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Google Isn’t the Only Company Mapping the Presidio – What is this Subaru Detecting All Over Town?

Friday, August 27th, 2010

[UPDATE: OMG, the blue car below might actually be from Google. See the comments. I fear the worst. Courage...]

[REUPDATE: Bluoz, that guy who just loves to hate on Randy Shaw and that whole Tenderloin Housing Clinic / BeyondChron public-private real-estate/media empire, confirms the Googleness of this Subaru. It says "Google" right on the side of the thing. They're ba-aaaack! First chemtrails and now this.]

Remember this scene back from aught-eight, when the Google Maps car got pulled over in San Francisco’s Presidio?

Courtesy of damianspain. Click to expand

Now, it turned out that the Google Car driver got ticketed, but not for a moving violation. Apparently, Google didn’t feel the need to secure a permit to photograph this National Park for commercial purposes, even after discussing the issue with the Presidio Trust. But Google showed up anyway so somebody called the federales and Google got an expensive citation.

Well, Google isn’t the only operator of maps cars about town, it seems. Check out this new one, one that only just recently ventured into our Presidio:

What is the driver mapping with that masted array? And does the Silicon Valley company that sent it here doing whatever it is it’s doing have permission from the Presidio Trust?

Don’t know and don’t know.

Keep a look out.

And to our corporate overlords, I say this: Any Car Color But Black:

“Project requirements
20 cars where allocated to Germany. We felt that the remaining visible black on the cars was still playing a negative role especially with the derogatory press that Street View had received in the past year.

What we did
We co-ordinated with Googles Geo team, logistics team and Street View car teams to produce a full car wrap that would cover the whole car. The chosen designs were then implemented by Picture onto 20 cars over a period of 5 days in Stuttgart.”

Tags: 2008, 2009, 2010, 6kks262, bay area, bust, busted, california, car, citation, commercial, detector, federal, google, hybrid, mapping, maps, mast, my favorite places, national, park, parking, permit, piolice, police, presidio, prius, pulled over, red, San Francisco, sick, ticket, toyota, trust, United States, use
Posted in cars | 9 Comments »

President Obama Appoints Three to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors

Monday, August 9th, 2010

President Barack Obama has just appointed three familiar names to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors. Here they are:

David H. Grubb, William R. Hambrecht, and Charlene Harvey.

Presidio Trust Executive Director Craig Middleton has the news, below.

A few changes for the Board:

“PRESIDENT OBAMA NAMES THREE TO PRESIDIO TRUST’S BOARD. APPOINTEES BRING EXPERIENCE, LOVE OF PARK

“Presidio of San Francisco (August 9, 2010) – President Barack Obama has appointed two prominent Bay Area business leaders and a longtime parks advocate to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors. David H. Grubb, William R. Hambrecht, and Charlene Harvey will replace outgoing board members T. Robert Burke, Nancy Connor and Curtis Feeny, all of whose terms have expired.

All the deets, after the jump.

(more…)

Tags: 2010, appoint, appointed, appointee, barack, bareack, bay area, california, Charlene Harvey, Craig Middleton, Curtis Feeny, David Grubb, David H. Grubb, federal, Nancy Connor, national, obama, park, president, presidio, Robert Burke, S, San Francisco, t, u, United States, us. u.s., William Hambrecht, William R. Hambrecht
Posted in parks | 4 Comments »

Nat Ford Presides Over San Francisco’s First Taxi Medallion Sale – #354 Goes for Quarter-Mil

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Here’s what you need to know about San Francisco raising money through the sale of taxi medallions - it’s not going so hot so far.

In any event, the City’s first taxi medallion sale in recent San Francisco history was celebrated at City Hall today.

Nat Ford engages the crowd:

Handing over a $250,000 piece of aluminum:

Carl Macmurdo, President of the Medallion Holders Association, was on hand with his terrific suit. Keep up with his organization here.

