By G.W. Schulz

The absolute best (and darkest) moments in Rolling Stone contributor Matt Taibbi’s book on the 2004 presidential election are not when he attacks the contemptible political antics of the candidates themselves, but when he savagely launches mortar shells at the national press corps trailing along on the campaign planes.

His most memorable direct hit is leveled at the New York Post and its election coverage under the weighty tutelage of media mogul Rupert Murdoch in a single, brilliant paragraph:

“It’s always a little surprising to remember that the New York Post has a ‘Washington bureau chief’ filing ostensibly factual stories from the Hill about the movements of the president and other real, breathing government officials. The effect of reading these touchingly earnest impersonations of credible journalism is a little like watching Koko the gorilla play with a kitten or punch the ‘buttons’ on a toy telephone. My God, you think. It’s so human! But sooner or later Koko plugs her ears with her own turds again, and she’s back to being just another loveable ape.”

Our illustrious executive editor, Tim Redmond, may actually dislike our praise of Taibbi’s ferocious Post critique. Long-time Guardian readers familiar with the paper’s old design know Tim adores the Post’s screaming banner headlines and splashed them similarly across the Guardian’s former front-page template for years without shame.

By Steven T. Jones
With the Healthy Saturdays measure headed for an April 9 hearing by the Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Economic Development Committee, Mayor Gavin Newsom has decided to step in and try to broker a compromise. Mediating between the two sides will be his chief of staff and former labor negotiator Phil Ginsburg, who has asked Sup. Jake McGoldrick to delay the committee vote by a week to accommodate his planned vacation. McGoldrick agreed. Newsom had signaled his plans to veto the measure, which would close some Golden Gate Park roads to cars on Saturdays as well as Sundays, but swing vote Sup. Bevan Dufty might be willing to override the veto this year. Advocates on both sides had called for Newsom to get involved to avoid another fight at the ballot box -- where whoever loses was likely to try to take it. Some fear this is just a last minute stall tactic by a mayor who expects consensus on an inherently polarizing proposal. But press secretary Nathan Ballard said that's not the case, telling the Guardian: "The Mayor has asked Phil Ginsburg to try to broker a compromise in this matter. He has already had productive meetings with both sides. We've asked
Supervisor McGoldrick to delay the final committee vote until the negotiations are complete. The Mayor is cautiously optimistic that the parties will be able to reach a good result."

By Steven T. Jones
The Chronicle's Matier & Ross would have us believe that Critical Mass riders went nuts on Friday and started attacking a poor innocent family. I was on the ride and know how ridiculous that story was so I wrote Andy Ross (a colleague of mine on the City Desk NewsHour cable television program) the following e-mail. I'll let you know how he responds.

by Amanda Witherell

Did poo get washed into the bay or not? Mark Leno and Fiona Ma really want to know. They've written another letter to the National Park Service's Superintendent, Brian O'Neill, calling for an independent investigation, and essentially telling him his excuses and explanations hold no water.

Back in January, the two California State assembly members asked O'Neill to look into allegations that a sewage holding tank on Alcatraz Island overflowed and was hosed into the bay rather than wiped up properly.

O'Neill wrote back that an internal investigation had been done and all claims were false -- except according to our elected officials, his evidence doesn't support his claims. In addition, one of the whistleblowers who saw the spill, a National Parks Conservancy employer named Dan Cooke, has been fired, apparently for speaking up.

By Steven T. Jones
Despite finally getting the bicyclists' perspective into today's story, the Chronicle continues its misleading and irresponsible effort to demonize Critical Mass and bicyclists in general. And the result has been dozens of angry and menacing online posts by overentitled car drivers who threaten the lives of those opting for a more environmentally friendly transportation option.

Unlike the more reasonable Examiner account, the Chronicle seems to have lost all sense of proportion, with its reporters trying to push Mayor Gavin Newsom (who was also fairly measured in his reaction) into cracking down on Critical Mass. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I sought a reaction from the Chron's Andy Ross, which I've now received and am posting below followed by more discussion.

by Amanda Witherell

Looks like Senator Dianne Feinstein has stepped down from her seat on the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, where she's spent the last six years as chairperson and ranking member.

While serving on that committee, which is tasked with reviewing and supervising federal military contracts, her hubby Richard Blum was making millions of dollars on the same deals his wife was overseeing.

No statement or press release yet from Feinstein on why she quit, and the right-wing bloggers are going nutty for an investigation, perhaps to vindicate their champ, Dick Cheney, who made a pretty penny with Halliburton. What can we say: greed is a universal human ailment and war profiteering is certainly a non-partisan sport.

by Sarah Phelan

“What will everyone do now?” asked a fellow Guardian-ista, when freelance videojournalist and blogger Josh Wolf was released. She was referring to those who fought to get Wolf freed after the feds locked him up last summer. Don’t worry, I thought, the war over why Josh Wolf has been freed is about to begin.
Sure enough, war broke out that afternoon.

With Wolf set to speak on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on April 3, after 226 days inside, everyone was asking “So, what’s changed?” Had Wolf, tiring of prison food, thrown in the towel and told the feds everything they always wanted to know about anarchists? Or had the feds, weary of the fired US Attorney General scandal, decided it was time to score Brownie points in Nancy Pelosi’s home town by letting Wolf go, no questions asked?

Sup. Tom Ammiano, fresh from Giants opening game told the crowd, "Josh Wolf did what the Giants failed to do today: he hit a home run!"

