The San Francisco Citizen

Well it’s just been announced that the Presidio Trust Board of Directors Meeting skedded for November 13th has been postponed to December 9th, 2008. So plans to put in a museum with a (”b”-as-in-boy) billion dollars worth of art, a museum proposal that has refined art critics such as Kenneth Baker doing cartwheels, will once again get delayed.

See what the Presidio Trust is proposing here.

Check out the last meeting way back in July. Read a transcript here. (C’mon, it’s only 176 pages long.) And get up to speed on the Presidio here.

This is what it looked like the last go around. Click to expand.

It’s easy to get to the meeting.

See you there, you White NIMBYs!

A new program, Student Emergency Response Volunteers (SERV), is being put forth as an alternative to Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) in San Francisco Schools.

Per Jane Kim, via Fog City Journal:

“Commissioners [Norman] Yee and I proposed this program so students can create emergency disaster plans for their families. They will learn CPR, first aid, and HAMM radio skills.”

Per popular District One Supervisorial candidate Eric Mar:

“This is a great example of real leadership opportunities we can provide to high school students to replace the military-run JROTC program as it is phased out.”

Eric Mar and Jane Kim speaking out yesterday.

JROTC remains popular with many parents - maybe they’ll see SERV as a viable alternative?

Well the election is almost here, so it’s time to meet San Francisco Board of Education Candidate Emily Murase. The scene below is from one of her recent events in the Sunset.

From another event on the same day, per San Francisco FYI Net:

“Emily Murase talked about addressing the enrollment crisis , closing the achievement gap and ensuring teacher retention and recruitment. Emily is obvious a planner, who researches her issues carefully and wants to help the school system. What a great way to meet a candidate (much more personable than the debate forums). Emily Murase’ house signs say “Kids, first, politics last”.

Emily Murase with supporter Amy Lauer and a youthful Obama fan at yet another house party meet and greet:

Emily has the endorsement of the San Francisco Examiner’s Education Examiner, Caroline Grannan as well as a gamut of local pols, including Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Senators Leland Yee and Carole Migden, Mayor Gavin Newsom, District Attorney Kamala Harris and Public Defender Jeff Adachi. 

See you on election day.

This was the scene last night when Bruce Wolfe began campaigning for Community College Board at a fundraiser on Divisidero Street.

Bruce Wolfe with supporter Frank Rizzo from the Sierra Club in the background:

Read some “Howls from the Wolfe” here on his official website.

It looks like he’s off to a good start.

Here it is in today’s San Francisco Chronicle: “If landlord delays fixes, ‘repair and deduct.‘” Click on over and read what “Property Manager Robert Griswold” has to say.

So, all that is fair enough, as far as it goes. But, gees Louise, there are caveats galore that could be appended to the pithy advice found in the article.  How about a link to the California Department of Consumer Affairs, where they have all sorts of advice about reparing and deducting, including this:

“Each of these remedies has its own risks and requirements, so the tenant should use them carefully”

Or as a commenter at SFGate.com suggests, check out Berkeley’s Nolo, “your legal companion since 1971.”

The Nolo outlet at 950 Parker in Berkeley.

Now back in the day, you could guess at the law and everything would generally work out. But those days are over. Basic ideas that were burned into the California Constitution  in the 1800’s have been tinkered with incessantly. Thusly.

Now all that can be good or bad. If your former landlord is thinking about retaining your security deposit in bad faith, the law created by Senator Carole Migden’s old Assembly Bill 2330 might give him or her reason to pause. So that’s good.

But let’s say your flaky roommate took off for Tibet two months ago and left some of his stuff around - exactly how you go about handling things is important. Very important. If you guess at the law or use your own sense of what’s right, then you might make painful mistakes. That’s bad.

Ces’t la vie en Calfornia.

Anyway, If your landlord delays fixes, consider ‘repairing and deducting. How’s that for a headline?

San Francisco Unified School District Commissioner Eric Mar soundly won the sole endorsement of the San Francisco Democratic Party to replace Supervisor Jake McGoldrick this week, and now it’s his birthday. So he had a party at the Toy Boat Dessert Café on Clement in the Richmond District today.   

Alicia Wang and Sue Lee are the other major candidates in the race

This is Eric’s platform and this is his schedule for the week:

5:30 PM: Monday Night Phonebanking

7PM: The Peaceniks Benefit Concert for Eric Mar

5:30 PM: Wednesday Night Phonebanking

10AM: Coffee with Eric 3:30 PM: Meeting of the Select Committee of the Board of Supervisors and Board of Education

6PM: Young Voters for Eric

6PM: San Francisco Board of Education Meeting

5PM: “I ACCEPT” OBAMA SPEECH WATCHING PARTY

Candidate for Community College Board Chris Jackson appears to be gaining momentum these days. He’s running for a slot on a city-wide elected body that oversees policy that affects over 100,000 students at City College of San Francisco. Here’s his deal:

He’s for aggressive and expanded outreach to historically underserved communities. He wants to ensure that SF City College remains an economic and community development resource for San Francisco and the Bay Area. And he wants to streamline the Financial Aid application process to get more aid to students 

Chris Jackson, on the left, takes questions from San Franciscans yesterday at a house party in the Western Addition:

He has a slew of endorsements, with more on their way.

