Posts Tagged ‘paddle’
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011
[UPDATE: Bagdad by the Bay just looked into things.]
Well, everything’s going great at your new and improved yet-pretty-much-the-same-except-for-the-food Stow Lake Boathouse in Golden Gate Park.
Here’s what it looks like these days:

Click to expand
Just check the Yelp for early reviews. They’re almost all highly positive.*
But what’s this? Some “brother” from Oakland, “Les. L,” is not happy, not one bit! He’s the only Yelper giving a less than positive review.
I’ll allege that Les is not some youngish dude from Oakland, but rather a wealthy, white, preservationist-minded, NIMBY-mentalitied, real-estate-obsessed, highly-opinionated woman of a certain age who lives in the West Bay.
Let’s check it out her one-star report:
“What happened to the cool local people that worked there?”
Um, this is an improbable start to a Yelp review. Gee, maybe they busy themselves with sock puppetry on Yelp these days, just like you, “Les L?”
“Everyone we saw was white, which is weird for SF. We drove over from the East Bay to rent boats with my 2 kids and my mom.”
Oh what’s that, Les? There’s not enough flava for you over here in the West Bay? That’s funny? Did you know that all the people behind the old boat house and the Save the Boat House Coalition are white, or pretty much? What were you expecting?
“The kids couldn’t reach the pedals in the boat we rented. How’s that? It’s for kids, right?”
The old boats, the ones sold off for $500, maybe they were inappropriate for adults? Maybe the kids can just come along for the ride? A paddleboat is a paddleboat, pretty much.
“After a unhappy boatride, my mom tripped on the crappy stairs in front of the boathouse. She was bleeding, the kids were crying, and no one bothered to help us.”
What were you unhappy about, Les? That Bruce lost his lease? It happens. Or you were unhappy because there were too many Whities about?
“An old man sitting on a bench helped us and said the boathouse was just taken over by a New Mexico chain. We won’t be back.”
More improbability. Oh well.
Oddly, Les L., straight outta Oak-Town, also has a big beef with Chicago Title Co. in lily-white Campbell, CA, the wealthiest(?) part of the South Bay.
And, oddly, “his” dentist, with whom “he” also has a big beef, is clear all the way in the burbs of the West Bay.
On It Goes…
*Perhaps too positive. “Ashley c.” is a another one of those Yelp fraudsters, it would appear.
Tags: 1946, 2011, asphalt, august, Bagdad by the Bay, bay area, bicycles, bikes, blog, boat, boat house, boathouse, Boathouse Dog, boats, booats, Bruce McLellan, cafe, cal tilden, california, chuck, Cloudless Skies, coalition, com, community, department, dept., district, electric, enterprises, facebook, Fair Trade, Family, frank klein, free, golden gate park, historic, hoist, hot dog, hot dogs, inner sunset, interim, Jeff Fones, lake, Let's Be Frank, levy, mclellan familty, meeting, menu, music concourse, Nevius, new mexico, october, org, ortega, ortega family enterprises, paddle, park, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, parkwide, picnic, pink, popcorn, radio, rec, recreation and parks, rent, rental, Reopen, reopening, restaurant, Restoration Time, rfq, row, rowboat, rpd, 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, savestowlake, SaveStowLake.org, sock puppet, sock puppetry, stow, Stow lake, Stow Lake Boathouse and Café, STSLBC, sunset, Sustainable, swan, twitter, yelp, Yelp fraud
Posted in food and drink, parks | 4 Comments »
Friday, October 14th, 2011
Well, lots of things are pretty much the same these days at the Stow Lake Boathouse, which was reopened by the new tenant on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011.
See?