By Steven T. Jones
Why is the Chronicle having such a hard time understanding this Critical Mass incident? In my televised discussion with four Chron reporters last night (City Desk NewsHour, Comcast Ch. 11, replaying tonight at 8:30 and Saturday and Sunday nights as well...sorry, not Internet availability) and in today's Chron story, they just can't seem to grasp the meaning of one key fact or smell-test their original version of the story. Here's the key fact, from today's story: "After finding herself in the middle of the ride, she said, she nervously made her way through the bicyclists, carefully watching them." Translation: she used her SUV to nudge her way through a group of bikes. That's not legal, it's not safe, and it's why the bicyclists became upset. Hell, she even admits that her car made contact with a bike, and still she kept driving.

2nd Anniversary flyer illustration by Jim Swanson

By Steven T. Jones
Why does attorney Jim Sutton seem to be involved in every major campaign finance scandal in San Francisco? In the latest, Sutton's firm reportedly advised a local motorcycle training company on how to allegedly launder money into a City College bond campaign (Sutton isn't mentioned in the story, but in a letter the company wrote to the Ethics Commission that the Chron featured on today's front page). Shouldn't the State Bar take an interest in this at some point?

By G.W. Schulz

There’s never a shortage of bitching over at the San Francisco Police Officers Association. And the best place to find it lying exposed, unshaven and clad in patent-leather stirrups without so much as a single blush is in the cop union’s monthly newsletter, the POA Journal.

As attorney Mark Schlosberg at the ACLU of Northern California will tell you, there’s no better place than the POA Journal for an honest assessment of what the SFPD’s rank and file is really thinking. And leading each edition of the Journal is a scribe from outspoken union president Gary Delagnes that's sometimes funny but mostly unsettling.

Without further ado, ladies and gentleman, welcome to another edition of “What’s the city’s cop union bitching about now?”

This past year actually treated the POA quite well, what with the state Supreme Court’s Copley decision sealing off police disciplinary records from public scrutiny, Berkeley losing a subsequent legal challenge to the ruling and the SFPD’s general success in slowing down the implementation of a program designed to track and flag lunatic cops.

By Steven T. Jones
Do people really praise a company for polluting the planet and local ecosystems, exploiting indigenous people and propping up corrupt regimes around the world, and making $17 billion in annual profits in the process? People do, and those people write for the business pages at the San Francisco Chronicle, which has just named Chevron its company of the year.

This is astonishing beyond words and surely a sign that the Chron doesn't hold anything close to San Francisco values, which extend far beyond just corporate bottom lines. Consider that Chevron is a company that helped get us into the disastrous war in Iraq. It is a company waging economic warfare against people around the world. It is a company that has gouged American consumers to reap record profits and spend them against the public will.
This is the best company in the Bay Area? It's closer to the worst.

By Steven T. Jones
Like a bad movie that gets turned into a worse sequel, actress Jennifer Siebel has returned to the pages of another Bay Area corporate daily for another vapid puff piece filled with lines that will make grown women groan.

But conspicuously missing from this profile of Mayor Gavin Newsom's girlfriend are gratuitous (and possibly libelous) shots that she took at her boyfriend's controversial former fling, Ruby Rippey-Tourk, sins that Siebel magnified with over-the-top comments she posted on the SFist. That incident earned the blog more than 600 comments on a single thread, and they today return to that comment-cow with a funny post. But aside from priceless quotes, such as "I grew up in a very beautiful, magical bubble," Siebel this time manages to avoid politics, character assassination, or, really, anything of substance. I suppose that's progress.

by Amanda Witherell

The ongoing saga at Alcatraz has finally caught the attention of Rep. Nancy Pelosi. While sewage spills and a fired whistleblower interested legislators in the State Assembly, it's labor practices and land use planning that have Pelosi concerned -- both of which have been issues since Alcatraz Cruises assumed control of the lucrative contract from Blue and Gold back in September.

photo courtesy of alcatrazunion.com

By G.W. Schulz

Investigative reporter Sy Hersh in an interview with Rolling Stone national correspondent Matt Taibi on what could be done to improve big media's tepid coverage of the Bush White House:

"You'd have to fire or execute ninety percent of the editors and executives. You'd actually have to start promoting people from the newsrooms to be editors who you didn't think you could control."

Sy Hersh looking murderous

Guardian staff writer G.W. Schulz in an open response letter to Hersh:

"Dude. Fuck yeah. You should be in a metal band. All this talk about executions."

By Tim Redmond

Casey Mills, the former managing editor of BeyondChron, has a great piece today that explains how too much of the "new urbanism" fails to consider affordable housing:

A disturbing trend already underway involves sustainability and ‘green’ advocates aligning with developers to promote density above all other considerations. Requiring developers to contribute towards affordable housing, for example, simply represents a roadblock to the more important overall goal – brining more housing downtown. If affordable housing becomes viewed as a necessary component of sustainability, not a roadblock to it, this sort of alliance would be impossible to maintain.

He's right: as market-rate housing in urban centers drives out poor people (and it does, always), those people have to live further and further from work. Since there will always be a need for less-well-paid service workers (not to mention the likes of bus drivers and teachers, who can't possibly afford any of the new housing we're building) in cities, gentrification and displacement are significant causes of sprawl.

And yet San Franicsco continues to build housing for people who don't live here (or even work here), driving out the people who do work here and promoting exactly the kind of sprawl everyone at City Hall is officially against. Insane.

By Steven T. Jones
The City Attorney's Office this morning released its investigation of payments the city made to Ruby Rippey-Tourk after she left her job as appointments secretary to Mayor Gavin Newsom, with whom she had an illicit affair, to enter substance abuse treatment. The report found no wrongdoing by any city officials and indicates Rippey-Tourk can keep the $10,000-plus that she received. But it also highlights the special treatment that Rippey-Tourk received and notes that investigators were hindered by her refusal to waive medical privacy rules.