On It Goes…

Tags: 2010, 354, auction, bay area, cab, california, City Hall, fees, hybruide, k, medallion, mta, nat ford, nathaniel ford, national, prop, Proposition, sale, San Francisco, sell, SFMTA, tax, taxi, taxicab, toyota, yellow
Posted in transit | No Comments »

The Fox Network’s “National Dance Day” Celebrated at Powell Street Cable Car Turnaround

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

Did you know that the Fox Network goes around and starts up national holidays? Apparently, they’re on their way:

“National Dance Day on July 31, 2010,… was created by So You Think You Can Dance executive producer and judge Nigel Lythgoe. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton a long-time proponent of healthy lifestyles, introduced a National Dance Day resolution to promote dance education and physical fitness across the U.S.”

At first I thought these kids from “Illegal Talent” were filming a Spike Jonez* / Fatboy Slim Praise You remake but that proved incorrect:

Ahora, con contraste - the reverse angle:

Click to expand

See you next year!

*The jerk boyfriend from the beginning of Lost in Translation, IRL.

Tags: (BART), 2010, bay area, boyfriend, cable, california, car, congresswoman, crew, Dance, day, Eleanor Holmes Norton, fatboy slim, illegal talent, jerk, Judge, july 31, lost in translation, market, national, Nigel Lythgoe, Powell, praise you, San Francisco, Saturday, So You Think You Can Dance, spike jonez, Station, street, turnaround
Posted in art, Dance | No Comments »

Come See the “Presidio Habitats” Art Exhibition Plus the New Presidio Park Trail

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Have you seen “Presidio Habitats,” the Site-Based Art Exhibition Celebrating Presidio Nature and Wildlife? Well, then get up there, it’s ending May 15, 2011.

Bring your walking shoes and then make the Triskelion (srsly, that’s what they call it) pavilion at Fort Winfield Scott your starting point.

Forty-foot shipping containers never looked so good:

Click to expand

Here it is from the outside:

And here’s the starting gate of Presidio Habitats:

Something to do with bunnnies and turtles, take a look:

O.K. then. Here’s Patience by Jensen Architects. or part of it anyway:

The mise-en-scene:

Western Screech Owl Habitats by Ai Weiwei:

A 600mm shot shows that these porcelain palaces are move-in ready:

Winged Wisdom by Phillippe Becker Design / Brody Hartman:

A closer view:

Sculpture Habitat for the Gray Fox by CEBRA

Owl Dome by Taalman Koch Architecture:

That’s just a taste. The whole point is that you’re supposed to get out there and go see everything for yourself. The more the merrier.

As these people realized on Saturday, walking along the new/improved Park Trail. (Learn more about the changes to this trail after the jump.)

The entire place is one giant art gallery but without the white wine.

And, oh yes, here’s one concept that didn’t make it. I guess you’d need to suppose that a bird made a nest and laid eggs in a golf cart and then somebody hoisted it into the air. Anyway, here’s the Photoshopped proposal:

(This installation might serve to hack off the golfers of the Presidio, I don’t know…)

There you have it. Here are some upcoming events for PH and you can find the deets of the Park Trail after the jump.

Exhibition Pavilion and Self-Guided Tours
The starting point for the Presidio Habitatsexperience is an indoor exhibition space created from repurposed shipping containers. Here visitors can view all 25 proposals submitted for the exhibition, scale models, and other artist material, as well as video about the Presidio’s plants and wildlife. An Exhibition Mapwill lead you on a self-guided journey encompassing all installation sites. The Exhibition Pavilion hours through October 31, 2010: 11 am – 5 pm, Wednesday-Sunday. It is located at the corner of Storey Avenue and Ralston Avenue in the Fort Scott District.

Log Cabin Series
The Presidio Trust presents a year-long series of talks, multimedia presentations, and performances at the historic Log Cabin. Inspired by the Presidio, its wildlife, and Habitats art, the Log Cabin Series will host events on the second Thursday of each month. The Exhibition Pavilion will be open until 7 pm on these evenings.