Click to expand
Check the new photo gallery – it’s quite complete.
But, here’s something new. It’s a sign in honor of boathouse founder Mr. Cal Tilden & the McLellan* Family, 1946-2011:

(Quite civil to post this sign, if you ask me.)
Get more deets via Aaron Sankin - here’s Huffington Post San Francisco going long-form on this issue: Stow Lake Boathouse Fight: A Battle For the Soul Of Golden Gate Park. Or there’s this here, if you want to click through the lengthy history over the prior months and years…
Le mise-en-scene:

If anything, the pace of life is even slower than that of the era of the prior tenant. Nobody’s hurried at all. And there’s more room, more benches for “old people” to lollygag about.
And here’s your new Boathouse Dog, which is from a better supplier and which is being sold at a cheaper price:

Yes, pink popcorn from Wright’s:

All the players:

And what’s this, new paint, finally, after all these years? These guys started working on Wednesday:

So there you have it.
*Yes, that’s a rapping raven, a confabulating corvid at the end of the first video, calling for a boycott of the boathouse.
Tags: 1946, 2011, asphalt, august, bay area, bicycles, bikes, blog, boat, boat house, boathouse, Boathouse Dog, boats, booats, Bruce McLellan, cafe, cal tilden, california, chuck, Cloudless Skies, coalition, com, community, department, dept., district, electric, enterprises, facebook, Fair Trade, Family, frank klein, free, golden gate park, historic, hoist, hot dog, hot dogs, inner sunset, interim, Jeff Fones, lake, Let's Be Frank, levy, mclellan familty, meeting, menu, music concourse, Nevius, new mexico, october, org, ortega, ortega family enterprises, paddle, park, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, parkwide, picnic, pink, popcorn, radio, rec, recreation and parks, rent, rental, Reopen, reopening, restaurant, Restoration Time, rfq, row, rowboat, rpd, 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, savestowlake, SaveStowLake.org, stow, Stow lake, Stow Lake Boathouse and Café, STSLBC, sunset, Sustainable, swan, twitter
Posted in parks | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
At long last, it’s here. It’s the interim menu for our Stow Lake Boathouse & Cafe.
Is this menu too foo-foo yuppie for you? Is $3.25* too much for a “Let’s Be Frank“ grass-fed beef** hot dog?
As always, You Make The Call:

Click to expand
*Well, I’ll tell you, that’s cheaper than what the former tenant was charging. Here’s some more from the clinically-absurd SaveStowLake.org crowd:
“Seniors will no longer be able to gather freely at the boathouse. Prices will be more than doubled on all food items. Middle class and low-income families will be driven out of this spot that is designed to be for all…not just the wealthy.”
I’ll tell you, everything that the Save Stow Lake people have predicted has turned out to be shrill, alarmist bullcrap. JMO.
** “These snappy dogs are loaded with flavor, not junk! Using premium cuts from cattle raised on pasture in California (naturally high in healthy Omega 3 fatty acids!) and organic spices, we’ve crafted a delicious dog that’s lower in fat, calories and sodium than conventional franks. No nitrites, nitrates, hormones, or antibiotics, ever.”
Tags: 2010, 2011, 6, asphalt, august, bay area, bicycles, bikes, blog, boat, boat house, boathouse, boats, booats, Bruce McLellan, cafe, california, chuck, Cloudless Skies, coalition, com, community, department, dept., district, electric, enterprises, facebook, Fair Trade, Family, frank klein, free, golden gate park, historic, hoist, hot dog, hot dogs, inner sunset, interim, Jeff Fones, lake, Let's Be Frank, levy, meeting, menu, music concourse, Nevius, new mexico, october, org, ortega, ortega family enterprises, paddle, park, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, parkwide, picnic, pink, popcorn, radio, rec, recreation and parks, rent, rental, Reopen, reopening, restaurant, Restoration Time, rfq, row, rowboat, rpd, 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, savestowlake, SaveStowLake.org, stow, Stow lake, Stow Lake Boathouse and Café, STSLBC, sunset, Sustainable, swan, twitter
Posted in food and drink | 4 Comments »
Monday, October 10th, 2011
[UPDATE: Rachel Gordon has the deets of Opening Day right here.]
I don’t know, if I had an expired lease with the City and County of San Francisco and they asked me to leave by a certain date, I think I’d leave by that date. But the former tenant at the Stow Lake Boathouse doesn’t roll that way, so he kept on running the place, overstaying his lease, defending an eviction action through the drier $pring and $ummery tourism months. The result is that the new tenant is taking over in Autumn, in the rain. O.K., did that help San Francisco? No.
Also, the old tenant charged $25 per hour for paddleboats and $20 for rowboats until he got caught, even though the contracted rate was for $20 and $15 per hour. O.K., did that help San Francisco? No.
Oh, and the workers for the former tenants left little surprises for the new tenants haha. O.K., did that help San Francisco? No.
Oh, and the trial pitting the former tenant against all of us is skedded for March 2012.
Moving on…
Your new Stow Lake Boathouse & Cafe will open on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011, rain or shine, boats and food. It’s official ‘n stuff.
Meet your new fleet:
1. Electric boat – lead-acid type batteries, like from Your Father’s Oldsmobile;
2. Paddleboat – Captain and First Officer/Stoker facing forward with two passengers facing rearward;
3. Rowboat

