Posts Tagged ‘San Francisco’
Friday, March 19th, 2010
I’m thinking that people still expect too much from the new free Google Maps beta called Bike There. Of course, lots of folks asked Google for it, so, as of this month, we have it.
But, Bike There is not enough for at least one Berkeley resident at the tersely-named Berkeley Blog. And believe it or not, Sylvia Paull’s recent tale of woe got a mention in the New York Timeseses’ The Bay Area. Seems that, after consulting her PC and starting a journey on her $5000* custom-made, carbon/titanium/unobtainium Ben Serrota ride:
“‘Ms. Paul found herself pushing her bike up ‘Everest’ hills. ‘If Google bicycle maps had told me the truth,’ she said, ‘I think I would have missed the party or found a ride with friends.’”
She should ask for a full refund from Google or something, huh? Or, alternatively, she could invest $5 or so in a bike map that shows hills.
Over here in the West Si-iiide of the Bay, people use the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s SF Bike Map and Walking Guide to see how hilly the streets are. On the East si-iiide, you all have a wealth of free online sources plus the East Bay Bicycle Coalition’s East of the Hills Map. It looks a bit like this:
Easy peasy, right?
Of course, some people like Get There more than others, but oh well.
*Mas o menos, those things cost muy dinero, especially the ones that are “much easier” to carry on BART than a laptop PC.
Tags: (BART), bay area, ben, Berkeley, berkeley blog, beta, bicycle, bike, bike there, blog, car, cyclists, east bay, get there, google, google maps, hills, map, maps, mountains, new york times, online, orinda, San Francisco, serrota, sylvia paull, West Bay
Posted in bikes | No Comments »
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
So, kids come over from the East Bay just to hang out inside of the moribund, hard-knock Harding Theatre at 616 Divisadero Street in the NoPA? Yes they do. (Didn’t know that.)
And do they have their own bolt cutters and padlocks to try to prevent others, such as the owners, from getting in? Yes, again, they do.
Oh well. I’ll tell you, this place is a mess, and honestly, I’d want to be on bottled air if were to spend any good amount of time inside. Anyway, the graffiti is getting painted over these days and the owners have bolt cutters and padlocks of their own so, and this is NOT a challenge to you or nothing, it won’t be as easy to make the massive theatre your very own kiddie clubhouse going forward.
Kono eigakan wa chotto warui, ne?
Click to expand
Cf. the way it looked back in aught-five.
Here’s the view from the stage:
The most giantest ORFN ever stares at the balcony:
This large cross has taken some abuse, it would seem:
No Livermore Kids Allowed. Oh well.
This is pretty much how the Harding looks from the outside:
A possible future for the Harding, complete with restored theatre blade.
I know that the “Save” Harding Theatre people are out there, but they can’t afford a free website from WordPress.com, apparently (whoops, just found it, can’t help thinking that a WordPress.com blog called Save Harding Theatre would show up high in a Google search, but what do I know…)
On the other side, the owners state that this place started out as a movie theatre in 1926, then it was used for live entertainment (including a show from the Grateful Dead, once), then it was legally converted into a church in 1973, and then the church operated ’til 2004. Ergo, the City’s not really losing a live theatre, en realidad.
Alls I know is that it would be nice if the place got used in some way at some point.
It’s certainly been a hard knock life for the Harding. Signing off with the King James:
“And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”
Tags: 616 divisadero, apartments, area, church, condominium, condos, crime, divisadero, graffiti, grove, harding place, harding theatre, hayes, Independent, kids, movie film, NOPA, north of panhandle, paint, planning commission, San Francisco, save, save harding theatre, save the harding, street, theater, theatre, western addition
Posted in architecture, buildings | No Comments »
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
You could argue it both ways. Here’s the data, helpfully provided by one of her opponents, but, as always, You Make The Call.
Here she is in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee:
“Death penalty: ‘I am personally opposed to the death penalty, but I will follow the law.’”
“Harris was asked if there would ever be a time when she might ask for the death penalty. ‘We take each case on a case by case basis…and I’ll make decisions on each case as they arise,’ she said.”
”I will never charge the death penalty.”
via aSILVA
IMO, there’s wiggle room in here. There wouldn’t be much point in going for the death penalty in a case that she didn’t think she’d get a death penalty decision from a San Francisco jury, of course.
IMO, her position(s) won’t make or break her chances to replace Jerry Brown. I’m sure she’ll have ample opportunity to explain everything to the voters over the coming months. We’ll see…
Tags: 'I am personally opposed to the death penalty, attorney general, basis, but I will follow the law, case by case, charge, death, death penalty, District Attorney, fdistrict attorney, I will follow the law, I will never charge the death penalty, jury, never, opposed, penalty, personally, position, San Francisco
Posted in crime, politics | No Comments »
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Here’s the scene this morning at the official ceremony kicking off all the Divisadero Streetscape Improvements and the Cafe Mojo Parklet at 639 Divisadero betwixt Hayes and Grove.
