Posts Tagged ‘Gavin’
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
From District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi comes this newsletter update concerning floats at the upcoming 2010 ING Bay to Breakers footrace. Certainly appears as if last month’s plan to start floats only at Divisidero and then stop them 1.2 miles later in Golden Gate Park is dead.
The new idea is having two staging areas for floats to enter the race – at the beginning in eastern SoMA and at Civic Center. Deets below.
These mariners will need a place to sail their float again in 2010:
Oh, whoops, they abandoned their stripper pole-equipped vessel in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle last year. Oh well.
Bay to Breakers Update
The 99th Bay to Breakers will be run on Sunday, May 16th. Last year’s race saw a significant reduction in problems and impacts on the neighborhood, although there is still more work to do be done. Plans are still being developed for how floats will participate this year. Race organizers initially proposed having all floats start on Divisadero; however, this raised concerns with both neighbors and with float advocates. Supervisor Mirkarimi organized a meeting with the race organizers, the Mayor’s office, float advocates, and neighborhood representatives. We are still waiting to hear the organizers’ revised plan, but they have indicated that they now plan to have two staging areas for floats: at the beginning of the race and at Civic Center.
We are encouraged to hear that the organizers plan to adopt Supervisor Mirkarimi’s suggestion to implement a registration system for floats. This will generate additional revenue to pay for the impacts of the floats, and also create a new level of accountability for floats that are abandoned on the streets. Despite the improvements last year, the impact on the Panhandle area was still unacceptable. Supervisor Mirkarimi remains committed to changing the practice of floats celebrating in the Panhandle for hours after the race has passed. Ross continues to encourage the race organizers to provide an end-point for floats in Golden Gate Park. He believes creating an event in the Park that encourages floats not to stop in the Panhandle will significantly reduce the impact on the neighborhood.
More information:
- www.baytobreakers.com
- Float registration information (to be posted soon)
Tags: 12k, 2, 2008, 2009, 2010, 5 fulton, 7, 97th, 98th, alcohol, alix rosenthal, annual, anschutz, b2b, bad, Bay, bay to breakers, bay2breakers, beer, body, breakers, cars, carts, channel, Chepkurui, chris fox, citizens, Conor Johnston, cops, corrals, CPBB, crawlsf, cups, david scott, David William Scott, department, dept., destroyed, direct, district, divisadero, divisidero, dj, dpw, dumpsters, edelman, Edward Sharpless, Elite, eventbrite, facebook, fell, floats, footrace, footstock, foto, fundraiser, gabe, garbage, gavilanes, Gavin, glass, golden gate park, good, Greater Body Expo, haight Ashbury, howard, ing, John, John Gray, Jon Dishotsky, kegs, Kelsey Nagie, kgo, KGO-TV, Kipsang, Korir, Lineth, liquor, Liz Brusca, map, Matt Seliga, Men's, Mike Moscuzza, Muni, naked, nat ford, Newsom, nimby, nimbys, nude, paint, panhandle, photographs, photos, plastic, police, police department, pr, preservation, public relations, purple, recycling, red, richmond, roe, ross mirkarimi, sam singer, Sammy Kitwara, San Francisco, SFPD, smoove, store, street, sunset, tickets, towed, trash, TV, ugly, vehicles, Wilson Ling, women's, zaq, zero tolerance
Posted in events, sports | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
[UPDATE: Word on the street is that, for 2010, floats will be confined the 1.2 mile stretch betwixt Divisadero Street and Arguello Boulevard. Is that a fact? No se, hermana/o. And people, use your words - this new rule ruins B2B because....]
Let’s see here, the Citizens for the Preservation of Bay2Breakers (Bay to Breakers) are upset about not being consulted with a change to where the floats start at the 2010 ING Bay to Breakers coming up on May 16th?
Today’s Beef of the Week:
“Even with an organization of more than 25,000 members built in just a couple of weeks in 2009 to fight AEG’s bans and preserve the traditions of the race, AEG did not approach CPBB or any of its officers to discuss the new 2010 restrictions prior to their announcement. AEG did not approach Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s office or the Board of Supervisors to discuss the new 2010 restrictions. AEG did not approach Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office to discuss the new 2010 restrictions. AEG did not approach the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association to discuss staging floats in their neighborhood instead of at the start of the race.”
