Results tagged “hayesvalley”

Over at CAV on Friday night -- right next to Cafe Zuni -- Justin of JustInSoma and his girlfriend, Stephanie, were looking for a little wine, food, and relaxation. They got two out of three. While visiting the esteemed wine bar, Stephanie was robbed of her wallet and iPhone. Within 45 minutes, the thieving duo used her cash and cards to purchase $500 worth of groceries at Safeway, $40 worth rental DVDs from the Safeway kiosk, and $700 worth of clothing from Old Navy.

As many in the local news/blog firmament will be repeating this week, Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which was not such a doozy of a quake in the grand scheme (a 6.9er) but was certainly big enough to be imprinted on everyone's memory and to put some much-needed infrastructure improvements into the pipeline. But what of those infrastructure improvements, twenty years hence?

After this morning's FBI raids in San Francisco and Oakland, a total of five people were arrested. For what, you ask? Well, not human trafficking. Not treason. Not even hardcore gang activity. The five people (four men and one with-child lady) were hit with charges of selling or conspiring to sell crack cocaine. The charges against five retailers -- businesspeople, if you will, who are just trying to give you a lift -- carry mandatory minimum sentences of five or 10 years. Sorry to ruin your weekend plans.

Worthy of your love or a tetanus shot?

• Lucas (1986), Say Anything (1989), My Bloody Valentine (1981): The first film has socially-retarded Corey Haim falling head over heels in love with a sensitive football player, Charlie Sheen, or something like that; Cameron Crowe's tale of teenage love and angst has John Cusack causing egregious noise pollution when he holds up a ghettoblaster pumping out a Peter Gabriel ballad; and the final film has a murderer in a small coal mining town killing those who celebrate Valentine's Day. They screen at 7:30 p.m., 9:45, and midnight, respectively, at the Castro Theatre; $6-9.
• Editors: Yeah, yeah. We screwed up. Again. The SSRIs are running low this week. Stupid shrink. Anyway, check out this English indie rock band along hipster favorites Hot Hot Heat and Louis XIV. Music starts at 8 p.m. at the Warfield; $23.
• The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's Love on Wheels: As SFist Jim mentioned before, tonight's Dating Game parody in Hayes Valley should be divine. Starts at 7 p.m. at Rickshaw Stop; free for members of the SFBC ($10 for non-members).

Our friends over at CurbedSF brought to our attention that Hayes Valley will soon be getting a new makeover, via the redevelopment of 55 Laguna. The proposals for the "mixed-use" of the former UC Berkeley extension -- which was relocated four years ago -- has recently been approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission.

You get a very special blotter today. Alas.

Charming!

Well, the bad news is still that we've hit a 12 year high for homicides in the City and County of San Francisco, with two weeks left to go in the year. On the statistical side, though, the SFPD year to date murder count has moved down by three victims, from 100 to 97.

At one end of Ivy St., the vibrant sounds of Afro-beat float across Octavia from the African Outlet. A single pigeon observes the sidewalks and street from its lofty perch upon a sill of the Ivy Hotel, kitty-corner from the retailer. Nobody knows if the pigeon has taken note of the owl less than ten feet above its head. At the other end of Ivy St., low income housing strikes a weary pose across Laguna, a relic from the era when Hayes Valley was known as a freeway-slashed slum. Turning 90 degrees to the left, the newly gentrified and boutique-crazy Hayes St. is a 30-second walk to the south. Visible from our vantage point is a corner retailer, Alabaster, that deals in self-styled “treasures for the home.” Clearly, Hayes Valley remains in a state of transition. Even the pigeons can’t see everything going on here.

As mentioned in today's Chronicle, the idea of a safe-space in which intravenous drug users can shoot up -- without fear of arrests, beatings, rapes, or whatever happens in those movies after heroin's sweet release -- might become a reality. Or at least, discussed in length at this Thursday's all-day symposium hosted by the city Department of Public Health.

The Poop is getting literal. Well, almost. Yesterday, Aidin Vaziri brought up Poo&Pee, the delightful abjection characters for kids. See, one is a hunk of adorable excrement and the other a darling volume of urine. Ick, sure. But seeing as how we have serious body and bodily function issues -- unicorns and Smurfs shoot out of our ass as far as everyone else is concerned -- we surprised ourselves last year when we bought the stuffed animal Poo&Pees for a friend who had just pooped (heh) out a kid. They're adorable. If you're into that kind of thing. [NSFW]

Few San Francisco burghs are as tucked away as Glen Park. Despite the ingenious presence of a BART station and a handful of popular restaurants (Chenery Park, Gialina, La Corneta), the neighborhood isn’t the kind of place most people randomly end up on a stroll or a ride. Unlike, for instance, Hayes Valley, or much of the Mission, you make a bit of an effort to get here. Aspiring to become a high-profile destination-neighborhood is not on Glen Park’s agenda. Its reputation as a charming, homey little district stems from narrow, hillside lanes such as Sussex St., where the mood is assuredly residential. There’s something vaguely coastal New England in the air at certain moments along this block between Castro and Diamond, and it stems from more than the street’s name. It could be called Constantinople Place and we’d still be tempted to naively pin the “Cape Cod meets San Francisco” tag on the place.