By Sarah Phelan
Last week, a judge granted four unions--The S.F. Labor Council, SEIU Local 1021, SEIU United Healthcare Workers West and Unite Here Local 2—an intervention in the suit that Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a non-profit trade association, has brought against the City and County in the matter of the soon-to-be implemented San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance.
GGRA is arguing that the mandatory aspect of this local ordinance is preempted by federal law.
Specifically, GGRA’s beef is with the part of the ordinance that requires employers with 20 employees or more to spend a minimum amount per hour worked to provide health care benefits. Employers would also have to maintain records of health care benefit spending, record and report such spending and make records available for inspection. These mandatory requirements won’t be implemented until January 2008, but the City and County will start coverage of unemployed (and therefore uninsured) San Francisco residents, as of July 1, 2007.

By Sarah Phelan
Lennar has been giving contractors a choice between a rock or a hard place: reduce your unpaid invoices by up to 20 percent—or be excludedfrom bidding work for a minimum of six months. Nice, real nice.

Marc McGuire, a tile contractor from San Diego, and CALPASC’s Brad Diede on CNBC yesterday to discuss accusations that Lennar is extorting contractors

Three top Lennar executives sent these demands to contractors in Southern California in a letter dated January 16, 2007. So far, no similar letters have emerged locally, but that doesn’t mean similar demands haven’t been happening here, warns Brad Diede. Diede is executive VP of the Sacramento-based California Professional Association of Specialty Contractors, which represents 500 trade contractors and construction suppliers nationwide.

Outraged, Diede fired off a letter to Attorney General Jerry Brown, in which he wrote,
“We believe this potentially criminal act is a flagrant example of the abuses of power builders exercise over trade contractors in the State of California.”

But so far, Lennar has not been found guilty of civil or criminal violations in this case.

By Steven T. Jones
Mark Leno lost the debate, but won the vote, showing that Carole Migden has some work to do if she's going to keep her Senate seat. The takeaway here is that charm and gravitas are not good substitutes for the attentiveness to constituents and diligent relationship building that have been Leno's strong suits, particularly in the last couple years. The two candidates squared off in front of the San Francisco Young Democrats for their first debate last night, and Leno initially appeared tentative, apologetic, and inarticulate, almost as if he was scared of Migden. He started off trying to explain why he was taking on a fellow Democrat in a primary challenge and could only mumble some vague appeal to challenging the status quo. Then Migden introduced herself, "Hello, my name is Carole Migden and I'm the status quo," before going on to sound as strong, clear, and charming as I've ever seen her, describing herself as "a woman with a lot of gumption and a lot of tenacity." Her approach seemed to put Leno back on his heels even more, as he offered a bad joke that fell flat and descended into wonky details before finding his form late in the debate. But it didn't seem to matter. Despite Migden's efforts to call in the votes -- during which she likely learned the lesson that she can't count on as much support as she assumed she had -- Leno had this endorsement won before either of them started talking.

By Tim Redmond

You've seen the late-night cable-TV ads. You've seen the drag queens portraying him on Halloween in the Castro. He fixes my teeth (well, one of his associates does, but I've met The Man.) And now Beth Spotswood wants him to run for mayor!.

I love her candidates list: Brian Boitano, Cheech Marin ("you know what the mayor's office is missing? A bong"), and -- of course -- George Clooney ("he's already broken up with Jennifer Siebel.") But I'm voting for Dr. Jang.

By Steven T. Jones
How Weird Street Faire's fate got even worse since my last post, with the San Francisco cops now saying the organizers need to cough up $23,833 in fees, to be paid before the May 6 event. What is this, a shakedown? Somebody call a cop. Or maybe someone at City Hall should call off the cops.

Unfortunately, the city's punitive approach to its most beloved street fairs and festivals only got worse last night when Recreation and Park Department staff convened members of the Outdoor Events Coalition to say they're recommending substantially increased special event fees, so big that events like Bay to Breakers, Love Fest and other events could cease to exist. Rec and Park, an increasingly incompetent department that has bungled its way into a $2 million budget deficit, say they need big bucks to cover their costs and wipe out the red ink. Their proposal calls for charging $50,000 to use the Golden Gate Park polo field, $25,000 for Civic Center Plaza, and $12,000 for Mission Dolores Park. And on top of all this, the city has banned booze from the Haight Ashbury Street Faire of all places. Last year, we warned that fun in the city was under siege. Now it's starting to look comatose.

Pulitzers announced. Weeklies still in the game.

Joe Pulitzer

By G.W. Schulz

Dean Singleton is fuckin' stoked! Check him out below! That's him on the right there. He's the CEO of MediaNews Group, beloved by laid off reporters and editors everywhere, some who adore him so much, they throw empty beer cans at him.

Dean Singleton (right) with dreamy blue eyes
and conservative red tie. Tighten that knot, Dean!

If you owned as many newspapers as this guy does and flew around the country in your own private jet to deal with each one, you'd probably be able to hammer out a slightly bigger smile than this, huh? Dean's spicing things up at MediaNews Group with a brand spankin' new Web site and a recent office move across town to swankier digs in Denver, where the company has long been based.

So who's that guy on the left there? That's Joseph J. Lodovic IV, president of MediaNews. He earned a fat $1 million bonus last summer after the Hearst Corp., owner of the San Francisco Chronicle, gave MediaNews nearly $300 million to complete its big local newspaper buyouts that included the San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times. Joe's muggin' big 'cause he knows he'll have his own private plane soon enough!

By Tim Redmond

Sad news. For months now, all of us in the neighborhood have enjoyed watching a pair of Great Horned owls, who had made their home in a tree on Bernal Hill. They were a reminder that amazing bits of nature can appear in this crowded city; we all hoped they were a nesting pair, and that we'd see owlets this summer.