All right. Spokesman Sam Singer is saying that the rules will be the same as last year, except for the float starting point. Actually, I thought people were mad in 2009 when they were required to start their floats down in the SoMA starting area. Oh well. Won’t this all get worked out when the permits get issued, and during the ISCOTT hearing ’n stuff? I mean the Third Sunday in May is three months away, right?
Haven’t run this photo in two or three months, or something. Click to expand:
Maybe changing the float starting point is a bad idea, I don’t know. There are pluses and minuseses.
This change wouldn’t seem to be enough to be able to “destroy” the B2B race though…
Tags: 12k, 2, 2008, 2009, 2010, 5 fulton, 7, 97th, 98th, alcohol, alix rosenthal, annual, anschutz, b2b, bad, Bay, bay to breakers, bay2breakers, beer, body, breakers, cars, carts, channel, Chepkurui, chris fox, citizens, Conor Johnston, cops, corrals, CPBB, crawlsf, cups, david scott, David William Scott, department, dept., destroyed, direct, district, divisadero, divisidero, dj, dpw, dumpsters, edelman, Edward Sharpless, Elite, eventbrite, facebook, fell, floats, footrace, footstock, foto, fundraiser, gabe, garbage, gavilanes, Gavin, glass, golden gate park, good, Greater Body Expo, haight Ashbury, howard, ing, John, John Gray, Jon Dishotsky, kegs, Kelsey Nagie, kgo, KGO-TV, Kipsang, Korir, Lineth, liquor, Liz Brusca, map, Matt Seliga, Men's, Mike Moscuzza, Muni, naked, nat ford, Newsom, nimby, nimbys, nude, paint, panhandle, photographs, photos, plastic, police, police department, pr, preservation, public relations, purple, recycling, red, richmond, roe, ross mirkarimi, sam singer, Sammy Kitwara, San Francisco, SFPD, smoove, store, street, sunset, tickets, towed, trash, TV, ugly, vehicles, Wilson Ling, women's, zaq, zero tolerance
Posted in events | No Comments »
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Remember back in the day, back when Clear Channel “promised” that they would provide a Velib-style bicycle sharing program for San Francisco? Let’s dig up a press release crowing all about that from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA). Ah yes, from the “Transit Shelter Advertising and Maintenance Agreement” with Clear Channel Outdoor, Inc.:
“The agreement also requires Clear Channel to provide a Bicycle-Sharing Program, at the SFMTA’s request, details of which will be negotiated in an amendment to the Agreement.”
Details! Oh noes. Well Clear Channel looked at the details of running a bike share program and decided that they didn’t want to do it. Of course, they were not “required” to do Jack despite what the SFMTA thought. Isn’t that funny?
Now let’s imagine that you’re in charge of San Francisco’s bike-share program. What should you do? Let’s start with the good stuff and then worry about the details, the gritty nitty.
But first, let’s check in with Jessica Alba in Paris on a Velib. She’s in your corner:
All right, let’s go:
1. Junkets, junkets, junkets!
Try to get in as many “fact-finding missions” as possible early on. You’re the CEO, right? So, first thing you do is jet off to France, or D.C. or Montreal, bidness-class. Start a blog to post vacation photos of you on a Velib and complain about how you have to spend so much time away from your kids. Enjoy yourself, it’s going to go downhill from here.
2. Make the program as small as possible.
This is key. The bigger the program, the more headaches you’ll have. If you listen to people who tell you that you need to have a “critical mass” to be sustainable, you’ll have 5000 bikes on the streets – that means 5000 things to fret over every day. The Feds might give you millions to get started, but they’re not going to give you millions every year. As far as you’re concerned, a bike share program is a bike share program.
