Posts Tagged ‘bay area’

Seventh and Market Black Market Update: Now Featuring “Here Choccy Choccy” Cereal – How To Profit Off Of Donated Food

Friday, May 17th, 2013

(Or “Krave,” as you Yanks call it.)

And Big Cheez-Its, that’s also available at a steep discount on the corner of 7th and Market these days.

But, cheez it, the cops! See them?

Do they ever do anything down here?

Click to expand

Everybody wins when big corporations, like, I don’t know, Wal-Mart, take big tax deductions for donating food and when donees sell it to happy customers. Hurray!

CONCLUSION: The Gannett Co Inc’s THE BOLD ITALIC Website is From and For People Who Don’t Live in San Francisco

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Here you go, Where Are The Cheaper Rents in SF?”

Gannett Co. Inc’s money-losing (millions and millions so far) San Francisco media experiment is, once again, taking on an issue of concern to newcomers:

Where Should I Live And What Does Where I Live Say About Me?

Except this time it’s a dump from TBI “partner” Zumper, whatever the Hell that is.

So all there’s for the low level TBI people to do is make the accompanying graphics to break up the grafs.

Oh, here we go:

So, you know why the rents are cheaper here generally, GANNETCOINCTHEBOLDITALICZUMPER? It’s because of all the federally-subsidized housing projects. 

Oh, but you knew that and you showed that you knew that. So that’s good, I guess.

But actually, the area you’re showing is mostly PJ’s and concomitant parking lots? So the small number of readers you have won’t be able to actually move in, right? I can think of just one small area, in the upper right, where your data points come from. Is that what you’re talking about, TBIZumper?

Anyway, that’s why streets like Buchanan and Octavia don’t go through, because of the Redevelopment, right?

Except Laguna does go through, right? Do you know that, TBI? (And a good thing it does, else the climate in this area would be even more muggy, if you know what I mean.)

And how many people at TBI looked at “MACALLISTER” and said, “Looks good to me, no problems here?”

But check it, the typos aren’t the problem, they are just the symptom of your problem.

From TBI:

“…here in San Francisco, we’re striving to create our own culturally significant publication that captures the city in such a thoughtful way…”

So, TBI, do you really think you’re a culturally significant publication? Do you really think you’re capturing the city in a thoughtful way?

I don’t.

So, TBI, do you really think you’re:

“a San Francisco-based website building a cultural narrative of the city for both locals and tourists?”

Well, I can see that you’re aimed at tourists but I don’t know about cultural narratives and whatnot.

All right, enjoy your high burn rate.

And enjoy your unsustainable clubhouse on Page while you slap a few graphics onto your partners’ pretty-much-worthless content.

And enjoy your self-indulgent field trips that really really super serve your readers.

END OF LINE.

Instead of Paying Its Taxes, Twitter Offers Up a “Safer 6th Street” Focus Group This Saturday at Noon

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Here’s what 6th and Stevenson is like today

Auweia – click to expand

…and here’s the vision for its future, below.

So, just as the horrible SFMTA recently conducted focus groups on the future of Polk, 6th Street is getting its turn.

I’ll tell you, if I were in charge of making 6th street safer, I don’t think I’d put  “Slower Cars” at the top of the list.

How about “Less Untreated Mental Illness” instead?

Anyway, our blessed SFMTA will be  hosting ”an interactive activation project on 6th Street (between Market and Stevenson)” on May 18th, 2013.

And Twitter will be there too, sort of.

In a better world, Twitter would participate because it wants to, not because it’s contractually obligated to do so.

(And Twitter would pay its fair share of taxes under the rules signed into law by that wild job-killing radical, Gavin Newsom, all the way back in 2004.  Twitter, just give me your tax returns and I’ll figure how much more you should have paid and then you can write a check for the difference and send it in to the General Fund.)

NEWSFLASH: The people from the residential hotels you don’t like on 6th Street aren’t going anywhere.

By law.

Oh, and lots of people working at Twitter would still prefer to labor in northern San Mateo County, just saying.

Anyway, on with the show:

Slower Cars. More sidewalk space. More mid-block crossings. Brighter lighting. Cleaner streets. These are among the ideas and desires recently expressed by the local community for a safer 6th Street.

Safer 6th Street is a collaboration between SFMTA, District 6 Supervisor’s Office, Twitter, Neighborland, SPUR, URBAN SPACEship and other community organizations to address the issue of safety in the 6th Street corridor, and gather further input from the local community as to what can be done to create a safer area for residents, workers and passersby alike.

