Posts Tagged ‘webster’
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
You all know Webster Street, right? It’s Fillmore’s little buddy, taking people from Market Street north all the way up to our mismanaged Marina Yacht Harbor.
But take a look here to see what happens after it crosses Hayes Street. It turns into boulevard for some odd reason, for some 11 blocks, only to shrink back down again into a regular street at the intersection at Bush.
Looking north. The traffic heading up this street, (like the silver SUV) needs to jog right to get on the other side of the very wide median See that? It’s goes parking lane, bike lane, slow lane, fast lane, huge median, fast lane, slow lane, bike lane, and then another parking lane:
Here’s a bird’s-eye view. From Grove to Bush, from the Western Addition to “Little Osaka” (the cartographers’ favorite term for what people actually call Japantown in real life) it’s an unbusy boulevard, for an only-Gaia-knows-why purpose:
I cry foul.
Here’s a modest proposal – why not de-boulevard (v.t.) Webster by getting rid of the useless treed-up median and the twin northbound lanes for the entire three-quarters of a mile? Would anybody miss the median and the extra lanes? I mean, Fillmore does the all the heavy lifting with traffic and buses and whatnot, right?
That would leave us with 200,000 square feet of space to do whatever we want with. What would you do with 3.5 football fields worth of space?
In Japantown, some people already want to shut down the northbound lanes for extra parking or for temporarily housing businesses displaced by planned seismic upgrades for buildings on Post Street. But why not just kill the whole boulevard now in one fell swoop?
(Poorly-designed Octavia Boulevard has the opposite problem of having too much stalled traffic idling away, blocking travelers journeying east and west. Oh well.)
In conclusion:
What do we want?
A de-boulevarded Webster Street!
When do we want it?
Now!
(Repeat as necessary.)
Tags: alley, avenue, bike, boulevard, bridge, bush, cyclists, de-boulevard, deboulevard, fillmore, grove, hayes, ivy, j-town, japantown, jtown, lane, little osaka, mall, median, parking, pedestrians, post, San Francisco, street, strret, trees, webster, western addition, wide
Posted in streets | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Who knows how many fatwas were issued last week against New York Times reporter Scott James - no matter. But now it seems that the cops of the SFPD are getting picky about how cars handle the now-famous intersection of Steiner and Duboce, start of The Wiggle bike route.
This aging Land Cruiser (with tiny 15-inch wheels – a 1993 model?) will never die, but it will get its fair share of tickets on the Streets of San Francisco, for both parking and, as here, yesterday night, moving violations. Oh well.
Click to expand
Will this controversy result in a safer Wiggle?
Only Time Will Tell.
Tags: 2009, backlash, bay area, blog, critical mass, department, dept., duboce, halloween, intersection, land cruiser, new york times, November, nyt, police, route 30, San Francisco, san francisco bicycle coalition, scott james, SF, sfbc, SFPD, steiner, street, toyota, webster, wiggle, Writer
Posted in cars | Comments Off
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
The Party for Socialism and Liberation will host a Conference and some workshops on October 24th, 2009.
See?
It will be at 762 Fulton near Webster. Who knows, they might have a big turnout.
All the deets:
“Had Enough Cuts, Layoffs & Bank Bailouts? Fight For Revolutionary Change!
- What is Socialism? Is it possible in the U.S.?
- Fight the anti-worker capitalist agenda
- Stop police brutality & racist oppression
- Is a revolutionary party necessary for working class victory?
