Posts Tagged ‘kgo’

Fresh Changes for the 2010 Bay to Breakers Footrace – Floats Won’t Start on Divisadero

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:
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www.baytobreakers.com
Float registration information (to be posted soon)

When is the Steam Pipe Underneath McAllister and Larkin NOT Steaming?

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Via ActionNewsSF, you might search to find a KGO-TV bit covering the traffic-disrupting venting steam pipe at McAllister and Larkin today – it’s more steam than usual, that’s for sure.

But this area of Civic Center right in front of our Asian Art Museum (this year, it’s Shanghai) is basically steaming all the time, right?

HC SVNT DRACONES:

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This intersection is usually steaming, unless it’s flooding. Like this:

via Lulu Vision

Oh well.

As per usual, it all happens on (or near) McAllister Street, Gateway to the Golden Gate Park Panhandle and home of the Snickerdoodle bike path (Route 20), your best way of getting over Alamo Heights while avoiding the abysmal, Hayes Valley NIMBY-designed Octavia Boulevard 24-7 traffic scrum.

Not Entirely Obvious Whats the Beef Against the 2010 Bay to Breakers Footrace

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…

Jerry Brown Throws Down: Dinging Gavin Newsom Over “Fire in His Belly”

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Our feisty AG Jerry Brown has been dishing it out on KGO 810 AM lately – check for yourself at CapitolALERT for the latest

Here’s San Francsico Mayor Gavin Newsom on the Ron Owens show a few days back:

“Jerry Brown understands how to navigate, but I wonder if there’s fire in his belly. I don’t get a sense that there’s fire in his belly and we need someone with fire in his belly…”

And here’s Jerry’s response from yesterday:

He’s been giving a lot of advice to the president and now me, and I’m sure there’ll be others because when you don’t have a lot to do, you can start checking out what other people have been doing.”

(KGO appears to be a hotbed of belly-fire allegations. Here’s one from 2003 that didn’t pan out.)

Is Jerry anticipating a “$150 million assault” on his character from a famous Republican in the near future? Yes.

And does Jerry have a problem with you taking your car to Midas? No, owing to 22 of their California stores being under new management.

Listen to the all of the six, punchy minutes here.

Never Walk the Stairs to the Top of Sutro Tower – Just Take the Elevator

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Like these guys.

It would take forever to make it up the stairs to the top of controversial landmark Sutro Tower, so a swaying elevator car is the preferred method.  

Click to expand to get a closer look at a sunnier, more colorful San Francisco:

Take the tour.

Mayor Visits City – Gavin Newsom Returns to Light Up Our Lives, Market Street Snowflakes

Friday, November 20th, 2009

He’s back, baby! San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom is back in town, both physically and mentally. So,  he’ll (OMG, is Gavin channelling giddy, laughing Tom Cruise?) once again have to deal with the so-called “delusional” media, but that won’t stop him from continuing to Take It Directly to the People, GWB-style. As here, with last night’s lighting ceremony for the Market Street Snowflakes.

Our mayor with the Snowflake Girls near the Powell Street Cable Car Turnaround at the dramatic Moment of Lighting. Dixitque Gavin fiat lux, et facta est lux:

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But let’s start earlier on in the evening. This was Market Street a little before the ceremony. It’s the darkest I’ve ever seen it, cause they turned off all the LED snowflakes (which have been burning the midnight oil quite a bit recently, as they were last summer, when they were being installed and tested) plus the streetlamps of the “Path of Gold” too.

Even a Toyota Prius driver would turn on the headlights with on a street this dark:

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The streetlights and snowflakes are wired in together? That would make sense:

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Anywho, back to the ceremony, apres-lux - can you see all them signs? Show Your Zip is the new “locals only” holiday shopping program. (It would appear that the San Francisco Ballet (nice new video they have on the homepage now) would have this program’s best discounts.) Scott Beale’s Laughing Squid is celebrating its 14th Anniversary as a local business with the help of famous Frank Chu. And The Jesus Loves You Guy was on the scene as well. Natch:

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The mise-en-scene last night. Aside from almost always appearing bored while waiting for others to finish speaking (looking left, looking right, looking left, looking up….), Gavin Newsom always handles these kinds of public events very well, as you would expect a charismatic leader to do:

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The Least-Yellowest Teeth in all Christendom. In fact, nowadays, they’re so white that they’re on the blue side, as if flourescent. Amazing:

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President of the Board of Supervisors David Chiu, taking time out of his interview with KGO-TV’s Lilian Kim to greet Frank Chu in front of The Gap, which is doing better these days, don’t you know.

