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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

Try to see it in the theater

Last night I was in the Mission district talking with some clients about an upcoming project. Somehow the subject of racism surfaced. One woman named Michelle said she was exploring all the variations of racism within the hispanic community. Being one of the few gringos there, I kept quiet at first. But then I found and angle that allowed me to join the discussion: I asked if she had seen the movie Crash, a film about alienation, prejudice and racism in modern day Los Angeles.

Michelle said Crash was "a very good commercial film." I think she called it commercial because it starred Sandra Bullock, an actress Michelle doesn't like. A few others had seen Crash, and talked about how many different ethnicities carry prejudices. Then Juan, the leader of last night's group, expressed interest and said he was going to try and see the film. I advised Juan to try to see Crash in a theatre if he could, because there will likely be multiple ethnicities in the audience watching the picture with you. That adds a dimension to this film that you will not get at home.

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."

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."

 

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.