- Healthcare for all, not for profit
- Fight layoffs, evictions, foreclosures, education cuts & union busting
- Win full rights for all immigrants
- Capitalism must go: Stop racism, sexism & homophobia
- Socialism in Cuba & revolution in Venezuela
Saturday, Oct. 24, 9am-4pm African American Art & Culture Complex, 3rd floor (Accessible)762 Fulton St. at Webster St., San Francisco
near MUNI 5, 21, 22, 47, 49, 16AX/BX and Civic Center BART
|
Pre-Register online by clicking here, by phone (415-821-6171) or by email (SF@socialismandliberation.org)
$10-20 Donation no one turned away for lack of funds
SF@socialismandliberation.org Childcare & Lunch Provided
Tags: 2009, 24, 24th, 762 fulton, capitalism, City Hall, conference, fillmore, liberation, october, party, party for socialism and liberation, psl, socialism, socialism and liberation, socialist, street, webster, western addition, workshops
Posted in politics | Comments Off
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
Were you “jolted awake by a blinding white fireball that engulfed” your building this morning around 8:36 AM, Saturday 12, 2009? If so, you were not alone. And if you miss that kind of stuff, as world-famous Xeni Jardin does, then you’re not alone, again!
It sounded like an airplane crashing into the Fillmore Center, if you happened to be at the intersection of Geary and Divisidero as I happened to be. Was it a groundstrike into Hayes Valley or the Western Addition or (or the NoPA, oh no, not the NoPA!) or Pacific Heights?
Of course the Pigs Giraffes & Elephants at our local PG&E power monopoly were dealing with power outages earlier this morning, but some additional service was lost by this big strike. (“Saint Francis Woods,” like there’s more than one? Where do these writers live, freaking Walnut Creek?) Utility workers should focus their attention on soggy Golden Gate Park to make sure that Alanis Morrissette can put on her show this afternoon at Power to the Peaceful.
Did a transformer get hit? We’ll find out soon enough. Power at Post and Webster was out this morning just after the Big Boom of 9-12-9, so the strike couldn’t have been too far away.
Courage people, courage.
[UPDATE: Jay Barmann at SFist has the scoop. Here's the clap of thunder (craaaaaack!) and here's the result via PDX503. That's one less Audi, Chariot of the Yuppie, on the Streets of San Francisco.]
If only Megan Fox were here, to fix our transformer.
Oh, here she is, fixing the transformer of a 1969 Camaro in the movie Transformers:
Or maybe PG&E, perhaps they could help….
It was Miller Time at the scene of yesterday’s lightening strike after workers towed away the cars and patched things back up. Actually, strike that, the bolt darkened the ground so let’s call it a darkening strike.
For all you do, this Miller Time is for you.
Tags: 8:36, 8:40, Alanis Morrissette, am, Big Boom of 9-12-9, City Hall, divisidero, dpw, electricity, fillmore center, fireball, geary, grove, j-town, japantown, lighting, loud, morning, noise, NOPA, octavia, pacific heights, pg&e, police, post, power, power to the peaceful, rain, San Francisco, SFPD, sleep, street, strike, thunder, transformer, wake, weather, webster, western addition, woke, woken up
Posted in weather | Comments Off
Monday, August 17th, 2009
You knew that something big was going in Japantown when you saw this big sign go up last week – lots of people worked late into the night to make sure Saturday’s opening of the glassy “NEW PEOPLE” centre went off without a hitch.
Putting the finishing touches on the second-floor carousel at 9:00 PM. Click to expand:
And here’s the result Saturday morning, via the ubiquitous Steve Rhodes, who, like Visa, is Everywhere You Want To Be:
And, bonus, J-Town hosted a J-POP Summit to celebrate the building’s opening. Hello Kitty, Harajuku Girls, etc. in the house:
Post Street, as witnessed by Elanine A.
Read all about Saturday’s festivities here, via Robert Selna and here, where you can see tofu connoisseur and Supervisor Ross “The Boss” Mirkarimi helping to kick things off.
Excelsior! Good Luck NEW PEOPLE BUILDING!
Tags: 15, 15th, 1746, 1746 post, 2009, august, Buchanan, building, center, district 5, fillmore, glass, grand, j-pop, j-town, japan, Japanese, jpop, jtown, Mirkarimi, new, new people, opening, post, ross, ross mirkarimi, San Francisco, street, summit, Supervisor, webster
Posted in events | Comments Off
Monday, March 30th, 2009
Here’s what’s for sale at Kinokuniya Bookstore on Post Street: Version 2 of the Sonny Angel Mini Figures series. They’re a modern take on the original kewpie doll. Collect them all.
