You know that beige color (it’s not paint but I don’t know what it is, actually) that was just put down on Market Street? Well, it’s coming off fast.
From this…
…to this:
Sic transit gloria Market
Posts Tagged ‘safety’
The Great Unbeigeing – Market Street’s Traffic-Slowing Safety Paint is Peeling Off Already
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010The 850 Geary Building – Dennis Herrera vs. Tenderloin Landlords Patricia D. and James P. Quinn
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Our three-term San Francisco City Attorney, Dennis J. Herrera, can’t abide landlords who exhibit “an egregious pattern of housing, building, health and safety code violations.” As proof of that, let’s take a look at today’s news regarding the owners of the building at 850 Geary in the Tenderloin / Trenderloin / TenderNob / Lower Nob Hill / Theatre District:
City Attorney Dennis Herrera has filed suit against the property owners of 850 Geary Street, an apartment building whose tenants have been forced to endure an egregious pattern of housing, building, health and safety code violations for nearly five years. According to the complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court, more than a dozen Notices of Violation and Orders of Abatement have been filed against the building owners by the San Francisco Building Inspection and Health Departments since 2005 — and all have gone virtually unheeded.
Said Herrera: “These landlords have been given every opportunity to address their code violations, but have instead chosen to flout the law, to ignore city enforcement agencies, and to allow substandard housing conditions to persist. Their continued defiance has left the City with no choice but to seek a court order to force the owners to fix the problems, to protect tenants and neighbors.”
The City Attorney’s complaint details numerous housing code violations that establish the property as public nuisance, including:
1) lack of certification for boiler room repairs;
2) unmaintained fire escapes;
3) severe cockroach infestation;
4) lack of hot water;
5) unilluminated exit passage ways;
6) lacking heat;
7) a malfunctioning passenger elevator;
water intrusion damage in several apartments;
9) a broken window frame;
10) a damaged main entry door;
11) leaking radiator
12) a fire damaged electrical outlet in one of the unit’s bedrooms.
Health Department inspectors additionally issued Notice of Violations for bed bugs, cockroaches, and mice.
SAN FRANCISCO (Jan. 21, 2010) — City Attorney Dennis Herrera today filed suit against the property owners of 850 Geary Street, an apartment building whose tenants have been forced to endure an egregious pattern of housing, building, health and safety code violations for nearly five years. According to the complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court this morning, more than a dozen Notices of Violation and Orders of Abatement have been filed against the building owners by the San Francisco Building Inspection and Health Departments since 2005 — and all have gone virtually unheeded.
“The owners of 850 Geary Street are engaged in unlawful business practices that threaten the health and safety of their tenants and their surrounding neighbors,” said Herrera. “These landlords have been given every opportunity to address their code violations, but have instead chosen to flout the law, to ignore city enforcement agencies, and to allow substandard housing conditions to persist. Their continued defiance has left the City with no choice but to seek a court order to force the owners to fix the problems, to protect tenants and neighbors.”
Named as defendant in Herrera’s lawsuit are James P. Quinn and Patricia D. Quinn, who also the own and manage the building. The City Attorney’s complaint details numerous housing code violations that establish the property as public nuisance, including: 1) lack of certification for boiler room repairs; 2) unmaintained fire escapes; 3) severe cockroach infestation; 4) lack of hot water; 5) unilluminated exit passage ways; 6) lacking heat; 7) a malfunctioning passenger elevator; water intrusion damage in several apartments; 9) a broken window frame; 10) a damaged main entry door; 11) leaking radiator 12) a fire damaged electrical outlet in one of the unit’s bedrooms. Health Department inspectors additionally issued Notice of Violations for bed bugs, cockroaches, and mice.
The case is City and County of San Francisco and the People of California v. James P. Quinn, Patricia D. Quinn et al., San Francisco Superior Court, Filed Jan. 20, 2010. A copy of the complaint is available for download as a PDF on the City Attorney’s Web site at http://www.sfcityattorney.org/ .
Mirant’s Potrero Generating Plant is Always With Us – When Will It Go Away?
