Posts Tagged ‘Noe Valley’
Thursday, November 1st, 2012
Remember this guy from a little while back, this Stephen Fowler asshole?
Here’s the notorious video. (Man that planning commish hearing about a certain place in Noe Valley just went on and on, huh? And hey, I wonder who ratted out that long-time Asian American dude* who lost his rental in NV owing to the lack of an Occupancy Permit? Mmmm… Anyway, Mr. Fowler is still reviled in Noe Valley.)
And before that, there was this one. Whew, good times.
And now there’s this, a new allegation that Stephen Fowler had something to do with these Marin County trees getting hacked (to death?) up in Mill Valley.
Click to expand
As always, We Report, You Decide.
I mean, maybe this tale is completely made up, you know, the way people would make up stories about Mussolini having a devil’s tail, you know, sometimes people decide to not like you and then they’ll just start making stuff up.
Here they are, the allegations:
“Just wanted to pass along another example of Wife-Swapping Stephen Fowler’s example of hypocrisy. He purchased a home this spring in Mill Valley, 317 Hillside for $800,000, tore it down and is now building a 3.5 million $$ spec house to flip. When the bank foreclosed on his neighbor at 300 Hillside across the street this spring, Stephen approached the owner, a general contractor at the time, a few days before the bank took the house away and paid the home owner to have a few of his employees illegally climb 10 Heritage Redwood trees, cut 20-30 feet off the tops of them thus freeing up the view of San Francisco for Stephens new house project. For a self proclaimed tree hugger, he has balls. See the photo’s of just a few of the trees…”
Now, didn’t S. Fowler go on the TV to promote environmental awareness? I think so.
And didn’t he have all these kinds of shirts on – who made them, one wonders. Who forced poor Mr. Fowler into doing things he didn’t want to and saying things he didn’t want to say?
Anyway, somebody up Marin way might want to look into these tree allegations.
But remember, S Fowler makes more in one week than you do in one year!
*Robert Hanamura – whatever happened to that guy?
Tags: 2011, 300, 317, 317 Hillside, 501c3, ABC, antics, Barcelona, bay area, Berkeley International Capital, Bioenergy, c. w., california, Cambridge, CEO, Chairman, charity, chronicle, Chubb Parsi, county, cut, cut down, drive, earth, email, environmental, forest ethis, forestethics, Fowler, green, hillside, house, husband, illegal, Larkspur, Lecturer, logo, London Business School., marin, Mill Valley, Nevius, Noe Valley, nonprofit, pacific environment, professor, real estate, redwood, Renee Stephens, Robert Hanamura, San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle, secretary, senior, Senior Vice President, sfgate, sfowler, sfowler@terranovabio.com, spain, Stefan Fowler, stephen, Stephen Fowler, stephenfowler, stephenfowler@yahoo.com, Steven Fowler, street, Sustainable, svp, teacher, Terranova, Terranova Bioenergy, tops, Treasurer, tree, university, university of san francisco, USF, vice president, view, wife, wife swap
Posted in environment | 1 Comment »
Sunday, June 10th, 2012
Oh well:
Via Jim Greer of online gaming site Kongregate - click to expand
Google Bus/
Google Bus/
It’s not your fault
Wouldn’t the Google Bus have been better off on 24th? I think so.
And hey, didn’t former Supervisor Bevan Dufty meet with area NIMBY’s to iron things out a half-decade ago?
I think so. Actually, I know so. It looked like this:
But the wealthy, white, wizened NIMBYs of Noe still weren’t satisfied.
Oh well.
I hope you’re happy, NIMBIES! Look what you made Google do.
(Or maybe the driver just got lost. You’d think he’d have a map with no-go areas marked out.)
(Do Googlers Google on Sundays? Not that I know of, but they go on fun field trips from time to time, wine tastings and the like, I hear.)
I’ll tell you, Google prolly hasn’t been this embarrassed since that federal cop busted the Maps Car in the Presidio.
Here’s the chase, recorded by Google itself:
And here’s the bust, apparently for not getting a permit from the Presidio Trust after the Presidio Trust told Google it would need a permit:
All right, let’s be careful out there, Google!
