tell me when our San Francisco Bicycle Coalition became a quasi-official government organization, and then later on also tell me when it becomes a full-fledged subsidiary of the SFMTA? I ask that because the SFBC gets a lot of funding from SFGov. (That’s why the SFBC stopped promoting Critical Mass – because its government paymasters kept bugging them about it.) And the SFBC got included in that whole corrupt lets-let-Twitter-not-pay-taxes deal? Yep. And yet, the SFBC is allowed to freely endorse candidates for Mayor, and I’ll tell you, not necessarily the candidates that SFBC membership votes for, no no, but for the candidates that the officers of the SFBC think will win, like Appointed Mayor Ed Lee, for example. Mmmm…
2. Uh, the SFBC is still promoting the whole PEDESTRIANS ALWAYS HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY trope? Yep. Even though that’s wrong. Dead wrong. Morally and legally. Here’s why. So, shouldn’t you have checked with a lawyer first, SFBC, you know, before you start spouting off about “BIKELAW”? (Oh, you did? Who’s that? Who’s that jackass?)
3. And, your attempts at moral suasion in this post-Chris Bucchere era have failed, SFBC. I say that because people be still being running red lights on Market Street, particularly the ones that are for ped crosswalks only, like betwixt 8th & 7th, and 7th & 6th, and 6th & 5th and so on. Your campaign has had no effect, FYI. I’ll show you right now. Everybody in this peloton has just run the red light (actually two red lights, sort of) on Market inbound betwixt 6th and 5th streets. Each and every one:
Now I’ll ask, is this kind of thing “biking politely?” (I already know the answers to my other questions, but I don’t know the answer to this one. I don’t know what the SFMTAMUNIDPTSFBC means when it talks about ‘biking polite.”) Oh, and BTW, 20 seconds after this shot was taken, you were rewarding these cyclists with candy bars on the other side of 5th, just saying.
Oh, here we go, here’s how the SFBC, a quasi-government organization, spends your tax dollars, on campaigns like this:
Now I’ll tell you, I didn’t stop to get a chocolate bar, but if I had I would have been able to win a Major Prize. Apparently, each bar had a code on it, kind of like a Willie Wonka movie.
Check it:
“We know that the majority of people biking in San Francisco are biking politely, and giving pedestrians the right of way. So we at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition wanted to say thank you! Thank you for following the law, being a great bicycle aombassador and leading the way in safe, civil streets.
Stopping behind the crosswalk and giving pedestrians the right of way keeps people who are on foot safe and goes a long way to making our streets safer and more comfortable for everyone.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition will be giving out delicious treats for those we catch biking polite. If you “got caught” by us, enter your information and ticket number below and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a great getaway at the Bear Valley Inn. Thanks to Alter Eco for donating the delicious chocolate rewards!
Giving pedestrians the right of way is just one of the Rules of the Road to biking safely and legally. For more Rules of the Road click here.
Biking Polite Prize Raffle Entry Form:
You got caught biking polite! Thanks for stopping behind the crosswalk and yielding to pedestrians.In thanks for your terrific bicycle ambassador behavior, you’re eligible for entry into our raffle to win one night mid-week stay (Sunday – Thursday) at the Bear Valley Inn, Olema CA. Please enter your contact information here to enter our raffle; your information is confidential and will not be shared.”
On It Goes…
Tags: 2013, Ambassador, bay area, bicycles, bike, bikes, biking polite, biking politely, bikiung, california, Chris Bucchere, coalition, cyclists olema, inbound, laws, market, right of way, San Francisco, san francisco bicycle coalition, sfbc, street, ticket
Posted in bikes | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 5th, 2013
Let’s meet the paramilitary wing of San Francisco’s Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs (and Stencil Voting) standing on Market Street near Fifth.
They call their black caps pukao:
Click to expand
Here are the functions of the OCEIA ”Community Ambassadors”
“Ensuring safe passage to public transportation for residents, visitors, travelers and workers.
Providing directions and general assistance as needed.
Reporting criminal or disruptive behavior to the SFPD and MTA
Alerting 311 and city departments of safety hazards or street cleanliness/maintenance issues that affect public safety or health.
Providing information and referrals on existing city programs and services as needed.”
Well, as long as they don’t snitch…
Anyway, this is Your Money at work, sort of.
Tags: 2013, 311, Ambassador, Ambassadors, bay area, black, california, cbd, community, Easter Island, Easter Island Statues, guardian angels, guards, Immigrant Affairs, market, market street, Office of Civic Engagement, Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs, San Francisco, standing, statues, Stencil Voting, yellow
Posted in government | No Comments »
Thursday, May 31st, 2012
You see, MUNI, your problems aren’t really concentrated during the night, so what’s the deal here?