There is an on-going community process to implement safety measures in the 6th Street corridor, including:

Sixth Street Improvement Project led by SFMTA, for permanent traffic calming and pedestrian improvements in the corridor

Supervisor Jane Kim’s District 6 Pedestrian Safety Workgroup, which has been advocating for traffic calming on Sixth Street for the past several years

- Activation projects led by the Mayor’s Office of Economic Workforce and Development

- The recent establishment of The Sixth Street Safety Hub, an SFPD sub-station

In alignment with this process, we ask – how can we, as a community, create a safer 6th Street?

On Saturday, May 18th, between 12-6pm we will be hosting an interactive activation project on 6th Street (between Market and Stevenson), to engage the community and gather ideas and feedback towards this question, with the aim of envisioning a vibrant area and helping to prioritize treatments to the 6th Street design.

Pick your medium – we’ll have a Neighborland board for you to freely write on, a Twitter photo booth, and a collaborative mural installed by ArtIsMobilus.

Until then, share your ideas and comment on others here or on Twitter using the hashtag #safer6th. Through a new integrated platform between Neighborland and Twitter, your tweets will display on the Question page. Any tweets that start with “I want …” and contain the hashtag will auto-magically become ideas on the Question page.

Come join and take part in creating action on the ground!”

Fashion Update: Harajuku 94117

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Not too far from Japantown, actually:

Click to expand

Private Security Patrols in San Francisco? This Car Looks Official, But It’s Not

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Usually, the private security patrols I see are in economy cars with the name of the company prominently displayed.

This car is meant to trick people into thinking a peace officer is inside and/or impress clients.

Click to expand

Anyway, this is unusual in the 415…

Un Petit Corruption: Dropping the GF Off at the JC Using a White SFGov Pickup Truck – But Remember, Transit First!

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Transit First for Thou but not for Thee, that is.

Taxpayer-paid pickup fueled with taxpayer-paid gasoline:

Click to expand

Why not use your sweet SFGov ride to run errands to make your life easier?

Legend: 

GF: Girlfriend. Or sister I guess.

JC: Junior College. You know, the troubled one. 

 

OMG, It’s the Biggest Photowalk in World History – A Huge Success for Google Plus

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

I’ll tell you, I checked out this moving Mid-Market menagerie tonight and I half expected to see a soggy Robert Scoble wearing nothing but Google Glass in the vanguard leading the parade.

There were hundreds of them! With millions of dollars worth of photography equipment blithely making their way through the troubled Microsoft Yammerloin.

As seen heading down Market in front of the now-shuttered Market Street Cinema strip club, which has supposedly “closed for remodeling” (or so they claim) for months. (I weep for the strippers – how will they pay their way through grad school now?)

Click to expand

Oh we go, a girl PhotoWalker, among all the photo geeks and Glassholes, at the foot of McAllister Street in the heart of the world’s largest open-air stolen iPhone store, you know, in corrupt Randy Shaw’s corrupt Twitterloin. You know, he himself helped draw the Twitter tax exclusion zone.)

Hai, chiizu, moribund Hibernia Bank!

I’ll tell you, whenever I photowalk through the gritty “Uptown Tenderloin” NeMa New Market NoSoMa North of South of Market area , I always wear four inch heels and carry a $700 full-size carbon fiber tripod, natch.

All right, I dare anyone to watch this two-hour video of this evening’s event.

UPDATE: Oh, Dave Martinez won a pair of Glass.

All right, keep on keeping on, and clicking and walking, Photowalkers!

Virtual Photo Walks™ originally shared this post:
Google+ San Francisco +Virtual Photo Walks™  with +Trey Ratcliff +Thomas Hawk +Karen Hutton and special guest in the HOA +Dave Veffer From +Trey Ratcliff Watch the SF PhotoWalk Live tonight!I’ve updated the PhotoWalk event at http://goo.gl/FqJcw with everything, but here’s the skinny!

Can’t make the photowalk?  Watch live tonight with +Karen Hutton  and+Virtual Photo Walks™  !! It will be shared live here to my own stream as well.

The Plan: Look, it’s possible security may throw us out of our meeting spot (inside the event at http://goo.gl/FqJcw ) right away, and I may not be able to jump up on a bench and give my Mussolini-esque speech.  If that happens, here is the plan:

Had lots of fun doing a +Virtual Photo Walks™  If you missed it live; you can watch it NOW on demand here.

A special thanks to +John Butterill  and +Bruce Garber  for helping to organize these virtual photo walks.

