a. fish

Hyperlocal

Who would've predicted - but it's coming I tell ya - globalization begets an age of place. Hyperlocal H20Town blogger Lisa Williams has made a 1000 place blog bet with PressThink's Jay Rosen. Said some naysayer: "Lisa Williams is special.  There are so few of her that hyperlocal will never take off.”

To that comment may I just say: BWAHAHAHAA! I can only guess the doubter a Tom Sawyer protege attempting to kickstart a hyperlocal media movement with an old fasioned double-dog "I betchya can't do it" schoolyard dare.
(See also: Slate's Jack Shafer on How the New York Times Makes Local Papers Dumber. Uh huh.)

Here in San Fran we've seen a quiet rise in the microdailies. First the new Examiner, reduced to "compact" (tabloid) layout, distributed sans charge in subway stop-dotting newsracks; cluttering up the driveways of the tony addresses admired by advertisers everywhere.

Next we see a neighborhood newswire, published by public power activist Steve Moss. Inspired by a study showing a direct correlation between the trust readers had in a publication and the proximity of its focus, Moss created the wire service to be used by niche neighborhood publishers. Place begets trust, he concluded, and the neighborhood newswire was born.

Then the publishers of the East Bay Daily News set up shop here at www.sfdaily.net. Noticing an untapped lower-tier advertising market, they wisely seized what they saw as an opportunity. And this 16-page Monday thru Friday paper did something really evil that kept me coming back for more: they introduced that bloody timesucker of a puzzle, the Sadoku. They publish two - one sinfully easy, the other deceptively difficult - per day. (Bastards.)

But wait - just yesterday, The Marina Times tossed their August issue, expanded to 16 pages (from 10), to my doorstep. The publishers must be catching onto a reader loyalty hook: they premiered the Godzilla Sadoku  - that's right, fill in digits 1 through 9 and letters A through F in every square, row and column. Oh and there's some good local stories to boot.

Time-vaccuum puzzles aside, local media rags represent just about every neighborhood (the Potrero View, Sunset Beacon, Richmond Dispatch, Noe Valley Voice) and niche demographic (El Tecolote, The Haight Beat, Bay Area Business Woman) you could encounter in this city. And unless my eyes are deceiving me, the smaller papers are getting fatter, and their coverage is getting better. Now why is that?

History. Now more than ever!

Newspapers, local newspapers, might attract more readers if they provided more historical context with breaking news stories.

The other day, my friend Roj (pronounced "rahhj") asked me, why don't any reporters write a story about billboards? He brings up billboards a lot, now that I think about it.  "We've got them, but they're a blight. They all seem to be owned by Clear Channel & Viacom. Just how much revenue do they generate for the city?" He continued with several bullet points of questions he'd written out onto a three by five card (listed below fold). Then he always mentions a picture book with photos of billboard-peppered areas coupled with twin photos with the billboards photoshopped out.

I asked my friend, is there something new about billboards that you've noticed? No, he said, he's had these questions since moving into his neighborhood ten years prior. A well-educated friend, who even majored in broadcasting, he didn't recognize the missing currency element from his news story idea (he's been out of college for a while.) But he wanted to know, damnit, how do billboards work? I think a lot of people want to know more about how their towns and cities work. But unless something works in a NEW way, it's not news-worthy, is it?

Later I walked down the Mid-Market section of San Francisco and happened upon an art gallery with a historical photo display of that very downtown section.

SF EARN

SFEARN is a nonprofit that educates and empowers working families in San Francisco escape the cycle of poverty.  EARN offers money-management training and a savings account, in which all of our savings are matched 2-to-1, up to $6,000.  The money in this account is special: it has to be invested in a first home, higher education, or a small business; all are investments that are proven to help people permanently escape poverty.

The folks at Barbary Coast Consulting, (who publish SF Political Newsletter and blog The Usual Suspects,) alerted us of a contest:

"Right now, EARN has a chance to help 1000 more San Francisco families. EARN is a top ten finalist for the Nonprofit Innovation Award from Amazon.com. But in order to win, they need you to donate online before September 30."

Condos on Safeway

We in urban areas need ideas for accomodating growth (more housing) without unraveling community fabric, via displacement and demolition. Urban planners urge us to stop sprawl by growing up.

San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, SPUR, supports the idea of buildling housing over retail. SPUR has published a report exploring ways to "incentivize" retailers, such as Safeway, to build housing atop existing structures.

