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?

Icer Air 2005

As everybody's probably heard, there was a ski jump set up on San Francisco's Fillmore street last Thursday. It was a beautiful September day; the temperature was tanktop-and-flipflops hot.

Observing the skiers was free and open to the public. But many a working folk were there on their lunch breaks, dressed in slacks and dry cleaned button down shirts. And even though it was a "snow day", San Francisco kids had to watch from the confines of the schoolyard.

Observers who arrived late took photos depicting ant-sized skiers and snowboarders in midair.
<---

Apparently skiing down Fillmore was less revolutionary than many thought. The programs, produced by Icer Air snowboard wax company, included a panoramic description of historical urban skiing, including jumps in Berkeley and Chicago dating from the 1930s.

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.

Current.tv's Christoff returns from Mississippi

On MUNI's N train tonight I met Christoff from Current.tv. He was sunburned and red-eyed, having just returned from Mississippi. He was heading home from Current's headquarters, where he and his producer finished up editing two segments which will air on Current tomorrow (Wednesday.) Some tidbits he gave me in conversation on MUNI:

• He and his producer were able to drive down into storm-ravaged Mississippi in a Hertz-rented SUV. They encountered no barriers on their way down last Wednesday, yet they managed to get there three days before FEMA.
• Christoff recounted throwing up (which will be in his "pod" or tv segment) and personally seeing twelve bodies during his time there.
• The two-man reporting crew, who brought Power Bars and bottled water for themselves, gave the first bottled water to survivers they met on the trip.

That Christoff and his producer were able to rent an SUV from Hertz and just wander into this area, and be the first outsiders to greet some of Mississippi's Katrina survivors, should make for some worthwhile alternative tv news. Christoff said the segments will only be viewable on the television portion of the network, and will not be streamed online.

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.

Author J.D. Lasica at Stacy's 12:30 Today

J.D. Lasica, blogger and journalist will signing copies of his book Darknet at Stacy's bookstore at 12:30 today.

Stacy's bookstore is at 581 Market Street. Event copied from today's SF Examiner, print edition.
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UPDATE 8/24/2005: Well he was pretty good. I asked J.D. if he knew of any movement afoot to teach 'Media Literacy' in schools, or if he found any such movement when researching his book. The subject of 'Media Literacy' could encompass anything from DRM issues, all the way to how to read a newspaper, how to differentiate an editorial from a hard news story.

Lasica said he hadn't seen any movement to teach 'Media Literacy'. In fact, he found quite the opposite: there are efforts on behalf of the RIAA and MPAA to warn young people about the legalities of copying. But there were no comprehensive educational efforts on behalf of other groups, with more balanced interests.

If anybody is interested in starting a 'media literacy' educational movement, Lasica said, they may want to contact the American Library Association. One task such a movement could kick off may be development of an online course curriculum to help teachers teach the subject to students.

James Doohan Tribute Podcast - SFGate

UPDATE 8/24/2005: Doohan Tribute podcast is here. Enjoy.

In the print edition of today's Chronicle, it says Jane Ganahl's hilarious story on the wake for Star Trek "Scotty" actor James Doohan, which took place at San Francisco pub Edinburgh Castle, has an accompanying podcast. I can't find it. In fact, the url they list in the paper, sfgate.com/blogs/podcasts, returns a 404.

And on the web edition of the story, there is no mention of a podcast anywhere. I'd like to send it my brother in New York, avid childhood Star Trek fan and often homesick for the bay area.

UPDATE 8/24/2005: Doohan Tribute podcast is here. Enjoy.
UPDATE 8/25/2005: Steve Rhodes was there, and took pictures.
UPDATE 8/26/2005: See count-dante's writup of the event. "Thursday night, Count Dante teamed up with Patrick 'Security' Burger and BDFS drummer Jim 'The Truth' Henderson to form the heavy 'Classic Trek' instrumental trio Savage Curtain and closed the rousing, whisky-soaked tribute to James Doohan aka Montgomery Scott at the Edinburgh Castle Scottish pub in San Francisco."
UPDATE 8/27/2005: My mom writes in with a little family history about this story.

