‘Specially late at night, as here:
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There’s no need to use Strava to see how much over the limit you are. No, you can just look up at the electronic signs what use radar to tell you how fast you’re going.
But don’t try your speed runs in the daytime. That would be a little hazardous…
I’ll tell you, there are two kinds of San Franciscans:
1. People who know / care about who the current Mayor is; and
2. People who think the Mayor of San Francisco is still Gavin Newsom or Willie Brown or Dianne Feinstein*
A third of the first group welcomes the new City Target store, a third doesn’t care, and a third opposes this corporate chain-store invasion, man.
And the second group? They either don’t care or they welcome this store.
Golfing for Gift Cards and Bullseye doggie dolls:
*Which you know, isn’t too far from the truth, IRL.
(Oh, which of the two groups listed above is larger? The second one.)
I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords.
As does Charlize Theron:
Feel free to continue shopping online until October 14th.
(And hey, where’s our Masonic and Geary Target, when’s that one coming?)
See you at the City Target on the Second Sunday of October 2012!
Well it sure looks that way:
“Feed My Starving Children - Feeding God’s starving children hungry in body and spirit.”
OK fine.
As seen on Fell at Masonic:
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However:
“California law requires that station operators provide free air and water to customers who purchase gasoline or diesel fuel.”
So, no tithing is required to get your ride back on the road.
All right, now back to the Christians:
“Our Statement of Beliefs
As a Christian Organization:
“Kevin Rose’s moped is back up for sale. 2nd@1977mopeds build I’ve seen on SF craigslist this week. Very nice bike.”
Anyway, it runs, or at least it was running about town last week.
Here’s the history on YouTube - start at around 4:00.
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Ever more deets:
“Fully Loaded 1977 Puch Maxi Moped – $1700 (mission district)
I am selling the 1977 Puch Maxi moped featured in this blog post: http://jalopnik.com/5481416/dont-bury-kevin-roses-custom-moped
It has been fully restored. It hasn’t been driven much, but the pedals were swapped out for pegs. I still have them if you’re interested in them instead.
Asking $1700 OBO.
Thanks!
Chris”
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.
Or not.
Not all all.
I’ve never seen this:
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I don’t know, if I were on a tiny motorcycle and I wanted to go from Panhandle North to Panhandle South or vice versa and I didn’t want use Stanyan or Masonic or Baker and it were late at night, I still wouldn’t drive though GGP as a shortcut because the concept simply wouldn’t occur to me. But the idea would probably work OK.
Anyway.
Hukilau is gone, long gone. (The City done closed it down for good.)
But in its place at 5 Masonic and Geary at the top of the tunnel and at the top of Mervyn’s Heights comes The Corner Store.
See?
I’ll tell you it was a beehive of activity last night in this otherwise sleepy part of town. And the Yelp Elites are handing out their five-star reviews already.
Now let’s hear about TCS from:
Welcome to the ‘hood, The Corner Store.
Bon Courage!
I’ll tell you, the TJ’s underneath this rooftop parking lot is a beehive of activity.
So much so, that there are attendants to direct people on how and where to park in the tiny parking lot down below. And there’s almost always a line of cars blocking Masonic Street. So much so, the City and County decided to take out the parking / rush hour lane on southbound Masonic. But even so, a ton of shoppers park on northbound Masonic to make a dangerous journey across five lanes.
So that’s down below. But up on top there’s nothing going on. There’s a gate for people with passes. I think that City Car Share or ZipCar or somebody stores cars up there. But there also junked wrecks.
Like this. Camera left shows an old blue pickup what’s not in operating condition and in front of it is a Fred Sanford truck without its engine and in the background is a Miata* that someone’s been working on
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Oh, and then randomly, there’s an SFBG news rack up there blocking the lanes, not that it matters because nobody seems to be using this lot all that much.
I think if TJ’s shoppers knew they could park up here, they’d do so. This rooftop would experience a, in the words of our time, Dramatic Transformation and become a Vibrant Crossroads and maybe TJ’s shoppers would kill themselves less.
But no, it’s just a ghost town up there now, arrested decay and whatnot.
Does San Francisco have too much democracy? What explains this situation?
And after you think about that, think about What Can Be Done Now to fix the results of poor planning from San Francisco’s (Poor) Planning Department.
*Is it missing some lights, like the parking / driving / turn signal lights? I’ll tell you, if you drove that rig on Geary Boulevard a few times, the SFPD of the Richmond District would catch you for sure.
My latest trip to the TJ’s lasted no longer than two shakes of a lamb’s tail. And yet, I saw a ton of people park on the south side of Masonic only to run or walk across the busy six-lane freeway substitute to get to the store on the north side.
Why do people do this? Well, because the line for parking can be twenty cars long. And also because shoppers can’t head north or east after driving out of the parking lot.
This would be no biggee normally, but the combination of the hill crest and the curves makes this a dangerous practice, as was foretold a while back.
Here’s how it works, it’s just like a game of Frogger excepting that you’re the frog.
The telltale bag:
Here’s another. (The fence is for the MUNI Yard at Masonic and Geary)
It seemed like one person was making this crossing every couple minutes when I was there.
Now, do the people at TJ’s #100 know about this?
Well, how could they not?
Now, do the people at TJ’s do anything about this?
I don’t know. Doesn’t appear that way.
All right, the girls are still shopping so let’s go up to the roof to see Dude (no that’s not his Mercedes, that some other jaywalker’s)…
…but oh no, this gal’s doing the same thing at the same time…
…and now back to Dude, wise choice, man…
…and let’s go back to the gal, she see’s an opening, she could go all the way:
I mean, this is ten seconds worth of action in four shots.
This is a target-rich environment.
So, why doesn’t Trader Joe’s have a proper parking lot, you know, one that has a chance of accommodating all the shoppers?
I don’t know.
Did the City and County expect cars to whither away by now, you know, “Peak Oil is coming in 2005″ so let’s get ready for that?
Did the rich white homeowners in the area go full NIMBY back when plans were originally being drawn up?
Did TJ’s actually have a plan for shoppers to park on the roof or in some underground parking garage?
I don’t know.
Who will be the next to die?
I don’t know.
Now let’s hear from Reader RMS: “I shop, as well as drive by hear almost on a daily basis–and it never ends. Cars hang u-turns, cross the double lines, pedestrians/shoppers run and sometimes slowly walk across to go to TJ’s without a thought. I actually drove by there at the time of the unfortunate death of that women. It’s exactly as you stated, the hill, the speed limit but people choose to take their chances because it’s more convenient than having to go into the parking lot or go the actual cross walk, they can’t be bothered–sad. Has Trader Joe’s made any comments or contributed any ideas on passing the message to their customers?”
Here’s the scene in the Golden Gate Park Panhandle (which I argue is a part of Golden Gate Park for the same reason that the Idaho, Oklahoma, and Florida panhandles are a part of their respective states. But anywho…)
Can you see the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) people having an exclusive party complete with vests and ornamental hats / helmets?
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And I thought, wow, I can see some writing on the balloons, so one of them must have “logistics” written on it, and I was proven correct. It’s the yellow one, I think.
I don’t know, in my opinion NERT is too involved with local politics.
Oh yeah, and I don’t like the word “neighborhood” in there – sounds a bit NIMBY to me.
JMO.
I’ll just say that this scene would look less comical if it didn’t have the yellow police tape in there to keep out, who, the nearby homeless people or the hippies?
Anyway, carry on, NERT.