Tags: 23, 23rd, accident, bevan dufty, black, bottom, car, chatanooga, chattanooga, degrees, driver, end, gongregate, google, google bus, grade, hill, hilly, intersection, jim greer, jimgreer, Kongregate, maps, maps car, mountain, nimbies, nimby, nimbys, noe, Noe Valley, permit, presidio, Presidio Trust, prius, rear, red, SFPD, slope, st., steep, street, stuck, Supervisor, toed, too, tow, toyota, truck, trucks, vantool, white
Posted in transit | No Comments »
Monday, November 21st, 2011
See? It goes Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet, just like a rainbow:
Via PugnoM – click to expand
Tags: 2007, 2011, bay area, Blue, california, castro, clipper, colored, colors, diamond, district, Douglass, Gay, GLBT, green, house, Indigo, LGBT, multi, noe, Noe Valley, Noe Valley Rainbow House, orange, paint, painted, photo, pride, pugnom, rainbow, red, San Francisco, violet, yellow
Posted in buildings | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
The biggest loser of the great 2009 Professor* Stephen Fowler Wife Swap Debacle has got to be one Richard Hanamura, ex Noe Valley. Why?
Well, ’cause bad reality TV played a role in aging Robert Hanamura losing his upstairs place at 479 Douglass ($850k? Sounds cheap.) in NIMBY Valley.
Let me tell you here, let’s say you’re a landlord in the 415 and you have some Hanamuras living upstairs that you want get rid of. Let’s say they’ve been there for donkey’s years, using an illegally-installed kitchen. Here’s how it go back in the day:
1942:
Landlord: Hello, City? There’s an octogenarian in my place using an illegal kitchen.
City: So what. Get bent.
Landlord: Japanese blood courses through his veins. His name is HA-NA-MU-RA.
City: We’re rolling the trucks right now! He’ll be imprisoned up in the high desert at Manzanar by tomorrow’s sunset.
Compare:
2010:
“Anonymous disinterested party”: Hello, City? There’s an octogenarian living at 479 Douglass – his name is Hanamura. Japanese blood courses through his veins.
City: So what. Get bent. Who are you anyway, the landlord or someone working on his behalf?
ADP: No comment. I’m “anonymous.”
City: So what. Get bent, Anonymous.
ADP: He’s using an illegal kitchen. Or, at least that’s what I’ve been told…
City: We’re rolling the trucks right now! Well, maybe not, there’s some due process thing these days. But hey, why don’t you just throw him a few bucks and get him to leave voluntarily. Tell him that kitchen’s got to come out right now, and him too, sooner rather than later.
ADP: Bully!
That’s your history lesson of the day.
Hey, why not head over to the SFGOV TV and start watching at 8:30, that’s 8 hours and 30 minutes into the recent Planning Commission joint. It’s a doozy. Who will win, the NIMBYs or arrogant Stephen Fowler and his flaky “I’m a healer and I release deep emotional wounds” wife or area NIMBYs?
Hey, who was the person who anonymously informed on illegal in-law resident Robert Hanamura?
Well, who have a reason to? He’d been peacefully living there for four decades, right?
Something to think about, huh?
Remember, S Fowler makes more in one week than you do in one year!
Stephen Fowler’s 80 foot long “monster house,” as proposed:
I’m a Greenie! Supersize Me!
*Not really! Haha
Now people, no more of this:
“He is clearly an insecure man. Insecure about the very things for which he criticizes the “swap” wife. First, an advanced degree from the London School is hardly impressive in the venture capital world. Most VC’s have received their MBA’s from Harvard or Stanford and if you were able to gain admittance to either of those schools, you would never attend the London School. Second, he claims to have scored a 99.99% on the GRE. (BTW, not the standardized test for an MBA) The GRE only scores in even percentiles. For example, he would have not received a score that said 99.99 percentile (as he states in the video), but rather it would have said 99th percentile. Samll point, but character revealing. He calls himself a venture capitalist, but he is only a “venture partner.” Anyone in the venture world knows there is a big distinction. In San Francisco, he is a small fish who lacks impressive education and business credentials and from a career perspective, he has achieved relatively little. His wife has a bunch of “certificates,” an odd occupation, and is uncouth enough to apply for and agree to a role on a reality TV show. In San Francisco, they were most likely socially inferior even BEFORE their appearance on “Wife Swap.” I’m not a psychologist, but Stephen appears to be taking out his feelings of inadequacy on this woman. Kudos to her for keeping her dignity through it all.