BIKE NOPA has all the deets for the new parklet in front of popular Mojo Bicycle Cafe, where you are beseeched to “ride in – hang out – get your fix – ride on.”
Of course District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimiwas there* – he was working the crowd and expressing his appreciation for improved bicycle and pedestrian safety on the Divisadero Corridor. He also pointed out the success of the nearby Divisadero Farmer’s Market, which is no longer seasonal. It’s open every Sunday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM year-round these days.
Mayor Gavin Newsom addressing a large crowd on the tiny parklet:
Click to expand
And all the while, the honking yellow Hummer of Main Contractor Synergy Project Management was discretely parked across the street, as discretely as possible given that it’s a honking yellow Hummer:
I’m on the record as not being a big fan of all the changes, but oh well.
SocketSite has more info about Divis and Curbed SF has all the history, as you’d expect.
Brand new median trees and old-school streetlamps for as far as the eye can see:
These days, it’s Mojo a gogo. A fixie bike mounted outdoors as art:
Welcome to the New Divisidero.
*Wearing the same drip-dry suit he was wearing at the recent opening of the Hamilton Recreation Center and Pool.
All the deets, after the jump
(more…)
Tags: 19th avenue, 2009, 2010, 24th street, 639, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, architecture, ARRA, Balboa Street, Berenio Lumber, bicycle, bike, Bison Innovative Products, board of supervisors, bulb out, cafe, cafe mojo, cars, ceremony, Cesar Chavez, cycklists, cyclists, debut, department of public works, director, district 5, district five, divisadero, Divisadero Great Streets Project, Divisadero Streetscape Improvement Project, dpw, Ed Reiskin, Feeney, Flora Grubb Nurseries, gavin newsom, geary, great streets, grove, hayes, hummer, Improvement, inc, kick off, kickoff, lamps, Leland Avenue, lights, Lower Polk Street, management, median, mojo, Mojo Bicycle Cafe, Muni, OEWD, Office of Economic and Workforce, park, parking, parklet, PAVEMENT TO PARKS, paving, program, project, refuge, repaved, repaving, Rg, RG-Architecture, ross mirkarimi, San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, sewer, SFMTA, SFPUC, sidewalks, space, stimulus, street, streetlamps, streetlights, streetscape, Studio Upwell, Supervisor, synergy, Synergy Contractors, synergy project management, TLC, traffic, Transportation for Livable Communities, trees, valencia, van ness, Waller, wide, widen, widening
Posted in streets | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
I don’t think that the people at LAX are going to fight back against this horrible video from the people at SFO by making a similarly lame commercial attacking SFO. ’Cause, you know, LAX is too big for that. But maybe the few international fliers (perhaps a dozen or two so far) who’ve seen the purportedly humorous vid will maybe begin to think that maybe there’s something wrong with the “Bad Airport” in Los Angeles and then they’ll be more likely to come up to our neck of the woods on their way to some other U.S. destination.
Of course, if foggy San Mateo County is having one of its foggy days, there’s a chance that, due to SFO’s substandard runway separation, any given transpacific flight coming into SFO will divert to Los Angeles anyway.
Coming into SFO from Australasia on a tiny Airbus A320 series – perhaps they used aerial refueling? (Fuzzed-out vertical stabilizer in original.) (Beautiful(?) sulphur yellow skies in original.)
This happy fellow here doesn’t have a choice on which California airport he can go to as QANTAS Airbus A380’s only go to LAX. Oh well.
And the upcoming Fly Girls featuring Virgin America will be based in Los Angeles despite the fact that Virgin America is based at SFO. Oh well.
But at least all the white people in the high school AV club spends a day at the airport style video are one step closer to getting their SAG cards. (Seriously, there are like twenty people featured, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, and they’re all white with one lone exception. Looks more like Sea-Tac than SFO…)
Anyway, who knows, maybe this smarmy production will take off, you know, virally.
Nevertheless, We Are Lessened For It.
On behalf of San Francisco, I would like to apologize to all who reside in Los Angeles County. We just lost our heads, we’ll try to make it up to you all.
Tags: ad, airport, auckland, aukland, australia, brisbane, diversion, fog, i wanna fly through sfo, i wanna go through sfo, lax, los angeles, new zealand, San Francisco, SFO, youtube
Posted in airlines | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Lovely “Helicopter Hero” Aimee Garcia had a mishap a few days back in San Francisco while filming a scene for new (and improved?) Trauma.
