Common, a "co-living" startup based in New York that acts as a property management company, was recently profiled in a New Yorker article that nicely contextualized it in the history of city dorm-like spaces — kind of like extended-stay hostels for young, single people of the same gender. In the case of Common, they write, "the company has set out to restore a certain subset of young, urban professionals to the paradise they lost when they left college, campuses... a furnished place to live, unlimited coffee and toilet paper, a sense of belonging." Now, Common is bringing that life to San Francisco, where it's preceded by plenty of actual communes — though none quite so expensive — and other "contemporary" co-living spots of the "hacker hostel" variety such as Coliving Club. The Common model is also one with which co-working/office space startup WeWork is experimenting, hatching their WeLive apartments.

The Business Times heralded Common's arrival, writing that the company is taking applications for its newest location in SoMa, somewhere on Minna Street. The price: $2,600 per room. The New Yorker pitched Common's advantage as providing nice accommodations — “someone awesome’s parents’ house, without any of the parents” — in neighborhoods where young people might not be able to afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment on their own. But, in the case of the Minna location, that's debatable.

Though comparing that $2,600 per room sum with the area's median one bedroom rent, which is well over $3,000, might make it seem favorable to go with Common, you'll be living with 11 others. So... yeah, that's definitely Apartment Sadness territory.

But hey, you don't have to pay for WiFi, although you are paying, in part, for Common to have its own staff. As the New Yorker wrote,

Common has three locations in Brooklyn: the brownstone in Crown Heights, on Pacific Street—which, when it opened, received more than a thousand applications for eighteen rooms—a second, smaller brownstone in the neighborhood, and a fifty-one-bedroom complex in Williamsburg, which opens this week. Instead of signing a lease, residents sign up for a “membership.” On average, they pay eighteen hundred dollars a month for a furnished bedroom and common areas. The company solves what it calls “the tragedy of the commons”—waiting for the cable guy and hiring housecleaners. There’s a chat room on Slack, where members can plan activities, and a “house leader,” who functions a bit like a college R.A.

The New Yorker article also invoked Campus, a San Francisco-based startup SFist profiled as it was expanding two years ago. "When you joined Campus, you weren’t just joining a house; you were choosing a life style," The New Yorker put it, and, to add a little bit to that, the life style you were choosing was a pretty nice one for someone arriving to San Francisco, probably with a job in hand but less of a social foothold. Campus folded somewhat suddenly, having run out of money, kicking everyone out abruptly last June in a move we noted at the time. So, can Common succeed where Campus failed? Well, it's got $16 million from investors who hope so, and young San Franciscans in SoMa are a coveted market... we'll have to wait and see. But people do know you can get shares all over town with way fewer than 11 people for way less than $2,600/mo, right?

Related: On 'Campus': A College-Like Take On Commune Living For Millennials New To Town
Housing Startup 'Campus' To Close Its Nearly 30 Co-living Houses

Here's what we've missed in the world of Bay Area sports while trying to figure out who the Oceanic 6 are...

-And now.the Rai-duhs. First they signed oft-injured and oft-whining Javon Walker to a ridiculous contract for around $11 mil a year, one that makes him better paid than many other and much better WRs . The deal was so crazy, it has people wondering if it is the worst deal ever. Also of interest is that after they signed him, the picture put on the Raiders web site about the signing had a picture of Walker grinning with new WR coach James Lofton with head coach Lance Kiffin nowhere to be seen. Isn't it about time somebody call the police to try and find out where he went? Then there's the rumors that the Raiders Chosen One, JaMarcus Russell is apparently eating himself out of a job as he is currently over 300 pounds, something for which team officials are denying.

-Let's see, Zito got shelled again, Lowry is out, the Giants have no shortstop right now, and their designated 1B ain't hittin’ Is 100 losses possible? We couldn't help notice too that the Giants slogan this year is "All Out" which is kind of ironic considering the probable offense they will run out there. And as Leah Garchik pointed out, "All Out" means a whole other thing here in EssEff.

-The Warriors keep winning and winning but still find themselves on the bubble as they are in eighth place in the ridiculously tight Western Conference, two games ahead of the Nuggets. This currently has them playing the Lakers in the playoffs but with Andrew Bynum out, the Lakers could be had (could be) but how many times can an eighth seed beat a #1 seed?

