Posts Tagged ‘meeting’
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Things were worse back in aught-seven, back when drivers waiting to fill up at the always-cheap ARCO station on Fell Street in the EaPA would queue up in the bike lane. But it’s no picnic these days neither, as you can see in this shot from a few days ago:
Well, comes now award-winning Michael Helquist of BIKE NOPA to learn us about planned changes:
“‘We have a design hashed out to take out parking on the south side of Fell Street,’ James Shahamiri, MTA Assistant Traffic Engineer, told BIKE NOPA. The new design would designate the former parking spaces as a curbside queue for motorists awaiting entry to the gas station.”
(IMO, that’s a painfully obvious solution that any other town in ‘Merica would have implemented years ago when the issue first cropped up. But oh well.)
So, you see them cars parked on the left side? You know, the Porsche 944 (or 968?), the Saturn S-Series, and the Honda CR-V cute-ute SUV? They’re parked in spaces that could soon be the ARCO queue.
What’s that, NIMBY? Over your dead body you say? O.K., well, I think this cake is already baked, but maybe you’ll be able to hear more about all the deets at this meeting:
Thursday, March 18th
7:00 pm, visit with neighbors
7:30 pm, meeting begins
9:00 pm , meeting ends
Change is Good, huh?
Tags: 1775, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 76, arco, area, Assistant, association, automobiles, autos, bicycle, bike, BIKE NOPA, block, blocking, BP, cars, cyclists, divisadero, divisidero, EaPA, east of panhandle, engineer, fell, fulton, gas, gasloline, golden gate park, intersection, James Shahamiri, jannah, lane, Line, meeting, metropolitan transportation agency, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, michael helquist, mta, Muni, neighborhood, nimby, NOPA, nopna, north of panhandle, oak, panhandle, parking, queue, San Francisco, SF, sfist, SFMTA, Station, street, traffic, union, vehicles, wait, Waiting
Posted in bikes, cars | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, February 17th, 2010
If you’re a student or faculty member at U.C. Berkeley, then you’re invited to see Bill Clinton on February 24th, 2010. The subject will be:
“Global Citizenship: Turning Good Intentions into Positive Action“
Admission is free for students, but faculty and staff will have to fork over $45 each. (Can you believe it? It would be cheaper for them to spend a night at Gump Station in the South Pacific.)
The rush for free tickets starts at 7:00 AM, February 18th, 2010. See you there!
Sadly, despite the words of touchy, touchy CityBright Zennie62, students, faculty and/or staff won’t be able to help you, a non-UC Berkelian, get a seat. Actually, it will be tough for the students themselves to get a ticket online.
But if you do get in, don’t be surprised if Bill shows up late, just like the last time he came to the bay area to do a big public address. Bill was late late late. Even the Mayor of San Francisco was reduced to gesticulations after being repeatedly lied to by Bill’s people about Bill’s arrival time back in 2006. Gavin’s coping strategy was to keep pointing at his watch to note the lateness of the hour. Like this:
Oh, here’s Bill:
The Blum Center for Developing Economies, University of California, Berkeley is pleased to announce that President Bill Clinton will speak to UC Berkeley students, staff, and faculty about Global Citizenship: Turning Good Intentions into Positive Action at 3:30 p.m. February 24 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Auditorium. Doors will open at 3 p.m.
Tickets for this event can be obtained online only.
Student tickets | Staff and faculty tickets
UC Berkeley students:
Tickets to the February 24 talk
- UC Berkeley student tickets, which are free, can be ordered online starting at 7 a.m. February 18 up until midnight. This event is not open to the general public. Limit of one ticket per person.
- Tickets that are not sold from the faculty/staff inventory will be available to UC Berkeley students for free beginning at noon on February 20. (Please check back at that time to determine if additional tickets are available.)
- To order a ticket, go to http://cal.berkeley.edu/President-Bill-Clinton-Lecture where you will be asked to enter your CalNet ID and password before being directed to the ticket site. This site will be activated at 7 a.m. February 18.
- No phone or in person sales.
- A Cal Student ID will be required at the door on the day of the event.
- We expect high demand for this event; please be patient with the website and do not use your browser’s back button during the ordering process.
- Tickets must be picked up at the Zellerbach Hall Will Call window at Zellerbach Auditorium on February 23 from noon until 5:30 p.m. or on February 24 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. When picking up tickets, all guests will be asked to present their Cal Student ID.
- PLEASE NOTE: You risk forfeiture of your ticket, if you do not pick it up by 1 p.m. on Wednesday, February 24, 2010.