3. Think of a catchy name for your program.
I don’t know, BikeConnect (if Alex Tourk would license the name)? How about City BikeShare, CalBike, BikeCal, SFBike, BikeSF, FoggyBike, or Frisco a Go Go? I’m at a loss…
And now, decisions to be made:
1. Which bikes to use?
In the Parisian program, the heavy bikes come from Hungary and they cost $1000 per. This is both good and bad, because you want to have the bikes well-built in order to survive the rigors of heavy use, but you don’t want to lose too much money every time one dissappears. I think it’d be impossible to charge $1000 to a San Francscan when the bike s/he just checked out got lifted by a thief, so you’re going to lose big bucks on theft. On the other hand, if you go the cheap route and use inexpensive mountain-type bikes, they’ll get stripped for parts with a quickness. You want bike thieves to think these are custom-made with no reuseable parts. Bixi bikes are cheaper (I hope) – perhaps they’d be a good starting point?
2. How much to charge users who don’t return bikes?
The Parisian government now subsidizes share program operator JC Decaux’s losses to the tune of millions of dollars per year. This is despite the fact that this company makes a mint from the 1600 advertising spaces given to them to pay for the program. If you are “too nice” to customers and only charge $50 for a bike they don’t return, then the customers won’t really care if their rental goes missing. On the other hand, if you try to charge the full replacement value, your customers won’t stand for it.
3. What about vandalism?
What about it – the little monsters are going to mess you up. They’re going to make it their business to make you want to go out of business. How will you react to the taggers who will paint over whatever they can? Now, program operators don’t have to deal with this issue in La Rochelle or Lyon, but in Paris, that’s a different story. Well guess what? We’re going to be just like Paris, having bikes with broken keels and lost keels. Deal with it. How about getting the City to cover all vandalism costs? That would help.
4. What about helmets?
You know, France has different attitudes about certain things. For example, they’ve got 58 nuclear panner plants and they’re building more, and they have a huge nuclear waste dump in Champagne, of all places. So, when you talk to the French about helmets for non-Tour-de-France-bike-riders, they don’t like it. Could San Francisco somehow rent out a smelly used helmet along with the bike? Doubtful. Could customers carry their own helmets? Sure, some of them would, but carrying around a helmet goes against the very nature of the whole program, which is designed to appeal to the general non-bike-riding public. In France, they tolerate deaths due to share program customers not having helmets. Will San Francisco?
5. What about hills?
Now let’s say your customer wants to go from a bike station at the top of Nob Hill down to Embarcadero Station – that’s a straight shot down California, it would take about five minutes, easy peasy. But who’s going to pay for the right to pedal a heavy bike back up to the top of Nob Hill? Should you give people who turn bikes in at the Nob Hill station more time? Certainly. Should you go ahead and just make that a free ride? Should you give these hardy souls a credit for future trips? Should you just pay jobless people to ride bikes uphill? Should you load up a truck and have an employee redistributing bikes all day long? Should you just not have a Nob Hill station? Don’t know.
There are no easy solutions for you. You’ll be made sport of in the pages of SFist and SFGate, San Francisco’s online newspaper. It’ll be endless. The Velib program works in Paris because of all that sweet, sweet street advertising money from all those signs. You won’t have access to that kind of dough, not in San Francisco.
Oh well, that’s why you’ll get paid the big bucks.
Good luck, Chuck.
After the jump, all the places you should junket to, before the cash runs out.
(more…)
Tags: bicycle, bicycles, bike, bikes, bixi, CEO, clear channel, clearchannel, cyclists, france, Gavin, JC Decaux, liberte, lyon, Mayor, montreal, mta, Newsom, paris, pilot, program, San Francisco, SFMTA, share, sharing, vandalism, vandals, Velib
Posted in bikes | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Why did Shanghai, the largest city in China, become one of our 16 Sister Cities in 1979? Well, we should all thank former Mayor and current U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein:
“It was sort of a race between Los Angeles and San Francisco to establish a Sister City relationship with Shanghai and of course San Francisco won – and it was the first such Sister City relationship between an American city and a Chinese city.”
