Results tagged “city”

SFist brought you this news yesterday, but somewhere around "100 police officers, Muni inspectors and sheriff's officials were involved in Citywide Operation Safe Muni," conducted between 1 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday. CBS 5 reports that citations were issued for fare evasion, not having a pass or transfer, and eating/drinking on public transit.

Yesterday we mentioned the delightful work trip/vacation San Francisco supervisor Bevan Dufty and city treasurer Jose Cisneros took to Australia for Sydney's Gay Mardi Gras. Trannyshack founder Heklina was there, too. And many readers fretted about whether or not city tax dollars went to pay for this trip down under -- an excursion, it should be mentioned, that will reportedly bring in much-needed tourist dollars to SF. Anyway, according to Dufty's office:

A small protest was held at City Hall yesterday by 400-plus pissed off Tibetan immigrants, honoring the 49th anniversary of Tibet's uprising against China, but also San Francisco's hosting of the Olympic torch. Just a preface of what will happen in the city next month, San Francisco will be the focus of a major protest since it's the only US city hosting the Olympic torch relay in the 2008 Beijing games.

You know how Mayor Gavin Newsom is supposed to make a special guest appearance at the Board of Supervisors meeting? At least once a month? To listen to their complaints, demonstrate that he's taking an active interest in neighborhood politics, powder the Supes' tender bottoms, and such? Well, it looks like he might not have to anymore, even though you, the voter, said you wanted him there. Over at Sweet Melissa, we came across the following news:

Well, it's been fun. The trailers, the megawatt celebrity sightings, the lights, the cameras, the not being invited to cast/crew parties -- SFist will miss it all. As most of you know, Gus Van Sant's biopic -- the story of assassinated San Francisco Supervisor and gay rights advocate, Harvey Milk -- started shooting in January. This past Sunday, the production came to an end. Alas.

• Gothamist found that an explosive set off outside the Times Square army recruiting center may be similar to five past bombings in New York City.
• Seattlest worried when severed right feet and bottles of rat poison started washing up on local beaches.
• Shanghaiist was surprised by Bjork's rooting for Tibetan independence at her concert (see video), and the political fallout has only just begun.
• SFist debated the merits of new bronze plaques that will be placed in locations where San Francisco's homeless have died.
• DCist was obliged to respond to the worst Washington Post Outlook column ever published, in which conservative writer Charlotte Allen tried to make the case that women are dumb.
• LAist found Satan's ice cream truck trolling the streets, and they recorded the music.
• Some crafty Torontoist readers didn't like the dearth of ski hills in downtown Toronto, so they just built one of their own on their deck and (of course) recorded a video of them all taking turns on it.
• Bostonist knows the city's subway and bus system, the MBTA, has problems. So does this 17-year-old who submitted a report and told the MBTA brass how to fix it.
• Phillyist explored the possibility of an Ivy League prostitute, while their commenters debated the most ethical approach to proving or debunking the story.
• Londonist spent a little too much time looking at airbrushed operatic private parts, and enjoyed an enlightening comment from someone who was there.
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Due to budget problems, the Muni Powers That Be have decided on a possible solution, that being raising the Muni Fast Pass from $45 to $60 bucks. Suck on it, Muni riders.

• Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier sues City Hall over wheelchair ramplessness. [Curbed]
• Beth Spotswoodle [sic] hits up SFO's gay night. [SFGate]
• Valleywag 's happy hour watering hole, Moose's, comes to an end. Might we suggest the St. Regis or Ginger's Trois as a replacement? No? Okay. [Valleywag]

• Prince Harry goes to war and stuff. Or something like that. We didn't get much farther than the picture at right. [SFBG]
• Check out a most brilliant car crash in Noe Valley. [Curbed]
• Obama, McCain looks like theyhe'll take it. But you knew that already. Well, that was a surprise. [SFGate]

God, sometimes we love Orange County. It's such a parody of itself at times, which we admire. Especially when it comes to brilliance like the following found over at Laughing Squid. You see, the city of Santa Ana (oy) wants to help parents determine, via the graphic above, whether or not their child is a rat bastard tagger. The city of Santa Ana's site explains their accusatory and unfair image, along with the final word as to what is and is not art, thusly:

When we first mentioned Nicole Atkins, back in October, we genuinely loved her unique sound calling it "...an incredibly beautiful masterpiece of songwriting and story-telling." Almost six months later, we still agree with our initial reaction - if anything, it's grown on us even more. Our friends over at Noise: SFBG are totally into her as well. "There's always room for more melodrama in my life - just as long as it's strictly of the musical variety - and lucky me, new discovery Nicole Atkins is making everything pretty blood-and-thunder in my house, thank you very much." Watch the video of "The Way It Is" here or listen to "Party's Over" here.

We'll 'fess up. We haven't been to the Cow Palace since the 2005 Tattoo Expo. With that said, we're a bit torn with how to feel about the possibility of the Cow Palace being demolished. With such historical events as the Beatles playing there and John F. Kennedy speaking to the masses about starting the Peace Corp, on that hand alone, we'd hate to see this place go.