Friday, the local music scene takes us by storm with MiGGs over at Red Devil Lounge and Maldroid at Bottom of the Hill. Both bands are from Oakland, though technically Don Miggs just moved South. It's a hard choice, but we're off to Red Devil Lounge. It looks like MiGGs got a record deal and are working on some new stuff. There'll be a new single and video in March.

Basia Bulat, a Canadian pop music singer/songwriter will be headlining at The Bottom of the Hill on Saturday night. "Oh My Darling," her first full-length album, was released earlier this month on Rough Trade Records. You can watch the video to "In the Night" here. We have a feeling that she's gonna be the "Feist of 2008." Grupo Fantasma, the finest and funkiest latin orchestra to come out of the United States in the last decade is playing at Slim's. They were just featured as NPR's "Song of the Day" and Prince is apparently in-love; how sweet.

The real excitement this weekend is at Great American Music Hall where St. Vincent (seen below) and Foreign Born are playing. Foreign Born (die-hard Obama fans) have been working on "shit tons of new material" which will land in stores fall 2008. Hopefully, they will play some new material. St. Vincent, (aka Annie Clark, along with her full band) is known for her work with Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens. New York Times called her recent release "an extravagant collection of songs..." We just can't get enough.

Take the jump for full listings...

The SF Symphony Gala last Wednesday night, is one of the poshest events of the year -- a must-attend for anyone who’s anyone who has the right to live, breathe, receive adequate healthcare in SF. We were lucky to tag along for the ride. The performance of its annual opening is an afterthought, and we were not sure if there wasn't some subtle subversion going on. We mentioned already the choice of the Fanfare for the Common Man (inspired by a left-leaning speech by Roosevelt’s ex-vice president Henry Wallace), but looking back, we see that, except for one short Gounod excerpt, all the pieces where from after 1900. That is provocative! Way to backhandedly smack the bourgeoisie attending your opening, MTT! It’s no wonder that a significant chunk of the patrons only came back from intermission after a few glasses of freely flowing champagne, missing some fine singing by Renée Fleming.

To be honest, even though it was mainly 20th century stuff, it wasn't the most avant-garde music. You can ruffle feathers (or more accurately, mink furs) only so far. It started with three instrumental pieces, and MTT asked us to consider them as a whole, even though they spanned fifty years and three composers. Copland’s aforementioned fanfare was performed very deliberately and very LOUDLY. The common man must have poor hearing. Then an Andante for Strings by Ruth Seeger, where the string instruments undulate slowly around a key center, not unlike the sound of a fly in slow motion.

So Ken MacDonald is good, eh? Tell us more.

That I've seen, Mr. McDonald has been very good. He's been out to almost every service disruption in person and not just standing there but getting involved and directing. I do not work directly with or for Mr. McDonald and do not otherwise know him BUT I've seen him out there as stated, doing his job and getting others to do theirs during incidents.

You must realize that just because someone is appointed / brought in / hired, that all is not going to be good or bad. It falls back to the supervisors and their lack of being committed / involved in their job, i.e. I know on at least a few occasions, street supervisors / track supervisors, etc. are on break and refuse to leave their break until the break was over - an hour later. Goes back to what I mentioned of having good, motivated employees.

So many good and thoughtful suggestions for fixing a bureaucracy I hardly ever see when doing my daily Muni rides.

Thanks. If "they" ever find out, they'll spend hundreds of thousands and years to research the "basics" of service before implementation. Common sense does not work in SF for some unknown reason.

And with that, let's get it on.

It'd be cool if the streetcars could have fare machines in the cars like the ones on the platforms out on the Embarcadero. Sometimes you can't get on the first car to pay the driver. Sure, in theory you shouldn't board the train if you can't pay the fare, but the one time I got off the back car and reboarded the front one, the driver told me off, saying it was a good way to miss the train.

Has something to do with the streetcars being historic vehicles and being a violation to modify / add items not originally installed on the vehicle.

I remember reading an article on "forged" Muni Fast Passes that made it sound like they are quite common. Is this actually that big of a deal? Ever see any forged/modified transfers?
Do inspectors ever bust people for "reselling" their transfers, which says right on the transfer that it is forbidden? I see this quite often though, especially on Market downtown.
"Transfers for a dolla! Good all night!"

They are out there. Common? sort of. It takes a sharp fare inspector to catch it. The fake passes are that good.

We have a collection of the fake passes - and part of them were given over to Mr. Ford during that news conference for display.

Busting people for reselling transfers? yes, we've caught and cited those persons too.

