The San Francisco Citizen

This was the scene tonight at St. Mary’s Hospital in the Western NOPA - it was another District 5 debate featuring Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and challengers Rob Anderson and Owen O’Donnell.

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Let’s hear what they have to say. You already know Ross, here is Owen and here is Rob, who runs the District 5 Diary website.

The mise-en-scene, about 40 people made it to the end:

This debate was emceed by Richard Magary and cosponsored by the following:

Buena Vista Neighborhood Association
Cole Valley Improvement Association
Haight-Ashbury Improvement Association
Inner Sunset Park Neighbors

May the best man win.

In other District 5 news, the Panhandle Bandshell is wowing them in Europe. Godspeed, little bandshell. Come back real soon, ya hear?

This huge, dual-axle Jerr-Dan (an “Oskosh Corporation Company”) HDL 700/530 35 Ton Independent heavy duty wrecker was what it took for a MUNI bus to finish its route the other day.  Never saw a tow truck this big from this close.

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Thanks P&S Towing. For all you do, this Bud’s for you.

Today’s Pandhandle Bike Swap and Summer Party had a huge turnout with hundreds of cyclists doing all sorts of things. Check it out here.  

The First Annual Dustin Long Tubeball Toss was a smash success:

What’s a tubeball? This is. It’s surprisingly heavy:

At the end of the day, people pedalled off with bike frames, tires and wheels.

See you next year!

Cycles of Change Bike Benefit Party and Swap Meet

Sun., Aug. 17 | 12-5pm, Panhandle blacktop, corner of Masonic and Fell

Come out on Sunday for a day of bike-related fun! Cycles of Change and a few of your local SF cyclists are putting together a bike benefit party promoting the organization. Cycles of Change is an East Bay cooperative that builds bikes for kids and teens and promotes bicycling as a more viable form of transportation. Donate your old bike parts to help CoC continue to assemble more bikes for children. Come for a the big bake sale, fun game events (like Chainring toss) and swap meet with fellow SF cyclists. For more information, please visit www.summerbikeswap.blogspot.com

So far this year, the big news regarding the traffic situation on Masonic Avenue is a reduction in the speed limit to a maximum of 25 MPH. 

Mission Accomplished?

One of this morning’s accidents on Masonic: 

It seems there’s still room for improvement on this street.

Now back in the day, there were plans for a Panhandle Freeway(!), so it’s not like some traffic czar organized the streets in this area in a coherent fashion. We have what, we have by “accident,” mas o menos.

Is it too late for wholesale changes to the way Masonic is laid out?

Is this what you want to encounter on the streets of San Francisco - a mobile billboard from Do It Outdoors? You see, S.F. is having a tussle over whether we should have new fixed billboards in town, but apparently there’s nothing stopping new mobile billboards from travelling all over the place.  

Rest assured, this trucking company is saying, “We Do It Green.” [Please note yet another delightful double entendre from Do It Outdoors - what a playful corporation!]. Brace yourself for more information about carbon offsets. That means the more they drive the better things get, just as the more water we import from the South Pacific, the better off we are, cause like Fiji Water is carbon negative or something.

From Vegas with love, on Hayes Street. Click to expand: 

There’s lots to ponder as you drive around sipping your MGD Light - like how getting your fossil fuel hydrocarbons from coal really sucks, but petroleum, well petroleum that powers trucks, that must be A-OK.

Is that what they call greenwashing?

The mind boggles….