Other organizations looking at this idea:

• Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center (BHNC)
• Housing Action Coalition (HAC)

Other areas already developing retail/housing complexes:

• Albertson's at Fulton and Masonic has a parking garage underneath and housing above.
• A Faletti's grocery store and Bank of America with 119 housing units above is being developed at Fell and Baker.
• The Safeway at 30th and Mission is the site that spurred SPUR's report.
• Housing over retail is "taking over in lots of cities," According to Tim Colen, Executive Director of HAC.

Information and data found from the September issue of Mission Dispatch newspaper.

SPUR's MUNI Report

Nothing like hard data to bolster your point. Earlier I posted about the Mayor's outrage over the wait times at the Department of Parking and Traffic. Now we have more data on transporation of a different sort: buses.

SPUR, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research group, published a paper yesterday, "The Downward Spiral" urging MUNI to reform itself to avoid a potential $179 budget deficit in the year 2015. Yesterday, MUNI raised fares from $1.25 to $1.50 to close a $57 budget deficit.

Details about the paper were reported in the Examiner. But I'd just like to highlight a few points that I think are very important. There are specific weaknesses of our bus system that became more evident after riding the efficient New York subways for a couple of weeks:

• SPUR argues that closing budget holes by making service cuts -- such as the 7 percent cut to begin later this month -- will only make the system more undesireable to riders.
• Gas prices are rising, yet bus ridership is continually dropping: passengers per service hour dropped from 76 passengers per service hour in 1987 to 62 per hour in 2005.
• There will be serious increases in traffic congestion if MUNI does NOT boost ridership by 36 percent in the next decade.

SPUR suggestions:

• Improve the rider's experience through such technologies as:
  
  • real-time information at transit stops
  • improved signage and system maps
  • more convenient places to buy monthly Fast Passes
  • improve the speed of transportation via MUNI by cutting some stops and increasing limited stop and express services.

Express buses save time, make MUNI more attractive than cars: Some friends and I recently took Caltrain's bullet train from San Francisco to Palo Alto. The entire ride was 30 minutes, which is faster than driving. You want to get people out of their cars? Make it more attractive than driving. It can be done, Caltrain is doing it and adding more bullets later this year.

How long will I be waiting here - do I have time to go buy a soda, or is the bus just around the corner?: There are a few stops around town which display a digital ticker at the stop shelter; it lists how far away, in minutes, the next bus is "Bus #41 will arrive in 10 minutes." How many times have you been at a bus stop and wondered if you should grab a cab - because you were totally in the dark about how late you'd be if you waited for the bus? If MUNI invested in these tickers at more stop shelters, it would increase ridership and that would increase revenue.

Riders are in the dark without a map: The New York subways had very well designed, readable, usable maps. I asked a MUNI driver where I could get a map - exasperated, he answered by showing me his computer printout of that day's route changes: "sweatheart, the routes change every day. Let me know if you find a map, I'd like one myself."

Finding a place to buy a Fast Pass is a scavenger hunt: Why is MUNI trying to keep this hidden? Last night I stopped at a Walgreens on Van Ness and Turk to purchase a monthly Fast Pass. No Fast Passes for sale at that Walgreens. The cashier suggested I try the Walgreens at Fourth and Market. Earlier I asked a MUNI worker at the toll gates of one of the underground stations, no fast passes there. I've asked several bus drivers where to buy a Pass, the response was a shoulder shrug. In the mid 1990s, I used to buy Fast Passes at Safeway.

The hard data says ridership is dropping - and MUNI is closing revenue shortfalls by cutting service. There will always be cars in the city - but why not get more people on the bus to unclog traffic in the streets, to bring more outsiders in the city? Why NOT make it easier to get across town to spend money, to fill the coffers in the local economy?

I'd really like to see this report get some attention, prefereably from the city's leader.

826 Valencia Authors to do Booksigning Tonight

Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers by Dave Eggers, Nineve Clements Calegari, and Maulthrop.

These authors will be at A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books tonight at 7 PM to talk and answer questions about their book. Calegari was a teacher for ten years. (Calegari's husband works with me at jeteye, an Internet search company.)

These folks did their research and found public high schools who are doing it right: there is a waiting list to teach at certain schools scattered across the midwest. The book offers both a diagnosis and a remedy. It lays out the reasons behind high teacher turnover in most of our country's public schools, as well as practical how-tos for public schools who want to recruit the best and brightest to teachers.

Newsom: Parking violaters have rights! Muni riders? Eh.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is able to muster outrage towards a selective set of outrages these days.