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.

Bay Area Newspapers

Ouch: Double Vision hits the SF Chronicle twice in one week: The San Francisco Chronicle had the same cover photo of an Iraqi sand storm as the New York Times on Tuesday, and shared a Cindy Sheehan story photo with the Oakland Tribune on Wednesday. If papers rely more and more on stringer photographers and wire services such as Associated Press, are there some procedures they could employ to prevent this embarrassment in the future? It seems like the press version of showing up to a cocktail party - only to discover two other guests wearing your dress :(

The San Francisco Examiner is just humming along. Today it expanded beyond a five-day-a-week paper with its Saturday-Sunday edition. Roger from A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books says there may be a weekly local Independent Bookseller's Recommendations feature. The Exam is so different from the Chronicle: it takes a hyperlocal focus on San Francisco, the city, instead of trying to cover the entire bay area; it's a service-oriented paper with "what to do in SF today" sections prominently printed inside the front flap instead of buried inside the Datebook in tiny font. As a reader, I think both papers look better when there are such contrasting alternatives to choose from. (For more on local coverage upping reader trust, see Jack Shafer's Slate piece Why I Don't Trust Readers.)

The Contra Costa Times' editor Chris Lopez keeps a blog. I highly recommend it - Lopez provides a glimpse into every day decisions at the East Bay paper, from the mundane (like a new puzzle they're adding to the Time Out section) to the tough judgement calls behind printing graphic Iraq carnage photos. Lopez constantly asks blog readers for feedback. Kudos to Lopez and the CCTimes for being a good example to the industry; that's a paper which really appears to respect blogs. Lopez gets out in front using new media to nurture reader trust by aggressively soliciting and sharing constructive criticism.
(This is quite a contrast to journalist groups lambasting papers asking for citizen input, as pointed out by Dan Gillmor, here.)

Zipcar coming to SF

This is great news: Zipcar carsharing service will soon open PODs (Points Of Departure) in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland.  I've been a member of CityCarShare for about three years now, and I highly recommend car sharing for city dwellers who only use a car for out-of-town errands.

Besides parking, the biggest annoyances of owning a car in the city are the irregular maintenance tasks:

oil changing tire rotating wheel realigning fuel injector unclogging gasket replacing rust proofing honest mechanic finding

insurance renewal insurance policy deciphering registration renewal fee title transfer fee state title fee nonusage fee blah, blah, blah

CityCarShare sends technicians to check up on cars at each POD every Wednesday. Insurance and maintenance fees are all included with membership. All I have to do is pay my $10 monthly membership fee, plus monthly usage fees, keep my driver's license, and return the car with at least a half a tank of gas.  There's even a gas card in the glove compartment.

For absent-minded folks, all parking tickets are promptly paid by CityCarShare, then charged to you as part of your monthly usage fees. No separate envelopes for the GoldenGate Bridge ticket, city of Mill Valley ticket, Berkeley ticket and San Francisco Parking and Traffic ticket. Just one consolidated payment to CityCarShare.

Zipcar is for-profit. It will be interesting to see how it competes with nonprofit CityCarShare.

Elsewhere: Dan Gillmor weighs in on carsharing at Bayoshphere: "Today, car sharing in the Bay Area is just about invisible to the general public. Bring on the competition."

Trees trees everywhere

Over the past few months, trees have been replanted in the median strips up and down Van Ness street. I'm sorry there is no "before" picture to show the contrast, because they freshen the appearance considerably. Today we saw some trees in the Potrero area with Friends of the Urban Forest labels tying their trunks to stake supports.

Trees, according to fuf, 1) cut down on traffic noise, 2) trap dust particles on their leaf surfaces, 3) offer wind protection, and of course 4) remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. My friend and I noticed that without removing litter, the trees made certain streets appear cleaner.