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009See the tower of the Potrero Generating Plant down Seventh Street on a recent rainy day?
Will it be here a year from now?
Who knows. But, on it goes, day in and day out:
Click to expand
San Francisco’s Market Street is Going Beige This Afternoon
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009This is the scene near Union Square, inbound, right down the street from the latest the latest MUNI bus vs. cyclist collision.
(Dude got scuffed up by an articulated 38 Geary (or whatever – it’s line number had been switched off) but he looked O.K. when they were putting him the ambulance.)
Anyway, here it is:
Click to expand.
Beige? Really? Wasn’t it supposed to be painted green?
(Beige. I think I’ll paint the ceiling beige, after seeing this glorious color up close.)
But, anything for safety’s sake. Hurray!
UPDATE: Turns out, per Bluoz, that this stuff is called “Ride Away/Greenway” or something. It’s from DaVinci Pavement and Design.
And here’s San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Program Director Andy Thornley chirping up to bring it all home:
“It’s actually “fawn” — I brake for Bambi — though others have characterized it as “cafe au lait” or “mochacino” — if it gets people to wake up and pay attention that’s all that matters. It’s another trial for Market Street, joining the forced right turns at 6th & 8th Streets (expect to see 10th Street turns soon) and Art in Storefronts and other good stuff. There’s more to the “Safety Zone” trial, 10 MPH pavement legends and signs, rumble strips, and advance stop lines that will blossom into full-blown bike boxes (with green pavement, you betcha) once the blinking Bike Plan injunction is lifted. These elements (color, rumble strips, 10 MPH marking) will be combined in various ways at the four parts of the 4th & 5th Street intersections (eastbound and westbound), SFMTA and SFCTA folks will be watching and evaluating to see which things are effective at slowing traffic and getting folks to watch out for each other, and then they’ll take the winning combination and implement it at all Market St boarding islands from Castro to the Embarcadero. Get yourself a fresh soy latte and roll on down for a test ride . . .”
Now You Have Another Chance to Ask for a Bay Area Bridge Toll Increase: Dec. 7th, 2009
Monday, November 16th, 2009Ah, the Powers That Be. They don’t just raise rates on you all of a sudden, oh no. They have meetings first, to tell you how “needed” and ”necessary” their proposed “adjustments” are. Then, when the rates go up, they’ll tell you all about the meetings on that very topic that you neglected to attend.
As here, where the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) will send its youngest and cutest staffers straight into San Francisco to hand out papers and pencils for you, the Public, to scribble your appreciation. Or criticism, whatever.
Maybe “Bay Bridge Mike” will be at the meeting on Pearl Harbor Day, 2009. We Can Only Hope:Our broken bridge, more broked than ever, but let’s have fun with it, cause, you know, we’re super-competent at our jobs.
Oh well.
Paying more to cross our mismanaged bridges – well that’s not a burden, it’s an “OPPORTUNITY.” (Paging George Lakoff…)
“OPPORTUNITIES
Bridge Toll Hike Proposed for Earthquake Safety
Attend a hearing regarding a possible toll increase on the seven state-owned Bay Area toll bridges on November 17, December 3, or December 7, 2009. Can’t attend? Take our online survey!“
As promised, the deets – BATA bing, BATA boom!:
Bay Area Toll Authority Schedules San Francisco Hearing on Proposed Toll Hike
Web Survey Also Available for Online Comments
The Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA) has added a fourth public hearing to receive public testimony on options for a proposed toll increase on the seven state-owned Bay Area toll bridges.
The newly scheduled public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 7, in San Franciscoat the downtown campus of San Francisco State University, 835 Market Street, Room 609. Additional public hearings are scheduled at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17, in the City Council Chambers of San Mateo City Hall, 330 West 20th Avenue, San Mateo, and at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 3, in the Wisteria Room of the Concord Senior Center (located in John F. Baldwin Park), 2727 Parkside Circle, Concord. All three public hearings will feature a short open house (from 6:30 to 7 p.m.) and a staff presentation (beginning at 7 p.m.) prior to taking public testimony. The first public hearing took place on Nov. 4 in Oakland.
