Posts Tagged ‘save’
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 prevent others, such as the owners, from getting in? Yes again.
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 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 isn’t a challenge or anything, it won’t be as easy to make the massive theatre your clubhouse going forward.
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 »
Friday, March 5th, 2010
That’s the news of last night from City Hall. Get up to speed on the issues here.
The next step is to see what happens at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. (How much lobbying do you get when you spend five figures on a lobbyist? We’ll soon see.)
This speaker was no fan of the new fees at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Certainly, he was outnumbered last night:
What if the fees get approved and things don’t work out? Then down will come the pay kiosks and then other options, possibly a ”tasteful sponsorship” (such as the “Chuck Schwab Co. Australia Garden*” or something) could generate a little money.
We’ll Find Out Soon Enough.
*Words from a Commissioner last night, they didn’t make the transcript.
Tags: 16, 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board, board of supervisors, botanical, botanical garden, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, City Hall, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, directors, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, Family, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, save, secretary, Society, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
[UPDATE: Let's see here, you can discover what some local celebrities think about this idea here at Manatease's YouTube Channel and, well, here's an uncredited single-panel comic on the subject discovered by LocalColorist, see comment.]
This was the scene the other day near Golden Gate Park’s Strybing Arboretum, aka San Francisco Botanical Garden. These protesters were politely picketing San Francisco’s semi-public, semi-photo-op Budget Town Hall at the County Fair Building when an elected official walked up and asked, “What kind of protest is this?”
Indeed. These picketers, called the “Society people” by their opponents, support the idea of charging non-residents $7 to get into Strybing. Why? So there’s enough money around such that three Strybing-dedicated gardeners won’t get laid off during our Great Recession.
This gaggle of self-described “plant people” certainly are timely, as the Board of the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) will decide this auslander admission issue on Thursday, March 4th at City Hall. The question after that would be how the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will react.
Now, unlike last year, RPD isn’t having any big meetings to air out public concerns, probably because RPD knows how they would go – 250 San Franciscans would show up and the bulk of them would be strongly opposed to the charging of any fee to any one at any time.
AFAIK, the 2010 plan is similar to the more recent of the two 2009 plans in that only people who reside outside of the City and County of San Francisco would be charged. The Big Question is how many nonresidents would show up to pony up some cash and how much the program would cost to implement. After this program is up and running, the Next Obvious Step would be to charge San Francisco residents as well. Would that next step come in a matter of weeks, months, or years? There are no promises from anyone on that score.
The Save the Botanical Garden people are saying that not charging $7 would amount to ”depriving community residents of a tranquil place to visit.” Does Strybing need to become a “world class arboretum” in order to remain a “tranquil place” to visit? It would be easy to argue with the Society on this point.
Now, let’s have a go at the official FAQ:
“Isn’t a non-resident fee the first step toward a fee for everyone?”
The answer is yes. Hells yes, obviously.
“Isn’t the fee taking the Botanical Garden a step closer to privatization?”
No. This is a red herring, from the Sierra Club, for one, I think.
“Won’t setting up the booths to collect the fee and bringing in new workers just cost more than you’ll collect? Won’t setting up the booths to collect the fee and bringing in new workers just cost more than you’ll collect?”
Almost certainly not. The older “Cadillac Plan” of spending vast sums on infrastructure to enable the charging of fees might have had that risk, but there’s no reason that a well-run program, particularly one that makes the use of volunteers, wouldn’t net at least a little money.
“Why doesn’t the SF Botanical Garden Society just do more?”
Good question. The Garden Society, and they’re by no means alone on this, want to spend Other People’s Money on their pet projects. Some of them figure that Strybing needs 16 dedicated gardeners to become “world-class” and that they’ll never ever get the funding for that many from the City of San Francisco, recession or no recession.
Here’s the thing – “saving the botanical garden” will have the effect of excluding hundreds of thousands of people from Strybing. If you are a “plant person” then this is a small price to pay. And actually, plant people might even prefer to keep out the riff-raff. So, charging admission is a double win – more plants and fewer people.