What function are these people performing?
Four in the day, two at night, at just one intersection:
Click to expand
Oh, really? OK, but how does that help the average MUNI passenger? You know the people you disappoint each and every day? Yes, traveling to Europe on junkets (can I bring the wife, can I bring the kids!) and buying gigantic tunnel boring machines (for the useless and ultimately burdensome Central Subway) is fun, but why not instead just struggle to get an extra run or two in on a few lines during drive time? At least you’d look like you’re trying.
Don’t you realize that you’re a defective government agency, SFMTA? Don’t you think you have better things to do with your resources than operate your brand ambassador outreach program?
Or, more likely, you think, “Wow, if only we could get more money, we’d have six people out there talking to each other about what kind of weed is the best kind of weed and what was on Colbert last night ‘n stuff, and then our outreach would be three times more effective!”
Tags: 2012, Ambassador, Ambassadors, bay area, brand, bus, california, fillmore, mcallister, mta, Muni, night, orange, San Francisco, service, SFMTA, street, team, vests, yellow
Posted in Muni | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2012
Are you there, MUNI? It’s me, Margaret.
OK, instead of hiring street ambassadors to sit around and talk with each other in order to get people to feel better about MUNI, why not just have them do something to actually improve MUNI to get people to feel better about MUNI?
I suppose the people in orange are the low-levels, you know, younger, attractive – they’re supposed to be the “Face of MUNI.” The supe wears yellow. “Uh, so, what was your major in college?”
Click to expand
Don’t you realize that you pass people by each and every day with full buses in this area, you know, because you all don’t know what you’re doing?
What if you were given a billion dollars each year, MUNI? You’d have all the money spent in a New York minute and then you’d cut service and then you’d come back whinging for more. Are you the worst big-city transit agency in America? No, you say? Well, which one is worse than MUNI?
In closing, MUNI sucks.
Tags: 2012, Ambassador, Ambassadors, bay area, brand, bus, california, fillmore, mcallister, mta, Muni, orange, San Francisco, service, SFMTA, street, team, vests, yellow
Posted in transit | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
OMG:
“Jean Paul Gaultier LE MALE’s MARCH OF THE SAILORS
In honor of the opening of the Exhibit “The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier – From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk” at the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums: De Young, Jean Paul Gaultier’s signature men’s fragrance LE MALE takes to the streets of San Francisco where traditional Gaultier sailors will offer fragrance samples and free LE MALE-themed pedicab rides between Union Square and the Embarcadero.
WHEN: March 23rd – 25th 2012
—–
11:30 AM – 7:30 PM
WHERE: Union Square – Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA
——
OTHER: During these hours, LE MALE Ambassador sailors will patrol Union Square delivering free fragrance samples.”
It will go a little something like this:
Via Pedicab Outdoor – click to expand
All right, see you there!
Tags: Ambassador, bikes, Catwalk, de Young, Embarcadero, Fashion World, Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier, fragrance, Gaultier, Gaultier sailors, Jean Paul Gaultier, jpg, LE MALE, museum, pedicab, pedicab rides, rides, sailor, sailors, San Francisco Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco Fine Arts Museums: De Young, sfam, sidewalk, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier - From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk", union square
Posted in bikes | No Comments »
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Well here it is:
“The British Consul General, Ms Priya Guha, requests the pleasure of your company at a reception prior to a screening of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” November 16, 6:00-7:15pm”
O.K. then. And that’s not at all a typical kind of thing for San Francisco’s consular community, really, but our British Consulate-General is out there in the Bay Area promoting the heck out of Britain. (Cool Britannia they used to call it.) And actually that’s not a hard job when you have Kate Middleton’s Royal Wedding this year (and her recent California visit, dropping by just to say “hi”) and the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics and whathaveyou.
Add to that list the start of a movie series that could rival James Bond and Harry Potter, who knows. It’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (that’s a nice trailer, huh?) featuring Mr. Gary Oldman (H.P.’s godfather!) and, already, it has an obscenely-high 97% positive rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Check it:
“Based on the classic novel of the same name, the international thriller is set at the height of the Cold War years of the mid-20th Century. George Smiley (Gary Oldman), a disgraced British spy, is rehired in secret by his government – which fears that the British Secret Intelligence Service, a.k.a. MI-6, has been compromised by a double agent working for the Soviets.”
So last night, San Francisco’s first female British Consul General, Ms. Priya Guha, introduced this film at the Century 9 in Westfield’s San Francisco Centre. She pointed out that Britain is quite big in the movie biz, having over 100 film studios and 2500 post-production companies.
