The San Francisco Citizen

After getting off of California’s new bullet train in San Francisco, how are you going to get from the CalTrain Station at 4th and King Streets up to the Financial District or the TransBay Terminal or someplace you actually want to get to?

Well, maybe a jitney bus is in your future. They say it’s faster than MUNI.

Anyway, read all about it:

Derailed: California bullet-train champion Quentin Kopp had his fellow Proposition 1A supporters choking on their election night Champagne with his pronouncement that the current Caltrain station at Fourth and Townsend would make a fine high-speed rail station - and that San Francisco’s plan for a Grand Central Station-style downtown hub was a waste of time and money.

“I am not going to pay $2.5 billion to move a track 1.4 miles,” said Kopp, the former San Francisco supervisor, state senator and retired judge who now chairs the California High Speed Rail Authority.

Or maybe you can walk?

Now hosting a polling place on election day isn’t the most lucrative way to spend your time. So, you gots to sweeten the pot, right?

A good way to do that is advertising, as we can see from this official polling station on 8th Avenue.

Click to expand:

The long lines of waiting voters are your captive audience.

SELL, SELL, SELL!

San Francisco is where the founding United Nations Charter was signed, so we get more than our fair share of attention from the UN and there are various plaques around town to remind us.

The 60th Anniversary of the United Nations has come and gone, but this sign at the Civic Center / UN Plaza BART station underneath Market Street still calls for renewal.

People called for renewal during the 50th Anniversary as well.

Who will call for renewal when the 70th Anniversary comes along?

Here’s what the Lime Point Light, located right next to the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and close to Cavallo Point, looked like back in the day, courtesy of our friends at the United States Coast Guard. Click to expand:

But technological change and the arrival of the bridge in the 1930’s eventually put this station out of business. It was no picnic working there anyway, what with the occasional freighter collision and the constant rain of orange paint chips. 

This is how it looks these days, with just the fog station left (and the front gate open on this particular day, for some reason).

Sic transit gloria mundi 

This was the scene last night at the Atlantic Richfield on Fell and Divisadero last night. “No Gas.” Why’s that? Who knows. Maybe it’s a temporary shutdown at this particular station for an innocuous reason. Maybe.

Or, maybe it’s a signal to go out and buy all that you can lay your hands on. That was such a good strategy a few months back when we had that “rice shortage“. Wasn’t it?

These days, it’s not just Peak Oil or Peak Rice, it’s Peak Everything. Oh noes! Panic, panic panic!

Oh well. The upside to all this is that the Fell Street bike lane, formerly crowded with cars sitting in line for ARCO gas (check the photo from MapJack at “1160 Fell St, San Francisco, CA 94117“), is now free for bikes to use 24/7. So  the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition can count another victory. Plus the owner of the Spirit station across the street must be happy.

Hurray!  

The Ice Age is coming, the sun zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear…

Oh, it’s on!

Witches, Crones, Sirens come to the Marine Recruiting Station [on May 9, 2008] to cast spells, weave magic, invoke the foremothers, share wisdom, lead rituals to bring peace to the MRS, to protect our youth from the powerful spells of pro-war forces, to lead the men of the marine recruiting station off into the oceans of peace!

Some witches, crones and sirens are willing to risk arrest, others are not. We call on all crones, witches and sirens to come to the MRS, to bring your energy, your wisdom, your fierce determination to end war now and bring peace to our world.

What’s that? You can’t make the scene? Well then just watch it all live online courtesy of Fox News Channel on the 24/7 FoxNews Berkeley Protest Cam.

In fact, why don’t you check it out right now and see if Code Pink’s gatherings in front of the recruiting station really are as “ill-attended” as Fox says. 

 t-dawg via flickr 

Witches, Crones, Sirens come to the MRS
Friday, May 9th 2008  starts at 7:30 AM
Berkeley, CA

See you tomorrow!