But alas, one of the owls was found dead last week. Nobody knows why; they seemed to be quite happy eating mice, voles and snakes on the hill. I hope it wasn't some sort of pesticide poisoning, which would be a different kind of reminder indeed.

By G.W. Schulz

Virginia rampage shooter identified. Love kills. Gun opponents are pissed, while NRA supporters are keeping quiet.

*Photo from Virginia State Police via SFGate

By Tim Redmond

I'm surprised that this hasn't gotten more attention: Immediately after hearing of the horror at Virginia Tech, President Bush express his condolences for the victims -- then made a point of commenting about "the right to bear arms."

The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed. Certainly, bringing a gun into a school dormitory and shooting ... is against the law and something someone should be held accountable for," [a Bush spokesperson] said

According to the New York Post, the shooter, Cho Seung Hui, had every legal right to buy the weapons he used in the state of Virginia.

He was a disturbed kid, by all accounts, and nobody will ever be able to figure out exactly what made him go off and kill 33 people, including himself. But if the country wasn't so obsessed with the right to buy and use weapons of mass murder, like automatic handguns, it's very likely he never would have had the tools to carry out the massacre.

The main reason so many people die of handgun shootings is that these weapons are far too easily available. And that is in part the fault of President G.W. Bush.

By Tim Redmond

By the way, Virigina was one of only two states that as recently as 2004 was defying the U.S. Supreme Court and enforcing anti-sodomy laws. So it's perfectly okay to buy guns and kill people in that great state, but you can going to jail for being gay.

(For the record: Nobody knows yet where Cho bought his guns; if it turns out that he got them in Texas or something, or that he bought them illegally from a dealer somewhere, I will apologize to the Great State of VA -- sort of.

By Tim Redmond

The Guardian of London has a short but poignant editorial on why the United States, despite a long string of terrible gun-driven tragedies, can't seem to control guns. The rest of the world seems baffled, too.

By Amanda Witherell

Ever since the California State Assembly passed AB 117 in 2002 legalizing “Community Choice Aggregation” (CCA) public power advocates have been eagerly awaiting the day San Francisco would get the legislative ball rolling and start divorce proceedings with it’s current electricity provider, Pacific Gas and Electric.

That ball got a big push from Sups. Tom Ammiano and Ross Mirkarimi on Tuesday April 17, when they introduced a draft implementation plan for CCA to their fellow board members. The plan calls for the city to purchase and provide 51 percent of its energy from renewables by 2017.

“It’s wonderful considering the response to global warming from PG&E has been fossil fuel, ‘clean’ coal, and nuclear power,” Mirkarimi told the Guardian.

Read how CCA will make San Francisco 50 percent greener, after the jump...

By Marke B.

Maybe I've become horribly desensitized to unexpected, unexplainable, realtime violence in the past four years, thanks to constant devastating casualty reports coming back from the country we fucked up even more, but the first thing that jumped into my head on hearing about Virginia Tech -- other than thinking the AP had made a typo when they reported 29 dead an hour after reporting 1 dead -- was: "Isn't this what it's like in Iraq, like, three times a day?"

The V-Tech tragedy is horrendous and hits geographically closer to home, but try watching this, called "Brains on Campus," from the amazing "Hometown Baghdad" series of independently produced vids, and not freaking out about the terror that Iraqi college students have been going through for years during our occupation.

By Sarah Phelan

Mayor Gavin Newsom and Sup. Bevan Dufty are apparently speaking again, or at least speaking together to other people. We say this because they just issued a press release saying that they've "asked the Port Director to explore the feasibility of having a no-alcohol entertainment event at Piers 30-32 for Wednesday, October 31, 2007." All of which is City goobledegook, which, roughly translated, means, 'We want to hold Halloween on the waterfront, but no, you won't be able to have a stiff drink to take the chilly edge off. '

Dang! It's enough to make a partier want to head inland and hit up a bar in the warm and fuzzy Castro, instead.

Yeah, we know, it's too early in the process to rain on anyone's Halloween Parade, and maybe the pier will be fabulous and we can all dress up as Pirates and have friends dressed as the Parrots of Telegraph Hill clinging on our shoulders, yelling "Pretty Polly!" and "Walk the Plank!", (along with unprintable expletives about how cold they are.) And there's enough ghosts along the waterfront--sunken ships, dead fishing industries, and the souls of the workers who died building the Bay Bridge--to spook out the whole darn City. Hey, wonder what costume the Gavsta will be wearing this year?

By Tim Redmond

We've often accused the San Francisco Chronicle of acting like a public-relations mouthpiece for Pacific Gas and Electric Company. But it's not even funny anymore: The Chron today has a big front-page ad from PG&E -- and, perhaps not coincidentally, the paper almost totally ignored the news about a key step toward public power.

The front-page ad, accompanied by a note from the publisher, has turned some heads among local journalists. Publisher Frank Vega says in his note that the Chron is just following everyone else in the industry.

But PG&E's greenwashing ads? Right on the front page? And where was the story about Community Choice Aggregation?

By Tim Redmond

There are times that I've wondered about this, too, and asked whether the two major parties have any real differences. Gold help me, I supported Nader in 2000, out of frustration over the Clinton Administration's economic policies.

But then you get a reminder like this. No Supreme Court justice appointed by a Democrat these days would have supported an attack on reproductive rights. 5-4, with Bush's guys in the lead. It's just going to get worse.

