The San Francisco Citizen

What we got for our recent $400,000 study of the San Francisco Police Department was a bunch of recommendations. One of which was to train officers in the use of Tasers.

This scene from just yesterday shows the detention of a suspect after multiple SFPD handguns were unholstered and drawn in a parking lot near the Golden Gate Theatre. One false move from this suspect and he’d have been plugged multiple times from three different angles. And then we’d have another officer-involved shooting, such as what we had with Asa Sullivan at the ParkMerced.

Of course Tasers can lethal as well. But it’s nice to have an extra arrow in your quiver, another tool in the law enforcement box.

The only way to find out if Tasers are good for San Francisco is to try it and see, right?

Now back in the day, it was easy to see construction workers on the job. All you had to do was look up through the I-beams and see them walking around. Those were the days, see?  

But these days, due to changing construction techniques using concrete, rebar, and whatnot, you need to get above the workers to see them at labor. These folks are mostly out of view after the first floor gets done. Here, they work on the third floor.

Pretty soon, you wont see the cars of UC Hastings Law School students and staff clogging up the parking spaces of Civic Center  and Little Saigon thanks to this new mixed-use building that’s still going up.

Click to expand.

The other problem with seeing these people at work is that these jobs are drying up lately.

Good-bye construction workers of San Francisco. See you again in a year or two?

Per the Cruise Hot Sheet, you can float out of San Francisco on a big modern liner, like the 2400-passenger Norwegian Sun, for just $599. This “Freestyle Cruise” starting in November 2008 goes on for 19 days, so that works out to a Cost Per Day (CPD) of just $31.53. Plus you’ll feel like you’re living in San Francisco’s District 2 at the 96-seat “Pacific Heights Restaurant” on Deck 11.

Passing by the Cliff House and the kiteboarders of Ocean Beach, The Norwegian Sun headed out yesterday for sunny Mazatlan, Mexico. Click to expand:

Now there are people living in the Tenderloin these days who are paying more than that just for a tiny studioapartment with no amenities at all. So going on a cheap “repositioning” voyage can be cheaper than living in San Francisco, if you believe the Innernet.

Bon Voyage!

This area near Golden Gate and Van Ness can’t really be called the Tenderloin, as you can see City Hall’s duomo is quite close by.

So, you have an abandoned lot that’s been unused for donkey’s years, an abandoned Trader Vic’s, an abandoned Quizno’s, an abandoned California State Building (sadly still windmill-free and dormant since being attacked in 1991), and an architectural McDonald’s with an abandoned second floor. There used to be bushes on this lot, but they’re all gone now.

Some California poppies are the only sign of life you can see here. Sort of a bleak area…

Clique pour la pleine horreur:

News of the day: ”Gunfire erupted near UC Hastings College of the Law in the 200 block of McAllister Street at 5:40 p.m.” Interestingly, both accounts of this shooting place the 200 block of McAllister in the Tenderloin area.

Some might consider this block as part of the Civic Center as it’s right across the street from Civic Center Plaza. You can see these 49ers Gold Rush cheeleaders causing a stir on McAllister’s 200 block last year in the photo below.

Click to enlarge:

So is this block really in the Tenderloin?

Mmmm….

Check it out - a busload of touristas passing through the newly installed “gate” of Little Saigon on Larkin Street. Almost like Chinatown, huh?

Thus spaketh San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly:

“These pillars will attract some attention and foot traffic to Little Saigon”

Looks like that’s all working out, and without the rancor that they’re having down in San Jose.

Excelsior!

Well the concrete slabs are starting to stack up in the Civic Center - it’s a parking garage/retail space project. The 1200 students at vaunted UC Hastings School of Law (the oldest and largest law school west of St. Louis, or something) have enjoyed discounted parking at the Civic Center Garage for years.

Changes are afoot in front of historic McAllister Tower:

It’s nice to see these kids will be pulling their own weight soon. The whole idea is to make the place more “student friendly.” 

We’ll see.

Fiat justitia