Click to expand
And actually, the forecast is for Cloudless Skies on Wednesday, so you’ll be richly rewarded if you skip out of work to see the soft opening.
See you there!
Tags: 2010, 2011, 6, asphalt, august, bay area, bicycles, bikes, blog, boat, boat house, boathouse, boats, booats, Bruce McLellan, cafe, california, chuck, Cloudless Skies, coalition, com, community, department, dept., district, electric, enterprises, facebook, Family, frank klein, free, golden gate park, historic, hoist, inner sunset, Jeff Fones, lake, levy, meeting, music concourse, Nevius, new mexico, october, org, ortega, ortega family enterprises, paddle, park, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, parkwide, picnic, pink, popcorn, radio, rec, recreation and parks, rent, rental, Reopen, reopening, restaurant, rfq, row, rowboat, rpd, 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, savestowlake, stow, Stow lake, Stow Lake Boathouse and Café, STSLBC, sunset, swan, twitter
Posted in parks | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
Well, it seems that rain has delayed the planned quick fixes to our historic Stow Lake Boathouse, so don’t expect it to open by the promised October 6th deadline. The place is a ghost town right now.
Oh, and there were a few unanticipated electrical issues in the kitchen too.
Oh, and a little while back there was a hole in the Stow Lake levy that cropped up right near the boathouse during the long-planned repaving job for, among other places, the Stow Lake area and a good section of JFK.
Oh, and the swan boats, well, you’re going to have start a petition to get those any time soon. But they’ll have plenty of regular, non-avian-themed paddle boats.
In any event, work proceeds. Get all the deets on the new and official website.

Click to expand
And if you want to rent a bike in Golden Gate Park, you’ll need to go to the new vendor:
ParkWide Activities LLC
You’ll find them operating behind the bandshell in the Music Concourse betwixt our de Young Museum and California Academy of Sciences.
Their Grand Opening will be next week but they’re open for business now, even during these rainy days.
Bon courage, SLBH and ParkWide.
Tags: 2010, 2011, 6, asphalt, august, bay area, bicycles, bikes, blog, boat, boat house, boathouse, boats, booats, Bruce McLellan, cafe, california, chuck, Cloudless Skies, coalition, com, community, department, dept., district, enterprises, facebook, Family, frank klein, free, golden gate park, historic, hoist, inner sunset, Jeff Fones, lake, levy, meeting, music concourse, Nevius, new mexico, october, org, ortega, ortega family enterprises, paddle, park, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, parkwide, picnic, pink, popcorn, radio, rec, recreation and parks, rent, rental, Reopen, reopening, restaurant, rfq, row, rowboat, rpd, 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, savestowlake, stow, Stow lake, Stow Lake Boathouse and Café, STSLBC, sunset, swan, twitter
Posted in parks | No Comments »
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
They went and built a kayak shelter and everything at Mission Bay, so the least you can do is get on down there and try it out.
Maybe you can catch a home run ball or something.

Tags: at&t park, baseball, bridge, kayak, mission creek, outdoors, paddle, San Francisco, sports, stadium, ucsf
Posted in sports | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
It’s just been three days since Amy Keyishian and Randy Hauser got married but they already have happy memories of a bliss-filled trip on a paddleboat around Stow Lake in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.
And what accompaniment they had in the back seat – the silken voices and twinkling ukuleles of The Paper Dolls! (Which Morrissey / Smiths songs did they play?)

via artolog’s Photostream
Congratulations go out to Randy and Amy!
Tags: Amy Keyishian, boat, california, golden gate park, lake, paddle, paddleboat, paper dolls, Randy Hauser, San Francisco, stow, ukelele
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »