The Skytrax World Airport Awards are in for 2008, and SFO once again won in the Best Airports, North America category.
Now, if there were only a way to decrease delays at SFO on those foggy days. Perhaps, LAX shows us the way?
Each year, Patrick Carney organizes the installation of a huge pink triangle on the slopes of Twin Peaks in San Francisco.
This commemoration of the gay victims of the Holocaust and reminder of the on-going inhumanity to repressed minorities around the world is always well-attended. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi couldn’t attend this year but her district director, Dan Bernal, offered her statement to the crowd.
A Rosa Winkel for Homosexuells, back in the day. Click to expand:
Senator Carole Migden commented upon the swirling fog and occasional winds that conveyed an “Edgar Allan Poe feeling.”
San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty avec l’enfant, once again.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom popped his cork prematurely to the delight of fiancee Jennifer Siebel. But not too much ceremonial bubbly was lost, as recorded here by Official Pride Photographer Bill Wilson.
See you next year.
The People’s Budget Collaborative held their protest yesterday at the residence of the Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco. They were a noisy bunch of fifty.
Read what The Coalition on Homelessness / Street Sheet thinks about all this.
The Newsomator is a figure of menace to these protesters. Budget battles are coming.
Here’s the deal, all those same sex marriages at San Francisco’s City Hall are scheduled to get started on a Monday evening ten days from now - June 16th. Normally, the largest old-school dome in the Western Hemisphere wouldn’t be open that late, but these are extraordinary times.
So, opposite sex couples have only a limited window of opportunity to get a license and get married at City Hall before June 16. Before, couples were avoiding ceremonies on June 13th (as it’s on a Friday), but no longer. Everybody will be accomodated eventually, of course, but you need to plan ahead for best results. Things will get a little hectic starting June 16, 2008.
First, go here to get a reservation to get a wedding license. Then go here to check out what times for ceremonies they have for you. Keep checking as cancellations come up. Things are in flux, so stay informed.
When things get back to normal after the big summer rush, you’ll be offered a space for your ceremony in the small chapel downstairs or up here, at the top of the steps under the rotunda. But expect to see ceremonies all over the building very soon.
Congratulations!
Here’s what the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce had to say when they found out the annual luncheon with the Niners ain’t gonna happen this year:
“Our main reaction is disappointment,” said Carol Piasente, the chamber’s vice president of communications and events.
(At least they’re taking it better than Otto West would.) Maybe last year’s chant led by Senator Dianne Feinstein played a factor in the cancellation?
Irregardless, KNBR 49er Family Day is ON this Saturday, June 7th.
Gold Rushers Janelle and Jordan would love you to come to Family Day 2008. By Slick Rick via Flickr
The day will feature contests, games and appearances by members of the 49ers football team, alumni, Gold Rush, Niners Noise Drumline and Sourdough Sam. Fans are encouraged to arrive early to take in all of the day’s festivities.
See you there.
San Francisco’s historic Cable Car bell ringing contest delighted hundreds in Union Square yesterday. It looked like this and this.
Mayor Gavin Newsom and MTA Director Nat Ford enjoy KBLX radio’s stirring interpretation of LL Cool Jay’s Rock the Bells. (Sadly, credit for the song was given to Run DMC.)
KGO-TV personality Janelle Wang’s hair momentarily defied gravity as she did the robot on her way to the bell:
Grand Champion Carl Payne gave in to pleas from the crowd wanting to get a closer look at his humoungous bell ringing ring:
Carl Payne’s cable car ring. You can see the words “Champion Bell Ringer” and also the years of his victories on this Super Bowl-style finger bling:
Yesterday was all about the bell, steampunkish in its own way:
See you next year!
Details after the jump: (more…)
Well, it appears this will be how B2b 2008 will be remembered:
“It’s often called the world’s longest party, but this year’s Bay to Breakers race through San Francisco was anything but fun for the residents, cops and public workers who bore the brunt of the drunken young “runners” who staggered around Golden Gate Park and the city’s west side, relieving themselves wherever it proved convenient.”