Tags: 2011, 470 douglass, 501c3, ABC, antics, Barcelona, bay area, Berkeley International Capital, Bioenergy, c. w., california, Cambridge, CEO, Chairman, charity, chronicle, Chubb Parsi, county, earth, email, environmental, forest ethis, forestethics, Fowler, green, hanamura, husband, Japanese, Larkspur, Lecturer, logo, London Business School., marin, Nevius, Noe Valley, nonprofit, pacific environment, professor, Renee Stephens, richard, robert, San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle, secretary, senior, Senior Vice President, sfgate, sfowler, sfowler@terranovabio.com, spain, Stefan Fowler, stephen, Stephen Fowler, stephenfowler, stephenfowler@yahoo.com, Steven Fowler, Sustainable, svp, teacher, Terranova, Terranova Bioenergy, Treasurer, tree, university, university of san francisco, USF, vice president, wife, wife swap
Posted in paranormal, real estate | 2 Comments »
Monday, January 24th, 2011
[UPDATE: Whoops, StephenFowlerSucks.com is still an active site, so maybe not everyone has moved on. Oh, wait a second, it's blog.StephenFowlerSucks.com so maybe it's a free website and the author actually has moved on. Can't tell.]
As I remember it, former food addict and “certified hypnotherapist / life coach” Renee Stephens took the brunt of criticism over this entire affair, but I could be wrong about that.
Anyway, it’s been a few years, so let’s let writer CW Nevius sanitize history and present the best case for the defense of notorious Noe Valley’s Stephen Fowler.
That’s right, it’s another episode of hit “reality” series CW Neviusese’s Reputation Defense!
See below.
I don’t know, is Stephen Fowler a real person or was he acting as a performance artist complete with ridiculous “tree-awareness” T-shirt and perfunctory website?
‘Wife Swap’ antics tough to live down
(Of course, Antics = “amusing behavior.”)
Leave us begin:
“Forty minutes on television, a lifetime of consequences,” Fowler said.
Uh, you were kind of a tool living in Noe Valley before the show, you were kind of a tool living in Noe Valley during the show, and now you’re kind of a tool living in Noe Valley after the show. So what “consequences” have there been, really? What’s changed?
For a several days after the show, security guards were posted in the neighborhood.
Rich people can afford to do a lot of unnecessary things, of course. Why use the passive voice when it’s sort of obvious that dude hired the guards?
“Everyone gets 15 minutes of fame,” Fowler said, “but mine’s gone on a little bit longer.”
Everybody gets on national TV and seen by millions of people? Really?
Fowler was fired from his job as chief financial officer when the solar company he worked for was the target of threats.
Uh, maybe the same would have occurred without the threats? So why mention any “threats?” Did the company sign-off on having its CFO appear on the television? Who knows? Has any CFO actually gotten fired over some incoming phone calls or emails? Mmmmm…
“I’m not going to bad mouth the neighbors, although I realize it is better copy if I do,” he said with a smile.
Why on Earth would dude care about what’s good “copy” or not? Why would he antagonize the crowd against him? Would that be rational behavior?
Muzzled for a year under his contract with the show, he’s now ready to answer that question everyone wants to ask – why would an intelligent, pleasant fellow with a refined English accent say such horrible things?
Uh, “muzzled?” He could have said whatever he wanted to whenever he wanted to, obviously. Why did he sign the deal then if he didn’t want to be on the television? And “everyone” wants to ask dude a question. Really? Like IRL? And “intelligent,” “pleasant,” “refined?” What kind of “journalist” would ask a question in such a kiss-ass fashion?
“Clearly it was the most stupid mistake of my life,” he said.
Uh, to the extent that people know about you, it’s the only thing people know about you. How is it then that you can say “clearly” anything?
“I was going to be Simon Cowell on steroids. The producers made it quite clear they needed confrontation.
What kind of gun did they have pointed at your head when they forced you to become (in your dreams, dude) Simon Cowell, dude? Why did you care what they “needed?” Oh, cause you wanted to be on the television? How banal.
But it can’t ruin his life. C’mon people, it is time to move on.
Nobody in town gives a flying foxtrot about this character except for you, Nevius. Everybody else has already moved on.
Recently, Fowler began teaching a class at the University of San Francisco.
Well, lah di dah!
He struggled with the idea of how to introduce himself.
Awwwww. Poor baby.
He knew that at least half the class would know about “Wife Swap,”
Objection, assumes facts not in evidence. What color is the sky in your world, dude? Does the entire universe revolve around you? Do all teenagers watch ABC? Not to my knowledge. How about, “I felt that some students in my crappy class at USF might know about my Wife Swap appearance,” you know, instead?
so he didn’t feel like he could ignore it. Finally, he decided to just come out with it.
Dude, just ignore it. You’re a tool and your toolish NIMBY neighbors [of course, most of you Noe Valley people are great, I'm seriously] can’t mind their own bidness. Sounds like Noe Valley humming along as per usual.
“The whole class just gasped,”
I’m thinking, no, the whole class, every last person being forced, more or less, to listen, didn’t gasp.