San Francisco parking violaters trying to pay their tickets, and folks purchasing annual parking permits, have wait in line up to 54 minutes as often as once per year. This upsets our mayor, who says, "It's an embarrassment. I should go even further: It's absolutely unacceptable. There's no excuse.''

Our MUNI bus system, on the other hand, is raising fares AND was considering service cuts which would have forced riders to wait an hour, instead of a half hour, each time they rode the bus. For graveyard shift workers, that's an hour wait much more than once per year. Mayor, your comments? Perhaps The Examiner didn't call him, or couldn't reach him.

More recently, a study published by the Municipal Transportation Agency revealed MUNI still shows poor on-time arrivals and high driver absenteeism due to calling in sick. Buses reach their stops within 10 minutes of the scheduled time only 66% of the time. And 10% of MUNI drivers are calling in sick, leaving MUNI buses in the parking lot, sans passengers. Passengers who schedule their commute time are held to the whims of MUNI driver health. Every time they ride the bus. To and from work. That's more than once per year.

But the mayor hasn't expressed outrage over any MUNI passenger woes. He has had the energy and time to: lambast PG&E for an underground explosion which injured a 40-year-old woman and shattered the window of a Ralph Lauren store, "Excuses be damned. There will be accountability"; fly over Yosemite for a photo-op, and express support for keeping the San Francisco hydrolic energy system powered by the damn in Hetch Hetchy Valley JUST AS IT IS; and launch some Green Cities initiatives.

Isn't walkability, enabled by reliable public transportation, part of what makes a city green, Mr. Mayor?

Mr. Mayor, your comments?

Muni Wi-Fi Conference

MuniWireless.com's first conference takes place in San Francisco this September.

SF Libraries with WiFi

You can never have too many maps. Until San Francisco's Mayor Newsom can pull off his city-wide Wi-Fi plan, a handful of our public libraries have WiFi availability, as you can see on this handy map.

Jerry Brown's Eminent Domain Pledge

Debra Saunders got Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown's on the record pledge to go above and beyond the eviction responsibilities of Eminent Domain. Brown pledges to relocate two Oakland Auto Shop owners evicted last month. John Revelli, who owned and operated Revelli Tires, and Alan Fung who ran Autohouse, were paid about $100 per square foot plus relocation costs in exchange for closing their businesses and giving up their land, against their will. But finding new spaces in this real estate market will be tough. According to Saunders:

The mayor also made a pledge: "It's not easy, but I personally pledge to do everything I can to get this guy [Revelli] located." Fung, too.

Brown is running for California Attorney General. I'm sure many will watch and see if he keeps this pledge.

Meanwhile, California state Senate Republican Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) and Democrat Dean Florez (D-Shafter) are working on legislation limiting Eminent Domain's reach. At the national level, a bipartisan alliance of Richard Pombo (R-CA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) is working on similar legislation.

CCTimes' Editor has a blog, gives story previews

Chris Lopez, editor of the Contra Costa Times, has a weblog. Last week, Lopez' post Friday's Schedule gave a day-in-the-life peek into the newspaper editor's typical tasks. Last night, Lopez blogged a scoop preview.   

Lopez' post titled That Time of Year about typical May and June stories of government budget decisions shows both cynicism and sweat: "It can get maddening, if not confusing, reading the various stories on government budget plans, and our job as editors is to challenge how the stories are being written and presented so that they are comprehensible and relevant to people's every day lives."

 

One more for Mr. Sucher: Don't call it a Mall

After Lisa Williams mentioned David Sucher's CityComforts blog, it wasn't long before I became a fan. His book on urban planning is even better -- it's a perusable paperback loaded with photographic examples printed on heavy glossy stock used in coffee table books. I'd pull a good quote for this post, but I gave both copies away as gifts - one to my friend libertairanEconomist, and the other to a man known as indyBooksellerWhoBuysForTheArtArchitectureAndDanceSections. It was a two-time hit.

The book suggests small changes that create more walkable cities - cities that make drivers-by want to park and get out of their cars to see what's going on. Today's sfgate shows this trend may be catching on: Don't Call it a Mall.

"San Jose's Santana Row, with its sidewalks, plazas and farmers' markets, represents the new face of suburban retail: the lifestyle center. Here, folks can stroll outside, get a downtown feeling, and, apparently, spend more happily. Meanwhile, malls struggle to keep up."

This looks windy

I don't get it. These towers proposed for San Francisco's Rincon Hill are nothing beyond a drawing, but they already  look windy. It seems like the taller the building, the wider the adjacent sidewalk should be. Or maybe they need more "urban canopy" sidewalk trees to soften the right angles. From afar they look interesting, but I don't have a desire to walk outside their perimeter.

