The San Francisco Citizen

Here’s what they want you to believe: the route of the Bay to Breakers footrace is all downhill after topping the Hayes Street Hill. From the website:

ING Bay to Breakers is a 12K (7.46 miles) course. From sea level at the Embarcadero the course rises steeply along Hayes Street Hill. Around the 2.5-mile mark runners climb an 11.15% grade between Fillmore and Steiner, bringing them to the highest point in the race, approximately 215 feet above sea level. The remainder of the course gradually flows downhill alongside the Panhandle and through Golden Gate Park.

But that’s simply not true. Take a look at this elevation profile. See? After dipping down a bit the course continues to rise and reaches its highest point in Golden Gate Park. So there’s a reason why it feels you’re going uphill after conquering the Hayes Street Hill - you are going uphill.

Thousands of runners are in Golden Gate Park today preparing for tomorrow’s race. Going to the west uphill in the Panhandle:

Why does the mainstream media repeat a falsehood year after year? Laziness, mostly.

But check for yourself, if you want. Mike did last year and came to this conclusion:

According to the Garmin GPS I was using, the highest point is indeed in GG Park, not the top of Hayes Street Hill.

So plan your racing strategy accordingly.

Have fun tomorrow!

To find out, let’s hear from Jordan Kobert, former Strategic Operations Manager of the San Francisco Chronicle. After getting numerous phone calls to get him to sign up for six months of home delivery, he talked with a salesperson and then rejected the idea:

“Less than a dime a day and I said no.

Did I mention I used to work at the Chronicle…”

That’s got to hurt. Apparently, the folks selling subscriptions are wheeling and dealing, so you can get it for less than a dollar a week. They might even let you name your own price and they might even throw you a $10 Target gift card.

It’s quite obvious the Chronicle, like the free San Francisco Examiner, gets a great deal of value from your eyeballs reading their ads reliably on a daily or almost daily basis. Maybe this is a good deal  for you?

Which job is lonelier - shilling for the New York Times or the San Francisco Chronicle? Tough call.  

The Marin Independent Journal is trying to do the best it can in this Internet Age. That means putting content online and maybe allowing for a reader poll on some topic of the day.

Last week, IJ editor/writer Brad Breithaupt wrote a piece about the sprawling 3rd Senate District involving “incumbent Senator Carole Migden and her two challengers, Assemblyman Mark Leno and former [A]ssemblyman Joe Nation.”

Readers were allowed to cast their vote for whomever they favored until someone at the IJ cancelled it. Why? Check it:

“Due to suspected ballot-box stuffing, results of the poll will not appear. You dirty rascals!”

Thusly:

Appears is if more than one person repeatedly voted for a particular candidate and, so much so, the results got all screwy. Apparently, “cookies” were involved.

Now, who would do such a thing? (If only Marin County had its own Matier and Ross to get to the bottom of this!)

Can’t we all get along?