“But this one girl just laughed her head off. She thought it was so funny.”
HAHAHAHHAHAHA! I be laughing my noggin off too! Oh wait, I don’t get it.
Fowler is hoping that someday he’ll be able to laugh about it too.
Cue violins. No, no, this would be better. Maudlin endings are the best right?
Oh, wait a second, does Fowler have a Porsche?* Sadly, this important information has been left out.
Oh well.
*Actually, he seems more an Audi or BMW guy, complete with mad garage spaces, frustrated in his attempts to try to live a suburban lifestyle in the big city. Oh well.
Tags: 2011, 501c3, ABC, antics, Barcelona, bay area, Berkeley International Capital, Bioenergy, c. w., california, Cambridge, CEO, Chairman, charity, chronicle, Chubb Parsi, county, earth, email, environmental, forest ethis, forestethics, Fowler, green, husband, Larkspur, Lecturer, logo, London Business School., marin, Nevius, Noe Valley, nonprofit, pacific environment, professor, Renee Stephens, San Francisco, San Francisco Chronicle, secretary, senior, Senior Vice President, sfgate, sfowler, sfowler@terranovabio.com, spain, Stefan Fowler, stephen, Stephen Fowler, stephenfowler, stephenfowler@yahoo.com, Steven Fowler, Sustainable, svp, teacher, Terranova, Terranova Bioenergy, Treasurer, tree, university, university of san francisco, USF, vice president, wife, wife swap
Posted in law, media | 4 Comments »
Monday, January 4th, 2010
Or at least that’s the way it seems from Twin Peaks.
Zoom zoom.
Click to expand
Tags: 21, 21st, castro, hill, hilly, noe, Noe Valley, roller coaster, rollercoaster, sanchez, street, twin peaks, view
Posted in streets | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
[UPDATE: Whoops, apparently the Chronicle has two Andrew Rosses covering similar beats? Oh noes! Well, all the better. Speaking of mistakes, what are the odds that I'll see a lit up snowflake on Market Street tonight? About 100%, based on the past two weeks' observation. Oh well. Good thing those snowflakes don't use petroleum-based electricity, huh?]
You see, normally the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Andrew S. Ross is lumped together with PhilMatier, thusly:
But sometimes they let him run wild and unchained, all by his lonesome, thusly:
As here, where Andrew Ross gives his take on the order of battle of this morning’s Whole Foods Showdown: Six Flags Over Noe Valley, Don’t Mess With Texas. See what Andrew did there? He fleshed things out, he gave more detail, he added to the story.
Que bueno!
(Now, you give those limited column inches to somebody like C.W. Nevius to check in with 24th Street and what would you get? Well, maybe vitriol and emotion, and maybe that would be it. Oh well.)
Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with M&R together (a quarter mil. we have to pay for horrible, soon-to-be-cancelled Trauma, where the average worker, we’re talking median and mode here, makes rock-bottom minimum wage?), but they should let Andrew out of the bizness ghetto and allow him to run wild over any and all subjects of the day
And that’s the The Bottom Line.
[UPDATE: Whole Foods has started to construct a defensive wall made of pumpkins, but how strong could it be? We'll find out soon enough.]
[UPDATE 2, Electric Boogaloo: War Reporter Andy Wright has extensive coverage from the field of battle]
Tags: 24th, 24th street, 30, 30th, 3950 24th, Andrew Ross, andrew s ross, association, bags, bell, bevan, blog, boycott, Bread Baking Ceremony, CEO, chronicle, Church Street, Community Benefit District, dufty, editorial, facebook, Friends, girlcott, goodie, goody, grand, grocery, health care, healthcare, inc, Jennifer Dobrowolski, John, John Mackey, Mackey, market, matier, Mayor, Merchants, neighborhood, neighbors, nimbies, nimby, nimbys, noe, Noe Valley, NVMPA, opening, payola, Professionals, protesters, Reform, ross, San Francisco, september, single payer, street, supermarket, upper, upscale, wall street journal, wez, whole foods
Posted in protests | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
Oh, it’s going to be on tomorrow morning at the Grand Opening of the new Whole Foods at 3950 24th Street in The Valley. San Francisco’s fifth WF will start the sacred Bread Baking Ceremony at the same time protesters arrive to raise a ruckus about health care reform and CEO John Mackey, mkay?
