Of course, the SFMTA could jigger the lights around the neighborhood of Bush and Sansome in a more efficient way, but then this meter maid wouldn’t be able to park her Cushman and then stand in the intersection to generate so many tickets that she has trouble with all the receipt tape she’s generating. See?
Her little machine might have a camera built in, and the GPS and the Wi-Fi and all sorts of things to allow her to bag three rides in one cycle of green yellow red.
Check it. All of these drivers on Bush inbound in the Financh are used to crawling across a San Francisco intersection before the light turns red and then making it out of the intersection before the peds start coming. Except that this is notorious Bush and Sansome, where things don’t work that way.
And then here come the judge – tickets for everybody! It’s like Oprah handing out Pontiacs – YOU GET A TICKET! AND YOU GET A TICKET! AND YOU GET A TICKET!
(Mind you, this is an intersection where it’s quite safe to loiter about, so fret not.)
(Hey, is she recording the Vehicle Identification Numbers of all these rides? I think not. Is that some sort of technicality that will allow you to get out of your ticket after spending hours and hours of time fighting your ticket? IDK.)
Some drivers get stuck, but I’m thinking, well just make the left up Sansome* while you have the chance and then you’ll avoid a painful three-figure citation. But the drivers, then don’t have respect, they don’t see the danger.
And I’ll bet most of them aren’t even aware that they’re getting a citation.
Eventually, the driving culture at this intersection will change** if this woman makes a habit of harvesting money on the Evening Drive each and every day.
I ask you, Gentle Reader, what if the rest of SFGov were as efficient as this PCO?
*Whether it’s legal or not. In this case, that would be a legal turn but even if it weren’t, the chances of getting a moving violation doing that are virtually nil, as opposed to a parking ticket, where the odds are virtually certain.
**In the old days, the SFMTA would tell its PCOs to stop handing out tickets during the Evening Drive and start directing traffic at busy intersections. Those days are over. This woman can pay her salary and fund her generous benefits and retirement package in one or two minutes of her shift. Remarkable!
Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) today announced plans to open two new TargetExpress stores in San Francisco’s Financial District and Berkeley, Calif., in March 2015. Target’s first TargetExpress store opened this year in Minneapolis, and the San Francisco-area stores will mark the first time Target is expanding this format outside the Minneapolis area.
The San Francisco store will be approximately 18,000 square feet and located at the southwest corner of Bush Street and Sansome Street, next to the Montgomery BART station, in the heart of the financial district. The Berkeley store will be approximately 12,000 square feet and located at the southeast corner of Shattuck Avenue and Allston Way, next to the Downtown Berkeley BART station, near the main entrance to the University of California, Berkeley.
“From listening to our guests at the two San Francisco CityTarget stores, we know the smaller format of TargetExpress will fit right into the busy San Francisco Bay Area lifestyle and enable us to cater to each community’s needs,” said Kamau Witherspoon, senior director, Store Operations, Target.
Target store teams have spent time understanding each local community to determine the right merchandise mix for each store, so both TargetExpress locations will be customized to fit the individual needs of the surrounding neighborhoods. For example, the Bush Street store will feature a large grab-and-go area with sandwiches, salads, breakfast items like yogurt and mid-day snacks for busy commuters on the go. The store will also include a Starbucks and select items from Target’s Made to Matter collection, which features products from San Francisco Bay Area companies like Annies, Yes To and Method.
The Berkeley store will offer a large selection of grocery items, including produce, dairy, frozen, snacks and beverages to serve the students, commuters and residents of Berkeley. Additionally, both new TargetExpress stores will be stocked with essentials in home, beauty and electronics, including a robust assortment of Target’s owned brands. The stores will also include Target’s popular pick-up-in-store service and a pharmacy.
Target opened the first TargetExpress in Minneapolis in July, and has announced plans to open one in the Highland Park area of St. Paul, Minn. in 2015. A third San Francisco Bay Area TargetExpress will also open in 2015, with a location to be announced in the coming months.
About Target
Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) serves guests at 1,925 stores – 1,795 in the United States and 130 in Canada – and at Target.com. Since 1946, Target has given 5 percent of its profit to communities, that giving equals more than $4 million a week. For more information, visitTarget.com/Pressroom. For a behind-the-scenes look at Target, visit ABullseyeView.com or follow @TargetNews on Twitter.
I just can’t tell if the pedicab driver is making some kind of statement or just efficiently keeping the sun, the burning sun, we hates it forever, off of his noggin…
You know, San Francisco columnist CW Nevius used to complain about all the people commenting underneath his writings. In fact, he would dedicate some of his bits to rip on all the uncouths who dared contradict his conclusions.
(I’ll bet he misses those days now, he misses the time when he had hundreds and hundreds of commenters on SFGate instead of just a handful on the Chronicle website.)
Anyway, here’s the latest, about a BART / SFMTA / MUNI entrance near the intersection of Sutter and Sansome:
