The San Francisco Citizen

What’s a Sustainable Resource District? We’ll found out soon enough in the Civic Center on October 20. The goals of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s plan are:

80% potable water use reduction
45% wastewater discharge reduction
35% peak power demand met by renewables
33% annual energy reduction
Reduction of the community carbon footprint by 2,225 tons annually; the equivalent of the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 1,286 San Francisco households

It will all look a little like this. Click to expand:

KMD Architects

This was all promised to us back in January 2008 and now it’s on:

“Although implementing the overall vision will take several years, the 3-year Commitment to Action is anticipated to launch on October 20th, 2008 with a formal partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI)” [Sadly, there's no mention of Nobel Prize-winning Al Gore, who is practically a San Franciscan these days what with his place just down the street, and a TV station in SOMA, and a daughter attending UCSF medical school in the Sunset district. Oh well.]

Anyway, It’s starting in late 2009:

Potential initial projects include the installation of solar rooftop photovoltaics, water conservation fixtures, living roofs, and a public Wi-Fi connection, among others.

So, we’re going to get wind and solar together, living roofs and water reclamation.

It’s on!

The Victory Garden at San Francisco’s Civic Center has a new lease on life due to today’s mayoral reprieve:

“Today Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his intention to keep the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden at Civic Center Plaza in place until November. The garden was originally scheduled to be disassembled and moved to a more permanent location on September 21, three weeks after the conclusion of Slow Food Nation.”

Now the whole idea of this garden smacked of Marie Antoinette’s L’Hameau de la Reine from the get-go and the fact it was supposed to be undone in September was met with some criticism, but having this thing around for another three months seems like a good idea.

Of course SFN was well-attended, with lots of coverage from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, SFGate and Eater SF.

Now on with the show.

This voter registerer got cuffed by a Park Ranger right next to the Civic Center Windmill. Some rich hippies took offense and questioned the necessity of this detention. Apparently, the very same man was asked to leave SFN just the day before.

People, people, people, have you no respect for the DPT? Just one Parking Control Officer had the opportunity to issue scores of tickets to those in too much of a hurry to get to Slow Food Nation. It’s as easy as (slow) pie to park for free all day in this area.

See you next year!

Now, your first reaction might be: “When did Tom Bates die?” But no, he’s alive and well. Apparently, it’s kosher to name an RSC after a living person even though America is not a totalitarian country. Who knew?  

Over in the West Bay, the Mayor of Berkeley is perhaps best known for an “irrational act of election fatigue.” In other words, “stealing” free newspapers (at UC Berkeley!) and then lying about it for a month or so back in 2002:  

“The Daily Cal, which called for Bates to resign, criticized him not only for taking the paper from kiosks on Sproul Plaza, home of the Free Speech Movement, but also for lying to a Daily Cal reporter by saying he didn’t do it.”   

Click to enlarge

How wude! Anywho, let’s let bygones be bygones.

When you pass by the TBRSC, the first thing you’ll notice are all the shiny, silvery things fluttering in the wind. They keep the geese away, or at least that’s the idea. These days of course, even the New York Times knows about the East Bay’s huge goose problem.  

But some are calling this place a Goose Haven, as Canada Geese don’t seem to mind the silvery all that much. Maybe the streamers attract the geese?

They’re ranting and raving about this over in the East Bay. Oh well.

Things are speeding up at Slow Food Nation ‘08 in San Francisco.  After fighting the worm wars, it’s nice to sit back and spend $500 to eat some celebrity chef food under the rotunda of City Hall. It’s the Victory Garden Celebration Dinner on August 24:

District Attorney Kamala Harris, Peter Coyote, Thomas Keller and Alice Waters invite you to celebrate the Victory Garden on Civic Center Plaza. We’ll gather in the garden, share a meal prepared by Chez Panisse, and plant the seeds of victory at San Francisco City Hall.

Or just get a table for $10k and invite a few friends to have some paella, your choice.

Blue corn as high as a elephant’s eye, and it looks like it’s climbing clear up to the sky: 

See you there!

