Posts Tagged ‘post’
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
This was the scene at Geary and Steiner in the Western Addition / Japantown area today as hundreds gathered to see the debut of the new Hamilton Recreation Center and Pool. This place has it all – basketball, tennis courts, giant murals, the works.
Click to expand
After hearing a performance from students at the Willie L. Brown, Jr. College Preparatory Academy…
…and some brief heckling from Giants Cap, who wants laid-off RPD employees rehired…
…out comes Ross Mirkarimi, your District 5 Supervisor, to give his stemwinder, as seen on this CNN iReport (entitled “‘Bay Area Girls’” Teanage Girls perform [Pat Benatar's 'I love Rock and Roll'] at the Inaugural of the Hamilton Recreation Center”) and then cut the ribbon:
The mise-en-scene inside - it’s like a mini water park. Throw in an orca or two and then there’d be no reason to travel to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (aka Marine World) in Vallejo:
But who’s that atop the ladder for the yellow slide wearing his street clothes? It’s Ross!
Here he comes down the slide…
…and here’s the aftermath, looked like fun. Bill Wilson should have some good shots of the wettened supe. [Like this.]
OTOH, the orange slide is terrifying, apparently:
(I think you’re supposed to cross your arms like you’re an ejecting pilot – that’s what some people were doing in the orange tube/slide contraption.)
Not sure how much it costs to employ six(!) lifeguards (that would seem a lot more than required at slide-free Sava Pool in the Parkside) but oh well.
Bon courage, Ham Rec!
Tags: (415), 1900, 2010, 5, 6, 6th, b ball, band, basketball, bay area girls, blvd., board of supervisors, boulevard, center, City Hall, courts, cut, debut, department, dept., district, district 5, expressway, fillmore, five, geary, gym water, ham rec, hamilton, hamilton rec, i love rock and roll, japantown, kick off, kickoff, life guards, lifeguards, march, Mirkarimi, mural, opening, orange, park and recreation, parks and recreation, pat benatar, playground, pool, post, recreation, recreation and park, Recreation and Park Department, ribbon, ribbon cutting, ross, ross mirkarimi, rpd, San Francisco, scott, SF, slides, splash, steiner, street, Supervisor, swim, swimming, swimsuit, tennis, waterslides, western addition, wet, yellow
Posted in parks | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
As seen at Post and Steiner on the side of Hamilton Pool and Recreation Center in the Western Addition.
It’s the brand new Blues Evolution Mural (or the left side of it, anyway) from the Blues and R&B Music Foundation.
Click to expand:
And here’s the legend of the legends:
Now you better know the giant murals of San Francisco.
Tags: african roots, albert king, b b king, billie holiday, Blues, Blues Evolution, Blues Evolution Mural, blues trio, cab calloway, center, courts, dinah washington, evolution, fats waller, Foundation, geary, gospel roots, hamilton, Hamilton Pool and Recreation Center, jimmy mccracklin, jimmy reid, kid directing the blues, lead belly, leadbelly, lit walter, louie jordan, love evolution, memphis mini, muddy waters, mural, music, painting, playground, pool, post, R&B Music Foundation, recreation, San Francisco, scott, shack, slave labor, steiner, street, tennis, the shack, western addition
Posted in art, music | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
Well it’s late January in San Francisco so it’s time for our sidewalk plum trees to begin blossoming. Yeah, they look a lot like cherry trees and that causes people around town to start talking about how global warming / climate change is making the cherry trees of April wake up three months early or something.
You can double-check with the Friends of the Urban Forest if you want, but I’ll tell you, those flashes of pink you see brightening up the otherwise-dreary Streets of San Francsico these days are early-rising Prunus blireiana, aka Flowering Plum trees, or something similar.
Be patient and you’ll be rewarded with real cherry trees in March – check out the sked at the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park.
If this January blossom is cherry, I’ll eat my hat:
This will be the scene in the Financh in a couple of months – our wild parrots love all kinds of prunus blossoms of course.
Take heart, Spring is just around the corner…
Tags: 2010, april, balmy, bloom, blossom, cherry, climate change, day, February, Festival, global warming, golden gate park, ground, groundhog, hanami, hog, january, Japanese, japantown, march, plum, post, sakura, San Francisco, spring, street, tree, warm
Posted in flora | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 20th, 2010
The formerly-abysmal tennis courts at Hamilton Recreation Center at on Geary Boulevard in the 94115 now look a million percent better thanks to a recently-completed resurfacing project. Now I thought the City was paying for all this but, in fact, “court angels” paid for it. Per Tom Carter of Inside Tennis:
“In the middle of the city’s red ink bath — when Rec and Park and virtually all departments were absorbing staggering cuts — up pops San Francisco’s court angel again. This time, the anonymous family that donates resurfacing citywide said through a spokesman that the Larsen Park tennis court had been done in May, and the park’s basketball court, too.”