By G.W. Schulz

Chronicle gossip sluts Matier & Ross caught up with an interesting scoop today involving a guy who can’t seem to stay out of trouble. His name is Arkady Zlobinsky. That’s him below in a photo the Chron ran, which kinda looks more like a Glamour Shot stolen from a bargain-bin picture frame than a staff-produced image.

Former SFPD cop Arkady Zlobinsky from, uh,
a series of Glamour Shots the Chronicle lined up?

Anyway, a while back, we reminded you of a short-lived feature we’d launched last year called “Cops Behaving Badly,” which was supposed to be a regular summary of the more disturbing and/or hilarious police disciplinary cases arriving at the San Francisco Police Commission for review, details of which we could obtain as public records from the commission’s secretary, a nice guy named Sgt. Joe Reilly.

Well, the series started off as loads of fun. There was the cop who got busted with pot in Lake Tahoe. There was the domestic-violence investigator who drunkenly crashed into a parked SUV in Marin County while off the clock. There was the lieutenant who was allegedly pulled over at different spots throughout the city three times while off duty in a string of civilian automobiles, twice with a golf towel curiously wrapped over his license plate.

He claimed to sometimes play golf late at night in the park, and the towel must have miraculously got caught in his trunk. All a big misunderstanding, but after apparently letting him go a few times, officers finally reported the incidents and the chief was forced to charge him with being uncooperative by refusing to turn over his license and trying to intimidate the officers who'd pulled him over. That was the same lieutenant who was arrested in 1983 for soliciting an act of prostitution.

By G.W. Schulz

The 2003 package of investigative stories known as "A Dangerous Business" ranks highly among adoring muckrakers. It was put together as a joint PBS Frontline episode and series of articles in the New York Times, all led by journalistic juggernaut, Lowell Bergman. The series highlighted in excruciating detail workplace safety problems at a pipe manufacturing plant in Tyler, Texas, owned by the Alabama-based company, McWane, Inc. and earned the contributors a Pulitzer Prize.

The Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency launched criminal investigations into McWane plants the same month that the series launched.

Lowell Bergman to world:
"Don't fuck with public television."

But after it actually ran, a cloud of sorts was cast over Bergman's reporting when the owner of a workplace safety medical provider called Occu-Safe sued for libel arguing that the Times articles included false statements about the quality of care provided to McWane employees by Occu-Safe.

A judge has dismissed the libel suit as of Tuesday without offering a written opinion, meaning it's not clear what argument made by Times attorneys in a motion for summary judgment worked. But the Times legal team had argued that the articles could not be legally regarded as defamatory, because they described conditions and events at the plant truthfully. A Times vice president believes Occu-Safe will appeal, but he says they're sure to prevail again.

The entire package is a riveting primer for anyone even remotely interested in how workplace safety regulation works (or doesn't, depending on a number of factors) in the United States. Bergman more recently completed a series of pieces for Frontline on the fate of newspapers (and other media) in the United States and is a professor at Berkeley's graduate School of Journalism.

*Image from Berkeley's journalism school Web site

By Tim Redmond

The race for state Senate in San Francisco is getting more crowded: Joe Veronese, son of former Sup. Angela Alioto, appears to be ready to jump into the race. Fog City Journal had the scoop today:

Fog City has it on good authority (you can bet the farm!) Police Commissioner Joe Alioto-Veronese will, within two weeks, declare his candidacy for the 2008 California Senate District 3 race, taking on incumbent Senator Carole Migden and challenger Assemblymember Mark Leno.

I called Veronese, and he's not by any means denying it. "We will be making an announcement very shortly," he told me. I think that sounds like a go.

The politics of this are interesting: The polling data right now shows Migden well ahead in Marin County; Leno says his polls show him ahead in San Francisco. Adding more candidates to the mix in the city makes it all more confusing -- and if Sup. Aaron Peskin jumps in, too (which he has threatened to do), that would take progressive votes from Leno and help Migden.

Egads. The election is still a year away.

BTW, I asked Veronese what case he would make for his election, and he told me: "My family has always been about public service." He'll need a little more in the way of issue than that.

By Tim Redmond

Wow, this is special. Two bloggers from The Mayor and the Hair -- a sort of deranged pro-Newsom blog -- showed up at a bar where some local bloggers were meeting to dump drinks on one of the hosts of GavinSucks.com.

Everyone is having fun with it. I'm just sorry I wasn't invited, and missed all the excitement.

By G.W. Schulz

It must suck to be a celebrity reporter for the Chronicle and have your stories buried on page B9. The Chron’s BALCO star Lance Williams has quietly moved into new territory, most recently with a pretty good little scoop on campaign-corruption problems at San Francisco’s City College.

Williams reported first on April 6 that a top official at the school had diverted a $10,000 lease payment belonging to City College (taxpayers, in other words) to the campaign coffers of a committee formed in 2005 to convince voters they should authorize a quarter-of-a-billion dollars in bonds for the school so it could build some new stuff. Follow-ups in the Chron haven't been immediately easy to find, but they're nonetheless interesting.

City College has been building new stuff since 1997, and 2005 was the third time they returned to you asking for more money. Spending money on community colleges is good. Spending your money to bankroll a campaign committee formed solely to convince you to spend more money on community colleges is probably illegal.

The first story noted that administrators had also directed a $20,000 lease payment made by a contractor doing very recent business with City College into the same committee’s bank account, but that money was returned several months later. The businesses making the payments were told to just fill their checks out to the campaign fund and bypass the school entirely, even though the school was where the money was supposed to go. When Williams started making calls to City College administrators asking about the remaining $10,000, that money was returned, too.

Williams also identified several businesses that made contributions of $10,000 or more to the campaign committee "within days of negotiating contracts with the community college."