And then it was on with the show.
And then, who popped up as the curtain dropped but Gary Oldman and Director Tomas Alfredson. (Or so I’m told.) This very same crew was up in San Rafael two days ago and who knows where they’ll be tonight:
“OH MY GOD, Gary Oldman is coming to the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy screening tonight?!!”
Anway, I don’t have a shot for you, so:
INSERT PHOTO OF MSSRS. OLDMAN AND ALFREDSON WITH CONSUL GENERAL HERE
But I do have shots from last night of people who may or may not have wanted their photos taken, so I’ll leave them caption-free. (I’ll note that CBS Channel 5 was def. in the house with famous Liam Mayclem and Beth Spotswood (she’s earned a page on Wiki now? Wow) on hand.)
Don’t click to expand, don’t encourage him
So, Enter the Circus yourself, why not, starting December 9th, 2011.
See you there!
Tags: 2012, 2012 Summer Olympics, 888 howard, Ambassador, bay area, britain, british, British Consul General, British Consulate, Century 9, community, Consul General, consular, consulate, Consulate-General, Cool Britannia, Deputy, england, film, Gary Oldman, George Smiley, Harry Potter, hotel, intercontinental, james bond, john le carre, London, mall, moive, November 16, Olympics, Rotten Tomatoes, San Francisco Centre, screening, summer, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson, trailer, twitter, United Kingdom, westfield, Writer
Posted in film | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
As seen in the Tenderloin:
Click to expand
This place is four-star rated on the Yelp. Per Shawn M:
“THIS IS AN SRO HOTEL. DO NOT TRY TO CHECK IN FOR THE NIGHT, IT IS A RESIDENTIAL HOTEL.
I moved into the Ambassador Hotel in 2003 right after the remodel. the place had been considered a real dump before TNDC bought it and brought it up to code. there is a services pavilion, including a tv for residents who can not afford one, but more importantly, there are counselors who help residents not just with benefits management and counseling, they also are willing to just lend an ear when the desolate come to them. i suspect TNDC has a christian spirit somewhere on their board. 
The Ambassador, and more broadly, the TNDC, supplies low income housing, so the tenancy is always a mixed bag. since most of the residents are poor and many of them suffer the ills that come with poverty, dont be surprised to see the meat wagon there a couple times a month.
The hotel is located in what was then the worst part of “The ‘Loin”, but was a far cry from my time at the Aranda, right around the corner, which had not been remodeled at that time. there is a maintenance crew on site every day, and the place is clean and “problems” are handled promptly.
When i lived there, the manageress was named Gabriella Desmond, and she turned tricks in her office and denied my application for one of the accessible rooms (about a dozen out of 134 if memory serves). i got a doctors letter explaining why i need an accessible room, and she said she would put me “on the waiting list”, but mustve been too busy doing her drugs to actually do it, because i began to see able-bodied people assigned to the accessible rooms. even tho i was supposed to be “on the waiting list” for the limited number of accessible rooms.
Anyways i heard they got rid of her, and may try to get back in now that the wicked witch is gone (but not dead).”
Ok then.
Tags: 2011, Ambassador, Ambassador Hotel, Attractive Rates, bay area, california, Drive-In Garage, hotel, occupancy, San Francisco, single resident, sro, tenant, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, tndc, yelp
Posted in architecture, buildings | 2 Comments »
Monday, January 10th, 2011
Man oh man I’d feel super self-conscious driving this rig around town wearing all these leather accessories, I’ll tell you. Appears as if at least six individual cows had to die for this ensemble. Wow.
And the bike, well, it’s an older model that’s been restored. At first I was thinking it was like a 2011 version of an Italian Harley, but now I’m thinking it’s not retro at all, it’s just an old bike in perfect shape.
Anyway, I always wondered what “a Moto Guzzi and a Gaultier pants” looked like, and now I know.
