The San Francisco Citizen

The latest chapter in the long story of San Francisco’s Bicycle Plan began today with this filing from the office of San Francsico City Attorney Dennis Herrera. (Earlier chapters of this tale dealt with local social gadlfly and self-confessed JFK conspiracy theory crank Robert “Crazy Rob” Anderson and his successful efforts to get the city to do an environmental impact study.)

It seems that certain areas just can’t wait for the bureaucratic gears to grind, so a judge is being asked to give the city and county permission to get started sooner rather than later.  

Dennis J. Herrera, San Francisco’s happy warrior:

What areas are those? Well, how about Market and Octavia for starters. But there are other problem areas as well. Try these on for size:

Polk Street between Beach and Market Streets, where 73 motor vehicle-bicycle collisions have been reported since 2003.

The length of Valencia Street, where the 65 motor vehicle-bicycle collisions reported since 2003 include a large proportion of “dooring” incidents.

The Third Street Corridor, where the 32 collisions involving cyclists and motorists reported since 2003 include one fatality of a bicyclist struck by a truck at Third and Marin Streets.

Folsom Street between 13th Street and the Embarcadero, where 52 bicycle-related injury accidents have been reported in the last five years.

Lower Market Street, from 8th Street to the Embarcadero.  Some 179 bicycle injury collisions have occurred along the entire length of Market Street, from Castro Street to the Embarcadero (including the Market and Octavia intersection) over the past five years.

What will Judge Peter J. Busch make of this? We’ll have an inkling by the end of the month.

Today’s filing certainly seems like a well-tailored request…

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! 

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.  

News comes today that the City and County of San Francisco is denying the claim made Amritpal and Kulbir Dhaliwal regarding the Christmas Day tiger attack last year upon Carlos Souza, Jr.

Why? You’ll just have to read the 84-page lease agreement between San Francisco and the San Francisco Zoo to find out.

Dennis Herrera is a crackerjack attorney, so he and his team aren’t going to make things easy for those trying to make money off of this tragedy. It’s not like San Francisco has a lot of extra sourdough to send down to the counties of Santa Clara and Los Angeles. 

Let’s all hope that the new and improved big cat grottos will be less vulnerable to any kind of harassment, even the “boys will be boys” fatal type of harassment.