Over at The Snitch, we came across this fury-inducing commercial conceived by heart-warming conservative group Move America Forward. (You know, the one chaired by KSFO 560 AM's Melanie Morgan?)

Somehow this news story managed to slip past our radar last week, but the Gate published a story on how our wonderful state of California will be spraying the Bay Area with pesticides this summer. In an effort to eliminate the light brown apple moth (aww. Aren't they so cute?), an insect potentially disastrous for farming in California, the state agricultural department will be spraying an insecticide known as Checkmate over urban areas, according to the Chron. Cities that will be included in the spraydown are: San Francisco, Daly City, Colma, Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Tiburon and Belvedere.

Nancy Pelosi dedicates a campus and opines on the presidential race.

Without providing an answer for firing San Francisco Public Utilities Commission chief Susan Leal, the SFPUC officially sacked her this morning after a nine-minute closed door City Hall meeting. As part of her severance package, she will receive a delightful $400,000. The former city treasurer was asked to pack up and get the hell out last December as part of Newsom's second-term staff cuts.

By cutting a hole in a fence at the Hillcrest Juvenile Hall in San Mateo, an 17-year-old murder suspect and alleged gang member escaped to sweet freedom this last night. Awaiting trial this May, he is accused of a murder three years ago in Redwood City.

These two would-be brides were all dressed up with no place to go at San Francisco City Hall yesterday.

According to the fine folks over at The Sword (NSFW), the GayVNs (NSFW) will be held here on Saturday -- you know, those homosexual pornography achievement awards, which led to Mayor Gavin Newsom getting all Berkeley City Council on us after he declared Feb. 23 to be Colt Studio Day last year? -- coinciding with that hairy-large-gay-appreciation festival thing happening.

After the third rail near the South Hayward station lost power at around 10 a.m., affecting Hayward, South Hayward, Union City, and Fremont lines, service has been restored and Bart is running swimmingly.

A power outage has affected the Hayward-Fremont Bart line. Hayward, South Hayward, Union City, and Fremont are all feeling the powerlessness, and Bart is "currently working on setting up a bus bridge."

Fascist Imperial Dogs 1 - Tree Loving Hippies 0- After all that protesting and dancing and carrot juice drinking, the Berkeley City Council chickened out and said they erred in passing that January resolution that disinvited a Marine recruiting station and called them "unwelcome intruders." In that resolution, they also allowed Code Pink permission to blast all sorts of things at the station, gave them a designated parking space in front of it, and permission to protest on Wednesdays from noon to 4 p.m. Why Wednesday? Because it’s Hump Day! They did, however, refuse to issue an apology and used part of their mea culpa to lash out at the Bush administration and the war. This didn't satisfy some conservatives as Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina introduced the "Semper Fi Act" which would redirect money to UC Berkeley and give it to the Southern Heritage Coalition so they can sew more flags with the Confederate flag in them.

Anti-war fans, pro-war zealots, '60s fetishists, barely-legal Marines, the unshowered, and young college students trying to impress their boyfriends will be out in full force on the other side of the Bay later this evening. Why? Because after receiving loads of national criticism, as well as a few death threats, the Berkeley City Council will decide tonight whether or not to "revoke a letter it approved two weeks ago telling the Marines they are 'unwelcome intruders' and should leave their post." What's more:

If you recall, last Thursday a mother, while loading groceries into her car at a local Safeway, was approached by a man, carjacked, taken to a secluded area, and then sexually assaulted as her daughter was in the car.

The battle over Gavin's new staffing plans went up a notch in lieu of a report by Board of Supervisors Budget Analyst Harvey Rose that will be released today saying that Gavin is spending $959,903 in raises and taking that money out of departmental funds. The report was done at the behest of Jake McGoldrick after the first initial reports came out about Gavin going around City Hall and making it rain.

Does S.F. have any other old-school stand alone phone booths?

Hey, it's another Polk post, folks!

You want to be in a Brooks Brothers riot? Just dress sharp, and be tomorrow at 8:15am at the east entrance of City Hall! The SF TIC coalition is sponsoring a gathering to celebrate the Condo Conversion lottery, which will take place inside at 9am. You'll get free Peet's coffee, and you'll hear the plight off these poor TIC owners who can't convert there place into a condo, and how it's a heavy cross to bear, and how everyone hates Chris Daly.

It's going to be a far busier-than-normal meeting of the SF County Transportation Authority tomorrow. There's huge stuff on the agenda: updates on the bike plan; millions of dollars being thrown around for the Transbay Terminal; $160,000 for reducing graffiti on street signs; potential changes for Geneva Ave and McAllister Street, including a possible permanent re-route of the 5-Fulton; safety upgrades at 9th and Irving; and some forward momentum for restoring mass transit on Geary to pre-WWII levels. Whew!