This is news to me. Anyway, they are anonymous no more, see? Court Angel ID’d as Edwards Family:
“The work has been done by Vintage Contractors on Ocean Avenue, the company founded by NorCal court standards pioneer, the late Gene Edwards. Jeff Edwards, a former tennis star at the University of Illinois, is his son. Another son, Tony Edwards, is vice president of Vintage Contractors and authorized the disclosure. The gratis work to restore crumbling courts in tennis-active neighborhoods has been a godsend, as the ever cash-strapped city continues to skimp and cut back maintenance and recreational services.”
I don’t know how this all works out tax-deductionwise, maybe the Edwardseses just do the work without any money changing hands. No matter, the courts at the Western Addition’s Ham Rec just went from Worst…
…to First:
People should be playing on this colorful new surface any day, week, month now, or whenever RPD gets around to reopening the place.
This gift is just one among many around town.
Hurray!
Tags: 2010, anonymous, avenue, center, court angel, courts, deparment, department, dept., geary, Gene Edwards, gift, grass, green, hamilton, hamilton pool and recreation, Hamilton Recreation Center, Inside Tennis, Jeff Edwards, ocean, park, parks, pool, post, purple, rec and park, recreation, red, San Francisco, scott, steiner, street, tennis, Tom Carter, Tony Edwards, Vintage Contractors, Yomi Agunbiade
Posted in parks, sports | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Here’s how it goes for the tennis courts at Hamilton Recreation Center in the Western Addition.
From worst (as seen last year)….
…to first in just a few short months. Advantage, San Francisco! Click to expand:
Whom should we thank for all this munificence? Why none other than Yomi Agunbiade, who used to manage Rec and Park a few managers ago.
Do you like the purple?
Enjoy your new T-ball courts, San Francisco!
Tags: 2010, center, courts, deparment, department, dept., geary, grass, green, hamilton, hamilton pool and recreation, park, parks, post, purple, rec and park, recreation, red, San Francisco, scott, steiner, street, tennis, Yomi Agunbiade
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
You all know Webster Street, right? It’s Fillmore’s little buddy, taking people from Market Street north all the way up to our mismanaged Marina Yacht Harbor.
But take a look here to see what happens after it crosses Hayes Street. It turns into boulevard for some odd reason, for some 11 blocks, only to shrink back down again into a regular street at the intersection at Bush.
Looking north. The traffic heading up this street, (like the silver SUV) needs to jog right to get on the other side of the very wide median See that? It’s goes parking lane, bike lane, slow lane, fast lane, huge median, fast lane, slow lane, bike lane, and then another parking lane:
Here’s a bird’s-eye view. From Grove to Bush, from the Western Addition to “Little Osaka” (the cartographers’ favorite term for what people actually call Japantown in real life) it’s an unbusy boulevard, for an only-Gaia-knows-why purpose:
I cry foul.
Here’s a modest proposal – why not de-boulevard (v.t.) Webster by getting rid of the useless treed-up median and the twin northbound lanes for the entire three-quarters of a mile? Would anybody miss the median and the extra lanes? I mean, Fillmore does the all the heavy lifting with traffic and buses and whatnot, right?
That would leave us with 200,000 square feet of space to do whatever we want with. What would you do with 3.5 football fields worth of space?
In Japantown, some people already want to shut down the northbound lanes for extra parking or for temporarily housing businesses displaced by planned seismic upgrades for buildings on Post Street. But why not just kill the whole boulevard now in one fell swoop?
(Poorly-designed Octavia Boulevard has the opposite problem of having too much stalled traffic idling away, blocking travelers journeying east and west. Oh well.)
In conclusion:
What do we want?
A de-boulevarded Webster Street!
When do we want it?
Now!
(Repeat as necessary.)
Tags: alley, avenue, bike, boulevard, bridge, bush, cyclists, de-boulevard, deboulevard, fillmore, grove, hayes, ivy, j-town, japantown, jtown, lane, little osaka, mall, median, parking, pedestrians, post, San Francisco, street, strret, trees, webster, western addition, wide
Posted in streets | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Let’s see here, the TasteTV Network is going to put on the “TASTY Awards Show” at the Sundance Kabuki in Japantown on Thursday, January 14th, 2010. It will be:
“…the most exciting and prestigious event ever to celebrate food and fashion programs on television, in film, and online.”
O.K. then. But why food and fashion together?
“The viewer appetite and response to food and style programs has surged over recent years, making them some of the highest watched video content. The TASTY AWARDS spotlight the year’s best achievements in food and fashion programs on television, in film, and on the web.”
All right, now I’m on the trolley. But who’s going to be the draw? Well it’ll be hosted by Zane Lamprey, who will introduce to the crowd:
Tyler Florence (Food Network), Joanne Weir (PBS), G. Garvin (TV One), Tanya Holland (Food Network), Leslie Sbrocco (PBS), Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library TV), Marcy Smothers (Radio), Novella Carpenter (Author), Anita Chu (Author), Dominique Crenn (Food Network – Next Iron Chef)), Brian Solis (New Media Guru), Marissa Churchill (Bravo, Top Chef)
OMG, it’s Tyler!
He’ll be there. And who could get awards whether they show up or not? Well, for starters, how about toothy Giada De Laurentiis?
You can’t beat that. And there’ll be some VIP after-party at the New People Building down the street. Are you all a Twitter yet? (NB: They”ll have lots o’ chocolate.)
The deets, after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: 2010, after party, afterparty, Anita Chu, Author, awards, Bravo, Brian Solis, building, chocolate, de, Dominique Crenn, fashion, fillmore, film, food, G. Garvin, Gary Vaynerchuk, Giada, Giada De Laurentiis, Guru, Iron Chef, Joanne Weir, kabuki, kqed, Laurentiis, Leslie Sbrocco, Marcy Smothers, Marissa Churchil, media, new, new people, Next, Novella Carpenter, online, pbs, post, radio, San Francisco, show, sundance, Tanya Holland, taste, taste tv network, TasteTV, TasteTV network, theatre, tickets, top chef, TV, TV One, Tyler Florence, vip, Wine Library, Zane Lamprey
Posted in events | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Remember a few days back when our loud, loud, loud hotel workers were in front of the Grand Hyatt for 72 hours? Well, the party has moved South of the Slot (happy 100th, Jack London!) to 2 New Monkey Street in the SoMA.
The Palace Hotel employees didn’t look too happy.(Aaron Peskin is out of the country right now, correct?) Check it:
Click to expand
On It Goes….
Tags: 2, 2009, Aaron Peskin, campton, drums, gavin newsom, grand hyatt, hotel, hyatt, Line, loca 2, loud, new monkey, new montgomery, palace, picket, place, post, protest, San Francisco, soma, south of the slot, street, strike, union square, unite here
Posted in labor | Comments Off
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Oh boy, this was the loudest and most disruptive hotel picket line I’ve seen in San Francisco. Now up at the wharf hotels, back in the day, you’d see a police presence and all sorts of rules about when and where strikers could march, how much noise they could make, etc.
But not at the Grand Hyatt, scene of recent filming for NBC’s horrible Trauma TV serial. From what I could see, it was totally wide open at the 72 hour strike that ended yesterday. Anything goes so anything went.
Click to expand:
Steve Rhodes has 152 photos posted, but here are some more:
The protest was loud, loud, loud – kettle drum, tire iron on a iron skillet, megaphones with sirens. It was a circus.
See that? All the bellhops and security agents had something in each of their ears – either radio speakers or earplugs. (That should keep Cal-OSHA happy.)
Bang the drum slowly, but loudly:
On and on they went…
…chanting away:
“Who’s got the power?
We got the power!
What kind of power?
Union power!”
The whole affair was national news. But Matier und Ross think that the Local 2 strikers have a weak hand to play.
Judge for yourself, after the jump.
To Be Continued…
(more…)
Tags: 2009, campton, drums, gavin newsom, grand hyatt, hotel, hyatt, Line, loca 2, loud, picket, place, post, protest, San Francisco, stockton, street, strike, sutter, trauma, union square, unite here
Posted in labor | Comments Off
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
Mother Nature is slowly reclaiming Hamilton Recreation Center at 1960 Geary Boulevard in the 94115. See?
Welcome to the Land of Wind and Ghosts, San Francisco, CA:
Click to expand
Some cities near Chernobyl, Ukraine were evacuated after Reaktor 4 had a “power excursion” causing the famous Mini Meltdown of 1986 (the one that threw up 400 times as much fallout as the bomb at Hiroshima.) Those ghost towns probably have similar scenes…
Tags: 94115, accident, atomic, blvd., boulevard, center, chernobyl, courts, decay, dental, dentist, department, dept., disaster, geary, ghost, ginsburg, hamilton, japantown, nuclear, park, parks, phil, pool, post, pripyat, Projects, rec, rec center, recreation, redevelopment, rpd, San Francisco, scott, steiner, street, students, tennis, town, uop, western addition
Posted in sports | 2 Comments »