But there’s a catch – each figure comes in a “blind box,” meaning you can’t tell which hat your adorable little angel will be wearing. Oh well.
Click to expand:
Take your chances, why not?
Tags: 1581, angel, blind, bookstore, box, doll, hat, helmet, japantown, kewpie, kinokuniya, panda, pig, plastic, post, San Francisco, sonny, sonny angel, street, webster, wings
Posted in fashion | Comments Off
Friday, March 27th, 2009
The signs in the windows on Post Street tell the story – MEAT DAY is coming this Sunday, March 29th. If this is all you can see, then it’s tough to figure out the meaning. The only clues are bull, rooster, and pig icons along with Chinese characters that literally mean “meat day” or “day of meat.”
But this is in Japantown, so the pronunciation “Niku no Hi” can also sound like “2-9 Day“ - “ni” is the voicing for “two” and “ku” is one of the ways of saying “nine.
Mit-te [look]! It’s Meat Day! Click to expand.
The upshot of this is that Nijiya supermarket at 1737 Post near Webster, just across the street from the haters at 1600 Webster, is taking 20% off the price of any meat you buy, one day only.
Is fish included? No, ’cause meat is meat and fish is fish.
Why isn’t it 29% off? Good question.
Is the 29th of every month Meat Day? Don’t know.
Are ham, sausage, deli items and advertised sale items elegible for 20% off too? Another good question – the answer is no, those things are not included in the celebration according to the fine print.
But isn’t there a pig icon in the poster? Yes, good point.
What about bacon? All the kids are loving the bacon these days, right? Perhaps, but don’t know.
Crooner Morrissey says that “Meat is Murder.” What about that? Yes meat CAN be murder, on your pocketbook that is, so you should take every chance to save save save.
See you Sunday at Meat Day!
Lyrics after the jump
(more…)
Tags: 1737, 2, 29th, 9, beef, chicken, cow, day, hi, Japanese, japantown, kanji, market, meat, meat day, meat is murder, miorrissey, month, nijiya, niku, niku no hi, nine, pork, post, sale, San Francisco, singer, smiths, street, supermarket, two, vegetarian, webster
Posted in festivals | Comments Off
Monday, March 23rd, 2009
San Francisco’s Kinokuniya Bookstore at 1581 Webster Street in Japantown now has a space-faring doggie, complete with candy cane dog dish and rocket ship house.
Hopefully this pooch will last longer than Laika the Muttnik did.
Tags: 1581, bookstore, dish, dog, doghouse, doll, helmet, house, japantown, kinokuniya, laika, model, plastic, post, rocket, rocketship, San Francisco, ship, space, street, webster
Posted in art | Comments Off
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Check out this orange specimen of the “successful” Lamborghini Espada (“sword” en Italiano) blocking two garages on Webster Street.
Whether you get a “long and low“ S1, S2, or S3 you’ll surely underestimate your maintenance hassles, but at least you’ll be different from everybody else in town. It will tide you over while they work on the new one - see the family resemblance?
And, refreshingly, this particular Lambo is registered in California. Bonus!
Click to expand
Tags: bertone, california, Espada, lambo, lamborghini, s1, s2, s3, San Francisco, street, webster, western addition
Posted in cars | Comments Off
Friday, October 17th, 2008
Can there be any bigger stop sign than the one found at Webster and Bay in San Francisco’s Marina District? This thing is four feet tall and about seven times bigger than a regular sign, so it’s tough to miss.
Get one for yourself, for just $165.
Click to expand.
Tags: 3m sign, 48 x 48, 48", Bay, large, largest, marina, r1-1, San Francisco, stop sign, webster
Posted in streets | 1 Comment »
