By Steven T. Jones
San Franciscans threw an epic dance party on the streets of SOMA yesterday, one that was unfortunately cut down in its prime by official San Francisco. The How Weird Street Faire drew about 10,000 costumed fun-seekers to bop to some of the city's best DJs and soak in the warm sunshine. It was quintessential San Francisco, the kind of event that makes the city what it is, and organizers are to be commended for throwing a raucous but remarkably self-policing and harmonious party.

Photo from www.fogcityjournal.com.

But then, at 6 p.m., it suddenly ended. The city arbitrarily imposed an earlier than usual ending and won't let the event return to this neighborhood in future years, despite its success and popularity. Soon, the cops started sweeping the streets to kick the crowds out of this public place, often rudely. Capt. Denis O'Leary -- the station commander who has given How Weird such a hard time -- was even personally pushing people out and telling attendees, "Time to go, people want their neighborhood back."
Maybe, but 10,000 people want the How Weird Street Faire back and they want the city to stop placing so much emphasis on the concerns of a few sourpuss NIMBYs.

By Steven T. Jones
The New York Times has noted Burning Man's burgeoning environmental activism, which is building to a head for the Green Man themed event this August. Most talking heads in the NYT piece -- as well as the green push itself -- will already be familiar to regular Guardian readers.

Artist rendering of the Man's green platform from www.burningman.com.

But the article reminds me that I'm long overdue to get back onto the Burning Man beat and start writing about some of the wonderful environmental projects now underway around town, including Jim Mason's gasification project (in which he turns coffee grounds and other garbage into fuel), something he has successfully applied to Chicken John's truck and will be turning into a giant garbage-eating slug called Mechabolic with the help of artist Michael Christian (whose Flock piece was displayed in Civic Center Plaza in 2005). So there's that, the homegrown Cooling Man project, Tom Price's manic push to green the burn, and lots of other exciting projects that are being birthed here and will make an appearance on the playa before taking over the world. Stay tuned.

By Steven T. Jones
The San Francisco Chronicle is planning to lay off about a quarter of its editorial staff -- 20 managers and 80 rank-and-file journalists -- in the next two weeks, according to sources at the paper. Exactly how the cuts will go down and who will be let go is still being worked out by Hearst Corporation in consultation with the union, creating serious anxiety in the newsroom, even though they were told in March that this might be coming. Sources say their union contract requires a two-week notification for staff reductions, so by the end of the month there could be substantially less news gathering going on in the Bay Area and 100 media professionals wondering what's next. It's a sad time for journalism in the U.S.

Media Workers Guild logo

Me and Newsom at last year's Bike to Work Day
By Steven T. Jones
San Franciscans pedaled past an important milestone during yesterday's Bike to Work Day: on the morning commute along Market Street, bicycles outnumbered cars for the first time. Traffic engineers counted 647 cyclists riding eastbound on Market near Van Ness from 8-9 a.m., or 54 percent of the total traffic. That number was also a 27 percent increase over last year's bike tally. Bike advocates were thrilled with the turnout and further elated when Mayor Gavin Newsom, fresh off his ride to City Hall, announced his Bike SF 2010 Milestones. He promised to shepherd the bike plan to completion next year and ensure it studies 50 projects, including some key missing links in the current network. And to reach the plan's goal of 10 percent of all vehicle trips being by bike by 2010, he promised to create 20 new bike lanes by then, reduce bike collision injuries by 50 percent, and to actively support so-called LOS reform, which could exempt many new bike projects from needing detailed environmental studies. It was a big day for bicycling and great first step to making San Francisco the greenest big city in the country.

By Steven T. Jones
A local Hummer owner apparently just read my Governor Hummer piece from last year and sent me this e-mail.

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Richardson [mailto:erichardson@ftftech.com]
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2007 2:53 PM
To: Steve Jones
Subject: HEY

Don't be jealous that you cant afford a HUMMER douche bag

I couldn't help but respond, triggering the following e-mail exchange that seems to speak volumes about the mentality of the people who buy and drive these things.

By Tim Redmond

An important bill to reform the federal Freedom of Information Act has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee, but can't go to the floor for a vote because one senator has placed an anonymous hold on it.

The Society of Professional Journalists has a good running total of which senators said they didn't place the hold and which are not responding; you can find it here

Word in Washington is that the guilty party -- the senator who wants to secretly block motre public access to government -- is John Kyl of Arizona.But the only way to prove that is to rule the others out, and that's been done before. From SPJ's action notice:

In August 2006, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) put a hold on a bill to create a searchable public database of all federal grants and contracts. Stevens' role was revealed only after online public advocates and journalists forced senators to go on the record about whether they placed the hold.

Both of California's senators deny placing the block. If you live in one of the states where the senator hasn't responded, call or email right away.