Bay Area residents who are unable to attend one of the public hearings can make their views known via an online survey at: www.mtc.ca.gov/get_involved. The survey will be available through Dec. 21.
The toll increase, if approved, likely would take effect July 1, 2010. It is needed to raise an additional $160 million in annual revenues, chiefly to finance the estimated $750 million cost of necessaryseismic retrofit projects on the Antioch and Dumbarton bridges. Other factors include a slow but steady decline in toll-paying traffic on the state-owned bridges during each of the past five years, increasing operational expenses, and rising debt (due in part to the upheaval in the municipal bonds markets over the past two years). The proposed toll increase would be in effect on the Antioch, Benicia-Martinez, Carquinez, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael, San Mateo-Hayward and San Francisco-Oakland Bay bridges. (The toll proposal does not affect the Golden Gate Bridge, which is owned and operated by an independent authority.)
The toll options under consideration would all raise the needed $160 million annually. Ideas on the table, detailed below, include raising the base toll on automobiles and motorcycles by $1 (to $5), and in so doing raise the first $100 million of new annual revenues. The remaining funds would be generated by a combination of increasing the per-axle toll for trucks and/or introducing a toll for carpools, which would be collected electronically via FasTrak® toll tags. Also under consideration is the introduction of peak-hour congestion pricing on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Preliminary analysis shows that such pricing could reduce morning peak delay on the Bay Bridge by 15 to 30 percent.
– $5 toll for two-axle vehicles (autos and motorcycles); $3 for carpools
during peak periods (Monday through Friday); and $6 per each
additional axle for trucks. Carpools would be charged for the seismic
retrofit portion of toll charges and would be required to obtain a
FasTrak® toll tag to qualify for the reduced rate; FasTrak® equipment
would be required in all carpool lanes.
– $5 toll for two-axle vehicles (autos and motorcycles) and $10 per each
additional axle. There would be no charge for carpools during peak
periods (Monday through Friday).
– Congestion pricing would be introduced on the Bay Bridge; charges
would be $6 for two-axle vehicles during peak periods (Monday through
Friday) and $4 for autos and motorcycles during off-peak hours (Monday
through Friday), with a $5 charge for two-axle vehicles on weekends. A
$6 charge for each additional axle, at all times and on all days,
would be in effect with this option, along with a $3 charge for
carpools during peak periods (Monday through Friday).
Written comments on the proposed toll increase will be accepted until 4 p.m., Dec. 21, 2009; they may be submitted to the BATA Public Information office at 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, CA, 94607-4700, faxed to BATA at 510.817.5848, or sent via e-mail to tolls@mtc.ca.gov. After receipt and review of public comments, the BATA Oversight Committee will consider the adoption of a revised toll schedule in early 2010.
BATA, which is directed by the same policy board as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), administers tolls on the region’s seven state-owned bridges. State legislation in 1997 authorized BATA to administer the base $1 toll on the Bay Area state-owned toll bridges.
BATA’s responsibilities were expanded by August 2005 legislation to include administration of all toll revenue and joint oversight of the toll bridge construction program with Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission. MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.
See you there!*
*Maybe not.
Our Captain Sullenberger is Getting Dissed from France – Was Sully’s French Plane the Real Hero?
Monday, November 16th, 2009I don’t know, it seems like writer William Langewiesche, currently residing in France, wants to have it both ways with his new book, Fly by Wire: The Geese, the Glide, the Miracle on the Hudson. He wants to rip on Sully, thusly:
“His performance was a work of extraordinary concentration, which the public misread as coolness under fire. Some soldiers will recognize the distinction.”
“Like it or not, [French pilot Bernard Ziegler] reached out across the years and cradled them all the way to the water.”
But then when Langewiesche gets a little blowback, he folds up like a deck chair, talking about how he’s surprised by Sully’s reaction, and how he’s neither pro- nor anti- fly-by-wire, and how he thinks cockpit automation is merely ”a part of the story,” anyway, of Flight 1549. Well, duh, it’s a part of the story.