Anyways, this Saturday there will be the official opening cermony even if it's not surf time yet. Attending will be all the surfers who hope to take part in the surf contest whenever it happens.

There is a bit of controversy this year, however, concerning the contest. Federal authorities are thinking about setting up a jet-ski ban which could affect those surfers who like to take a jet ski out to the hard-to-reach waves. There's actually a bit of a debate in surfing circles about jet skis between those who do jet ski and those who think it goes against the surfing credo. There was also a law suit filed over the year by people who got injured while watching the competition last year. Why did the file the lawsuit? Because they suck.

If you want to check in to see when the competition starts or want to watch the competition, check out the Mavericks page. They'll have a web cam set up to broadcast the competition over the internets. And if that isn't good enough for you, the Giants are showing the competition at one of their Field Club Lounges. Hey, maybe Barry Zito will show up there.

If you want to see our coverage from last year, go here.

We are very sad to report to you that Chris Daly is in the Chron today -- but not for hauling off and hitting anyone, or yelling at someone so loud that the cords stand out on his neck. Rather, he's got a totally sane and balanced and compassionate proposal for the extra money they've found in the San Francisco budget. What's more, it's an actual local op-ed on the opinions page, instead of the usual nationally-focused Molly Ivins and George Will columns the Chron reprints in lieu of discussing actual local issues on that page.

Daly suggests that we use the SF budget to protect the working-class and the poor, and proposes that we 1) increase affordable child care, 2) protect against evictions; 3) set up a safety net for immigrants; 4) increase funding to encourage teenagers to stay off the streets; 4) support seniors; and 5) invest in the local arts scene. This would all be for around $25 million of the $5.7 billion in the budget (less than half of one percent, if our math is right). That's so Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of him!

Don't worry, though, he gets in a little dig at the Gav: "During the mayor's 90-minute roll out of his 'Common Sense and Compassion' budget, I was left wondering what happened to the compassion." But Chris! What happened to the crazy? What happened to the crazy?

In keeping with today's garbage theme, here's a picture of Chris Daly at a DPT thing from sfgov.org.

The issue now is Google's decision to censor search results on its Chinese site. In an interview with Reuters (vectored via CNet news.com), Sergey Brin acknowledges that the decision will be criticized, but "eventually I came to the conclusion that more information is better, even if it is not as full as we would like to see."

Anders Bylund of Ars Technica.com compares the decision to Google's earlier rejection of the US Department of Justice's subpoena for search records, calling out the "hypocrisy" of standing up to one government but caving to another. The difference here, according to critics, is that China is a great untapped market, and playing nice with the Chinese government will yield a higher profit for the company than would caving to the DoJ.

We're taking Google's side on this one. Chinese users are already restricted by their government's firewall. Opening a dedicated site in China, even one that acquiesces to the government's demands, guarantees access to some information and keeps users from having to do all their searches on the down-low. Refusing to open the site because "Information Wants To Be Free!" does nothing for the Chinese.

People like to paint a picture of the company as Champions of Truth and Defenders of the Common Man, when the reality is a lot more practical: it's a business, one that exists to make money and give people access to information. It turns out that the two aren't always mutually exclusive, and the company ends up doing good more often than not.

Google's not the superhero who's going to fly into China and stick it to the Red Menace. It's just a company that has made billions and billions of dollars by doing things well and looking out for its customers. And that's even more impressive.

While Schwarzenegger's political poll numbers are still down, there is one poll in which he is doing very well. Turns out, Arnie is Ubersexy! According to Men's Vogue, Arnie is the Fifth Ubersexiest man in the world, making him ubersexier than Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, but not as ubersexy as George Clooney, #1 Ubersexiest male Bono, or Donald Trump (blogga, please). Not on the list was Rush Limbaugh, who has been whining about it ever since.

As for his propositions in the Very Special Election, we turn to the Prop. 77, the redistricting initiative, because if politics make for strange bedfellows, this one is causing TomKat-like couplings. Besides the support of Mr. Campaign Reform himself, John McCain, the initiative got the support of well-known political reform organization, Common Cause. Well, sort of. Seems there was a bit of a disagreement over supporting it, and it's rumored several board members threatened to resign in protest of aligning with a politician whose pro-business stand would earn the plaudits of Montgomery Burns. Also supporting the proposition is consumer rights group, CalPIRG.

Image of our Governor in a Japanese TV commercial from Japander