Fuf will plant a tree in any public area where at least 30 trees are requested. Fuf also offers guidelines for planting your own tree, including permission applications to submit to the department of public works, and step-by-step instructions for cutting a hole in your cement sidewalk.

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."

 

Spotting The Onion

Grabbed my first print copy of The Onion in San Francisco almost directly in front of the Black Horse London Pub on Union at Van Ness. I nearly missed the shiny new white newsrack; The Examiner's racks are also white, so it's easy to walk right by. 

A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books at Van Ness and Golden Gate may also become a distribution point. ACWLP's manager and staff fawned over the print edition of the satirical rag tucked under my arm, which I happily donated to the store. Staff member Roger said he will be on the phone with circulation managers first thing tomorrow to see if the store can stock a stack next to the SF Bay Guardian and other alt weeklies.

Thursday night, City Arts and Lectures hosts A Conversation with The Onion at Herbst Theatre. Comedian Patton Oswalt will moderate the panel.

East Bay is now a two-paper region

East Bay Express, a free weekly, was the only paper dedicated to the entire east bay area (East Bay Area=Contra Costa + Alameda counties). Now Knight Ridder has purchased a free daily chain from the peninsula, and launched the East Bay Daily News which is delivered "to area stores, offices, restaurants, and coffee shops. Knight Ridder plans to ramp up the circulation to 10,000 in a matter of days, according to a statement." - From Editor & Publisher.

Hearst Irony: Tabloids are the new Black

Tabloids are the new Black,
originally uploaded by afish.

(An ad for the SF Examiner, taken at an underground bart/muni station.) Papers across the country and world are converting to Tabloid format. The San Francisco Chronicle still prints on quarter-folded broadsheet.

From what I recall, "Tabloid" used to be synonomous with racy, cheeky "yellow journalism."

Brad Bird: bring back the "Event Movie" of 50's and 60's.

Update: Anita Monga was the manager of the Castro theatre before being let go in December, which inspired sizeable protests. When Monga was honored at the SFIFS the night before Bird's speech, she expressed many of Bird's same sentiments.Monga was one who practiced what Bird preached. Contra Costa Times: Castro's caretaker honored has details. Info and photos provided by SF film reviewer and blogger Steve Rhodes.

Brad Bird,
by afish.

Brad Bird, writer and director of The Incredibles, summoned a packed film festival audience to get out of their DVD-playing family rooms, go back downtown and demand better showmanship from their community theatres.

Bird delivered a "State of the Film" address to a Kabuki theatre audience during last week's San Francisco International Film Festival. While Bird praised Steve Jobs as a great studio boss (The Incredibles was created by Jobs' Pixar,) he admonished studios and theatre managers for ruining the movie-going expierience.

SF: One fire knocks out half of city's alarms????

SFGate, this afternoon: 2,000 phone lines cut for days by fire after an underground fire ate through four major telephone cables.

About 2,000 businesses and homes in the area surrounding Market and Octavia streets in San Francisco are likely to be without phone service until Sunday night or Monday because of an underground fire that destroyed four major telephone cables.

John Britton, a spokesman for SBC, said Wednesday morning's fire, which the Fire Department called suspicious, affected about 2,500 customers. Five hundred of those had their service restored by Thursday afternoon. The fire started under a manhole cover near the intersection of Market and Octavia.

The blaze also knocked out service to half the city's 2,024 fireboxes, the street alarms that can be found throughout San Francisco. Fire Department crews had all the boxes working again by 5 p.m. Wednesday, said department spokesman Capt. Pete Howes.

The manhole in question covers a vault containing myriad wires, some operated by SBC and others, like the ones going to the fireboxes, operated by the city.

Four graphs can say a lot. I couldn't decide on a good pullquote, so I just reprinted the whole thing.