(Once again L.A. loses, of course(?) - thanks DiFi.) Now it turns out that our Big Sis is hosting a big party this year – it’s World Expo 2010. So, that’s a good excuse for a bunch of the Bay Area’s cultural organizations to represent, via the Shanghai Celebration featuring Honorary Chair and San Francisco First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
Jay Xu, Director of the Asian Art Museum, confronting a media scrum after today’s announcement:
Check out the calendar of upcoming events all related to the Paris of the East - it’s packed, baby. Swan Lake featuring San Francsico Ballet Principal Dancer and Shanghai native Yuan Yuan Tan will kick things off from January 23-31 and then on February 12th comes the debut of the cornerstone of the Shanghai Celebration, a big exhibit at our Asian Art Museum simply called Shanghai. It’s going to be mega.
Just ask Jay Xu:
“The 2010 World Expo that opens in May is Shanghai’s coming-out party, the official debut as the city reclaims its position as a global powerhouse. The Asian Art Museum’s Shanghai exhibition was timed to coincide with this prominent international event. Only through understanding its tumultuous history, can one truly understand the progressive and stylish Shanghai of today.”
O.K. then.
Our jet-setting mayor was on hand to cheerlead for San Francisco, a part of his job which I think everybody would agree he does well. He was dressed for rain today, with blue jeans, and a pair of brown shoes that he claimed were “ruined” by the wet:
More deets from the AAA:
“The Shanghai Celebration is an unprecedented, year-long festival presented by more than thirty San Francisco Bay Area organizations commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the sister city relationship between San Francisco and Shanghai.
Spearheaded by the Asian Art Museum, the Celebration runs throughout 2010, coinciding with the World Expo presented in Shanghai from May to October. The more than 50 Shanghai-related programs feature exhibitions, concerts, performances, films, lectures, book readings, artist demonstrations and other special events and cover topics such as Shanghai’s architecture, jazz, historic Jewish communities, Art Deco design, filmmaking industry, contemporary art, cuisine, high-rise urban planning and fashion.
The cornerstone of the Celebration is the Asian Art Museum’s presentation of Shanghai, a major exhibition examining the visual culture of one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities, scheduled for February 12-September 5, 2010.
For the Shanghai Celebration program calendar of events, and a list of participating organizations, please visit www.shanghaicelebration.com.”
Check the lengthy, lengthy sked, after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 2010, American Jewish Committee, Anchee Min, angel island, Angela Au, architect, Architecture and Survival, art, Art Deco, Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Art Speak, Arts Commission, Arts of Pacific Asia, AsiaAlive, asian art museum, Assignment Shanghai, Ballet, Better City, Better Life, Birth of Jazz in Asia, botanical garden, building, Building Green in China, celebration, Chamber Music Concert, China, chinese, Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, city club, City Club Roundtable, comics, concert, Congregation Emanu-El, Conservatories, Contemporary Figurative Painting, Cultural Encounters, Dany Chan, de Young, Decorative Arts, documentary, dr., Drunken Dishes, East Meets West, Economica, Ellen Lou, Embroidery, Exhibition Opening, Eye of the Tiger, Fabric of Everyday life, Fall Antiques Show, Fall Antiques Show Preview Party Benefit, First Free Sunday, First Thursday Lecture Series, Forbidden City, Friday Nights, gala, Gavin, Golden Age of Chinese Nightclubs, High-rise Architecture, Historically Sensitive Development in Shanghai, immigration, Immigration Station, jay xu, Jeff Heller, jennifer, Jews in Modern China, joan chen, Later Jewish Communities of Shanghai, Lehrhaus Judaica, Li Xiaofei, library, life, Lisa Claypool, lounge, Lunar New Year, Lunar New Year Flower Market, Lynn Marie Kirby, matcha, Mayor, Mint, Moderne and Modernity, Music at Meyer, Music Festival, Newsom, O Perspective, old, Old Mint Building, Open Books, Opening NIght Gala, Oregon Reed College, Past/Present/Future, Personal Stories and Reminiscences, Photographs on the Eve of Revolution, piano, Preview, professor, Propaganda Poster Art, public, reception, Recital, Remaking of China’s Gateway to the World, Renee Chow, SAA, San Francisco, san francisco ballet, San Francisco Botanical Garden Society, San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, Sandra Lee Gallery, shanghai, Shanghai 2010, shanghai celebration, Shanghai Connection, Shanghai Dress, Shanghai Film Series, Shanghai Jazz, Shanghai Painting, Shanghai’s Jews, Shuang Stella Zhang, siebel, sister city, Sisters, Society, society for asian art, spur, SPUR Urban Center, Station, stories, String Quartet, swan lake, Swinging Chinatown, target, Target First Free Sunday, U.S. Immigration Station, UC, uc berkeley, UC Berkeley Art Museum, urban center, Visual Narratives of Inter-War Shanghai, Women & the Global Economy, Xian Rui 2010, Yuan Yuan Tan
Posted in art, events | No Comments »
Monday, November 16th, 2009
Here’s the thing about Nathan Ballard – he was almost always in this damn-the-facts-Gavin-Newsom-is-always-right mode. That’s just the way the bulk of his profession does it these days.* Oh well, he won’t be in that mode much longer, see the news release below.