By Sarah Phelan

When Mayor Gavin Newsom and Sup. Bevan Dufty announced that they are thinking of holding Halloween at Pier 30-32 I was like, Pier Where? I walk along the Embarcadero on my way to work pretty much every day and I’ve never noticed a Pier 30 or a Pier 32, come to think of it. Today, I discovered why I couldn’t recall this elusive piece of pierdom: It’s actually a giant friggin' parking lot.

The lot begins at the base of the Bay Bridge, where Bryant Street spits onto the Embarcadero at Pier 28, the Hi Dive Bar and Red’s Java House, and sprawls all the way to Pier 36—which is opposite the Delancey Street Restaurant. (Did Gavin came up with this particularly bizarre relocation idea while gazing from the windows of Delancey Street, during one of his infamous faux rehab sessions, while SF was buzzing with rumors of his sex scandal with Ruby Rippey Tourk and people were posting Betray pictures of him all over?)

By Tim Redmond

Just as a universal health care bill by State Senator Sheila Kuehl heads to the floor of the Senate, a fascinating new study shows that Canadians get health care just as good as United States citizens get -- at half the cost.

By Steven T. Jones

The power of the press can be overstated. Over two decades in this business, I've written many good words about too many bad situations and watched nothing change. So it's nice to know that a couple drums that I've beaten recently have been heard and heeded by the powers-that-be.

We were the only media outlet actively shaming Mayor Gavin Newsom for not trying to broker a Healthy Saturdays compromise and calling out police Capt. Denis O'Leary for his punitive approach to setting fees for the How Weird Street Faire (issues I also hammered on my TV gig, City Desk NewsHour). And lo and behold, while I was off on vacation for almost a week, both men did the right thing. I'll discuss the complicated Healthy Saturday's compromise after the jump, but the latest news on How Weird is that O'Leary capitulated and brought the event fees back to last year's levels. Event organizers say he got a call from City Hall and that during their last meeting, O'Leary was calling me out by name as a troublemaker and thorn in his side (he still hasn't returned my call seeking comment). I'm so proud. Whoda thunk this Fourth Estate stuff actually works?

by Amanda Witherell

Oakland is destroying us at the green game. All told, California is doing pretty well though, thanks to AB 32, but keep an eye on Oregon. Portland's shooting for 100 percent renewable by 2010. How's our evergreen Gavin going to compete with that? We better get that Community Choice Aggregation going....

Top Ten US City Use of Renewable Energy

1. Oakland, CA (17%)
2. Sacramento/SF/San Jose, CA (12%)*
3. Portland, OR (10%)
4. Boston (8.6%)
5. San Diego, CA (8%)
6. Austin, TX (6%)
7. Los Angeles, CA (5%)
8. Minneapolis, MN (4.5%)
9. Seattle, WA (3.5%)
10. Chicago, IL (2.5%)
*tied
SustainLane US City Rankings data 2006/2007

Check out these threads...

(chart from dailykos.com)

By Tim Redmond

With Clint Reilly's case against the Bay Area's newspaper barons heading for a trial that will start April 30, it's interesting to note that there's actually a bill in Congress to limit media ownership.

I suspect this isn't going anywhere soon -- the nation's political leaders are notorious for their refusal to take on the monopolists -- but it's on the agenda and won't go away.

By Steven T. Jones
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who happens to be a Republican) yesterday unveiled a bold plan to have his city become the most energy efficient and environmentally sustainable big city in the country.

C'mon, San Francisco, are we going to take that? Maybe it's time for Mayor Gavin Newsom and the Board of Supervisors to finally step up and go big (or to actually act on some of the big ideas that have been thrown out, from tidal power to a completed bicycle network to more solar rooftops) . At the very least, we should support Sup. Jake McGoldrick's plan for a congestion pricing system for those driving into the downtown core, which London has done successfully and Bloomberg is now proposing for NYC.

By Tim Redmond

I know the show is cool (even though I'm never chosen as the journalist who gets to fly in one of the planes). And I hate to be a killjoy or anything. But I've always wondered why these high-performance Hornet F/A 18 military jets loaded with fuel get to perform dangerous maneuvers right over the third-densest urban area in the country.

There is, of course, the fact that the Blue Angels are really nothing more than a very expensive celebration of military might and a recruiting tool for the U.S. Navy -- not somthing you'd think would be terribly approrpiate in a city that's one of the leading anti-war centers in America.

But as we are now reminded, accidents happen -- and if one of those flying bomblets crashed into, say, North Beach, the carnage would be really ugly.

By Sarah Jane Phelan

As Bush and his pit bull Cheney try to spin their way out of their lies about Iraq, and everything else for that matter.
San Francisco cabbie and writer Brad Newsham once again invites you to lie down and send a simple message about this administration to the world: “Impeach now!”

Photo Credit: John Montgomery

By Sarah Jane Phelan

Estrelle Akamine, shipyard artist and Spring Open Studio coordinator, at work in her Hunters Point Shipyard studio.

As the 49ers roll out the financial details behind their plan to relocate to Santa Clara, the artists at Hunters Point Shipyard are trying to work out what Mayor Gavin Newsom’s "with or without the 49ers" redevelopment proposal means for their artist colony, which has been at the shipyard for 30 years.

The artists aren't the only ones.

At last night’s meeting at the Southeast Community Facility, the audience weren’t the only ones unable to get their hands on a hard copy of the latest version of proposal, whose wording keeps changing faster than you can say, “bait and switch.” As a result, members of the Mayor’s Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee and the Bayview Hunters Point Project Area Committee ended up voting to integrate the shipyard and Candlestick Point into one big old redevelopment project—WITHOUT HAVING A COPY OF the mayor’s most recent proposal in their hands.