The Unknown Parking Meter

In the seventies there was a Gong Show contestant who did standup comedy with a paper bag over his head. His moniker was "The Unknown Comic". Now a Berkeley resident has given a makeover to the plastic bag that adorns broken parking meters. The bag is also an also indicator to meter maids that says basically "please don't ticket me - I tried to pay!" How it evolved (from SFGate's Matier & Ross):

- Anonymous resident and lawyer paid to park in a lot after several failed attempts to find a street spot with a working meter.
- Mr. Anonymous via M&R: "If the city of Berkeley would fix its meters, it could raise some (sorely needed) money," he thought to himself. "So what could we do to inspire them?"
- M&R: "The do-gooder lawyer considers the bags a major improvement on all those unsightly plastic sacks that people stick on broken meter heads. Not only that, he figured he could give his bags away to the homeless, who could then earn some spare change for themselves hawking them to the public."
- Carolyn, who stands outside the Cheese Board on Shattuck Avenue became his middleman.
- Carolyn's distribution business is busy - she's enlisted fellow homeless as staff.
- Berkeley has since launched an initiative to fix the meters. In the meantime, the broken ones now don a more attractive hat.

A bag may be a temporary, and not really a structure, but it communicates its message in a friendlier tone than the litter it replaced. Would Mr. Sucher consider this a CityComfort?

Hiking San Fran

The other week our class went on a tour of The Chronicle at the corner of Mission and 5th. Our tour guide was Tom Graham who's been writing occasional installments in his Walking Man series (his earlier installments are from 2004) published in the Sunday Pink. A sample from his latest:

"During the past two years, I walked around San Francisco's 30-mile perimeter. Twice. Once along its streets and a second time on the trails along its outer edge.

"Driving around the city takes about an hour or two. Cycling takes half a day. But to actually hug its boundary line, you must schlep it, which takes a week, if you average about 4 to 5 miles a day.   The effort is greater, but so are the rewards."

I told my friend Sylvia about Tom, since Sylvia's led city hikes in San Francisco for years. She's an SF native, and wrote a novel based on the hikes that was like a cooking novel; each chapter began with hike route instructions, and followed with a tale from that setting. I don't think she ever published it.

A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books has a city hiking section right near the register, and they can barely keep a  little $3 booklet titled "Mundane Hikes" in stock, it's so popular. On the back is a local number to join the next treck led by its author.

So many routes, so many neighborhoods, where to start?

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.

Arnold Schwartzenegger in San Fran Today, 1:00PM

Just got this email in my inbox:

Arnold Alert!

The Governor is scheduled to speak at the  Newspaper Association of America Annual Convention

Date:     Tuesday April 19
Time:    Be There at 12:30…His speech is slated between 1:00 pm to 2:45pm,
Place:   Fairmont Hotel, SF 950 Mason Street San Francisco

Let’s Given Them Something to Write About!!!!

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!"

SF Newspapers use more of the web

The San Francisco Chronicle published articles about local podcasters, and how to make a podcast, and reporters Benny Evangelista and Tom Abata published a podcast of their own.

Last month, on the same day that Superior Court judge declared California's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, sfgate provided a forum for readers to share their immediate reactions. The forum (which I cannot find now, it may have been removed, it was like this) worked like a message board but it did not provide threaded discussions to reply to user comments.

The San Francisco Examiner, on the other hand, has a permanent threaded messageboard/forum using phpBB. They also have a guestbook, though nobody has signed it, and the heading says it is a sounding board, but really it's just a mailto link to Editor Sarah Randolf.

Using their partnership with tv station KPIX, The Chronicle provided a clip of the April 6th Ritz-Carlton hotel Arnold Schwartzenegger protest along with the story article and photos. The paper also published video of KPIX interviews with 9-year-old Selah Kalaf and his father Raheem Kalaf, the subjects of the feature story Operation Lion Heart, which last Monday won a Pulitzer for feature photography.

And like Markos Moulitsas ("kos" of the dailykos,) the SF Examiner started a few baseball blogs: examiner-giants.blogspot.com for the San Francisco Giants and examiner-as.blogspot.com for the Oakland As. Each baseball blog has only one post each so far.

Civilian shoes

Last night I passed the "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit and quickly snapped some photos before getting on Civic Center bart.