Loni Hancock, Casinos, and my trip to Reno

Loni Hancock, former mayor of Berkeley and current California Assmblywoman, has been working to curb the spread of Casinos, particularly the proposed San Pablo expansion in the Bay Area. I just left this comment on her blog:

Great stuff.

Last November I joined a group from SanFran to drive to Reno to canvass swing state voters. In the orientation in the morning, we were told to ask each house we hit if the person was planning on voting, and if the answer was "no" we were to follow with "is it because you're a felon?" and if so we were to hand them a slip of paper telling them they could, in fact, vote.

This was an upper-middle-class looking community, and at the end of the day a few canvassers from my group said they encountered a couple of felons (I was too chicken to ask about criminal history.) It struck me that their proximity to casinos may have been a factor in the felon rates, and I meant to look up the (felons per capita per state) stats when I got home.

Also, a friend from college who grew up in South Lake Tahoe said many of her high school classmates had parents who'd been in jail from gambling related issues (theft.)

Long comment, but a story I've wanted to mention regarding casinos in CA.

2005 Goldman Prize

Movie stars have the Oscars, recording artists have the Grammies, newspapers and journalists have the Pulitzers, and grassroots community environmental activists have the Goldman Prize "Ordinary People,  Extraordinary Commitment."  Seven prizes will be given out, one honeree per continent, at the Opera House ceremony tomorrow night.

What struck me last year was the humility of the recipients. This was best illustrated by two women from India, the unlikely alliance of Rashida Bee, a Muslim, and Champa Devi Shukla, a Hindu. The two crossed cultural barriers to stand together demanding justice from Union Carbide in the twenty year wake of the Bhopal disaster. Through a translater, Bee said in her acceptance speech that she and Shukla, apon hearing of their award, assumed their must be some mistake. People who win $125,000 awards are not like them, Bee's translater said, international award recipients are people who "speak English, have fancy college degrees, and use email accounts." Ha!

I later got to snap their picture as they walked up Van Ness street towards McDonald's after the ceremony reception at City Hall. The two were somewhat bewildered, surrounded by San Franciscans praising them for their activism and speech. Their reactions were delayed as a translator forwarded the accolades in their native language, but within minutes they shook their heads, "yes thanks!"

Telcos still try to intimidate muni wifi projects

Does Verizon hate capitalism? I subscribed to the MuniWireless.com blog a few months ago, and have watched as city after city all over the country started their own wifi network projects, figuring telcos had given up on efforts to prohibit local government from competing with them. Well after reading Verizon CEO Ivan Seiderberg's comments to the SF Chronicle, such as muni wifi being "one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard," that private companies like Verizon are much better positioned to offer high-speed Internet service, I headed straight to MuniWireless for some counterargs. Nobody is saying Verizon can't run high-speed Internet service too, after all.

The latest entry at the MuniWireless blog,  Telco lies and the truth about muni broadband, suggests Mr. Seiderberg is in good company. "Free Press, the Media Access Project and the Consumer Federation of America have just published reports challenging the lies being spread by telcos about the purported failures of certain municipal broadband projects in the United States."

Free Press has prepared an analysis entited "Telco Lies and the Truth About Municipal Broadband" (by Ben Scott and Frannie Wellings) comparing fact and fiction regarding several municipal broadband case studies. To download the PDF, click here."

AND on the topic of competition, or the customer being right, Mr. Seiderberg gave the Chronicle this gem: "Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?," and, "The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement." 

Markos (kos, or daily kos) on c-span tonight

TODAY'S PROGRAM

April 10, 2005

Markos Moulitsas
Daily Kos, Founder

Watch Program
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More Information

Markos of dailykos, one of the most high-traffic political blogs on the internet, exceeded my expectations. He came off more self-effacing than he does online, yet he was still confident. Brian Lamb, who has one of the most steadfast poker faces of all interviewers on TV, laughed out loud at different points. And kos gave a good definition of "what a blogger is" that should put these inane are-bloggers-journalists panels to rest. He was clear that he is not an expert in politics, nor is he a journalist, he explicitly disclosed that he is a partisan, and not fair or balanced. Markos has a fascinating background which was interesting to hear about too.

His comment about being one of the three people in the country who knows how to build a good community political blog was an exaggeration, but since he has the most highly-visited blog of that description he can get away with it. He and Brian discussed a few tips for making a good blog - "stay away from default templates," etc.