But what if the roles had been reversed? What if the smarter one were Mayor and the more charismatic one were Director of Communications?
Wouldn’t that arrangement have worked out better? For them, and for us? Just asking…
NB on the job, an impossible job, really, when you get down to it. Here he is documenting the goings-on around on Polk Street:
Check Nate’s Earned Media website: ”Good Press. It isn’t free…” True that.
Anyway, here’s the news of the day:
Nathan Ballard to Leave Newsom Administration
Today Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that Nathan Ballard, his director of communications, will be leaving the Newsom administration.
Newsom praised Ballard’s skills.
“Nathan Ballard is unflappable, smart and a fierce advocate,” said Newsom. “He is a talented communicator and a consummate professional, and we will miss him.”
Ballard praised Newsom for his leadership.
“Mayor Newsom is a gifted leader who fearlessly tackles significant issues such as health care, the environment, education, and equal rights,” said Ballard. “It has been a privilege to serve this administration.”
Ballard took the helm of Newsom’s communications operation in February, 2007. He will be leaving the administration in February, 2010. He said he plans to spend more time with his family and to relaunch the business he founded in 2004, Earned Media, LLC.
Ballard, 40, has served as a spokesman for two presidential candidates, Senator John Kerry and General Wesley Clark. He has also been a communications director for the Democratic National Committee, the California Democratic Party, and California’s largest labor organization, the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO.
Good luck Mr. Ballard. Bon courage.
*Speaking of charismatic leaders, even Mussolini would occasionally admit he lost a battle or made a mistake. Those by-gone days of frankness are long-gone, it would seem.
Tags: attorney, ballard, communications, director, earned media, fired, Gavin, gavin newsom, laid-off, lawyer, LLC, Mayor, nate, nate ballard, nathan, nathan ballard, Newsom, resigned, San Francisco
Posted in politics | Comments Off
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
[UPDATE: Just discovered that Mr. Greg Dewar posted about this very issue yesterday.]
Well of course the 17 photos used for this standard one-minute commercial on YouTube were PhotoShopped – I mean they’re all black-and-white, so most likely they were converted from color using Adobe’s awesome B&W converter, or something similar. Fine, lots of contrast there, so they look good. But what about the sign that says “Constitutional Convention!” that appears at around :27?
Was it there in real life, or was it added in after the fact, added in to reflect the focus of the TV spot - California’s nascent movement for a new constitutional convention. Or, as mattymatt asks:
“What’s with the Photoshopped sign at 0:25?”
Click to expand:
Look at Gallagher over there on the right, dude wearing the natty cap. He has two signs? What’s holding up his “Constitutional Convention!” sign? Would you hold two signs like that? Is the higher sign glued to his fingers or something? Why is Our Mayor in focus, along with the sign, but nothing else? Does Gallagher’s left thumb go through the lower sign?
Here’s a close-up view. Like, why is the lower right corner of the higher sign in sharp focus when the lower sign appears to be out of focus?
Now, if the person making this video spot diduse Photoshop and maybe made up a sign to fit the commercial, then s/he would have most likely have used the Horizontal Type Tool. Now isn’t it funny that some of the more recent versions of PhotoShop (like CS2 and CS3) use Myriad (out of scores of options), as the default font and Myriad is the very same font as in the sign?