Come back sun!

Just returned from the grocery, where a wool legginged and knit cap clad cashier, shivering, counted out my change. Quite a contrast from the sidewalk soirees and convertible puppies of ELEVEN DAYS AGO!!!

Out of hibernation into the Elbo Room

Nothing prompts your friend to drag you out to a club scene evening (on a Monday) like a breakup. Noooo! I am not ready for all that bar posturing and hip referential banter. I am boring damnit! I watch PBS and C-Span and listen to Garrison Keiler. Cannot discern Smashing Pumpkins from Rage Against whatever it is engraging them these days.

So the cover charge at the Elbo Room is on a sliding scale of all things, and we slide it down to $5. I sip my beer awkwardly clutching my jacket, purse and umbrella as I fail to decipher much less add to the conversation (who are these people? Karen seems to know them.) I affix my eyes on the stage, they have to rest somewhere, and at a live music venue there is a focal point no safer.

Turns out the friend forced you to a nice little evening of acoustic music (which for music nincompoops like moi is a jazz and folk blend.) If I didn't know better, it was a $50 evening at Yoshi's with younger performers: Jason Miller, vowel movement leader aka vocal percussionist (beatboxer) Kid Beyond, and a slimmer, younger, more animated and inventive Chapmanesque Berkeleyite in Shelley Doty and the X-tet. Just to poor salt in my wound Kid Beyond joins Doty at the end for some vocal percussion improv (what must a girl do to be miserable around here?)

In all my friend meant well, twas not an terrible evening...for a Monday at least. I survived. Oh, our cover goes to a good cause. And we can do it again the third Monday of next month. Just wish there was stuff to do in this town.

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."

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

Examiner encroachment: Giants partnership

Last night our teacher threw this slide up on the board: Giants, Examiner in partnership.

It's a press release, the teacher said, but what news story could you make out of it? The answer: encroachment on Chronicle turf. (He then told us some history about the old rivalry between the two rags, whose offices were only a few doors down - fun stuff. Touched on the origins of SF papers "laughing stalk" label, its origins and accuracy. FWIW, he may teach a history of SF journalism class soon - I'll stay posted.)

A student commented that he'd been in a 'newpapers' customer focus group recently. The company behind the study: the Examiner. I have to say the focus group paid off. Handling, scanning and flipping open the tabloid-cut makeovered Exam is a pleasure.

SF Chronicle: the paper we love to hate

Hah! I'm not alone. Local bloggers love to hate the SF Chronicle. Or is it hate to hate? Honestly there are some true gems buried within that paper, buried being the key word. Some get it: Benny Evangelista did some nice legwork for his article about podcasting (and even made a podcast,) so he must be up with the scene. Others are shockingly late to the game.

Tiger Beat: Today Steve posts his admonishment, Chron clueless on blogging. Yesterday they covered Supervisor Chris Daly's new blog, noting a) it's on the taxpayer's dime, b) in blogs people can say stuff, and c) in a blog, Daly could add links "that take visitors to noncity Web sites."

SFist: the same article inspires SFist's Rita to express mock admiration for theChron's cutting edge awareness: "The Chron, fresh from learning that "'blog' is short for 'Web-log,'" (UPDATE 3/11/2005: Rogers shows that a lot of papers are still explaining this term.)

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.

SFGate Podcast

SFGate's Benny Evangelista does a nice article on podcasting: what it is, and who (in the bay area) is doing it. Evangelista and his editor Tom Abate top off the coverage with an actual podcast. Reporter Benny teaches himself to do a podcast and writes about the learning curve here. "It took me nearly two weeks to finally get the podcast fully functional."

Benny also says The SF Chronicle's book editor David Kipen may do some podcasts. Benny suggests The Chronicle do periodic "story behind the story" podcasts, for example some background on the BALCO case. Go Benny!

Hey

Dear SFist,
In your blogroll you include the Cal newspaper but omit San Francisco State's GoldenGate Xpress: http://xpress.sfsu.edu/.