If you’re a people person, you might prefer the “Keep the Arboretum Free” point of view. I guarantee you that the average person motivated enough to attend the public meetings last year would strongly favor having fewer gardeners around if maintaining the current crew meant throwing up a pay wall by installing checkpoints Charlie.
We’ll see how it goes.
Now, was this a grass roots movement in front of the Budget Town Hall? You know, this group of Society people and the P.R. volk with their identical signs and their unsigned petitions
You Make The Call.
Tags: 2009, 2010, admission, Ann Cameron, Antietam, arboretum, Arden Bucklin-Sporer, battle, beverage, Bill Gaede, board, board of supervisors, botanical, brent dennis, cashier, Chair, Chuck Davis, City Hall, civil war, commission, commissioner, County Fair Building, Cynthia Anderson, Cynthia Jamplis, Denis Mosgofian, department, director, directors, district, Don Baldocchi, dr., Dr. James Kohn, Eva Monroe, EX OFFICIO, fee, food, Frank Almeda, Garden, golden gate park, inner, Isa Mary Ziegler, jared blumenfeld, Jennifer Bowles, jim lazarus, Joseph Barbaccia, Kevin Leong, Margie Ellis, may 28, Member at large, Michael McKechnie, Monica A. Martin, non-residents, park, parks, Phil Schlein, Philip Schlein, public, recreation, recreation parks, residents, richmond, Robert Leitstein, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, save, secretary, Society, strbing arboretum, strybing, Strybing Arboretum, suggested, sunset, Tony Farrell, Treasurer, TRUSTEES, vendor, Vice Chair, Victoria johnson, Wally Wertsch, Wendy Tonkin, William Gaede, workshop, “Honey” Johnson
Posted in parks | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
This was the scene on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 in Golden Gate Park, where the Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition traded raffle tickets, cookies and, yes, pink popcorn for signatures to “save” the Boat House at Stow Lake. Get up to speed on this campaign here and here.
It was quite the affair, with hundreds on hand. KCBS All News 740 /106.9 had a vehicle there, but it’s tough to see if they reported on the event, AFAICS. (Oddly, an entry for “Save Stow Lake” is on the KCBS home page under “KCBS NEWS LINKS.”)
From the Yelp:
“FREE Organic Coffee! FREE Popcorn! FREE Raffle with great prizes! Other surprises! Come celebrate the historic Stow Lake Boathouse that has provided affordable recreation for generations. Sat. Feb. 13th, 11am-1pm. Stow Lake Boathouse, GG Park. We’ll have petitions for signing and art work for the kids so they can let the City know they don’t want the Boathouse turned into a restaurant/cafe.
“Save the Stow Lake Boathouse Coalition (STSLBC) organized in response to a proposal by Rec & Parks to take over the entire top floor of the boathouse for an indoor restaurant/cafe. STSLBC wants to see the boathouse restored and improved without losing the quaint, old style snack bar and historic boat repair shop. STSLBC considers the restaurant concept in the building, as inappropriate and economically unfeasible, adding little, if any additional revenue, that would change the historic character and primary usage of the property, which for years has served as a boathouse offering a calm respite from city life for generations of San Franciscans and tourists.”
Now, do I begrudge these people when they collude with the current operator of the boathouse to hold a picnic to further their political cause? No.
And are they allowed to giveaway stuff “FOR FREE!” and then immediately hit you up for your signature on a petition? Yes, this is America.
But the problems include:
1. What park visitors were told just before they signed the petition while munching on their cookies, and;
2. The fact that the Recreation and Park Department’s plans for this area won’t “destroy” the boathouse, or for that matter, Stow Lake.
Will there be “room for kids and old people” at the Stow Lake Boathouse if a sit-down cafe opens up on the upper floor? Yes, of course. Will the old boathouse look substantially the same as before, no matter what happens? Yes.
Now, I’ll give you this, the people behind the STSLBC are doing better than before in articulating a basis for their cause. The problem is that their cause appears to be simply supporting the existing franchise holder at a time when others are bidding on a five or ten year contract to run the boathouse. Here are the bullet points from the online petition:
> The current tenant has never had a boating accident
> The current tenant has a long-standing, excellent relationship with their customers
> The current tenant has employees that have worked there for over ten years
> The current tenant has added healthy food options to the snack bar menu
> The current tenant is interested in adding additional items to sell to increase revenue
> The current tenant is open to improving the facility once a lease is in place
O.K., but the rules say that RPD has the right to open up bidding for a new tenant. Is that so bad?