Persons or orders that violate the limit of one ticket per person will be canceled without notice. No name changes, exchanges, cancellations, or refunds permitted. Tickets are non-transferable and seating assignment will be random. Tickets should be treated like cash; they are not replaceable if lost, stolen, damaged, or otherwise rendered unreadable. Ticket re-sale is strictly prohibited.
- ADA accommodations must be requested at the time of purchase. Sign language interpreters will be present.
- All patrons subject to search and magnetic screening prior to entry. There will be no bags, backpacks, signs, banners, cameras, recording devices, food nor beverages permitted. The organizers reserve the right to prohibit any item not explicitly mentioned in this list.
Ever more deets, after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 1200, 2000, 2010, 24th, 45, 800, abraham, adress, Auditorium, Berkeley, Berkeley Medal, Bill Clinton, Blum Center, Blum Center for Developing Economies, campus, Developing Economies, faculty, February, former, gavin newsom, Global Citizenship, Gump Station, Mayor, meeting, out, president, San Francisco, speak, speaking, Staff, sticking, students, tickets, tongue, Turning Good Intentions into Positive Action, UC, ucb, uninversity of california, Zellerbach, zennie, zennie abraham, zennie62
Posted in politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
This was the scene on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 in Golden Gate Park, where the Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition traded raffle tickets, cookies and, yes, pink popcorn for signatures to “save” the Boat House at Stow Lake. Get up to speed on this campaign here and here.
It was quite the affair, with hundreds on hand. KCBS All News 740 /106.9 had a vehicle there, but it’s tough to see if they reported on the event, AFAICS. (Oddly, an entry for “Save Stow Lake” is on the KCBS home page under “KCBS NEWS LINKS.”)
From the Yelp:
“FREE Organic Coffee! FREE Popcorn! FREE Raffle with great prizes! Other surprises! Come celebrate the historic Stow Lake Boathouse that has provided affordable recreation for generations. Sat. Feb. 13th, 11am-1pm. Stow Lake Boathouse, GG Park. We’ll have petitions for signing and art work for the kids so they can let the City know they don’t want the Boathouse turned into a restaurant/cafe.
“Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition (STSLBC) organized in response to a proposal by Rec & Parks to take over the entire top floor of the boathouse for an indoor restaurant/cafe. STSLBC wants to see the boathouse restored and improved without losing the quaint, old style snack bar and historic boat repair shop. STSLBC considers the restaurant concept in the building, as inappropriate and economically unfeasible, adding little, if any additional revenue, that would change the historic character and primary usage of the property, which for years has served as a boathouse offering a calm respite from city life for generations of San Franciscans and tourists.”
Now, do I begrudge these people when they collude with the current operator of the boathouse to hold a picnic to further their political cause? No.
And are they allowed to giveaway stuff “FOR FREE!” and then immediately hit you up for your signature on a petition? Yes, this is America.
But the problems include:
1. What park visitors were told just before they signed the petition while munching on their cookies, and;
2. The fact that the Recreation and Park Department’s plans for this area won’t “destroy” the boathouse, or for that matter, Stow Lake.
Will there be “room for kids and old people” at the Stow Lake Boathouse if a sit-down cafe opens up on the upper floor? Yes, of course. Will the old boathouse look substantially the same as before, no matter what happens? Yes.
Now, I’ll give you this, the people behind the STSLBC are doing better than before in articulating a basis for their cause. The problem is that their cause appears to be simply supporting the existing franchise holder at a time when others are bidding on a five or ten year contract to run the boathouse. Here are the bullet points from the online petition:
> The current tenant has never had a boating accident
> The current tenant has a long-standing, excellent relationship with their customers
> The current tenant has employees that have worked there for over ten years
> The current tenant has added healthy food options to the snack bar menu
> The current tenant is interested in adding additional items to sell to increase revenue
> The current tenant is open to improving the facility once a lease is in place
O.K., but the rules say that RPD has the right to open up bidding for a new tenant. Is that so bad?
Am I saying that there’s something wrong with avuncular Bruce McLellan, the current tenant who runs the place? No. But having a new tenant wouldn’t “destroy” Stow Lake neither, nor even the boathouse, right?
Obviously, RPD is looking for new sources of money. Will having a new cafe help to make more money for RPD and the tenant such that the price of paddle boat rentals could be lowered from the current $24? We’ll see.
Is this a message that comes from the grass roots? Really? Or in other words, “Bidder A is great, Bidders B and C are not.”