I assume you omitted this not because you are school snobs but because you couldn't find it in a Google search. I intend to point out the latter issue with my Alma Mater asap.

In the meantime could you add the GoldenGate Xpress to the lower left hand side? These good kids have a better website and use of multimedia than sfgate, though that is not saying much. If you are true esseffists and not berkeleyists you will put the daily cal below the Xpress.

Hoping,
a reader
and proud SF State grad, 1997.

San Jose Merc: Enter our Oscar pool, win an Ipod

Because this little opportunity was printed above the fold, peaking out the window of the sidewalk-mounted vending machine, I actually forked over a quarter to buy the print edition of the Merc today. Luckily I get home to find it online as well.

What a simple, cost-effective way to utilize the web: interact with readers and the community without losing editorial control, I love it. Props.

Pelosi Town Hall tomorrow morning

A little Social Security birdie sent this, urging Pelosi supporters to show up due to Pelosi opposers who are planning to show up at her town hall meeting tommorrow morning:

SUPPORT NANCY: Concerning Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's Town Hall Meeting on Social Security this Wed., the 23rd, at 10 am in the Koret Auditorium at the Main SF Public Library, PLEASE SEE the important appeal that follows ... the REPUBLICANS / privatization activists ARE PLANNING TO TAKE OVER THE MEETING ... please rally as many of your members as possible to attend... a good slate of expert Social Security panelists will make it worthwhile for all ...

From: The San Francisco Republicans Meetup Group
Subject: Pelosi holding anti-Bush Soc Sec Hearing Wed. 23rd

[Republicans Meetup Group] has received information through a Pelosi
e-mail that there will be an anti-Bush Social Security "Hearing" at the Main
Library on Larkin, in the Koret Audit. at 10 AM Wednesday Feb. 23.  Ron
says: I think it would be great to have a group of Republicans attend
in support of "Individual Accounts".

SF Examiner on Brent and Mena Trott

What a kick to open today's SF Examiner Business section and see a big photo of and article on Brent and Mena Trott smack dab front and center. The online version does not include the photo, too bad. A nice picture of the happy couple in front of the Six Apart sign, reflecting their latest redesign.

Email to my journo teacher

I wrote a looong email to my journalism teacher. Im taking journalism101 "News Writing and Reporting" at San Francisco City College. I have no expectations of becoming a fulltime reporter, I just wanted some writing instruction to hopefully publish an article in a tech mag somewhere someday.

But this email which just came out made me realize I have pent up feelings: resentment, shared anxiety, compassion, outrage for the news business today. Originally I sent Jon (the teacher) a NYTimes article about podcasting, and asked him why The SF Chronicle (our local paper) has a less than stellar tech beat. He responded that "Some people would say the Chron has pretty extensive tech reporting, but those are opinions" he has no opinion (_sigh_), and asked me to elaborate. (Email below).

SF to Saint Gavin: son, spend your p.capital

The SF Examiner had well-timed editorial which reflected my views on our mayor, whose latest incarnation is Saint Gavin. Your political capital was earned on merit, now spend it before your critics bring it to premature spoil! "...San Francisco needs strong leadership from its mayor, and Newsom must again rise to the level of his ability."

My Home City

(A shorthand blog post about San Francisco and civic health.)

The good news: Muni delays have been cut by well over half since 1998, according to rescuemuni. San Francisco has fewer homeless, the city claims a 28% drop since 2002.

Room for improvement:

Robostudents

C.W. Nevius writes a timely article on High School SOS (Stressed Out Students,) who are so driven to make it into Ivy League schools that they pop no-doze and grow teenage ulcers. "People don't go to school to learn,'' says another of the students. "They go to get good grades.''

Pope is bringing her message to the East Bay next month, when she brings her SOS (Stressed Out Students) project to Miramonte High School in Orinda. She will give hard evidence of the need to give hard-charging students a break, suggest that they become less concerned about their GPAs, and remind parents that their children are not doomed if they do not make it into one of the most- prestigious 25 colleges.