As she recently related to NBC’s Natalie Morales:
“I was doing a scene where my ex-military boyfriend gets in a fight, and it was scripted that I just stand there … I just got involved. I pulled one actor off of another and they loved it. They said, ‘Keep doing it.’ We did it 12 times and I didn’t realize on the first take I broke my finger.”
Here’s the video from the Today Show.
A finger mishap always makes for good TV of course, especially when you don’t lie about it.
Let’s hope Aimee can get her left hand back on that giant twirlypopper’s collective control sooner rather than later.
Courage.
Tags: 1.4/3, 94612, Aimee Garcia, all's fair, amy chozick, Anastasia Griffith, angela bromstad, Anna Bloom, apology, backlash, bad day at work, bagel, beaucoup explosions, big bang, Billy Lush, Boone, bowl, broken, busted, ca, cancelled, CAS, Cast, casting, choppers, chuck, Cliff Curtis, concourse, Credits, cut, Dario Scardapane, death watch, deathwatch, Derek Luke, district, doctors, Dr. Joe, drinking, dunnes, emt, emts, episode, executive, Executive Producer, filbert, film, Film 44, film commission, filming, finger, fran drescher, fresno, Friday Night Lights, game, gigs, golden gate park, green, helicopters, hollywood, horrible, hospital, ICCNC, idiot box, idiot panel, injury, interview, Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, Jamey Sheridan, jay leno, Jeff Reiner, just horrible, justin herman, Kevin Rankin, liar, LLC, Marissa, nancy, natalie morales, nbc, nbc's, new york times, north beach, Oakland, open 4 business, open 4 business productions, open for business, open4business, parks and recreation, party, Peter Berg, pilot, plaza, plot, police, police department, Producers, Productions, rabbit, ratings, sam, San Francisco, Sarah Aubrey, Scene in San Francisco, september, set, SFPD, show, southland, st., street, studio, suck. ems, sucks, Tags: 2009, television show, today, tonight show, trauma, tut, TV, twirlypopper, Tyler, Universal Media Studios, Writer
Posted in TV | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Things were worse back in aught-seven, back when drivers waiting to fill up at the always-cheap ARCO station on Fell Street in the EaPA would queue up in the bike lane. But it’s no picnic these days neither, as you can see in this shot from a few days ago:
Well, comes now award-winning Michael Helquist of BIKE NOPA to learn us about planned changes:
“‘We have a design hashed out to take out parking on the south side of Fell Street,’ James Shahamiri, MTA Assistant Traffic Engineer, told BIKE NOPA. The new design would designate the former parking spaces as a curbside queue for motorists awaiting entry to the gas station.”
(IMO, that’s a painfully obvious solution that any other town in ‘Merica would have implemented years ago when the issue first cropped up. But oh well.)
So, you see them cars parked on the left side? You know, the Porsche 944 (or 968?), the Saturn S-Series, and the Honda CR-V cute-ute SUV? They’re parked in spaces that could soon be the ARCO queue.
What’s that, NIMBY? Over your dead body you say? O.K., well, I think this cake is already baked, but maybe you’ll be able to hear more about all the deets at this meeting:
Thursday, March 18th
7:00 pm, visit with neighbors
7:30 pm, meeting begins
9:00 pm , meeting ends
Change is Good, huh?
Tags: 1775, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 76, arco, area, Assistant, association, automobiles, autos, bicycle, bike, BIKE NOPA, block, blocking, BP, cars, cyclists, divisadero, divisidero, EaPA, east of panhandle, engineer, fell, fulton, gas, gasloline, golden gate park, intersection, James Shahamiri, jannah, lane, Line, meeting, metropolitan transportation agency, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, michael helquist, mta, Muni, neighborhood, nimby, NOPA, nopna, north of panhandle, oak, panhandle, parking, queue, San Francisco, SF, sfist, SFMTA, Station, street, traffic, union, vehicles, wait, Waiting
Posted in bikes, cars | 8 Comments »
Monday, March 15th, 2010
J M Barrie’s Peter Pan at the world’s first 360-degree CGI theatre will make its U.S. premiere April 27th in San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza. It’s shaping up to be something like Cirque du Soleil, except it’ll be cheaper and aimed more at kids. That’s my guess.
Anyway, interest in seeing P.P. is high already, so get your tickets now if you are at all interested – there’s no need to pay the scalpers anything at this point. Und, for your convenience, starting today, you can go to a box office to get your ticks and avoid any fees. All the deets are below. Facebook, Twitter, etc.