“The Slow Food Nation Victory Garden, planted by a coalition of volunteers including Mayor Gavin Newsom and Alice Waters, is an edible garden on the Civic Center Plaza. Planted on the same site as the post World War II Victory Gardens 60 years ago, the Victory Garden represents the values of sustainability, community and stewardship of the land, while producing high quality food for people in need.”

Before, you had to get your fix of Willie Brown by showing up at trials or waiting for someone to ask his opinion about “cows and chickens and goats and other things.” But no longer. Willie Brown has resurrected Larry King’s USA Today column!

Back in the day, it was only Larry who could give us a definitive ”weekly offering studded with plugs, superlatives and dropped names.” But Larry’s been busy doing other things lately, so he’s passed the baton to Willie.

Quién es este hombre? 

So which mots of the debut column are the most bon? How about:

The Skytrax World Airport Awards are in for 2008, and SFO  once again won in the Best Airports, North America category.

via KLA4067’s photostream

Now, if there were only a way to decrease delays at SFO on those foggy days. Perhaps, LAX shows us the way?

The Presidio Trust wanted a big turnout, and that’s what they got. How many folks showed up last night at the Presidio Trust Public Board of Directors meeting? More than 500 and less than 1000. Read a vivid account here.

These poor souls had to wait about 45 minutes before being admitted, but nobody was “turned away,” as has been alleged. Across the street you can see the “First Amendment Area” at Moraga and Monkey. That’s the nicest time, place, manner free speech area this lawyer has ever seen.

The news of the evening is that public comment period will be extended to September, so expect another big meeting like this one. A transcript will be available soon, so let’s wait on that before getting into this too much.

Is there a NIMBY backlash developing among area youth?

The Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, was booed by a good chunk of the mob after he voiced support for the CAMP museum as well as the entire Presidio Trust proposal. Only in San Francisco….

In the words of world-famous architect Richard Gluckman, “Working in San Francisco is not like anywhere else.”

Here’s what Angelo King of the Bayview Hunter’s Point Project Area Committee has to say, and here’s the official case made for the museum:

To be continued…

The International Children’s Games are going on right now in San Francisco.

Click to expand. From Opening Day:

The San Francisco JROTC was there as color guard for all the colorful flags. Phasing them out wasn’t quite the breeze some anticipated.

The last flag you’ll see in this entry:

Oops, more flags. It looked like a Quidditch Invitational over by Kezar Stadium.

At USF: 

This soccer ball as your head thing is getting out of hand:

O.K, no more flags after this:

Participants are warming up now for the 42nd Annual International Children’s Games in our little burg.

The spirit of athletic competition that will sweep the world in August is coming to San Francisco in July. On Friday, July 11, the 42nd International Children’s Games kicks off with the Opening Ceremony at Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park. The International Children’s Games, this year held in San Francisco, brings together more than 1,200 youth athletes (between the ages of 12-15 years old) from 84 cities in 42 countries, and representing all six inhabitable continents.

Why don’t you buy yourself some tickets?

They aren’t all that expensive, and you’ll be able to see an international competition just like the Olympics but without all the drugs and the G-word issue that has Mia Farrow and the New York Times so upset these days. And who knows, maybe you’ll meet Brandi Chastain, winner* of the 1999 World Cup (thanks to a terrible noncall on keeper Brianna Scurry shown at 2:15 here).

Soccer practice at foggy, foggy University of San Francisco

Everything kicks off tomorrow. The Opening Ceremony at Kezar will feature Mayor Gavin Newsom and Assemblywoman Fiona Ma. 

Mobile phone users: Feel free to sign up to receive updates about schedules and match results by sending a text message to code 95294 with the keyword “KIDS” in the body of the text message.

Will you root for the team representing San Francisco, Oakland, or somewhere else?

See you there!

Some people in San Francisco aren’t fully supporting the new/old Victory Garden concept that’s currently changing the appearance of the Civic Center.

 “You start having cows and chickens and goats and other things at Civic Center, ” Brown said, “and I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”

But others have already started bringing their farm animals down to City Hall:

Pastoral, bucloic San Francisco, here we come. Victory over “corporate food systems” is just around the corner.