The site of the coming cafe. That’s the boat hoist that the City is trying to “heist.” “Don’t heist the hoist”is a slogan they’re using. Srsly.
All agree of the desirability of a long term contract, which would allow a new tenant, or the existing one, to upgrade aging equipment.
The oar your $19 rental fee gets you – it does the job, I s’pose:
Leave us now depart the Boathouse at Stow, home to the most ridiculous grass roots effort to come down the pike in a good long time. (And I’ve seen plenty.)
Only In San Francisco.
To Be Continued.
Tags: 106.9, 2010, 740, am, boat, boat house, boathouse, Bruce McLellan, budget, C.W. Nevius, cafe, chuck, coalition, community, department, dept., district, fm, free, golden gate park, historic, hoist, inner sunset, kcbs, lake, meeting, Nevius, Nick Kinsey, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, picnic, pink, popcorn, radio, recreation and parks, restaurant, rfq, row, rowboat, San Francisco, Sandy Weil, save, save stow lake, Save the Stow Lake Boat house, Save the Stow Lake Boathouse, Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition, stow, STSLBC, sunset, Suzanne Dumont, Suzanne R. Dumont, yuppification
Posted in buildings, parks | 6 Comments »
Saturday, February 6th, 2010
Yesterday’s announcement of a sinkhole affecting N-Judah service in the Sunset District didn’t sound like any big deal at first:
“Feb 5, 2010 to Feb 7, 2010 - SF Muni N-Judah Line Delay: On Saturday, February 6, SF Muni reports delays on the inbound N-Judah Line at Judah and 29th Avenue due to a street closure involving a sinkhole near the inbound tracks. N trains are turning back at Judah and 19th Avenue and bus shuttles are being provided until further notice.”
And, in fact, the actual sinkhole location itself looks unremarkable, excepting for all the signs all around it.
But check it – appears as if work crews might be spending the next two weeks onsite at 29th and Judah:
”WE WILL TOW,” says MUNI. No doubt.
People riding the N Judah buses this AM seemed relatively unaffected* by the loss of the trolleys, but that probably won’t be the case on Monday if the tracks aren’t usable.
Or, maybe, the City’s taciturn work crews will be able to get a quick fix in this weekend and then work on a better job over the next week or so? Perhaps there’s an ongoing issue there anyway and this whole deal is a big nothingburger with a side order of nada?
MUNI probably has a pretty good idea on what will occur but they aren’t officially saying anything yet.
Only Time Will Tell.
Le mise-en-scene ce matin:
An avid radio fan, call-sign Star Scream (srsly, perhaps ironically), hepped me to when the supervisors would show up this AM, and lo, he was spot-on. (Radio – it’s like the Internet but without pictures.)
Note the cracks nearby the purported sinkhole…
…and then compare them with these nearby bits (could we call them railroad ties?) that appear to be waiting to go:
Good luck, MUNI!
[UPDATE: If you believe what Next MUNI is saying, then the trolleys will be rolling across the sinkhole spot by this afternoon, February 7th.]
*So people trying to get to MUNI’s Town Hall Meeting today (maybe it’s still going on) should be able to make it. MUNI likes these kinds of meetings because they disunite riders (because of infighting over the preservation of service on particular lines) and they unite the disparate elements of MUNI. (Is the state of California really “taking away” money from MUNI or just not giving as much money to MUNI?) Regardless, if enough people hammer on the importance of one particular line, that can make a difference…
Tags: 19th, 2010, 29th, ave, avenue, bridge, crews, department, dpw, feb, February, judah, meeting, mta, Muni, n, n judah, public works, SFMTA, shuttle, sink hole, sinkhole, street, town hall
Posted in transit | No Comments »
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Via the N Judah Chronicles and the Inner Sunset Neighborhood Group comes news of tonght’s Inner Sunset Town Hall:
“The Inner Sunset will have a Town Hall Meeting with Supervisors Sean Elsbernd and Ross Mirkarimi, and SFPD Chief Gascon at 7pm in the County Fair building in Golden Gate Park, located just past the park entrance at 9th and Lincoln.”
The Inner Sunset District: King of All the Sunsets:
Overcast weather and overhead wires – the Inner Sunset has it all:
See you at the meeting tonight.