Rather interesting, non? (And by the way, Dan, that Plastic Planes bit you had a couple years back about the “unsafe” composite Boeing 787 Dreamliner? You’re totally wrong on that one.) Anyway, my PS defaults to Myriad Pro, so this is what you get when you start typing away and then center the result:
I don’t know, maybe it’s a real sign that just happened to be created with Photoshop – that would go a long way to explaining part of the mystery.
In conclusion, that sign look’s a little funny to me, and it looks a little funny to people (who, unlike me, actually know how to use PhotoShop) on the YouTube.
But, as always, You Make The Call.
Tags: 2010, ad, adobe, advertisement, black, california, commercial, constitutitional, convention, dan rather, default, election, First, font, Gavin, gavin newsom, Governor, mattymatt, myriad, Newsom, photoshop, photoshopped, rathergate, sacramento, San Francisco, shake the system, sign, white, youtube
Posted in advertising, politics | 1 Comment »
Sunday, October 11th, 2009
What are you doing this Monday, October 12th, 2009? You’re not going to work on Columbus Day are you? Gaia forfend!
Well, if you have the time, grab your partner and doh si doh on over to Golden Gate Park ’s de Young Museum, where tickets to see the Boy King in San Francisco are half-off, one day only:
It’s Tut, baby.
Click to expand
I’ll be at work, but otherwise, I’d…
See You There!
Tags: 2009, 2010, california, catalogue, chalcedony, cobra, columbus day, de Young, Diadem, discount, Family, famsf, Gavin, glass, gold, Golden Age, Golden Age of the Pharaohs, golden gate park, Half, holiday, hotel, kids, king, museum, Newsom, off, Pharaohs, sale, San Francisco, selket, sneak peek, ticketmaster, tickets, treasures, tut, Tutankhamun, Zahi Hawass
Posted in museums | Comments Off
Friday, September 11th, 2009
The Bigelow Report forecasted it a while ago, so you had to happen – Tut Cuvée, a “limited edition” sparking wine, is now available at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park.
It’s Tut, baby! You knew he was going to bring it. Check it out in the cafe when you see the Tut show.
Or “champagne.” You can call it that, “semi-generically,” if you want. It’s your right as an American. (That reminds me that I need to tell you about the Secret Sherry Society sometime. Moving on…)
Actually, if you want to get a bottle to go as a souvenir gift for your friends at home, you could do a lot worse. I don’t think you can actually get a bottle at the museum, but they’ll sell a glassful to you. And what’s wrong with that?
All the deets:
TUT CUVÉE, SPARKLING WINE FIT FOR A PHARAOH, LAUNCHES ON SEPTEMBER 10
A portion of the proceeds goes to funding school visits to the King Tut exhibition.
SAN FRANCISCO – The de Young Museum, in partnership with Iron Horse Vineyards, is pleased to announce the debut of Tut Cuvée, a limited edition, premium sparkling wine created to commemorate the exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, currently on view at the museum. One dollar of the purchase price of every bottle will go towards sending school children to see the exhibition for free. Over 350 Bay Area school children will benefit from this initiative.
“We have created wine for Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, Queens, the Pope and now a Pharaoh. But my family and I are most proud that sales of Tut Cuvée will send so many Bay Area kids to see the exhibition and experience ancient Egypt face-to-face,” explains Joy Sterling, CEO of Iron Horse Vineyards.
Iron Horse Vineyards Winemaker David Munksgard crafted Tut Cuvée from a 2006 vintage Blanc de Noirs made from predominantly Pinot Noir grapes with a splash of Chardonnay. The dosage, or finishing element, for the sparkling wine was selected through a special tasting session conducted at the winery in Sebastopol in August. The panel consisted of David Munksgard, Fine Arts Museums Director John Buchanan and Spencer Christian, host of KGO-TV’s View from the Bay and a celebrated oenophile. “We crafted Tut Cuvée to embody all the qualities one would ascribe to the boy king – regal, elegant, and very dry!” quips John Buchanan.
