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Posts Tagged ‘market’
Pyramid Skyline: Infinity “Towers” 1 & 2; 2 Rincon Center (Unfinished) & 1; Bay Bridge Towers Alpha, Bravo, Delta, & Echo
Wednesday, October 16th, 2013Do Construction Workers at the Troubled 8 Octavia Construction Site Do Japanese-Style Pre-Shift Exercise? Yes
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013Now I’ve seen this, back in the day, over in the factory where my bLand Cruiser was later manufactured, in Toyota City, IRL, the real deal – actual pre-work calisthenics.
The San Francisco version is kind of half-assed, but they were actually doing it, I grew to understand.
See?
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My only hope is that 8 Octavia is “tech-savvy,” you know, the way NeMa claims to be.
Soon, I’ll dream of moving into a $2900 per month studio, and having a phone with a 64-bit OS, maybe even one that’s gold!
I’ll dream of this.
“Meat Day” Comes on the 29th of Every Month in Japantown – But Uh Oh: “Except for Sausage, Bacon, Ham”
Friday, October 4th, 2013This is a monthly thing for four-star Yelp-rated Nijiya Market at 1737 Post St (between Buchanan and Webster) in Godforsaken, windblown, Redeveloped, and concrete-and-clay-and-general-decay Japantown.*
But what’s this,”EXCEPT FOR SAUSAGE, BACON, HAM?”
Those are like the three best animals, man!
A good thing is when the have cases of “imported” Sapporo Draft (aka Premium) (kara サッポロビール株式会社 Sapporo Bīru Kabushiki-gaisha) on sale for $13. (Yeah, imported from Ontario, Canada(!), but I guess an import is an import.)
Anyway, enjoy your Meat Days, San Francisco!
Homer: Are you saying you’re never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.
*I haven’t a clue on how to best fix earthquake-unsafe J-Town. Before the Great Recession, the solution was going to be something like 500 new condos in the nabe, each with a $100,000 fee tacked on to help pay for a new Japantown Garage and whatnot. But some businesses inside the horrible mall buildings are thriving and some are not, so it’s not an easy call to have a giant implosion and just start over. And, up to now, there’s been no money for that kind of thing anyway…
100 Van Ness Has Been Stripped to the Bone – You’ll be Able to Move In Soon – Best of All, No Rent Control!
Friday, October 4th, 2013I’d like to open my remarks with a humorous anecdote. The Official Bird of San Francisco isn’t the California Quail, it’s the crane. [Pause for gasps and puzzled looks.] The construction* crane! [Pause to wait for the applause to die down, to enjoy the smiles of onlooking Walter Wong and Rose Pak, to bask in glory of being appointed by that guy who got appointed by that guy who got appointed by Willie Brown, to exult in being an obedient figurehead girl who does exactly what Downtown tells her to do.]
This is as naked as 100 Van Ness Avenue is going to get. (It’s the Harbinger of the Apocalypse, don’t you know.)
Be sure to invite me over to enjoy the 20+ foot tall penthouse playground.
Box, crane tower, another box, sky, clouds. NewMa, meet OldMa:
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All the fun will start in 2015…
*By that, she means tower crane, which I suppose is what people call them in everyday life. I’ll remember 2013 as the year I could see a dozen huge tower cranes over San Francisco every day. Not that that’s a bad thing in itself. But corruption is a bad thing, right?
This Segway Pilot on Market Street is Loaded for Bear – He’s Outfitted Like an America’s Cup Sailor
Friday, September 20th, 2013To me, anyway:
Announcing San Francisco’s “Entrepreneurship-in-Residence” (EIR) Program – Only “World-Class” Entrepreneurs Need Apply
Friday, September 6th, 2013Remember Oskar Schindler and the Third Reich? Would you consider that whole deal a successful “public-private partnership?” I mean, was it “world-class?” Did it address “government pain points?” IDK.
Anyway, here’s the latest – I didn’t see this one coming. (Perhaps Con Ronway did. IDK.)
“SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR ANNOUNCES PROGRAM TO INTRODUCE WORLD-CLASS ENTREPRENEURS TO THE $142 BILLION PUBLIC SECTOR MARKET
Mayor Ed Lee invites entrepreneurs to develop technology-enabled products and services for government, the largest consumer of products and services in the nation
SAN FRANCISCO – September 6th, 2013 – Mayor Edwin M. Lee, in collaboration with the White House and other strategic partners, today announced San Francisco’s Entrepreneurship-in-Residence (EIR) program. “We need the top entrepreneurs to work with us on opportunities that are actual pain points and needs of government. San Francisco’s EIR program advances our role and vision as the Innovation Capital of the World,” said Mayor Ed Lee.
The program is inspired by President Obama’s call, “We’ve got to have the brightest minds to help solve our biggest challenges.” San Francisco’s EIR program will select talented entrepreneurial teams and help them develop technology-enabled products and services that can capitalize on the $142 billion public sector market.
“San Francisco’s program is one of the first EIR programs within government, who is by far, the largest customer of products and services in the nation,” commented Jay Nath, San Francisco’s Chief Innovation Officer. “The entrepreneurial products and services developed through San Francisco’s EIR program should drive significant impact such as increased revenue, enhanced productivity or meaningful cost savings.”
The program plans to attract world-class entrepreneurs and technologists by providing them with direct access to government needs and opportunities, staff and their expertise, in addition to product development, ramp-up support, and insights into a gold mine of government problems and opportunities through the City and County of San Francisco.
“Products and services that successfully solve issues faced by San Francisco can easily expand to addressing similar needs of other cities and states across the nation in addition to the private sector,” said Rahul Mewawalla, a senior executive with leadership experiences across Fortune 500 and high growth companies who is leading the program. “We expect to drive significant innovation and growth in areas of pressing importance such as data, mobile and cloud services, healthcare, education, transportation, energy and infrastructure.”
San Francisco’s EIR program will offer selected teams mentorship from senior public leaders across the Mayor’s office and San Francisco departments and from private sector leaders with experience at companies such as McKinsey & Company, Nokia, NBC Universal, General Electric, Yahoo!, and Goldman Sachs. The program expects to select 3 to 5 teams and announce the selected teams in early October, during San Francisco’s Innovation Month. The program will run 16 weeks from mid-October, 2013 through mid-February, 2014.
Entrepreneurial teams are invited to learn more and apply at http://entrepreneur.sfgov.org http://entrepreneur.sfgov.org
What We’re Looking For
- Your product or service should address areas of topical relevance to the public sector (e.g. related to data, healthcare, transportation, education, energy, infrastructure, mobile and civic engagement, public assets, etc.)
- Your team should be pursuing an opportunity that has large economic potential ($100M+ market) and significant impact potential (increased revenue, enhanced productivity, meaningful cost savings, etc.).
- Your product or service should be technology enabled and have broad applicability across SF and other cities and states and across public and private sector customers.
- Preference is given for products or services in advanced stages of development and rollout or existing products that could also address government needs. If you are in a position to build out the product or service within 16 weeks, that is fine as well.
- Your product shows promise to be self-sustainable.
- Your team demonstrates high likelihood of success based on prior professional and personal experiences.
- Preference for teams over sole individuals; if sole individual, please elaborate on how you will build a team and accomplish program objectives within 16 weeks.
Example Government Pain Points
The following are just examples of problems facing government. Applicants do not have to solve these particular problems. It is most important to clearly demonstrate how your product could benefit from this program and that it can solve a real challenge.
- How can we better leverage the growth in open data and enable easier data mining and analysis to enable better decisions?
- How can we better utilize our public assets to generate additional revenue?
- How can we make available better healthcare choices and services given the upcoming implementation of the affordable healthcare act?
- How can we improve our recruiting and hiring applications for more efficient and productive hiring?
- How can we improve transportation efficiencies to improve transit times and reduce costs?
- How can we track and optimize our energy purchases and usage?
- How can we improve our asset tracking system across real estate, fleet, equipment, etc to increase usage, lower costs and enhance utilization?
- How can we use a digital public notification system for urban interventions and streetscape improvements to help local businesses and their growth?