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And this is how I left it, with the lights on ’til January 2010:

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Enjoy.

Our New and Improved Sutro Tower Now Has New and Improved Digital Broadcasts

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

Not that you’d really be able to tell, though. Sutro Tower Inc. has just finished a project that had some of the digital TV broadcast antennas (not “antennae” – that plural term is only used for bugs in our silly English language) gaining a higher altitude.

Not much howver, maybe a seven-percent increase, max. Does that make a big difference? No, not for most people, but at least STI is trying.

Here’s the antenna of KPIX-TV (OMG, that’s the home of Eye on Blogs – big ups, Brittney Gilbert!) a way up top, like 1700 feet above sea level. Now Channel 5 is as high as possible:

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The Future is Now, and what’s labeled “CURRENT” is history:

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From this:

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To this:

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Well, they were still wrapping the KPIX, KRON, KTVU antenna assembly, but you get the idea.

So it looks like we’re all set with the Great Digital TV Conversion of 2009. As long as Sutro Tower doesn’t get hit by a shooting star….

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…we’ll be all right.

The Embarcadero Chevys Closed Down Last Week Because Its Lease Expired? Really?

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Well it was quite a mystery last week when, via Eater SF’s The Shutter, we all learned that the Chevy’s Fresh Mex at 2 Embarcadero Center in the Financh would close down forever as of last Friday. Per ABC KGO TV Channel 7, the employees were bummed because they only got three days’ notice of the closure - and as for any severance benefits, well that’s a big fat nada.

Why did this eatery close down without warning? Well, the manager (and management in general) didn’t want to say. But now, we have a statement from Chevy’s. See?

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Their “lease expired.” Simple, right?

But that seems a little funny. (Of course, I’m not in the restaurant biz so I don’t know.) You’d think they’d have been able to give the workers more notice if this was just a matter of losing a lease.

(And you know, actually, I’d imagine that Boston Properties (or whomever you talk to when you want to strike a bargain on cheaper rent at Embarcadero Center) would be looking to make a sweet deal, based upon the low level of occupancy they have these days…)

Maybe Chevys’ management figured they’d be closing this store a month or two ago, but they kept this info a secret from the workers?

(When Warren Simmons, Sr. and his son Warren “Scooter” Simmons, Jr. started up the first Chevys (no apostrophe, please) in Alameda back in 1987, did they think that this was they way it was going to be? Oh well.)

Mmmmm……

Orchids Everywhere at the Asian Art Musuem – Tribute to Doris Duke Runs Through Sunday

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

In between downpours yesterday, made it over to the Asian Art Museum where they were getting ready for Orchids: A Tribute to Doris Duke, starting today and running through Sunday, October 25, 2009.

Turns out that Doris Duke was heavy into orchids, she was “collector, cultivator, and preservationist” all in one. Plus, some of her pieces will be on display in the Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam & Burma, the new exhibit starting this Friday, October 23rd. So why not turn the AAM into a mini Conservatory of Flowers for a little while, huh?  

Orchids: A Tribute to Doris Duke
Tuesday, October 20 through Sunday, October 25
Main Lobby, North and South courts
FREE with museum admission

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Roll credits:

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“Orchids (Orchidaceae) are flowering plants commonly found in Southeast Asia and other tropical parts of the world. This is a botanic description of orchids, but for most of us orchids are the most exotic of plants with an enormous diversity of shape, size, color. Doris Duke, who collected many of the artworks presented in Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma, was an avid orchid collector, cultivator, and preservationist. As an homage to Doris Duke and her passion for collecting, for the first time and for five days only, the museum will present a striking display of orchids. The display features arrangements by members of Ikebana International and Ikebana Teachers Federation, San Francisco Orchid Society, San Francisco Garden Club, Asian Art Museum Flower Committee, de Young Flower Committee; floral designers, orchid aficionados, and others.”

See you there!

Sutro Tower Has Regrown Its Antenna Antlers – Now Ready for a Digital Future

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

San Francisco’s famous Sutro Tower (owned by Sutro Tower, Inc., the buyer-offer and $hutter-upperof San Francisco’s mid-town NIMBYs) has a new look for Fall.

Here’s Before (a way back in August 2009)…

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und jetzt After, the way it looks these days (when being buzzed by a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 NG heading to El Lay, camera right, see it?)

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Très chic! Non?

Now, she’s all set for the next meteor shower:

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Courage.