Tags: 2010, 28th, 5, 7, building, chief, Chronicles, county, district, gascon, George, George Gascón, golden gate park, Hall of Flowers, inner, january, meeting, n judah, N Judah Chronicles, police, public, ross mirkarimi, San Francisco, Sean Elsbernd, SFPD, sunset, town hall
Posted in crime, government | No Comments »
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Our neighbors in the Great Sand Waste* of the Outside Lands are having a little trouble with the partial collapse of the Great Highway near Sloat, so there’ll be a meeting tonight at 7:00 PM:
“A community meeting is being held on Monday, January 25th at 7:00 PM at the Park Chalet (located behind the Beach Chalet at 1000 Great Highway just south of Fulton in San Francisco) to discuss the proposed actions at Sloat Boulevard. The DPW Project Manager, Frank Filice will be there to discuss the emergency declaration, the short-term strategy, and a process for a long-term solution. Everyone who has an interest in the preservation and the future of Ocean Beach is encouraged to attend. The emergency declaration will go before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for ratification the following day, Tuesday, January 26th.”
Will San Francisco “armor the beach“ or something? Stay tuned…
by k. riccitiello
If that doesn’t float your boat, there’s always, this:
“The Park Chalet will be offering $2 pints and extending their $5 happy hour menu of appetizers all night for the event.”
See you there.
*Look at this – snark from 160 years ago: The True Story of How San Francisco Received Its Name:
“San Francisco – this is a derivative word from sand and Francisco. In the early settlement of this country it was the custom of an old monk of the interior, by the name of Jeremiah Francisco, to perform a pilgrimage to this place every month, to visit the tomb of a brother of the order whose remains he had here interred. The wind “blew like mad” here, and upon his return he was usually so covered with the dust and sand, that his neighbors were unable to recognize him; hence they soon began to call him sand Francisco.
On one of his pilgrimages he happened, by mistake, to die here, and the place ever after was called by his name. From the difficulty of enunciating the d, it was usually called SAN FRANCISCO, and has so continued to this day. The present popular notion that the place was named after the St. Francis Hotel is an error!
California Weekly Courier
August 1, 1850″
Tags: beach, beer, board of supervisors, california, California Weekly Courier, chalet, coalition, collapse, declaration, department of public works, district, dpw, emergency, Erosion, fog, Frank Filice, great highway, Great Sand Waste, Great Sand Waste of the Outside Lands, media, meeting, newspaper, ocean, ocean beach, Ocean Beach Task Force, outer, outside lands, park chalet, parkside, Project Manager, rain, restaurant, richmond, san francsico, sand, sand Francisco, save the waves, Sloat, snark, surf, surfers, surfing, susnet, town hall, waves, Weekly Courier, zoo
Posted in parks | No Comments »
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Didn’t make it to the entire meeting of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council yesterday but everything seemed pretty copacetic from what I could see. A representative from Whole Foods made a presentation about their proposed store at 690 Stanyan. Then came the Q and A:
Will they have organic food? Yes. Will they have stuff on sale sometimes? Yes. That’s how it went.
Attention developers – this is the kind of get-together you need to hold before you can begin developing in San Francisco. Paying thousands of dollars a year to nearby community groups, as Sutro Tower, Inc. does, might also help but outreach meetings like these are mandatory. Just saying.
The next stop is a rubber stamp from the Planning Commission on January 28th. Then you can look forward to having a place to shop for Thanksgiving in Autumn.
Hooray!
Tags: $28, 1833 page, 2010, 690, 94117, ashbury, branch, cala, calvin welch, clayton, cole, commission, council, district 5, food, grocery, haight, haihgt, hanc, january, library, market, meeting, neighborhood, nimby, nimbys, page, park, Planning, San Francisco, spate, stanyan, store, street, upper, whole foods
Posted in food and drink | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
About 110 souls showed up yesterday for the two meetings our Department of Recreation and Park hosted to air out the whole Stow Lake Boat House issue.
Get up to speed here, and let’s begin.
Here it is, the boathouse at Stow. Click to expand to see the mechanism used to carry paddle and row boats into the boathouse. It’s a bone of contention these days:
Another contentious dealio is the continued availability of Wright’s Pink Popcorn Bars, straight out of 150 Potrero. (The secret to the pinkness? Delicious red dye #40, baby. Natch.) See it?
Well hold on to your hats – Rec and Park property manager Nick Kinsey promised all that pink popcorn would forever be on the menu at the boat house. This requirement will be burned into future consignment contracts. See? It was on the PowerPoint:
Anyway, here’s what the first session looked like:
If you want ever to feel young, just show up to a San Francisco NIMBY meeting at 2:00 in the afternoon.
The aforementioned Nick Kinsey (doesn’t he look like an actor or something?) represented the RPD:
Can you read these slides?
Fundamentally, the building will stay the same.