Am I saying that there’s something wrong with avuncular Bruce McLellan, the current tenant who runs the place? No. But having a new tenant wouldn’t “destroy” Stow Lake neither, nor even the boathouse, right?
Obviously, RPD is looking for new sources of money. Will having a new cafe help to make more money for RPD and the tenant such that the price of paddle boat rentals could be lowered from the current $24? We’ll see.
Is this a message that comes from the grass roots? Really? Or in other words, “Bidder A is great, Bidders B and C are not.”
The site of the coming cafe. That’s the boat hoist that the City is trying to “heist.” “Don’t heist the hoist”is a slogan they’re using. Srsly.
All agree of the desirability of a long term contract, which would allow a new tenant, or the existing one, to upgrade aging equipment.
The oar your $19 rental fee gets you – it does the job, I s’pose:
Leave us now depart the Boathouse at Stow, home to the most ridiculous grass roots effort to come down the pike in a good long time. (And I’ve seen plenty.)
Only In San Francisco.
To Be Continued.
Tags: 106.9, 2010, 740, am, boat, boat house, boathouse, Bruce McLellan, budget, C.W. Nevius, cafe, chuck, coalition, community, department, dept., district, fm, free, golden gate park, historic, hoist, inner sunset, kcbs, lake, meeting, Nevius, Nick Kinsey, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, picnic, pink, popcorn, radio, recreation and parks, restaurant, rfq, row, rowboat, 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, stow, STSLBC, sunset, Suzanne Dumont, Suzanne R. Dumont, yuppification
Posted in buildings, parks | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
About 110 souls showed up yesterday for the two meetings our Department of Recreation and Park hosted to air out the whole Stow Lake Boat House issue.
Get up to speed here, and let’s begin.
Here it is, the boathouse at Stow. Click to expand to see the mechanism used to carry paddle and row boats into the boathouse. It’s a bone of contention these days:
Another contentious dealio is the continued availability of Wright’s Pink Popcorn Bars, straight out of 150 Potrero. (The secret to the pinkness? Delicious red dye #40, baby. Natch.) See it?
Well hold on to your hats – Rec and Park property manager Nick Kinsey promised all that pink popcorn would forever be on the menu at the boat house. This requirement will be burned into future consignment contracts. See? It was on the PowerPoint:
Anyway, here’s what the first session looked like:
If you want ever to feel young, just show up to a San Francisco NIMBY meeting at 2:00 in the afternoon.
The aforementioned Nick Kinsey (doesn’t he look like an actor or something?) represented the RPD:
Can you read these slides?
Fundamentally, the building will stay the same.
Will there be a change as to how the boats get into the boat house for repair? Yes. Is that anything for San Francisco’s seniors to worry about?* No, not actually.
Will the proposed covered lunching area be as upscale as those at the nearby de Young Museum or the California Academy of Sciences? No.
So, preservationists, college-boy Nick Kinsey just dealt you three aces yesterday. We’re not playing poker here so that means You Got Served and your score stands at love-40. You all need to articulate yourselves better. In reaction to yesterday’s PowerPoint, what is your beef? (Don’t tell us where you born and how long you lived here - it doesn’t matter. And don’t tell us how you don’t trust The City in light of X, Y, or Z. Just respond to the presentation, if you would.)
There will be a bunch more meetings before any changes get made – Archangel Gabriel hasn’t even begun to warm up his trumpet, so I’m not too worried about the old-school boat house right now.
Wake me up on judgment day in about a half a year or so.
*You want something to get upset about? How about this fake, Yoko-approved John Lennon voiceover for One Laptop Per Child? I’m still gobsmacked.
Tags: boat, boat house, boathouse, budget, C.W. Nevius, chuck, coalition, community, department, dept., district, golden gate park, hall lf flowers, inner sunset, lake, meeting, Nevius, Nick Kinsey, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, pink, popcorn, recreation and parks, restaurant, row, rowboat, San Francisco, save, stow, sunset, yuppification
Posted in architecture, buildings, government | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Those crazy* preservationists are at it again – this time they want to save the “historic” boat house at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. In response, the oddly-named San Francisco Department of Recreation and Park is holding two meetings today at the Hall of Flowers, San Francisco’s mothership of out-of control public meetings.
Round One begins at 2:00 PM and Round Two begins at 6:00 PM at the Brawl of Flowers / County Fair Building** (just go to 9th Avenue and Lincoln in the Inner Sunset and then proceed into the Park 100 feet and then hang a left for another 100 feet).
Consult this bit from Chuckles Nevius and then choose sides. (Actually, C.W. occupies the field of MSM boat house coverage at this point.) Check out BeyondChron for an alternative view from Suzanne R. Dumont and Sandy Weil.
Now, if I know my Rec and Park, the simple idea of keeping things the way they are at this popular venue will be portrayed as an unworkable, unviable option.
From the Haight Ashbury Voice:
I don’t have a dog in this particular hunt myself, but I’ll tell you it seems a little absurd to yuppify the whole shebang because the old metal rowboats are dented up. It’s possible that taking the boathouse upscale will end up being seen as a fiasco twenty years from now. Hard to tell at this point, though.
Prediction: A Grand Compromise will be hashed out and we’ll end up with a partial yuppification.
See you there today!
Artist Ashley Wolff, for one, supports the Save the Stow Lake Boat House Coalition:
(Pink popcorn substituted for white)
*The gold standard of crazy preservationism has got to be the movement to keep the cable cars rolling back in 1947. Those people, like lunch lady Friedel Klussmann don’t seem all that crazy now, right?
**The gold standard of intense boathouse-related whiteboard meetings has got to be this scene from Robert De Niro in Ronin (1998). (Come for the lovely Irish redhead Deidre, stay for the remarkable car chases - authorities gave Frankenheimer carte blanche to shut down half of France for filming.
Tags: boat, boat house, boathouse, budget, C.W. Nevius, chcuk, coalition, community, department, dept., district, golden gate park, hall lf flowers, inner sunset, lake, meeting, Nevius, park and rec, park and recreation, parks, pink, popcorn, recreation and parks, restaurant, row, rowboat, San Francisco, save, stow, sunset, yuppification
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
This man, recently seen on Franklin Street, has sworn he will never drive his Mazda 626 LX-V6 more than 60 MPH. Why? Cause he’s a part of the Pledge 60 Movement. Check out the sign that he printed at home (or at work, let’s hope, considering the cost of replacement printer ink, “starter cartridge” don’t get me started):
“I pledge 60 MPH max to save U.S. gas $“
Fair enough. Not sure how this would work on the nascent Trans-Texas Corridor where they’ll have an 85mph limit, or for that matter Montana where teen-aged girls on narrow highways will pass you in their tiny three-cylinder cars going 90+, but oh well.
Click to expand
The Sierra Club has/had a similar campaign – “I Can Drive 55 (or whatever the limit is).”
Pledgers should keep to the right (avoiding those carpool lane-stickered Toyota Priuseses going 80+ on the I-80) and they’ll be fine.
Pledge on.
(These kinds of pledges probably will have a higher success rate than those chastity pledges that don’t seem to work.)
Tags: , 55, 60, 626, 65, 75, 80, 85, bumper, climate change, franklin, gallon, gas, gasoline, global warming, I pledge 60 MPH, I pledge 60 MPH max to save U.S. gas $, limit, mazda, movement, mph, pledge, Pledge 60, pledge 60 MPH, prius, San Francisco, save, sierra club, speed, sticker, street, swear, toyota, Trans-Texas Corridor, yellow
Posted in cars | Comments Off
Friday, July 31st, 2009
The Pedestrianist today reminds us all that the temporary closure of 184 feet of Mason Street begins tomorrow, August 1, 2009. (And, as ususal, The Streetsblog can always get you up to speed on streets issues right quick.)
Check it. Can you see that tiny stretch of Mason between Lombard and Columbus? Imagine people lounging about (in the middle of the damn street!) for the next eight weeks or so.