By Tim Redmond

The New York Times reported yesterday that the 25 top hedge fund managers in the United States earned a combined $14 billion last year — "enough to pay New York City’s 80,000 public school teachers for nearly three years."

Think about it. Twenty-five people earned in one year almost three times as much as every public school teacher in New York, put together.

And thanks to Bush's tax cuts, those 25 people, all of whom took home at least $240 million in compensation last year, wil pay about one-thrid as much tax as they would have paid under such radical left-wing presidents as Richard Nixon.

This is why the public schools are in bad shape, the streets are filled with homeless people, poverty is on the rise across America, a growing number of qualified kids can't afford to go to college ... the list is endless.

And so far, I haven't heard a single leading Democratic candidate for president talk about raising taxes (not just letting the Bush cuts expire, but actually raising taxes) on the people who "earn" obscene amounts of money.

This is, in my mind, the single most important problem in the nation. It makes me sick.

By Steven T. Jones
Despite the article's deeply flawed premise, it was nice to see the Chron's Matier and Ross promote this Friday's Critical Mass ride.
After the duo whipped drivers into an ill-informed frenzy earlier this month and caused the SFPD to double the promised police presence, we bicyclists will need big numbers on our side to keep the mass moving and show that we won't be shamed or threatened into abandoning this important social protest event. And from what I'm hearing, people are more committed than ever to Critical Mass, creating the possibility that this Friday's event will be huge and fun. Personally, I can't wait.

by Amanda Witherell

The city attorney's office in San Francisco has strongly advised against releasing public documents that may contain metadata, (except when it serves their own purposes, like getting to the bottom of how the 49ers move to Santa Clara slipped right by them.)

The House of Representatives doesn't seem to have a problem with it though, as Rep. John Conyers, Jr. has asked for "all e-mail communications and all meta-data underlying them, stored on Republican National Committee (“RNC”) servers or otherwise in the possession, custody, or control of the RNC, that are related in any way to the recent firings by the Department of Justice of United States Attorneys, or to communications to the Congress about those terminations and related matters as set forth in this letter."

Read the full text of his letter to RNC Chairman Robert M. Duncan, after the jump...

By Tim Redmond

A critical piece of tenant legislation is heading for the floor of the state Senate, and so far, San Francisco Senator Leland Yee hasn't taken a position on it. The bill would dramatically reduce the number of Ellis Act evictions in the city and save the homes of thousands of low-income renters and seniors.

The bill number is SB 464, by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-L.A). Contact Yee's office today and demand that he support it.

You can email him directly from here. Or you can call his local office at 557-7857.

By Steven T. Jones
For the last year, the Guardian has been trying to get mainstream San Francisco to pay attention to the mounting threats to this city's nightlife and outdoor events. Last night, the issue finally started getting some traction when the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on the city to value fun and enact policy changes to protect it (to read the resolution, click here and select "Nightlife and Festivals Resolution"). Kudos to all the representatives who supported it and to the Outdoor Events Coalition and Nightlife Coalition for their advocacy on the issue. There are signs that Mayor Gavin Newsom is coming around on the issue, but the real test will be whether he can rein in the bureaucracy's hunger for bigger fees and make fun a priority in his next budget update. BTW, it would also be nice if the Chronicle, Examiner, and local TV stations would start paying attention to an issue that goes to the heart of whether San Francisco maintains its lively culture. We really can't be the only ones that love a good party, can we?

Photo from How Weird Street Faire, courtesy of Mv.gals.net

by Amanda Witherell

photo courtesy of indybay.org

The Green Guerrillas Against Greenwash will be cavorting in front of PG&E headquarters this evening at 6:15. The street theatre will be honoring 6.6 million lives devastated by the Chernobyl explosion, 21 years ago today. They'll be pointing out PG&E's ongoing relationship with nuclear power.

by Amanda Witherell

We just got this letter from Matt Dorsey. He didn't like the way we talked about the city attorney's office and their love/hate relationship with metadata. Sorry Matt! You know we love your sunshiney attitude.

Press Secretary Dorsey writes:

For the record, I forcefully disagree with Amanda Witherell's characterization that this office's Sept. 19, 2006 memorandum represents a scenario in which "the city attorney's office in San Francisco has strongly advised against releasing public documents that may contain metadata."

A thorough perusal of this public memorandum should prove my point convincingly.

Matt convinces, after the jump...

By Tim Redmond

The Chronicle today went to great effort to suggest that Clint Reilly didn't actually get the concessions he claimed at his press conference on the settlement of his lawsuit against the big newspaper publishers. We just called Reilly, and he's adamant: The publishers promised him free space in ther papers for a regular column on community issues.

Apparently that didn't sit well with some of the editors at the papers owned by Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group, and the publishers have been madly trying to back away. But Reilly says his attorney, Joe Alioto, has been in touch with the publishers, and he's expecting a formal joint statement later today in which the newspaper barons will retract their comments.

"And if they don't," Reilly told us, "we've just go forward and take this case to trial."

By Steven T. Jones
Why can’t Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger or his proxies explain their opposition to high-speed rail? They try, as they must. After all, this is a green project lauded across the ideological spectrum and around the world for its potential to prevent global warming, dirty air, and clogged freeways and airports.
But all the answers Arnold’s people give are illogical, unresponsive, or contradicted by the experts. In the end, it appears the Schwarzenegger administration is simply unwilling to support high-speed rail or to level with the public about why. Legislators and other Democrats say they’re solidly behind the project, something that will be tested this weekend in San Diego when the state party convention considers a resolution of support authored by longtime party activist Jane Morrison of San Francisco.
“It’s very timely because the governor is trying to cut the budget [for the California High Speed Rail Authority] back to $1 million and delay the bond measure,” Morrison told the Guardian. “I think this is a terribly important project.”