But that’s Langewiesche’s “Truth About the Miracle on the Hudson” – that’s it, that’s all there is?
Haven’t read Fly by Wire myself. Probably would rather read it more than Sully’s less-techy book (mostly about the his Search for What Really Matters), which I haven’t read either. Oh well.
Obviously, there are pros and cons to Die by Wire. If William Langewiesche is now going around saying that, as he is, then there’s not much of a dispute anymore, we’ll take solace in the certainly that the bruised egos of French Airbus execs (who want Sully to thank Gaia for Airbus every chance he gets) will heal over time.
I don’t know, pretty cheesy (fromagey?) Monsieur William Langewiesche.
Pretty cheesy.
Captain Sully Sullenberger to Appear at SFO for Book Signing on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Monday, October 19th, 2009East Bay local Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is back flying for U.S. Airways, but he’s still had time to write a book and go on tour. Sully will be at SFO tomorrow, in case you want to drop by at 11:00 AM. Otherwise, it costs $90k to arrange an appearance these days, so this is a good deal.
After all, Sully is Your Homeboy, right?
The SFO Hudson Bookseller is located pre-security (near the BART Station) in the Main Hall of the International Terminal on the “G” Area side.
October 20, 2009 – Tuesday
When: October 20, 2009 – Tuesday 11 a.m.
Where: Hudson Books, International Terminal (near Bart) San Francisco
What: Sully Sullenberger will be signing his new book “Highest Duty My Search for What Really Matters”
Attention Richmond District – Town Hall Meeting Tonight, Tonight, Tonight!
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009Tonight’s Richmond District Town Hall meeting with District One Supervisor Eric Mar will be just like this, but with an emphasis on sidewalk landscaping, community challenge grants, community gardens and Pavement to Parks. Tonight’s special guest star will be Adam Varat from the Planning Department.
Get the deets below, courtesy of SF FYI Net.
If the Richmond District were a town, then here’s your Mayor, Police Chief, etc…
Supervisor Eric Mar – Town Hall Meeting
When: July 8, 2009 – Wednesday
6:30 to 8 p.m.
Where: Richmond District Neighborhood Center, 741 30th Avenue, San Francisco
What: Topics include how you can do sidewalk landscaping in front of your house, community challenge grants for street improvements, community gardens and Pavement to Parks. Adam Varat will provide details on the application process for these types of improvements.
Source and Information: richmondsfblog.com
Fremont, CA Overrun With Canada Geese. “Sully’s Bane” is Spreading
Thursday, June 18th, 2009Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger got famous after running into these critters earlier in the year, but you don’t need an airplane to encounter monstrous Canada Geese. Oh no. Just head over to Fremont, CA. They’ve got thousands of ‘em.
Click to expand:
San Francisco’s Richmond District Town Hall Meeting from Supervisor Eric Mar
Sunday, May 31st, 2009As expected, yesterday’s Richmond District Town Hall Meeting went off without a hitch at the Rec Center on 18th Avenue. Take a gander to see if you want to attend the next one. And take a look at this very detailed account from StreetsBlog, just posted.
Your Government At Work. District One Supervisor Eric Mar, SFPD Richmond Station Captain Richard Corriea the San Francisco Planning Department, the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, the Department of Public Works and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition - all ready to lend an ear. Click to expand:
Do you people prefer PowerPoint presentations pertaining to planning? Perfect. (Personally, I’m getting a little tired of euphamistic adjectives dreamed up by department heads – you know if Vladimir Lenin’s New Economic Policy (1921) came out these days, it would probably be called Better Economy with Great New Improvements! Or something like that. Wasn’t horrible Octavia Boulevard supposed to be a “livable street?”) Anywho, MTA “Traffic Calming” Project Manager Adam Gubser was on hand and available at the Town Hall.
As were Capt. Corriea and Lt. Mark Osuna, both of whom brought pens and notepads along with their sticker-free semi-autos. Keep updated at the Richmond District Police Community Relations Forum, aka “Richmond Forum.”
And There You Have It.