Click to expand:
Here’s the mise-en-scene:
See the upper left corner? That little triangle is your possible future library location, pending NIMBY approval:
So if you ever experience congestion in North Beach or Chinatown or Fisherman’s Wharf, be sure to blame it on this tiny temporary plaza.
Will it be a “traffic nightmare“? The people at Save Mason Street think so.
Brace yourselves…
Tags: 1, 1st, 2009, 2010, august, bikes, closed, closure, Columbus, county, curbed, department, dept., Dimaggio, dpw, fishermans, fishermans wharf, iscott, Joe, Joe Dimaggio, library, mason, mason street, months, nimby, nimbys, north beach, pedestrian, pedestrianist, Planning, plaza, public, San Francisco, save, save mason street, SF, sfist, street, streetsblog, temporary, trial
Posted in streets | 3 Comments »
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
So, here’s another go-around with the proposed “new improvements” to the ING Bay to Breakers. Today’s rally at City Hall attracted about 100 souls, plus a lot of speakers and media. But changes started coming a day or two ago when PR man Sam Singer, the “master of disaster,” started singing, thus ending the denial of the organizers of the historic footrace.
[UPDATE: Read a new Race Director Angela Fang interview from a viscous, attack-dog journalist here. And see a branding critique here. And finally, just who is "K.H., Manager, Sales, Production, Communications, B2B"? S/he is feisty no? So we hear from K.H. that B2B is "privately owned." O rly, by whom? Is it the Anschutz Entertainment Group, aka AEG, which is owned by The Anschutz Corporation, which is owned by noted marathon-running billionaire, Bush Cheney "Pioneer," and "intelligent design" fan Philip Anschutz? That's not my final answer, but signs point to "yes." Is this the same Philip Anschutz who supported the anti-gay Prop 2 in Colorado back in the day?]
This fellow looked like he liked what he heard this morn. Many attendees were encouraged by the fact that the take-it-or-leave-it approach from last week doesn’t appear to be written in stone. Even San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is “not against some kind of compromise.” Click to expand:
The sum of the crowd, a fair turnout, considering.
The United Hipsters of Benetton, representing the no-to-new-improvements side. You’d need an expanded Facial Hair Types chart to keep all the different grooming styles sorted out:
This graphic is somewhat damning of the organizers, some might feel. The ING people are saying the more people that register for the race, the more portable toilets we’ll get – but isn’t that a little backwards? Shouldn’t they put in a sufficient number, whatever that is, regardless? (Of course ING is just the primary sponsor and their contract with B2B runs out next year, but that’s what people call the organizers – the ING people.)
“Freaky” attorney Alix Rosenthal and San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi would like to work things out:
Can’t we all get along? As of this afternoon, it looks like we can.
Should you start working on this year’s B2B float? It’s still too soon to say…
Tags: 2008, 2009, alcohol, alix rosenthal, ashbury, b2b, bank, bay 2 breakers, bay to breakers, City Hall, corral, direct, drinking, drunk, facebook, gavin newsom, haight, ing, Mayor, new york times, nude, organizers, panhandle, police department, pr, protest, rally, ross mirkarimi, runners, sam singer, San Francisco, save, SFPD, toilets, twitter, wheeled
Posted in events | Comments Off
Saturday, January 17th, 2009
Do you like shark fin soup? Some folk do, especially in San Francisco. But the people behind the Shark Safe Project DO NOT approve. So they’ve skedded a Shark Finning Protest Demonstration for January 25th in the heart of Chinatown.
Will San Francisco become the first “Shark Safe” city in the USA? Looks like we’re on our way…
And will the graffiti kids switch from girafa to friendly, smiling shark?
via that_james’ photostream Click to expand
Only Time Will Tell.
No matter, these wailing souls will release their shark attack against various restaurants starting at noon on January 25th, 2009 in Portsmouth Square 花園角. (NB: Go before you go.)
Which restaurants?
Find out, after the jump.
(more…)
Tags: China, chinatown, chinese, fin, finning, portsmouth, protest, restaurant, Safe, San Francisco, save, shark fin, shark's fin, soup, Square, whine about town
Posted in protests | 2 Comments »