Animal Estates and Edible Estates: An Evening with Fritz Haeg
Thursday, June 10, 7–8:30 pm
Author, designer, and artist Fritz Haeg created Snag Tower, a vertical dwelling for native species and currently an installation of Presidio Habitats. Learn about his project Animal Estates, proposing the re-introduction of native animals into cities, and his book Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn.

Triskelion: The Story of the Presidio Habitats Exhibition Pavilion
Thursday, July 8, 7–8 pm
San Francisco Architects Zoe Prillinger and Luke Ogrydziak, known for their progressive, modern designs that include new media technologies, discuss their creation of the Presidio HabitatsExhibit Pavilion from repurposed shipping containers arranged at 120 degree angles around a central atrium.

The Birds and the Bees: A Presidio Experience
Thursday, August 12, 7–8 pm
About 200 bird species and 57 bee species buzz and fly through the Presidio. Gain a new perspective on the different shapes and sizes of wildlife homes within the Presidio from Presidio Trust natural resource experts.

The Art of Patience: Meet Architect Mark Jensen
Thursday, September 9, 7–8 pm
Architect Mark Jensen will discuss his Habitats installation Patience, featuring dramatically austere yellow chairs that afford visitors a unique perspective on the Presidio’s Great Blue Herons.

Family Program: Create with Nature
Saturday, June 12, 10 am to 2 pm
Saturday, August 7, 10 am to 2 pm
Kids and grown-ups alike will get creative with natural materials in an outdoor Presidio setting. The ingredients for the day include wood, leaves, stone, pine cones, bark, branches, water, and imagination. Bring a picnic lunch or snack. Meet at the Exhibition Pavilion.

Guided Adventures
Presidio staff, friends, and FOR-SITE Foundation representatives will lead visitors on guided walks. Meet at the Exhibition Pavilion. RSVP is required to (415) 561-5418 or presidio@presidiotrust.gov.

Presidio Butterflies 101 Walk
RSVP to (415) 561-5418 or presidio@presidiotrust.gov
Sunday, July 18, 10 am to Noon
Sunday, August 29, 10 am to Noon

Presidio Habitats Curatorial Walk
RSVP to (415) 561-5418 or presidio@presidiotrust.gov
Saturday, July 24, 10 am to Noon
Saturday, August 7, 10 am to Noon

(more…)

Tags: 2010, 2011, Ai Weiwei, architecture, art, based, bay area, Brody Hartman:, bunnnies, california, cart, CEBRA, chairs, deferal, design, dome, eggs, exhibition, fort, fox, Golden Gate Bridge, golf, gray, Habitats, Jensen Architects, May 15, national, nature, nest, owl, Owl Dome, park, Park Trail, Patience, pavilion, Phillippe Becker, presidio, Presidio Habitats, San Francisco, Sculpture Habitat for the Gray Fox, shipping containers, site, Taalman Koch, Triskelion, trust, turtles, u. s., United States, Western Screech, Western Screech Owl Habitats, wildlife, Winfield Scott, Winged Wisdom, yellow
Posted in art, parks | No Comments »

The Happy Sea Lions that You Can See from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010

Understand that this was taken about 500 feet above the ocean, but nevertheless, this is what you can see from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Point Reyes right by the famous lighthouse:

Click to expand

You’ll hear them before you see them.

“Aar, arr, arr, arr….”

Tags: 2010, Animals, barking, bay area, boulevard, california, county, lighthouse, mammals, marin, national, park, pointe reyes, pt. reyes, San Francisco, sea lions, seals, seashore, sir francis drake
Posted in Animals | No Comments »

The Presidio Landmark Apartments in the Old PHSH Hospital are Mega Turbo Double Awesome

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

There I was at the Presidio Landmark apartments the other day only to find out that that Philip Ferrato from Curbed SF already beat me to the punch. His metaphorical footprints were all over the place. No matter, let’s take another gander.

And who knows, maybe you’ll have the coin to sign a lease. (And included in that, you’ll get an assigned parking space* for each bedroom(!) you rent. Shhh… don’t tell the StreetsBlog.)

