Usually, the private security patrols I see are in economy cars with the name of the company prominently displayed.
This car is meant to trick people into thinking a peace officer is inside and/or impress clients.
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Anyway, this is unusual in the 415…
These were the final two I saw after just passing three others ALL walking/jogging west to get to Trader Joe’s. This is my personal best, after all those years.
Oh yeah, I know all about the history of jaywalking and about Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Red Car and so forth. So what. How does that kind of stuff help us here? Answer: It doesn’t.
Moving on….
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Here’s what I said about Trader Joes #100, a half-decade ago, on the old blog:
“Of course, everybody needs to be on the lookout for all the Frogger-like jaywalkers carrying their groceries across six lanes of parked and moving cars. (Somebody is going to get hit one of these days.)”
Now that got a bit of attention from TJ’s Corporate. (I know because I saw the logs indicating such.)
So what the reaction? Nothing, basically.
Stuff like this is what the TJ’s people spent their time on instead, it would appear.
Now this is what occurred last year. Actually, it’s the one-year anniversary of the death of 25-year-old Suzanne Monaco.*
Did the San Francisco Planning Department plan things well? No, obviously.
Is the SFMTA doing anything about this particular block? No. They have plans to put a whole lot of useless trees and a useless median south of Geary but they don’t seem to care about where TJ’s parkers park and where they walk.
Yes these jaywalkers are illegally crossing the street and yes they are 100% responsible for their deaths when they get killed but what can be done to prevent future deaths right here in this one location?
I don’t know, a parking garage, an enforcement action, a ban on parking on the east side of Masonic on that particular block of Masonic, a traffic signal and crosswalk, opening up Emerson Alley to allow shopper parking on the roof, you know, just throwing things out there.
This situation is one giant FAIL for SFGov.
You should all be ashamed, SFGov.
Srsly.
Leaving you with one reaction, from Jessica Levin:
“I saw the flower memorial outside Trader Joe’s, and if that is the spot where she crossed, then she must have had a death wish. That’s a busy high speed corridor in both directions and she crossed near a blind crest. She didn’t deserve to die, but if anyone gets the blame, unfortunately it is the pedestrian. I parked across Masonic exactly once (and I did jaywalk to get back to my car) but I was careful to cross at the crest where I could see traffic coming from quite a distance, and even then I was extremely nervous. That was two years ago, and I have never done it again.”
*Was she really carrying “an armful of groceries” while heading “west” back to the store? Probably not.
Thusly:
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At first I was thinking…Easter?
And then I thought Boston Marathon.
And then I realized it was for the GSW.
Is it a little cheesy to do this so far ahead of time?
Yep, IMO.
Oakland doesn’t have much, you know.
They were going to get a pair of pandas from China, but that didn’t work out.
Oh well.
That’s Venus, the Evening Star, to the right of the dome, BTW.
And that’s a #5 Fulton hover bus heading inbound on McAllister…
First City Hall was all like this.
Like a week ago:
But now it’s all like this:
See the diff?
Doesn’t it look something like the flags of Mexico, Italy and/or Ireland?
Speaking of Ireland, hated Republican billionaire Ron Conway can trace some of his roots back there, right? So maybe he called up weak-willed* Interim Mayor Ed Lee with some lighting ideas.
It’s not impossible.
Like remember when Republican billionaire Ron Conway got caught trying to improperly influence SFGov over the issue of street parking spaces near the offices of Pinterest? And then he lied about it?
And these days he “declines to state” whether he’s a Republican or not?
You know, if I were straight white male Republican billionaire who was willing to spend millions to buy political influence to make San Francisco more Republican I’d be all, “Gosh darn it, I’m a straight white male Republican billionaire who is willing to spend millions to buy political influence to make San Francisco more Republican!”
You know, direct, instead of, I don’t know, weaselly.
Oh, this just in, here’s a vote for Italy.