To learn more about +Virtual Photo Walks™  please visithttp://VirtualPhotoWalks.com where we walk the walk for those who can’t and have a lot of fun in the process.

If you would like to join us on a +Virtual Photo Walks™  or know some one who would please contact us http://VirtualPhotoWalks.org to learn how. 

Circle us on Google+  http://VirtualPhotoWalks.com 

Please feel free to help share places we visit, by sharing this post and video with your circle of family and friends.

Thank you for your help and compassion.

“To Know, To Care, To Act”

Had lots of fun doing a +Virtual Photo Walks™  ! If you missed it live; you can watch it NOW on demand here.

A special thanks to +John Butterill and +Bruce Garber for helping to organize these virtual photo walks.

To learn more about +Virtual Photo Walks™ please visithttp://VirtualPhotoWalks.com where we walk the walk for those who can’t and have a lot of fun in the process.

If you would like to join us on a +Virtual Photo Walks™ or know some one who would please contact us http://VirtualPhotoWalks.org to learn how. 

Circle us on Google+  http://VirtualPhotoWalks.com 

Please feel free to help share places we visit, by sharing this post and video with your circle of family and friends.

Thank you for your help and compassion.

“To Know, To Care, To Act”

How I Go Up Masonic, How I Come Down Masonic

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

This shot shows the real steep block of northbound Masonic, just above Fulton.

Dude here uses the bizarrely-wide sidewalk, the way I and most other people do. Good times: 

Click to expand

And you should too, that’s what I’m saying.

Now, going south on Masonic is different. You should stay on the street ’til the cross-street Turk (which has a higher speed limit than Masonic, go figure). Then you go onto the sidewalk for one block (taking care to avoid the illegally parked cars put there by area homeowners who actually own garages, go figure). Then at Golden Gate, you cross and wait for the light to turn red.

Then you have two whole blocks all to yourself, if only for a few moments

Thusly:

That’s How I Go Up Masonic, How I Come Down Masonic.

Awesome Bronze Japanese Guardian Lions Installed at Our Asian Art Museum – Donated by Marsha Vargas Handley

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013

I missed the big installation yesterday but KTSF was there.

Check it.

Here’s what the “South Lion” looks like.  Its left paw is “resting on a Buddhist jewel with an openwork design of sculpted peonies, a flower closely associated with lions.” DNKT.

This is a composite shot, but it’s the best one I have now. Guardian lion, 1868-1912. Japan. Bronze. Gift of Marsha Vargas Handley in memory of Raymond G. Handley 

These critters certainly have found an appropriate resting place!

The ceremonial unveiling is coming soon.

All the deets from your Asian Art Museum:

“ASIAN ART MUSEUM INSTALLS TWO JAPANESE BRONZE LIONS ON FRONT STEPS

The Asian Art Museum has installed two monumental Japanese bronze lion sculptures on granite plinths outside the museum’s front entrance on Larkin Street. Recently acquired by the museum through a donation from longtime supporter Marsha Vargas Handley in memory of Raymond G. Handley, the 800 lb. sculptures date to the late nineteenth century and are similar to the majestic guardian lions typically placed opposite each other outside Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.

The practice of adorning public buildings with sculptures of lions is a time-honored custom in the US–the New York Public Library and the Art Institute of Chicago are noteworthy examples. The granite plinths outside the Asian Art Museum may well have been intended to support sculptures of lions when the building was originally built in 1916 to serve as the San Francisco Main Public Library. The museum is now following that longstanding tradition–this time with a uniquely Asian spin–giving a sneak peek of the treasures held inside.

The lion on the museum’s south side has its left paw resting on a Buddhist jewel, with an openwork design of sculpted peonies, a flower closely associated with lions. The south lion’s mouth is open, and the north lion’s is closed, symbolizing the sounds and spirit of the Japanese pronunciation of the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet: “A” is pronounced with the mouth open, and “Un” with the mouth closed.

Physical Description: These lions’ enormous size—nearly five feet tall and six feet long— and standing positions are unusual. Paired guardian lions outside shrines today are often shown seated or crouching, and most are made of stone, wood, or, less commonly, ceramic. This pair of large sculptures also stands out in material (bronze). Relatively few bronze guardian lions from before World War II survive, due in part to mandatory metal collections ordered by the Japanese government during the war.

Conservation: The lions have undergone extensive conservation treatment, including repairs to the feet that fasten them to a new, customized base—a strategy of earthquake preparedness. Several layers of protective coating were applied to resist weathering of Ceremonial Unveiling: Details for a forthcoming ceremonial unveiling event will be announced soon.”