To ensure a sparkling wine fit for a pharaoh, only 500 cases will be produced in this limited edition. Tut Cuvée will be available for sale by the glass in the de Young Museum Café, by the bottle or case at the Iron Horse Vineyards tasting room in Sebastopol, and at fine wine shops throughout the Bay Area. The wine is also available online at www.ironhorsevineyards.com. Tut Cuvée will retail for $29.99 per bottle.
Tags: 2009, 2010, ABC, bottle, california, catalogue, champagne, christian, country, county, cuvee, David Munksgard, de Young, discount, famsf, Gavin, Golden Age, Golden Age of the Pharaohs, golden gate park, hotel, iron horse, John Buchanan, kgo, king, museum, Napa, Newsom, Pharaohs, sale, San Francisco, selket, serket, sneak peek, sparkigling, spencer, ticketmaster, tickets, treasures, tut, Tutankhamun, vineyards, wine, Zahi Hawass
Posted in art, food and drink | Comments Off
Monday, August 24th, 2009
This was the mise en scene today at San Francisco’s brand new Cantonese dual language immersion school on Haight Street.
It’s called the Chinese Immersion School at De Avila.
See?
Click to expand
So, line up behind your new teacher…
…and wait for your new principal to ring the school bell.
It’s the first day of school.
Good luck!
Tags: chinese, de avila, dual imersion, elementary, first day, Gavin, haight, kindergarden, language, Newsom, parent teacher association, pta, school, street
Posted in education | 1 Comment »
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
Well, let’s take local lawyer Rodel Rodis at his word when he recalls a conversation with then-Supervisor Gavin Newsom, excerpted below. And if you want, read Rodel’s whole woe-is-me tale of getting arrested by the SFPD for trying to pass a “counterfeit” $100 bill at a Walgreens. (Turned out that the lawyer’s money was little old school, but 100% genuine.)
Does this $100 bill necessarily look counterfeit to you? It shouldn’t. It’s just a little dated, that’s all – there’s no need to call the cops.
Anyway, as the litigation over this 2003 detention (non-arrest? arrest?) continues to infinity and beyond, here’s a new part of the story. When Mr. Rodis started going around saying how this bad treatment from Walgreens and the SFPD wouldn’t have been inflicted upon lesser-of -color notables such as Gavin Newsom or Tony Hall, he got a response:
“Newsom then related an incident that occurred when he was still in the private sector when he brought the daily earnings of his restaurant (Balboa Café) to the bank to deposit. He said the teller began counting the money and applied a counterfeit detector pen to a $100 bill which she found suspicious. The result confirmed that it was fake– unlike in my case where the pen applied by both the Walgreens cashier and manager showed that my $100 bill was genuine. ‘So what happened next?’ I asked Newsom. ‘Well, she returned the $100 bill to me and told me to be careful next time,’ he answered.”
Now I can pretty much guarantee you that if bank teller spots you trying to (innocently, of course) deposit a fake $100 bill, he or she won’t just hand it back to you! Typically, somebody’ll be on the horn, with a quickness, with the Secret Service - the bankers will immediately confiscate that funny money from you, and thereby ensure that you will be the one “eating the loss,” in industry parlance.
(I mean really, what are you supposed to do with a $100 bill you know is fake? Use it to buy a pack of gum, ending up with 99 real dollars? Deposit it in an ATM and pray that the people who count the money happen to be on the MDMA that night? That’s a dilly of a pickle to be in.)
Keep in mind this is Rodel’s version of the story, and of course he might look at the world a little differently than you. For example, this is behavior he describes as “refusing to sign a speeding ticket.” (Well, yes, that great-grandmother pointlessly refused to sign her 60 in a 45 speeding ticket, but that wasn’t exactly why she got (unnecessarily) Tasered, one might think.)
So There You Have It.
Tags: 2, 2003, 2009, attorney, balboa, bank, bill, cafe, clerk, conterfeit, department, dept., district, fake, Gavin, gavin newsom, genuine, lawsuit, lawyer, marina, Mayor, Newsom, officer, pass, pharmacy, police, police department, real, rode, rodel rdis, rodis, San Francisco, secret service, SFPD, Supervisor, taser, teller, two, walgreen's pharmacy, walgreens
Posted in crime | Comments Off