*“We talked in your office a couple of weeks before you entered the race and you confided in me that you didn’t want to run, but that Rose Pak and Willie Brown were putting a lot of pressure on you to run and you didn’t know if you had the strength to resist them.”
Now when I say “new” I mean it’s new to me, Gentle Reader.
How do these lights know when to flash on?
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This kind of thing is similar to but different from revolights, right?
This is the scene at the end of Dreamforce 2012, one of San Francisco’s largest events in recent memory.
89,999 registrants had moved on at this point last night – here’s the last one:
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Yes, the fifth biggest classical dome in the world and first biggest in the New World.
Yes, bigger than the U.S. Capitol. On purpose.
This is what the 2012 Dreamforce Gala will look like. Deets here and below:
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“Salesforce.com Welcomes 90,000 Registered Attendees to Dreamforce 2012, the World’s Largest Vendor Technology Conference
10th annual Dreamforce grows a record-breaking 96 percent year-over-year — 90,000 registered to attend, including more than 3,000 C-level executives
Additional 100,000 people expected to view Salesforce Live on Facebook
Global leaders Sir Richard Branson, General Colin Powell, Jeff Immelt and Tony Robbins to join Marc Benioff in keynote sessions
Sponsorships rise by 40 percent as Dreamforce partner ecosystem grows to more than 350 companies with a combined market cap of more than $1.3 trillion
Red Hot Chili Peppers to rock Dreamforce Gala
Dreamforce integrates philanthropy with 3rd annual benefit concert for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, featuring Lady Antebellum, Dana Carvey and an after-party featuring DJ MC Hammer
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 18, 2012 – DREAMFORCE 2012 — Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing company, will welcome more than 90,000 registered attendees to Dreamforce2012, now the world’s largest vendor technology conference, taking place from Sept. 18-21, 2012.
Dreamforce Gala is Red, Hot and Social
For the first time in Dreamforce history, the Dreamforce Gala will be held in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza with seven-time Grammy award-winning and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing on the steps of City Hall.
The Concert for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital
Continuing the tradition of integrated philanthropy at Dreamforce, the Salesforce.com Foundation is thrilled to announce the third annual Concert for UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on Thursday, September 20(th) at 6:30 p.m. PDT. The benefit concert will feature Lady Antebellum, Dana Carvey, and an after-party featuring DJ MC Hammer. To purchase tickets or for more information, please visit http://www.
About salesforce.com: Founded in 1999, salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing leader. Using salesforce.com‘s social and mobile cloud technologies, companies can connect with customers, partners and employees in entirely new ways. Based on salesforce.com‘s real-time, multitenant architecture, the company’s platform and apps give customers the tools to create a social front office and revolutionize the way they sell, service, market, collaborate, work and innovate.”
And thank Gaia that this event has nothing to do with Larry Ellison, cause, you know, the 415 is sick of that dude.
You see, area NIMBY’s didn’t want the Masonic Trader Joes (Store #100) to have a proper parking lot, so this is the result:
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Bad pedestrian behavior on this block has led to the death of one TJ’s shopper this year so far.
The question is why do peds act this way at this particular location.
The other question is what can be done about this.
San Francisco: The City That DOESN’T Know How.
[UPDATE: According to somebody who ought to know, this is not what a Lt. Gov. motorcade looks like these days. So, my bad.]
I don’t know, why are the lights on on these CHP prowlers?
To make the people inside feel good?
Looks that way.
I mean, this is the entire motorcade, so it’s not like cross-traffic is being stopped or anything.
I mean, don’t you want to be kind of low profile? Oh, I see, you feel that not enough people pay attention to
you, so everybody stare at me while I ride to the Starbucks?
OK fine:
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IMO, our California Highway Patrol shouldn’t always do what the Lt. Gov VIPs want.
IMO.
But here’s why it’s generally in the interest of the CHP to patronize electeds.
Oh well.
(Oh, and next time you roll through town, CHP, in addition to the flashing lights, you should honk your horns and activate your sirens, like every minute. Hurray!)