Will there be a change as to how the boats get into the boat house for repair? Yes. Is that anything for San Francisco’s seniors to worry about?* No, not actually.
Will the proposed covered lunching area be as upscale as those at the nearby de Young Museum or the California Academy of Sciences? No.
So, preservationists, college-boy Nick Kinsey just dealt you three aces yesterday. We’re not playing poker here so that means You Got Served and your score stands at love-40. You all need to articulate yourselves better. In reaction to yesterday’s PowerPoint, what is your beef? (Don’t tell us where you born and how long you lived here - it doesn’t matter. And don’t tell us how you don’t trust The City in light of X, Y, or Z. Just respond to the presentation, if you would.)
There will be a bunch more meetings before any changes get made – Archangel Gabriel hasn’t even begun to warm up his trumpet, so I’m not too worried about the old-school boat house right now.
Wake me up on judgment day in about a half a year or so.
*You want something to get upset about? How about this fake, Yoko-approved John Lennon voiceover for One Laptop Per Child? I’m still gobsmacked.
Tags: boat, boat house, boathouse, budget, C.W. Nevius, chuck, coalition, community, department, dept., district, golden gate park, hall lf flowers, inner sunset, lake, meeting, Nevius, Nick Kinsey, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, pink, popcorn, recreation and parks, restaurant, row, rowboat, San Francisco, save, stow, sunset, yuppification
Posted in architecture, buildings, government | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
It’s all going down this Thursday, January 14th, 2010, at the Park Branch Library on Page Street in the Upper Haight – representatives from Whole Foods will be on hand to discuss their proposed new store at Stanyan and Haight.
Get some history on this projecto here, courtesy of Curbed SF. And read “the whole story” from purported “fossil”Calvin Welch right here.
The proposed residences upstairs are no longer in the works but there’s still lots to argue about. Grab your pink popcorn and show up at the library at 7:00 PM for the next Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Community Meeting:
See you there!*
*At the meeting, not at Whole Foods, which is too rich for my blood.
Tags: $28, 1833 page, 2010, 690, 94117, ashbury, branch, cala, calvin welch, clayton, cole, commission, council, district 5, food, grocery, haight, haihgt, hanc, january, library, market, meeting, neighborhood, nimby, nimbys, page, park, Planning, San Francisco, spate, stanyan, store, street, upper, whole foods
Posted in food and drink | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Those crazy* preservationists are at it again – this time they want to save the “historic” boat house at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. In response, the oddly-named San Francisco Department of Recreation and Park is holding two meetings today at the Hall of Flowers, San Francisco’s mothership of out-of control public meetings.
Round One begins at 2:00 PM and Round Two begins at 6:00 PM at the Brawl of Flowers / County Fair Building** (just go to 9th Avenue and Lincoln in the Inner Sunset and then proceed into the Park 100 feet and then hang a left for another 100 feet).
Consult this bit from Chuckles Nevius and then choose sides. (Actually, C.W. occupies the field of MSM boat house coverage at this point.) Check out BeyondChron for an alternative view from Suzanne R. Dumont and Sandy Weil.
Now, if I know my Rec and Park, the simple idea of keeping things the way they are at this popular venue will be portrayed as an unworkable, unviable option.
From the Haight Ashbury Voice:
I don’t have a dog in this particular hunt myself, but I’ll tell you it seems a little absurd to yuppify the whole shebang because the old metal rowboats are dented up. It’s possible that taking the boathouse upscale will end up being seen as a fiasco twenty years from now. Hard to tell at this point, though.
Prediction: A Grand Compromise will be hashed out and we’ll end up with a partial yuppification.
See you there today!
Artist Ashley Wolff, for one, supports the Save the Stow Lake Boat House Coalition:
(Pink popcorn substituted for white)
*The gold standard of crazy preservationism has got to be the movement to keep the cable cars rolling back in 1947. Those people, like lunch lady Friedel Klussmann don’t seem all that crazy now, right?
**The gold standard of intense boathouse-related whiteboard meetings has got to be this scene from Robert De Niro in Ronin (1998). (Come for the lovely Irish redhead Deidre, stay for the remarkable car chases - authorities gave Frankenheimer carte blanche to shut down half of France for filming.
Tags: boat, boat house, boathouse, budget, C.W. Nevius, chcuk, coalition, community, department, dept., district, golden gate park, hall lf flowers, inner sunset, lake, meeting, Nevius, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, pink, popcorn, recreation and parks, restaurant, row, rowboat, San Francisco, save, stow, sunset, yuppification
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