"Progressive is a demonization of the word 'liberal'. I think progressive is a nice word, I am a progressive, but I prefer to use the word 'liberal' because I want to take back the meaning of that word."

Tauscher and House about to pass Loanshark Protection Act

Debra Saunders writes a second column today bemoaning the injustice of the Loanshark Protection Act, more commonly known as The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.  Saunders finds that moniker's second half Orwellian, she said as much in her column a month ago. Today she says:

"As a Republican, it disappoints me to say this, but I understand why people call the GOP the party of big business. When Washington pushes for more responsibility among debtors, but not loan-shark-like lenders, when its "ownership society" principles don't make big corporations own up to their role in the bankruptcy problem, the GOP is toadying to big business. (Ditto the 18 Democrats and one independent senator who voted for the bill.)"

No matter. Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-CA,) and 19 others in the "New Democrat Coaliton" wish to voice their ayes sooner, rather than later, and without all that pesky debate. She said as much in a letter she penned urging Speaker Hastert to bring this bill to the House floor post haste. Tnr's Noam Schieber states that not only is this bad legislation, it will hurt Democrats politically. Unless, or course, credit card companies now make up the majority of their base.

Senators Boxer and Feinstein voted against the bill. On April 5th, Tauscher defended her support for the bill in a press release. By voting aye, Democrats looking to take back congress in 2006 may fatten their campaign coffers. Whether they'll trim their constituency support is yet to be seen. On this, Saunders says:

"Plunkett said some House members are having second thoughts, but they figure there is no advantage in voting no and displeasing a political contributing class. They figure, 'Why anger the credit industry when they know they're going to lose?'

"Well, there is a reason to anger the credit industry -- to represent your constituents. If readers want the House to kill this turkey, they should let their congressional representative know that they oppose this bill. This bad bill probably will pass anyway, but citizens who care about good government and good business practices should at least make those lawmakers who vote for the measure sweat."

MAKE's next issue: hack passport RFID chips

Radio talk show host Ronn Owens thinks passport RFID chips will be convenient, will make us more safe, and therefore should be implemented sooner than 2009. Dan Gillmor concedes they are convenient: "Convenient, and corrupt." I say yeah, but at least those electronic voting machines solved the election fraud problem!!

My proposal for the next issue of O'Rielly's MAKE magazine: take this month's project of a make-your-own magnetic stripe reader up one notch:

1. Mock up a Ronn Owens passport chip prototype with name, rank, Social Security number, and add in biometrics: facial recognition data, hand print. 
2. Reverse engineer the chip to see where regular data ends and biometric data begins.
3. Override Ronn's biometric data with Dan's. Better yet, override Ronn's biometrics with that of a convicted felon.

UPDATE: ask and seven days later she receives. Well close enough I'd say!

SF to study muni broadband

From muniwireless:

"In a precedent-setting vote on 15 March 2005, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC) unanimously approved a $300,000 feasibility study for implementation of a municipally-run broadband/Internet project despite heavy industry lobbying. The 4-0 vote was hailed as a significant step forward by a broad coalition of public interest advocates working towards low-cost universal access to the Internet and other media.

"'It's time for San Francisco to catch up with the rest of the world on this,' said PUC Commissioner Adam Werbach."

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See also:
Lawrence Lessig (in Wired): Why your broadband sucks
 

The People's Grocery

West Oakland:

• 25,000 residents
• 36 convenience and liquor stores
• 1 supermarket *

People's Grocery to the rescue. "They say, 'Oh, yeah, that's the healthy orange-and-purple truck.'" - 16-year-old Charletta Harris, local student and People's Grocery employee.

"They looked at us like we were nuts, but once they saw the produce is really good, the quality is really good, the service is really good and it's conveniently available to them, they started to shop. And now they have begun to open their minds and build familiarity with us and to trust us." - Brahm Ahmadi, People's Grocery co-founder.

"It's easier and it's cheaper and it's better -- it's better for you. We have changed the way we eat." - local resident Misty Maravilla, who says People's Grocery has changed her life.

---
* Statistics taken from People's Grocery website.
Quotes pulled from sfgate.

Homeless: maximize ROI

SFGate: Cal architecture prof argues that penny pinching doesn't pay when designing for the homeless. "But Davis, whose book is the country's first on the subject, contends that not only does going the extra yard make it easier to help the homeless  --  it actually saves money in the long run."

Facility	Maintenance $/month
supportive housing (housing with counseling services on site)	$1,000
jail cell	$3,000
hospital bed	$30,000