Posts Tagged ‘newspapers’

The Cute Raccoons of the Legion of Honor Go Viral – a Worldwide Sensation

Monday, November 16th, 2009

San Francisco’s hungry raccoons are delighting the online world the world over, entertaining millions with their poses of masked banditry. And why not – aren’t they cute?

Here’s another view from the camera of shutterbug Stephen Thompson. It was 2:00 AM at the Legion of Honor museum:

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And here’s the full story. Dude jogs around town in the midnight hour carrying his point-and-shoot camera in a sock. Bravo. 

But these photos were taken in 2006. They hung around as 1’s and 0’s until Stephen posted them to Flickr a few months back. Then, they were noticed by the Fantastic Mr. FoxAndrew Fox, Webmaster at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). He made a post to the FAMSF Facebook and then the rest is history.

Are these gorgeous but fiesty raccoons now the cutest animals in San Francisco?

Maybe.

But remember, we’ll always have Parrots.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill that is:

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Click to expand, it gets big. From 2005, above Telegraph Hill. Remember this day? The parrots wore green, you wore blue.

Thanks for posting your photos, Stephen Thompson.

Famous Phil Bronstein, Michael Kinsley, Steve Coll ask “What Comes After Newspapers?”

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Publicity-shy San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Communications editor-at-large Phil BronsteinThe One responsible for our nation’s recent newspaper upheaval, is not one to blow his own horn. You see he’s too polite too mention it, but he will be the star at tomorrow’s “What Comes After Newspapers?” panel at Fort Mason tomorrow night.

This free event is being put on by Zócalo Public Square, the people who just brought you Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark (another purported Killer of Newspapers.)

Get the deets below:

The answer is out there, Phil, and it’s looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.

It appears there are a few seats left. You should get over there and try to ask them about Rupert Murdoch’s great idea.

Zócalo in San Francisco
What Comes After Newspapers?
  

A Zócalo/New America Foundation Event

Moderated by David Folkenflik, media correspondent, National Public Radio

Thursday, May 07, 2009, 7:30 pm

Fort Mason Center
Golden Gate Room at the Conference Center, Building A
San Francisco, CA 94123

From town tabloids to major metropolitan dailies, newspapers seem to be in their last throes. The availability of free and instant news online, the high profit margins demanded by media conglomerates, and the steep declines in advertising revenue have hit newspapers hard. They have been forced to lay off employees, trim their pages, close print operations or–as The Hearst Corp. has threatened to do to the San Francisco Chronicle–shut down completely. Will a new model or medium rise to do what newspapers have aimed to do for over a century–pursue accuracy and objectivity, doggedly investigate stories, act as a check on power, embody a community’s conversation with itself, and write a first draft of history? Or will the demise of newspapers mean a radical shift in what we know and how we know it? Zócalo hosts a panel–including former Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll, Slate founder Michael Kinsley, and former San Francisco Chronicle executive vice president and editor Phil Bronstein–to discuss the decline of print media and the future of journalism.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy institute based in Washington, D.C. For more information, click www.newamerica.net.

San Francisco’s Phil Bronstein Plays the Colbert Report – Tonight, Tonight, Tonight!

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

You all know San Francisco Chronicle / Hearst Communications editor-at-large Phil Bronstein, right? He is The One responsible for our nation’s recent newspaper upheaval, don’t you know.

Well, just now he’s taping a segment for tonight’s airing of the Colbert Report, so watch it tonight at 8:30 PM (or 11:30 PM, one of those, probably) on Channel 63, the Comedy Central comedy channel.

Will Phil rely on Bullet Time to dodge the slings and arrows from Stephen Colbert? We Can Only Hope:

PB as Neo.

Be sure to tune in tonight!

Phil Bronstein Claims “I Am The One” Responsible for Current Newspaper Upheaval

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Apparently, San Francisco Chronicle / Hearst Communications editor-at-large Phil Bronstein am become Death, Destroyer of Worlds. But there’s an upside to our recent newspaper upheaval:

My old officemate, Eve Batey, ex of SFist, is launching the San Francisco Appeal news web site this week with former Chronicle investigative reporter and editor, Chuck Finnie. The SF-based Public Press, describing itself as non-profit, non-commercial, donation-supported news operation, recently advertised on Craigslist for journalists and ended up hiring former Oakland Tribune editor, Michelle Fitzhugh-Craig, a definite pro.

See? It looks like things might shake out all right after all.

Like Neo in the matrix, he is The One.

To Be Continued…

San Francisco’s Pizza Delivery Redlining – It’s Nice and Legal

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Well looky here - a redlined pizza delivery map of Amici’s East Coast Pizzeria. It’s the talk of the town over at Eater SF and kissing cousin Curbed SF. Click on the below to see where they just don’t deliver. Why? Driver safety.

Of course taxi drivers can’t legally refuse to take you to certain areas of San Francisco because of a concern over their personal safety. Non, non, non. ‘Cause that’s a crime called failure to convey, which can land a cabbie in the hoosegow. But isn’t there a law that bans this sort of practice from pizzerias?

Well, yes and no. Check out the law, the part that covers delivery redlining, below. (“You must know ze code,” as Professor Stefan Reisenfeld used to say, back in the day.)

People in the Western Addition, Tenderloin (including it’s Sixth Street Annex, also known as The Flank, in view of the fact that it’s just south of the ’Loin) and the projects on the southern slope of Potrero Hill all might have trouble getting a pie delivered in James Crow San Francisco:

Back in 1996, then Supervisor Willie Kennedy gave us a law (that became national news), but then it got watered down such that a “reasonable good faith belief” that a driver would be in danger in a particular nabe is enough to allow the brazen publication of the map shown above.

And let’s not forget flower and newspaper delivery people - they’re off the hook as well. (Note also that there doesn’t seem to be any designated punishment for violation anyway.) To review, cabbies are on the hook, delivery people not.

NB: Dominoes appears to use a different map, or maybe none at all, as it seems they’ll delivery just about anywhere in our seven square.

The More You Know…   

SEC. 3305.1. HOME DELIVERY SERVICES.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person or business entity to refuse to provide home delivery services to any residential address within the City and County of San Francisco falling within that person’s or business entity’s normal service range. A person or business entity may not set its normal service range to exclude a neighborhood or location based upon the race, color, ancestry, national origin, place of birth, sex, age, religion, creed, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, weight or height, of the residents of that neighborhood or location. Where a person or business entity regularly advertises home delivery services to the entire City and County, that person or business entity’s “normal service range” shall be defined by the geographic boundaries of the City and County.

(b) For purposes of this Section, “home delivery services” shall mean the delivery of merchandise to residential addresses, when such services are regularly advertised or provided by any person or business entity.

(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Section, it shall not be unlawful for a person or business entity to refuse to provide home delivery services to a residential address if (i) the occupants at that address have previously refused to pay in full for services provided to them by that person or business entity; or (ii) such refusal is necessary for the employer to comply with any applicable State or federal occupational safety and health requirements or existing union contract; or (iii) the person or business entity has a reasonable good faith belief that providing delivery services to that address would expose delivery personnel to an unreasonable risk of harm.

(Added by Ord. 217-96, App. 5/30/96; amended by Ord. 295-96, App. 7/17/96; Ord. 222-02, File No. 021462, App. 11/15/2002)