Everyone is welcome to the store and the protest – highly unlike the invite-only events Whole Foods has recently held for the fearsome neighborhood groups. It’s called outreach or something. Whole Foods just ought to put these neighborhood associations on the payroll the way Sutro Tower, Inc. pays money to neighborhood groups around Mount Sutro to shut them up. A little payola (or granola in a huge goodie bag) can go a long way when you’re trying to placate the NIMBYs, of course.
Anywho, be there at 9:45 AM tomorrow to see San Francisco’s upscale version of Harlan County, USA.
And just think, after the boycott, “You’ll feel proud to come in and get food to serve to your family, friends, and neighbors.” Remember how embarrassed you were serving up that slop from the old Bell Market? Those days are over, soon as the boycott ends.
And if you’re not boycotting, sign up for the store tour on Tuesday, October 6th:
Tuesday Tours: A Taste of Whole Foods Market
10-11am Please sign up in advance, but the tour is FREE and limited in size. | Details
Both seasoned shoppers and new customers can benefit from a guided store tour, especially with so many unique choices available! In this tour, we’ll showcase what we mean when we say we offer all-natural, real food, at the best possible price. This is your chance to ask, listen and learn everything you want to know about our market. Please sign up in advance, but the tour is FREE and limited in size.
And here’s the bacchanalia you were excluded from:
“We are eagerly awaiting our opening next week on Wednesday, September 30th ! We have been working hard and are so delighted that we’re almost there! Further, we feel incredibly grateful for the support, well wishes, humor, smiles and hospitality that our new community has shown us! As a very small token of our thanks, we’d like to invite you to join us at our very own “Whole Foods Market Tapas Truck” on Saturday, September 26th from 11a-2p (really it’s a Taco Truck, but we’ll be serving Spanish Tapas—but you can’t miss it in our parking lot.)
Marketing Team Leader
Whole Foods Market, Noe Valley”
This is a special invitation ONLY event for our neighbors in the associations that we have been working with.
Have a look at the attached & either print a copy of this to bring with you or contact me so that I can get you printed copies that I have here at the store.
Any question, please ask—we’ll see you very soon!
Best regards,
Jennifer Dobrowolski”
Choose your side and get on out there!
Dead and wounded on either side/
You know it’s only a matter of time
Tags: 24th street, 30, 30th, 3950 24th, association, bags, bell, blog, boycott, Bread Baking Ceremony, CEO, Church Street, Community Benefit District, editorial, facebook, Friends, girlcott, goodie, goody, grand, grocery, health care, healthcare, inc, Jennifer Dobrowolski, John, John Mackey, Mackey, market, Merchants, neighborhood, neighbors, nimbies, nimby, nimbys, noe, Noe Valley, NVMPA, opening, payola, Professionals, protesters, Reform, San Francisco, september, single payer, STI, street, supermarket, sutro tower, upper, upscale, wall street journal, whole foods
Posted in protests | 5 Comments »
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
You know what makes you better than all those melon farmers out there? It’s the fact that you hang your hat every night in the City and County of San Francisco. That makes you special. To celebrate you, the California Academy of Sciences is offering free admission for you (and your neighbors). Just match up your zip code with the handy chart below, gather up the necessary proof of where you reside, and head on over to Golden Gate Park.
And the nice thing about this free admission program is that it probably won’t be as crowded as it sometimes gets on the third Wednesday of the month, when everyone gets in sans tariff.
Celebrated Missionites getting a little camera time in front of the green screen before entering the Cal Academy yesterday. Bide your time, your free day is coming:
Read the fine print. Click to expand:
Thanks, Bank of America.
Tags: 2009, 94102, 94104, 94105, 94107, 94108, 94109, 94111, 94112, 94114, 94115, 94116, 94117, 94118, 94121, 94122, 94123, 94124, 94127, 94129, 94130, 94131, 94132, 94133, 94134, 94158, academy, academy of science, academy of sciences, address, bank of america, Bayview, Bernal Heights 94110, calfiornia academy of science, california, California Academy of Sciences, castro, chinatown, code, cole valley, cow hollow, Diamond Heights, downtown, dr., excelsior, farrington, Francis Wood, free, golden gate park, greg, haight, Hunter’s Point, id, Ingleside, Lakeshore, Laurel Heights, letter, marina, Miraloma Park, mission, Mission Bay 94103, museum, music concourse, neighborhood, neighborhood free days, Noe Valley, north beach, pacific heights, parkside, phd, piano, potrero, presidio, proof, renzo, richmond, russian hill, San Francisco, science, sciences, seacliff, SF, soma, spring, st., stonestown, sunset, telegraph hill, tenderloin, treasure island, Visitacion Valley, wachovia wednesdays, western addition, zip
Posted in museums | Comments Off