Imagine that!
Turkeybot ably captured a fine moment:
The Golden Gate Park Panhandle had far more than ten portajohns set up and waiting to go the night before the big race. But, Matier & Ross report that there were only ten there on the big day. Mmmm, how did that happen?
Speaking of the Panhandle, the half million dollar bathroom in the Panhandle was closed and surrounded by yellow police tape while racers were passing by during the early part of the day. Why was that?
This might have been the only place in Golden Gate park where people weren’t urinating. That’s all part of the Good, Bad, and Ugly of the longtime footrace. Most people had fun though, purported MUNI Meltdown or no.
See you next year!
You already know about the Good of B2B 2008. A good time was had by all.
But what about the Bad? Muni didn’t appear to be working very well north of Golden Gate Park in the afternoon following the big race. It wasn’t like all the buses were packed with people, it was like there didn’t seem to be any buses around at all throughout the Richmond. Must be tough to get drivers working on a Sunday.
And finally, the Ugly. Garbage everywhere, and more so than usual. Check the Flickr to see Drunken Douchebags Trash the Panhandle. Reopening Fell Street was such a chore that the DPW’s Mohammad Nuru called the cops to get some help.
Heading back uphill to the acme of the race course in Golden Gate Park (which is no where near Hayes Street Hill, the purported highest point on the race route):
The cold dawn of day reveals a lot of trash still out there on the Streets of San Francisco. Maybe the people from Dutch financial institution and B2B sponsor ING could come down from their aerodynamic house and lend a hand with the cleanup? Just asking.
Hopefully, things will go more smoothly next year. Speaking of which…
See you next year!
[The Panhandle is much cleaner now around 11:00 AM Monday morning. Yay.]
By now, you’ve seen headlines: Marriage Ruling a Victory for Newsom. Which is fair enough.
But you might have missed this recent piece about City Attorney Dennis Herrera in glossy, fluffy San Francisco Magazine:
The mayor may get all the credit, or blame, for pushing the marriage-equality issue before the Supreme Court, but the person who deserves it—San Francisco’s real Marrying Man—is Herrera.
Well, O.K. then.
The author of the article, freelance legal affairs journalist Susan Kostal then went on to consult her crystal ball and opine:
My own bet was a 4–3 vote in favor of marriage equality
Bingo. She got it right. Three cheers for writer Susan Kostal as well as up-and-coming Dennis Herrera.
Gavin Newsom, America’s “most stylin’” mayor, has deservedly gotten lots of national attention for leading the charge against the bottled water industry. Take a look here at a scene from last month in San Francisco - he was somewhere inside this scrum of media and tap water fans. He’s got a tiger by the tail with this popular issue, much to the chagrin of industry giants Coca Cola, Pepsi, and Nestle.
But what started this campaign? It was a conversation a while back the mayor had about his possession of some bottles of Fiji Water. Somebody pointed out a few things about the pros and cons (mostly the cons) of shipping drinking water from the South Pacific to San Francisco. The result is that he is an international leader on this issue.
Fair enough. But now it appears that Fiji Water is leading the campaign FOR bottle water. They’re attacking the anti-bottled water movement at an RSS 2.0-enabled website called FijiGreen. (They’ve just boosted the ad budget so you might be hearing more from them soon.)
First of all: FijiGreen!?! WTF? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Having dispensed with that, check out this blog entry written by ”Fiji Green Gal” where she attempts to debunk the “food miles” myth. As you can see, she’s got her hands full when she doggedly replies to commenters.
You’re on your own after that. It’s up to you to make your own decision about how some people in the Republic of the Fiji Islands might benefit from Fiji Water bottling, about how some chefs just seem to love the stuff, about how they have an SVP working on these issues, etc. You might end up with a nuanced view or you might get so interested you’ll take the TreeHugger Survey.
Add it all up and see how all this compares with turning on the faucet when you’re thirsty or bottling your own tap water for those times when you’re on the go.