Click to expand
The Tupamaros got a platinum card (all right)
I got a heart of gold and it’s time to get hard (and I like it)
A Moto Guzzi I gotta way to get rich (all right)
I gotta library and a seven day itch (and I like It)
I got money oh I got around but my life was going nowhere
I was looking for love and I want your love baby love
When you gonna get me Boom! there she was
I was looking for love and I want your love baby love
When you gonna get me Boom! there she was – for me
The Tupamaros an immutable truth (all right)
I got a razor blade an’ a beautiful youth (and I like it)
A Moto Guzzi an’ a Gaultier pants (all right)
I got a reason girl was Immanuel Kant’s (and I like it)
Pharmacopoeia I got a way with the word (all right)
I got an’ alphabet that you never have heard (and I like it)
(Looking for love now)(Are you looking for me)
(I’m looking for love now)(Wanted to get you girl
I got money oh I got around but my life was going nowhere
I was looking for love and I want your love baby love
When you gonna get me Boom! there she was
I was looking for love and I want your love baby love
When you gonna get me Boom! there she was – for me
Tags: Ambassador, baby, Blue, Boom! there she was, brown, classic, Gaultier, goggles, hyde, italian, italy, jean paul, leather, market, Moto Guzzi, Moto Guzzi an' a Gaultier pants, MotoGuzzi, old, pants, street, twin, v, v50
Posted in fashion, motorcycles | 1 Comment »
Sunday, April 19th, 2009
As expected, there was a great turnout for the 42nd Annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown today. Sunny skies and the Grand Parade made today the busiest of the four-day festival. Let’s take a look at the staging area this morning.
Its Grand Marshall George Takei! Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu (born in San Francisco) is seen here hanging out with Heidi Cheung, Miss San Francisco’s Outstanding Teen 2009 and Crystal Lee, Miss California’s Outstanding Teen 2008.
Japanese Chamber of Commerce of Northern California President and Mrs. Masaaki Tanaka, Ambassador of Japan to the United States of America, H.E. Ambassador and Mrs. Ichiro Fujisajki, George Takei, and Consul General of Japan and Mrs. Yasumasa Nagamine:
The mise-en-scene in front of City Hall:. Click to expand:
My Melody, Hello Kitty, and Badtz Maru were pleased to be on the scene:
From Hawaii with aloha:
Photographer David Yu was welcomed by all, including this contingent from Los Angeles:
Miss National Asia Dow-An Kou is on the right:
Bevan Dufty chilling with local pageant winners.
Elizabeth Kress, Miss San Francisco:
And Little Miss San Francisco 2009, Alyssa-Marie Muna:
And now on with the parade:
Senator Leland Yee:
Frosty Senator Mark Leno:
Assemblymember Fiona Ma with Bob Twomey:
Assemblymember Tom Ammiano:
Board of Supervisors President David Chiu:
And his ride for today:
Supervisor Bevan Dufty and company:
Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi with the Japanese Ambassador and Consul General:
Supervisor Eric Mar:
Richard Hashimoto, President of the Japantown Merchants Association:
Thought this was an electric Tesla Roadster at first. Actually, it’s the similar (but lighter) gas-powered Lotus Elise. (Horrible Tesla Motors is long on promises, certainly, but just because a toy car is expensive and is powered by electricity, that doesn’t mean it’s a desirable product, that doesn’t mean it represents “the high end.” Just ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who ended up giving his Tesla Roadster back. Go ahead and buy one if you want, though. While you’re at it, why not buy an impractical electric Ultra Motor A2B bike and an impractical electric Segway Scooter as well.)
Speaking of cars, here’s part of the NUMMI contingent all the way from Fremont. It’s the only car factory in the West that’s still operating. Union labor, FYI
Nihonmachi Little Friends:
And your reward for making it all the way to J-Town? Yummy chicken and rice balls from O-Izakaya Lounge at 1625 Post Street.
See you next year!
Tags: 1625 Post Street, 2008, 2009, 2009 Crystal Lee, 42nd, a2b, Alyssa-Marie Muna, Ambassador, America, and electric, annual, Arnold Schwarzenegger, assemblymember, Badtz Maru, bevan dufty, bike, board of supervisors, Bob Twomey, california, Cherry Blossom, City Hall, Consul General, crystal lee, David Chiu, David Yu, Dow-An Kou, elise, Elizabeth Kress, eric mar, Festival, fiona ma, Fujisajki, George Takei, Governor, grand marshall, H.E., hawaii, Heidi Cheung, Hello Kitty, Hikaru, Ichiro, japan, Japanese, Japanese Chamber of Commerce, japantown, Japantown Merchants Association, leland yee, Lieutenant, Little Miss San Francisco, los angeles, lotus, lounge, mark leno, Masaaki Tanaka, Miss California's, Miss National Asia, Miss San Francisco, Miss San Francisco's, Mrs., My Melody, Nihonmachi Little Friends, Northern California, NUMMI, O-Izakaya, outstanding teen, pageant, parade, Photographer, post, president, Richard Hashimoto, roadster, ross mirkarimi, San Francisco, scooter, segway, Senator, street, Sulu, tom ammiano, ultra motor, union bank, Union labor, United States, Yasumasa Nagamine
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