What You Can Expect
The selection process will be through an open and competitive application process. Applications will be used to assess the qualifications, fit and likelihood of success of the applicants.
Selection will be made by SF EIR selection group composed of public and private sector leaders with innovation, Fortune 500, startup and venture capital experience.
We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis. It is in the applicant’s best interest to apply early. We will announce selected teams in early October, with the program beginning in mid-October and wrapping up in mid-February.
MENTORS
Entrepreneurs can expect to have access to a range of experts and advisors in the private and public sectors. These industry and government leaders will help your team define and achieve success in the civic innovation space with San Francisco agencies and departments as your key focus group and customers over the four month program. Below are just a handful of currently committed mentors.
Marinello School of Beauty Walls Itself Off from the Twitterloin – Clearly, It was Unprepared for the Challenges of the Mid-Market
Wednesday, August 28th, 2013IMO.
After all that recent broken glass, things look a bit different, a bit less welcoming.
See? The fishbowl has been papered over:
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But if you want to get some work done, you oughta check it out.
What Price Beauty?
How an Outsider Views San Francisco’s Stolen Bike Lifestyle – Buying a Hot Ride at 7th and Market – Also, a BikeShare Station in the Twitterloin?
Wednesday, August 28th, 2013This account of a journalist buying a stolen bike in the heart of Mayor Ed Lee’s gritty Twitterloin district isn’t new, but it’s new to me, so there you go.
Via Patrick Symms:
“Over the years, SFPD Sergeant McCloskey had launched dozens of stakeouts, stings, and reverse stings against bike thieves in the city’s Tenderloin District, becoming a legendary Lone Ranger in the bike wars, a one-man encyclopedia of cycle crime. He once spent an hour telling me his favorite techniques for catching thieves. The best spot was the San Francisco Public Library’s main branch, a few steps from Market Street. “We took a nice Cannondale and locked it to the bike rack there, set up a robbery detail, and watched the guys stealing the bikes,” he explained. “It worked really well. They’re very slick. They ride up on their own bike, park next to it. They have bolt cutters on a shoelace around their neck and lean down to cut it. They’re very fast. We did this successfully more than 20 times. We’ve only been skunked once. About 90 percent of the people we get are drug addicts, meth heads. Speeders, we call them.”
In Portland, Joe Luiz had confessed that he’d never quite figured out where all the bikes were going, but in San Francisco this wasn’t an issue. Stolen bikes were for sale, openly, at Market and 7th, a block from where Sergeant McCloskey got so many stolen.
I’d come to San Francisco for a funeral—my father-in-law had passed away. I drove downtown to pick up his ashes and, combining two errands into one, drove down Market Street to buy a stolen bike. I parked and walked to the corner of 7th, where there was an open-air market in fenced goods, from canned food to blue jeans to batteries.
The hot-bike market in downtown San Francisco was shameless, a disgrace to the city. But it wasn’t the Bay Area’s only dubious bicycle venue. The Alameda flea market was notorious for recycling stolen bikes, and in Golden Gate Park there was a chop shop where amateur mechanics swapped components and resold stolen bikes for profit.”
In related news:
“city bike share at 7th and Market“
Here it is, brand-new:
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Prediction: This station will be difficult and expensive to maintain. (Of course, the people behind Bay Area BikeShare already know this. And yet, they will be surprised by what will occur in this area. You’ll see.)
If You U-Lock Your Brand New Bike in SF Without Taking Precautions, This Will Happen To It Within One Day
Wednesday, August 21st, 2013[UPDATE: Oh yeah, this isn't a mountain bike, apologies.]
Some junkie in a hoodie will quick-release your seatpost and front wheel and then walk away in about five seconds.
Thusly:
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I don’t even know why bike shops in SF sell bikes with quick-release anything.
Myself, I switch everything out and then superglue everything I can.
So my $269 Marin mountain bike ends up with $100-something worth of U-lock, wheel locks, headset lock, saddle lock, etc oh well.
The Foot of Sutter Street at Market Looks Like This All the Time – People Need to Hop Over the Wet Muck – Why?
Friday, August 16th, 2013Not just on rainy days, this is the way it looks all the time.
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