And some people are singing Hallelujah already.

The Presidio Trust wanted a big turnout, and that’s what they got. How many folks showed up last night at the Presidio Trust Public Board of Directors meeting? More than 500 and less than 1000. Read a vivid account here.

These poor souls had to wait about 45 minutes before being admitted, but nobody was “turned away,” as has been alleged. Across the street you can see the “First Amendment Area” at Moraga and Monkey. That’s the nicest time, place, manner free speech area this lawyer has ever seen.

The news of the evening is that public comment period will be extended to September, so expect another big meeting like this one. A transcript will be available soon, so let’s wait on that before getting into this too much.

Is there a NIMBY backlash developing among area youth?

The Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, was booed by a good chunk of the mob after he voiced support for the CAMP museum as well as the entire Presidio Trust proposal. Only in San Francisco….

In the words of world-famous architect Richard Gluckman, “Working in San Francisco is not like anywhere else.”

Here’s what Angelo King of the Bayview Hunter’s Point Project Area Committee has to say, and here’s the official case made for the museum:

To be continued…

Well it seems like it takes forever to get anything done in this town, but we’ll be passing another milestone tonight. In the words of well-informed Marisa Lagos:

“Controversy over a series of proposed developments in the Presidio’s Main Post- most notably Gap founder Don Fisher’s 100,000-square-foot modern art museum - is heating up in advance of a meeting Monday.”

Make sure you get to the correct location: 

Presidio Herbst International Exhibition Hall, 385 Moraga Avenue (next to the Presidio Officers’ Club on the Main Post). The public is invited to offer comments on the draft Presidio Trust Management Plan Main Post Update Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (read more). If you have questions, please call the Presidio Trust Public Affairs Office at (415) 561-5418. View the board meeting agenda.”

There seems to be a lot of interest in these developments:

This is what the start of the Main Post Walking Tour looks like. Feel free to check out this guided tour before tonight’s board meeting:

“Monday, July 14, 4:30 to 6 pm. Meet Outside the Presidio Officers’ Club, 50 Moraga Avenue. On this easy-to-moderate 90-minute guided walk, Presidio Trust staff will discuss ideas for revitalizing the Main Post as the heart of an urban national park. Get answers to your questions and find out how you can make your opinions heard in this public process.”

But what about you? Where can you protest?

“A ‘First Amendment’ Area has been established on the lawn at the northwest corner of the intersection of Montgomery Street and Moraga Avenue, set back five feet from any sidewalk.”

(Yes, it’s odd that the San Francsico index of streetnames has two Moragas and two Montgomerys.)

Conveniently, this location is right next to the board meeting, the site of our new Richard Gluckman-designed CAMP museum, and the defunct movie theatre that’s scheduled to be reopened one of these days.  

But the whole idea is to get inside and participate in the process, so why not? You’ll be able to see how many NIMBYs will turn out - you know, San Francisco has more than its fair share of NIMBYs. They’ll identify themselves by telling you how many years they’ve lived in such and such neighborhood.

Then they’ll proceed with their favorite rhetorical trope, the metaphor. Which metaphor will prove most popular?

A. Monster. Includes “giant” and other words connoting size.

B. Alien. Includes any reference to otherworldliness.

C. Disease. Includes anything cancer-related, such as “spread” or “metastasize.” (This one is a long-shot)

D. Any other metaphor.

And while we’re on the topic, the drinking game watchwords tonight will be separated into two categories, adjective and adverb. Hoist a drink upon hearing any mention of the word inappropriate. That game is for professional drinkers only, so as an alternative, take a drink of your favorite intoxicant when you hear either completely or totally in the same sentence as the aforementioned inappropriate.

So there you have it. See you there!

When they’re not eating flowers, the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill like to fly around San Francisco in big flocks.

Click to expand:

Wild parrots above the KPIX-TV building on Battery Street and also near 202 Green Street, where Philo T. Farnsworth invented television a while back. 

Some people are afraid of these red masked conures, but others would like them to become the state bird of California instead of the Valley Quail. We have some quail in San Francisco as well, but not all that many.

Will the Parrot cell phone-accessory company be able to change our state bird from quail to parrot?

Only Time Will Tell.