Here it is, as it looked yesterday, with Presidio Trust Executive Director Craig Middleton out front talking about what constitutes “Presidio Magic.”

Click to expand

Hey, didn’t this building used to be a hospital?

A hospital for merchant marines and sailors?

So it would seem.

And hey, wasn’t this place filled with graffiti not too long ago?

Oh yes, but things are all cleaned up now. See? Here’s the very same staircase:

O.K. then.

Now, realize that developer Forest City wants you to come by (by appointment, there’s a waiting list just to see the place, I think) and move in. Look at the greeting you’ll get:

Building 1801 will soon be open for business. (How many tripods do you see in this shot?)

Now, let’s head up on the famous staircase. You won’t find a doorless, open design like this in a SoMA skyscraper owing to fire code regulations. The LandMark will make use of an emergency water curtain setup:

But look here, the old metal handrail assembly was just plopped onto the marble way back in 1932, can you see? No matter, a little rust never hurt no one. This building doesn’t deny its history, that’s for sure.

Now, let’s check out the rooms.

This is part of a one-bedroom that has about 1050(!) square feet. (This particular unit would be used as a three-bedroom in most any other part of the 415.)

And here’s your view. Can you see Mount Sutro? Yes, barely.

But hey, where would former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown hang his red socks to dry after handwashing if he were to live in this building – which is the nicest unit? How about this suite? The entrance is extra long, good for displaying your art, non?

And here’s the kitchen, complete with island and hood for indoor BBQ.

One of these wings is not like the other/ One of these wings just doesn’t belong…

Right, it’s a three-story add-on! See it on the left? If this building is “anchor-shaped,” you’re looking from the ring down the shank and towards the left fluke. (This will all be clear the next time one of the satellites from Google’s fleet passes over to update the Google Maps.

And there’s a hot tub! It has benches in there so you can face those sitting in the deck chairs.

That’s the tour.

So, here’s the old Public Health Service Hospital back as she was in 1935. (Note just one GGB tower back there.)

And here’s how she was not too long ago with the ugly wings out front:

You’ve come a long way, PHSH.

People are moving in August 1st or something. Will you join them?

*Or you can get a credit for foregoing each parking space, but it won’t be all that much, I’m sure.

Tags: 2010, apartments, bay area, building, california, Craig Middleton, district, forest city, graffiti, landmark, landmark presidio, lease, national, park, per month, PHSH, presidio, presidio landmark, Public Health Service Hospital, rent, richmond, San Francisco, trust
Posted in buildings, housing, parks | No Comments »

Huge Vietnamese Website Rips Off San Francisco Photographer David Yu, Again

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Here’s the thing – Vietnam ranks pretty low on the list of places you generally need to worry about. Of course they’ve sent people to California to spy on us, but so has our good buddy Russia and a host of others and I’m sure America has spies over there in Hanoi as well, and S,S,S,S,Saigon too, or whatever they’re calling it these days. Fine.

But here’s a minor beef. Seems that a big .vn website, one with traffic greater than SFgate.com anyway, has no qualms about reposting a bunch of photos from Flickr after stripping copyright info.

Thusly. That’s not fair use, Dan Tri. You know, all that bay arean David Yu wants to do is add color to our lives, so it’s bad form to piss him off, right?

A typical kind of shot from DavidYuWeb:

Used with persimmon.

Should we expect more from huge profitable MSM websites operating out of our sister city?

Mmmmm….

Tags: 2010, asia, bay area, california, copyright, Dan Tri, dantri, David Yu, flickr, miss, Miss National Asia Pageant, national, pageant, Photographer, Rips Off, San Francisco, vietnamese, website
Posted in law, photography | 2 Comments »

San Francisco Public Library Wins Award and Cash for 2009 Fine Amnesty Program

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Remember last year when Captain Chesley ”Sully” Sullenberger and others participated in the San Francisco Public Library’s fine amnesty program? Well, it was such a success that the SFPL just got an award.