This is the scene down at Ferry Plaza near Washington and the Embarcadero. The construction site is akin to Cirque du Soleil’s OVO traveling tent show:
PERFORMANCES BEGIN APRIL 27, 2010
peterpantheshow.com
WHAT:
Two new satellite box office locations are now open selling tickets for the U.S. premiere of a spectacular new stage production of PETER PAN. J M Barrie’s classic story is performed in the world’s first 360-degree CGI theatre set in San Francisco’s Ferry Park on the Embarcadero opposite the Ferry Building.
In addition to purchasing tickets online or over the phone, patrons can now buy tickets in person at the new PETER PAN Justin Herman Plaza Box Office located at the end of Market Street @ Steuart Street (NO service charges for tickets purchased here). The other convenient new location to purchase tickets to PETER PAN is right inside the Stockton Street entrance of Macy’s in Union Square.
PETER PAN at The threesixty° Theatre will be an iconic destination on San Francisco’s historic waterfront. The cast and audience are immersed in a CGI Neverland, so that when Peter and Wendy fly to Neverland the audience flies with them over 400 square miles of virtual London and beyond. A magical park-like setting will be created that invites patrons to enhance their entertainment experience. With refreshments available on-site, a behind-the-scenes Into Neverland tour and a free 100 Years of Peter Pan exhibit, audiences will begin the journey before the performance commences.
WHERE:
New Satellite Box offices
Justin Herman Plaza Box Office located at the end of Market Street @ Steuart Street is open daily from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
There are no service charges for tickets purchased at the Justin Herman Plaza Box Office
Macy’s Department Store in Union Square located at the Stockton Street entrance is open daily from 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
Online and phone TICKET INFO:
Tickets can also be purchased online at peterpantheshow.com or by calling 1-888-ppantix
(1-888-772-6849). For groups of 15 or more, please call 1-415-551-2020 or email groupsales@shnsf.com.
Ticket Prices:
Tickets for PETER PAN range in price from $30 to $85.
A $20 discount for children 12 and under is available for select performances.
Premium tickets for PETER PAN are available. For details, check online www.peterpantheshow.com
SHOW PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Tuesday & Thursday at 7 PM
Friday & Saturday at 7:30 PM
Wednesday & Saturday at 2 PM
Sunday at 1 PM & 5 PM
For more information about PETER PAN:
Please visit www.peterpantheshow.com
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/peterpantheshow
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/peterpantheshow
Tags: 2009, 2010, 360, 6, actors, April 27, bay area, box office, CGI, Charlie Burnell, december, Embarcadero, fees, ferry building, Ferry Park, J.M. Barrie, London, market, Matthew Churchill, neverland, peter, PETER PAN, puppets, San Francisco, set, street, Stuart, theater, theatre, Theatrical Adventure, three sixty, threesixty, threesixty°, ticketmaster, tickets, union square, Video, Wendy
Posted in art, events | No Comments »
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Sunday Streets 2010 kicked off yesterday – it’s maturing as an event, so now it seems more organic and “natural,” similar to something like Critical Masswhich just sort of happens without a whole bunch of organization. Of course, shutting down the Embarcadero northbound involves a lot of people and organization ‘n stuff, but you didn’t see volunteers and the SFPD all over the place yesterday the way you did at Sunday Streets in the past.
Here’s what it looked like.
These people from Ing Er Land were busking away like champs at the Northern Terminus of SS in Fisherperson’s Wharf. For a little while, they appeared to be the main attraction, but it was hard to tell if they were an official part of the festivities. Walking on a rubber ball with your sister Sporty Spice on your back:
But let’s start at the beginning of the day, when the combination of Sunday Streets and St. Patrick’s Day festivities totally pwned our pathetic, slow-on-the-uptake MUNI bus service, once again. MUNI Denial, stage four, Acceptance:
But now we’re back on the Embarc, where shutterbugs can always get a friendly tow:
And where kids can ride a carousel contraption…
…powered by cyclists:
And here’s local reactionary and sensational writer Matt Smith at the helm:
TCHO Chocolate gave out free samples to the throngs:
Cheers for this tyke who made the best of his defective parasitic bike:
And it wouldn’t be a Sunday Streets without seeing RollerSoccer’s Kizzle and ZachDaddy putting on a display:
and seeing the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Dan Tan-Nguyen ’s 7-seat bike rolling along:
The next SS will be in Golden Gate Park and the Great Highway near Ocean Beach – it’ll be on April 11 and in conjunction with 1000 Cities, 1000 Lives.
See you there!
Tags: 1000 Cities, 1000 Lives, 11, 14, 14th, 2010, april, bicycle coalition, buskers, chocolate, department, dept., Embarcadero, ferry building, fishermans, march, Muni, police, rollersoccer, San Francisco, sfbc, sfgov, SFPD, streets, sunday, sunday streets, TCHO, volunteers, wharf
Posted in bikes, events | 1 Comment »