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. Hey, why is Sucka Free City before the letters this week? Anti-Jewish slurs at Rainbow Grocery. The story behind that weird killing in Hayes Valley you guys got all worked up at us about (blah blah blah, hipsters, blah blah, SFist is racist, blah blah). Cover article: Disbar more lawyers. We are adoring the cautious yet game-for-adventure tone in this Southern Exposure pie delivery service piece! Meredith Brody bills the Weekly for her belly dancer. Hey, SFist Ced liked it! Let's Get Killed on the spate of bands coming in to perform single albums live, including Sonic Youth with Daydream Nation. We find that phenomenon so mysterious. The Bouncer passes along the theory that there are three types of bars in this city: Irish, hipster, and bars with two Asian women behind the bar. Also -- you may have heard the new Weekly web guy is now no longer with the Weekly -- best of luck to you, Matt Stroud! He was super super nice about the Day Around The Baymixup and we were looking forward to getting to know him!

Photo of car with a CHP 11-99 Foundation license plate holder

It is with a very heavy heart that we report the passing of Hugues De La Plaza. The young audio engineer was returning to his home in Hayes Valley last night at around 2:15; his neighbors called police when they saw a struggle outside his apartment; and his body was found a few hours later. Friends have set up a memorial site, and have extended to the world an invitation to remember Hugues:

Send your Bay Area finds to found at sfist.com! We call on you to submit discarded photos, objects, letters, and other items that you plucked from streets, thrift stores, flea markets, et cetera! Tell us where/when you found the item and any other helpful info. The find must be from the Bay Area, and its previous ownership shrouded in mystery. Special thanks to Captian Disco for sending us this link to an auction on eBay of a photo album containing photos from San Quentin circa 1932, including mug shots, suicide photos, and a track and field event. The auction ends tomorrow. Today's two featured lists were each separately found on the sidewalk near Hayes Valley about three or four years ago. The grocery list was at Hayes and Buchanan, and we honestly couldn't tell you the exact location of the "Reason for Blockages" find.

A handbill advertising a bikerelated event

On Saturday, fantastic Hayes Valley comic book store Isotope played host to Ed Brubaker, who's as hot a writer in the comics industry as anyone. Recently, a story of Brubaker's made headlines nationwide (and Colbert, of course): the death of Marvel Comics' icon Captain America.

--Civic Center's SFMike reports on a Hayes Valley-themed mini-golf public art installation. That's the eponymous Mr. Hayes (not Rutherford B., but another guy named Thomas) to your right.

What happens when you give visually impaired children cameras and ask them to capture their everyday life? Come find out at this exhibit for a new book by Tony Deifell, Seeing Beyond Sight: Photography by Blind Teenagers. Accompanying the revelatory photographs is commentary and reflections by the artists. If you can't make it tonight, the show runs until May 12 but stop by around 6 until 8pm to catch a glimpse of the photographs in the book, meet the author and see clips from an upcoming documentary film. SF Camerawork, 657 Mission St.

In a big press conference yesterday, city officials announced plans to have police officers start patrolling four projects in the Western Addition. Up until now, police weren't able to patrol those places due to issues concerning who had jurisdiction over them-- San Francisco or the Federal Government. The Federal Government had supported community policing in those areas, but the money dried up years ago. After looking through what Ross Mirkarimi called a "Khafka-esque" relationship between HUD and the SFPD, a solution was reached.

-There was a protest in the Mission over the the latest bit of immigration raids. -Flaks o' Gavin on gay porn proclamation: we did what? Oopsie.

Last week's winner, the East Bay Express: Hey, maybe you could let the Laotian community know, in Laotian, when your refinery blows up? Cover article (which is by the same person that wrote the Lao article -- Kara Platoni had a busy week!): People hoarding gene patents. Book section: Books about eating, and a book about how a dowser found someone's missing harp. Nontraditional BBQ in Berkeley. And the digital music industry still sucks. And that's it! Goodness, that was a thin EBX.

Quick -- which one of those pictures above is of Valencia Street in SF and which is of Williamsburg in Brooklyn?

All of our comics this week have been struck by some kind of diabolic decontextualization ray, leaving them to fend for themselves in the bleak tundra of WTF. From local artist Chris Wisnia come inside-jokes so confusing you won't be able to find your head to scratch it; from Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale come a Superman so divorced from modern superhero style we found ourselves enjoying it in spite of our deep-seated loathing of underwear perverts; and from Steve MacIsaac comes a relatively contextual story about a man lost in a country and relationship he just can't understand. And as always, the information you need to make sense of the world is available at Isotope Comics in Hayes Valley, who are kind enough to point us in directions that sometimes make very little sense indeed. Just how we like it.

We love how warm and unpretentious the 24th and Bryant area is. We especially love the harmonious balance between the hipster and Latino cultures which is threatening to become less and less harmonious due to the construction of various sets of condominiums in the area. Each business has its own distinct personality that enhances the overall vibe of the neighborhood, and that's the way we like it.

More art tonight!

Doctor DeBunko is awash in fools. The creation of local artist Chris Wisnia, Dr. DeBunko's comics follow a familiar pattern: a group of hysterical idiots, foaming at the mouth over some unexplained phenomena, are patiently condescended to by a skeptical pipe-smoking intellectual with slick 1950s hair and a passing resemblance to Vincent Price. A farmer wails over the eviscerated corpse of a cow, "it's the paranormal mystery crime of the century! Is this the work of aliens out to steal cow DNA?" And the doctor replies, "I see you've got a number of poisonous plants growing on this property. Are there many scavenging animals nearby?" Oh, what a spoilsport.