And, bonus, the Presidio Branch Library got back a 1947 print of George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman. It was 45 years overdue.

Remember, give a hoot, read a book!

All the deets:

San Francisco Public Library Receives National John Cotton Dana Award at American Library Association Annual Conference

Recognition for 2009’s Fine Amnesty Program, “Return the Books”

The San Francisco Public Library was one of six libraries nationwide to be honored with a John Cotton Dana Public Relations Award Sunday at the annual American Library Association (ALA) Conference in Washington D.C. The award recognizes and honors outstanding achievement in library public relations.

SFPL was recognized for its 2009 Overdue Fine Amnesty Program campaign, “Return the Books,” which led to the recovery of 29,000-plus items, valued at approximately $730,000, over the two week amnesty period in May 2009.

The low-cost, multifaceted overdue fine amnesty campaign used the tagline, “What’s Your Excuse?” and obtained free participation by local and national personalities including Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, Josh Kornbluth, Beth Lisick, W. Kamau Bell, and Marga Gomez, each offering clever excuses in a series of television public service announcements about their excuses for not returning library materials. The campaign netted a 23.6 percent return on overdue materials.

The fine amnesty program was intended to help library patrons cope with the economic downturn by removing one obstacle – overdue fines –allowing them to resume using library resources. The total number of recovered items was 29,228, including 3,151 books that were more than 60 days overdue and were therefore “assumed lost” or unlikely to be returned. The value of those long overdue items was nearly $79,000. Among the older items returned was a copy ofGeorge Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman (reprinted 1947) with a due date stamp of Jan. 29, 1964, making it more than 45 years overdue from the Presidio Branch Library. San Francisco library patrons also saved themselves $55,165 in overdue materials fines and more than 3,000 patrons were able to obtain a clean slate on their record.

The John Cotton Dana Public Relations Award, which has been awarded since 1946, is sponsored by the H.W. Wilson Company, the H.W. Wilson Foundation and the Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). It is considered to be the most prestigious of all library awards in the field of public relations. The award comes with a $5,000 prize which is being returned to the City to help offset the general fund costs from foregoing the overdue fines over the two-week amnesty period.

Tags: (ALA), (LLAMA), 2009, 2010, American Library Association, Amnesty, annual, award, bay area, Beth Lisick, california, Captain, chesley, company, conference, division, fine, Foundation, H.W. Wilson, John Cotton Dana, josh kornbluth, Kamau Bell, Library Leadership and Management Association, Marga Gomez, national, Overdue, pilot, program, public, public relations, Return the Books, San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library, sfpl. Library, sullenberger, sully, the H.W. Wilson, w, “Sully”, ”
Posted in books | No Comments »

Modern Art in a National Park: “Presidio Habitats” Runs Until May 15, 2011

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Turns out that the Presdio‘s born-and-raised millionaire and billionaire NIMBY neighbors can’t keep modern art out of our Presidio after all.

Anyway, this is the first I’ve heard of the effort. Check it.

Look for this next time your in the Presidio:

SAN FRANCISCO, May 24 — PhilippeBecker (www.beckersf.com), a San Francisco branding and design agency announced today that it is one of11 international designers and artists commissioned to create art for public display in the Presidio, in the first-ever public art project conceived for a National Park.

Commissioned in 2009 by the FOR-SITE Foundation in partnership with the Presidio Trust, 25 designers and artists were invited to submit habitat proposals for specific animal residents of the Presidio. 11 submissions were selected and commissioned for the Presidio Habitats art installation, including PhilippeBecker’s “Winged Wisdom”. [http://for-site.org/presidioHabitats/artist.php?code=2]

Winged Wisdom was conceived by Brody Hartman, director of creative strategy for PhilippeBecker, and designed in collaboration with Philippe Becker, creative director. “The American robin is an enduring icon in our landscape. It is a beloved bird whose behavior demonstrates nature’s ‘wisdom’, which in turn teaches us valuable lessons about how to relate to the land and with each other,” says Hartman. Winged Wisdom is composed of three-dimensional letters that spell out within the landscape three of the robins’ wise behaviors: ‘resolve conflict with song’, ‘adapt to change’, and ‘nest from the inside out’.

