The name of the bicyclist killed yesterday has been released. He was Kirk Janes, founder of the American Flyer bike messenger service, and a well-known figure in the local bike messenger community. We like this quote from the Chronicle that describes the kind of guy he was: Janes had broken his hip while riding on Second Street last year and could have gone on disability from the state. Instead, he quit Speedway Delivery last......

What a care- and crime-free life SF is living right now,right? And we don't believe any of it. According to local media outlets, SF is safe and sound. But according to a few SFist tipsters: - "Okay, that sure sounded like three gunshots at Alamo Square park, at the northwest corner, around 9:21pm. Anyone concur?" - "Heard four more gunshot-like explosions at 10:49 in the same area. Saw four cops heading east on Fulton......

Look out, Alamo Square! A "hot prowl" has been reported! We have no idea what that means -- maybe SF Crime knows? -- but oh lord how it makes us giggle. Time to send in the Hot Cops! We've really been digging this "EveryBlock" website, which aggregates news, crime reports, photos, reviews, health inspections, and lots of other details about neighborhoods. But unfortunately, the SFPD's data-sharing tool CrimeMAPS is pretty old-fashioned (it says it......

Even with all the nasty weather, this weekend proved to be yet another violent one in San Francisco. For sure. After five shootings took place within a 24-hour time period, two people lost their lives. Let's go to the rewind, folks: Yesterday, on Rosie Lee Lane in the Bayview district, Torrance Gray, 16, was found dead of multiple gunshots wounds. SFPD were responding to a call when they found him. A few hours earlier,......

Man, this dull-as-dishwater mayoral "race" is getting us in the blogging doldrums. Someone do something funny, quick! Meanwhile, we'll pass along the news of the latest progressive hope for the Newsom mayoral steamroller juggernaut, Quintin Mecke. Mecke's the director of the Safety Network Partnership, active on homelessness and public safety issues, praises Project Homeless Connect, and has worked on Chris Daly's, Matt Gonzalez's, and Ross Mirkarimi's campaigns. His first order of business is going to......

A photo of San Francisco's changing skyline...

--A guy jumped onto the field to say hi to Barry Bonds yesterday. Arrested, drunk. [The Chron photo pool, the Snitch.] --They're looking on the Oregon coast now for the missing Alameda County woman and her friend the priest. It's been three weeks. [The Chron.] --Alamo Square was cordoned off this afternoon after gunfire on McAllister Street hit a motorist in the head. [ABC 7.] --There were also shootings at Webster and Rose and Div......

We complain a lot about San Francisco -- you name it, we'll bitch about it, sometimes to the point of distraction. Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to remind us of the good things. Today's kick in the head comes from Jonathan Zwickel at The Stranger's Slog blog, where he writes about his first-ever Bay to Breakers last weekend:...

We want a dog so bad we've taken to following strangers in the street in the hope that they'll stop at the “don’t walk sign” and let us pet Fido. One may wonder why we haven't run to the shelter to adopt one yet. The official reason we give the weary stranger towering over us while we crouch down to scratch his pit bull’s head is that our landlord doesn't allow pets. But truth be told, our common sense buckles at the idea of having to walk a hyperactive mutt called Schnitzel at 4AM when we just barely managed to crawl back home from the Orbit Room. Fortunately there is a heaven for lazy dog lovers and it is called Alamo Square. ...

For those of you who celebrated your winter holiday of choice with an elaborately-festooned evergreen tree: no matter what your religion or creed, we're all united in the same post-holiday question -- how do we get rid of it now? Well, you're in luck! The godlessness of the town of San Francisco is offset by its environmental zeal -- so if you've got a tree you need to get rid of, drag it to the......

As we discussed earlier today, PG&E and ReadyMade magazine are co-sponsoring "Let's Green This City," which is aiming to raise environmental consciousness by putting sofas covered with grass around the city. Sure, why not? (Will Ross Mirkarimi be involved? And what's the Bay Guardian's public power-oriented stance on this?) As SFist Jim Herd saw, there's couches outside City Hall (and word is that Gavin Newsom braved grass stains on the back of his pants......

We sure hope tonight's episode of "How to Get the Guy," which airs at 10 p.m. on ABC, is better than last week's because, maaaan. That was some boring TV. Don't believe us? Well, read on pumpkin! Previously on "How to Get the Guy," four single-girls-in-the-City began their quest to find love, with the help of some very dubious "love coaches." JD's claim to fame is he's a guy. And Teresa has "found love."......

Welcome, readers, to an all-too-rare edition of SFist Answers, where we pretend to know stuff. Today's theme: crying. Let's make people cry. Fun!...

Fill in your Wednesday so that every row, column, and 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9! Tonight: Local author ZZ Packer will be reading from her acclaimed short story collection, Drinking Coffee Elsewhere, at the SF Main Public Library. 6:30, in the lower level auditorium. After the reading, go hear another set of interconnected tales at the Make-Out Room as the band Deliver Me From Nowhere covers Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, in track order. That show starts at 9. Thursday: Has anyone else seen this Dance Dance Revolution-type game where instead of dancing, you drum? Help us try and remember the name of that game as you attend the SF Conservatory of Music percussion department student recitals! Student Jamie Drake is performing for free at 8 pm in Hellman Hall (19th Street and Ortega). and Friday: It's the Exploratorium's opening night event for its show "Reconsidered Materials," and Elizabeth Hickok will be displaying her awesome San Francisco in Jello (tm), for one night only. Hickok makes a scale model of city scenes, then casts the buildings in gelatin, and then paints and lights it up. (See above.) The gelatin then falls apart. Event starts at 7. Picture of Alamo Square from LizHickok.com...

We happened to be walking past Alamo Square Park yesterday, and remembered that nestled in the trees at the crest of the hill, overlooking a perfect San Francisco skyline, is what we are declaring the most beautiful tennis court in the world. Sure, maybe Andre and Steffi have something overlooking the bay up in Marin, but the fact that anyone with some sneakers and a racket can play here for the cost of a......

You know how on Murder She Wrote, you were always like, why does anyone ever invite Jessica Fletcher anywhere, because someone always gets murdered when she's around? Well, Jessica Fletcher must be in San Francisco, because there's been four separate murders this week. On Thursday, two people were killed in the Alamo Square area (one at McAllister and Lyon, and another at Eddy and Scott), and over the weekend, two people were killed in the Potrero Hill area (one at 20th and Tennessee, another at 22nd and Vermont). In our own Casuistry incident, three teens in Pleasanton have been arrested for murdering a cat and hanging its body from a noose over a train trestle for passersby to see. Who comes up with ideas like this? And Oakland's going with humili-tainment as its latest get-tough-on-prostitution tactic. The Oakland PD will be installing cameras in areas known for prostitution and johns who are arrested for solicitation may have their pictures put up on billboards and bus stops. Dang! Adding insult to injury, they'll also take your car ("Come to Oakland in a Porsche, leave on AC Transit"), so there's that additional risk of waiting for a bus stop that has your picture on it. Oakland's not messing around....

Watching last night's premiere of "Lost" (by the way, that show kicks total a**) brought back fond memories of Lost star Matthew Fox's previous show, "Party of Five." While SFist isn't necessarily fond of that kind of show, we watched this series regularly in our shared Fulton Street apartment. We got specific pleasure out of the fact that it was supposed to take place here in San Francisco, but, other than an occasional establishing shot,......