"Living with your teenager: A conference for parents of teenagers," will be held March 12 at Miramonte High School, 750 Moraga Way, Orinda. The cost is $25 before Feb. 18, $30 after that. Sign up at Acalanes Adult Center, 1963 Tice Valley Blvd, Walnut Creek, (925) 935-0170.

Cityhall CityCarShare Pod

Found this accouncement in my email inbox about two hours too late: Mayor Newsom joined CityCarShare! I am sure he is doing this as a publicity favor. I'd like to see this survive, I've been a member for over a year and it is so very very convenient - it's only $10 a month, insurance included.

Willie Brown on Minority Party Tactics

Great roundtable on newshour tonight, including Willie Brown, who offered comforting wisdom to Dems in no hurry to take a post-election peace pledge or "come together" with those across the aisle.

"Bipartisanship is overrated" Brown said, arguing that reaching across the aisle for the sake of agreement is a waste of time. Instead, he argued, you should first have a program with a series of options, then collect a resevoir of goodwill from both sides of the aisle that support that program, and THAT becomes clear evidence of reaching out.

"Reaching out without a program will never work because the serious committed views that people have on abortion, about same sex marriage, so divide people that you can't have a dialogue about those things and build a consensus."

On Iraq, however, Brown says that Bush needs to reach out "fairly quickly" towards other nations, towards people of Iraq, who "may have some ideas" on how to "blunt" the deathtoll currently gripping us. A failure to do this quickly will soon dampen Bush's second term.

Brown's career in the California legislature can teach us a lot about wielding power despite a minority party. In short, he was first elected state Speaker by a legislature of 28 Republicans and 23 Democrats. He proved this was no fluke when in 1994 he retained his seat and again when he chose his successor (details below).

SF Event: Power to the Peaceful Fest

From Halley's Comment:

If You're Going To San Francisco ...
This will be a great thing tomorrow. Thanks to JPB for news of it. Wish I could be there.

6th Annual 911 Power to the Peaceful Festival Saturday September 11, 2004 (11am-5pm) Speedway Meadow - Golden Gate Park San Francisco, CA, USA

Featuring:

Michael Franti and Spearhead
String Cheese Incident Acoustic
Gift of Gab of Blackalicious
John Butler Trio
Xavier Rudd
Amy Goodman

Building Community: Norcal Next of Kin (Iraq)

Families of Iraq vets killed in the war met in a Town Hall in San Francisco last night. Televised on KPIX 5 tonight at 7:15pm. Civil dialog unites the families, some supporting the war some against the war, all affected personally. Some for Bush, some for Kerry. All speaking candidly, giving us an opportunity to meet and honor these courageous vets.

Sfgate features profiles of the heros from Northern California. See also: United by Grief.

I have to commend KPIX for having the guts to air an hour-long program, free of commercials, for airing a local story with responsible coverage when they could have made more money from sitcom reruns.

SF this Saturday: George Lakoff

$5 will get you in the door to see and hear linguist George Lakoff at the Unitarian Church in San Fran this Saturday. (Tickets can be purchased at Latinos for America.)

Doc Searls says:

"If there's one class I wish I could audit at Berkeley, it would be Linguistics 290L, with George Lakoff."

Pelosi is Da Man!

Pretty exciting to think that this November we could elect the first female Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

And I live in her district! She is a blast to watch on C-Span, her press conferences are at least once a week, and as the American Prospect says:

Brilliant rhetoric isn't part of Pelosi's repertoire (few legislative leaders have been notable public speakers); neither is anger. In her speeches, she regularly precedes her recitals of Republican outrages with words like "sadly" and "tragically." The tone is one of almost motherly disappointment, and that's hardly the only aspect of Pelosi's leadership that seems shaped by a maternal sensibility. As is clear from the morning's two press conferences, Pelosi more regularly showcases her members -- including freshmen utterly unknown to the media -- than any party leader in modern memory.