Each letter, built of steel armature and mesh netting, is filled with sterile straw, providing ideal nesting material for the robin. “Our hope is to give park visitors an unexpected, yet mindful provocation of nature’s strength and wisdom,” says Hartman.

Other installations include Fritz Haeg’s Snag Tower, Ogrydziak/Prillinger Architects’ Exhibition Pavilion, and Ai Weiwei’s Western Screech Owl Habitats. Overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio Habitats installations will be on view for a full year. More information is available at http://www.for-site.org/presidioHabitats/about.php

Commissioned for the Landscape

Ai Weiwei
Philippe Becker Design
CEBRA
Chadwick Studio
Mark Dion with Nitin Jayaswal
Jensen Architects
Amy Lambert
Nathan Lynch
Ogrydziak/Prillinger Architects
Surface Design, Inc.
Taalman Koch Architecture
Proposals/Models on Exhibit
Jeffrey Berkus Architects
CMG Landscape Architecture
Topher Delaney
Design Ecology
Amy Franceschini with ALITE Designs
Anya Gallaccio
Fritz Haeg
Walter Hood
Michelle Kaufmann
Rigo 23
John Roloff
SIMPARCH with Deborah Stratma
Mark Thompson
Bruce Tomb and David TombAbout PhilippeBecker

About PhilippeBecker

PhilippeBecker is a branding and design agency founded in 1998. Agency clients include Clorox, Del Monte, Disney, Gap, Hewlett-Packard, IDEO, Jamba Juice, JCPenney, Kellogg’s, Microsoft, Safeway, Starbucks, T-Mobile, Walmart, Whole Foods Market, Williams-Sonoma, Inc., and Wrigley. More information is available at www.beckersf.com.

About the FOR-SITE Foundation

The FOR-SITE Foundation, a non-profit organization, is dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. FOR-SITE was created in 2003 to encourage the development of new work for exhibition in public institutions. Presidio/Site/Sculpture, a site-based initiative of the FOR-SITE Foundation launched in 2008 with Andy Goldsworthy’s Spire, provides the public with new ways to see, understand, and appreciate the natural, historic, and cultural resources of San Francisco’s Presidio, a 1,491-acre urban national park. More information is available at http://for-site.org/.

Tags: agency, Ai Weiwei, American, american robin, animal, architects, Architects' Exhibition Pavilion, art, artists, branding, design, designers, Exhibition Pavilion, FOR-SITE, FOR-SITE Foundation, Foundation, Fritz Haeg, Golden Gate Bridge, habitat, Habitats, letters, modern, national, nest, Ogrydziak/Prillinger, Philippe Becker, PhilippeBecker, presidio, proposals, public, red, residents, robin, San Francisco, Screech Owl, Snag Tower, straw, trust, western, Winged Wisdom
Posted in art, parks | 3 Comments »

San Francisco Citizen

Posts Tagged ‘national’

Google Isn’t the Only Company Mapping the Presidio – What is this Subaru Detecting All Over Town?

President Obama Appoints Three to the Presidio Trust Board of Directors

Nat Ford Presides Over San Francisco’s First Taxi Medallion Sale – #354 Goes for Quarter-Mil

The Fox Network’s “National Dance Day” Celebrated at Powell Street Cable Car Turnaround

Come See the “Presidio Habitats” Art Exhibition Plus the New Presidio Park Trail

The Happy Sea Lions that You Can See from Sir Francis Drake Boulevard

The Presidio Landmark Apartments in the Old PHSH Hospital are Mega Turbo Double Awesome

Huge Vietnamese Website Rips Off San Francisco Photographer David Yu, Again

San Francisco Public Library Wins Award and Cash for 2009 Fine Amnesty Program

Modern Art in a National Park: “Presidio Habitats” Runs Until May 15, 2011

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