President Bush staging political theater in May 2003
While President Bush whines about political theater, presidential candidate Barack Obama points out that ending the war in Iraq is just one signature away
Wow, talk about a contrast.

By Tim Redmond

I'm down in San Diego for the state Democratic convention, which Bob Mulholland, longtime political director for the CA Democratic Party, told me is "the start of the campaign to elect a Democrat to the White House." Seven presidential candidates will be here, more than have ever attended a state convention. California, thanks to the early primary, is very much in play.

"We're going to see the next president speaking here tomorrow," Mulholland told me.

Some reflections:

The event kicks off with state party chair Art Torres holding a press conference that gives him a chance to tlak about how wonderful the state party is. He talks about how he's thrilled to work on a "58-county" strategy -- that is, putitng resources into all parts of the state, the way national chair Howard Dean pushed for spending money in all 50 states. It sounds great -- and in a few minutes, he'll have a chance to completely repudiate that message.

Several reporters ask about impeachment -- which, to judge from the signs and stickers around here is the issue of the day -- and he says that the party's executive commitee is on record supporting impeachment, and that he expects this convention will take a similar stance. I ask him if it isn't contradicatory that the party wants to talk about this issue, but the speaker of the House says it's not on the table.

"No," Torres says. "This is the Democratic Party."

He goes on: "Nancy Pelosi is the speaker of the House. We see a distance between the grassroots and the leadership, and that's not unusual."

No, Art, it isn't.

By Tim Redmond

There's a lot of talk and excitement at the Progressive Caucus. A few years ago, there were only a handful of people showing up for this meeting; today, the room is totally packed.

But the real political action is at the Resolutions Committee, where the rebels in the party are demanding more accountability, sunshine -- and, in the end, more of a say in where state party money goes. They have several resolutions that call on the party to bring in outside auditors and to make sure that state money really does go to all 58 counties, the way Torres promises it will.

Torres shows up for this event, and the floor is turned over to him. He quickly executes a smooth, practiced power play that shuts all of the accountability resolutions down.

He's very polite, very civil, talks about how happy he is that people care about where the party's money goes -- then he says that "the party is not a nonprofit, not a corporation. We are a business to win elections." Sure, he says, he's a little secretive at times - -"but I didn't want the Republicans to know how we're spending money."

Then the committee members -- all appointed by Torres -- vote unanimously to send all of the resolutions in question to a new task force, that will be appointed by Torres. In other words, the issue is dead for this convention. The supporters told me they would try to get a petition drive to bring the proposals to the convention floor -- but that's not likely to happen.

By Tim Redmond

I just spent an hour with the star of the day, the former senator from Alaska, Mike Gravel who made news at last night's debate by asking Barack Obama who he's going to nuke.

Gravel is a character. He says the other candidates are "frightening," largely because he seems to think any of them might drop a nuclear bomb on Iran. He told us that "all of these people spend more on haircuts than I raised last quarter." He calls the president at "mental midget."

His main issue is a national initiative process (which, given what a mess the initiative process is in CA, makes me more than a little nervous.) But he's way against the war, and in favor of talking to all parties in all countries. He would "immediately normalize relations with Cuba." And he thinks the war on drugs has been a failure ("we should legalize all drugs.")

(photo by Dave Rolland)

His other signature issue is abolishing the federal income tax and replacing it with a sales tax. We got into it a bit; I asked him how it could possibly be okay to let people making more than a billion dollars a year get away with not paying an income tax. He said that we'd get the money when they spent it -- but of course, these guys don't spend most of their money. They invest it, tie it up in tax shelters, put it in foundations, etc.

But I give him credit -- he talked to me about federal tax policy for at least half an hour, which is its own kind of lunacy -- and way more than any ot the other candidates would ever do. A fascinating piece of work.

By Tim Redmond

Shortly before Hillary Clinton takes the stage this morning, perhaps 200 cheering supporters are lined up just inside one of the side doors that lead into the cavernous convention center. The rest of the press folks are mostly hanging out on the raised press platform or in the media section, watching state party chair Art Torres vamp on the main stage, so I wander over to the Hillary crowd see what's going on. Bob Mulholland, the veteran political director of the CA Democratic Party, wanders over, too. "What are you all waiting for?" he asks. "Hillary!" they shout. "Well, I don't know why you're waiting here," he says, "She's already backstage."

But no: For once, big Bob is wrong. I can overhear a Clinton operative on her cell phone saying "one minute, folks, she's walking down the corridor." And then the door opens and out comes the senator, smiling and waving as she walks through the center of the packed main floor and makes her way to the stage. It's a great media stunt, and when she takes the podium, she shows what a pro she's become. She seems relaxed and at ease with the crowd, and her speech is lively. She talks about universal health care ("people tell me you've tried that before, and I say I'm proud I did"), makes a veiled reference to the insurance and drug industries, then shifts into energy independence and "doing education right."

It's all a nice stump speech that contains absolutely no new or substantive policy proposals -- and then she comes to Iraq.

By Tim Redmond

I got a chance to talk briefly last night with Rep. Jerry McNerney, the man who defeated Richard Pombo, and I asked him what the Democrats would do after Bush vetoes the Iraq funding cutoff. "Bring it back again, and again, and again," he told me. "That's what I would do."

At least it's a plan.

By Tim Redmond

I run into Bill Lockyer, the former state Attorney General (now treasurer) waiting his chance to get on stage. I explain to him that his successor, Jerry Brown, has formally closed any investigation in to the merger that gave Dean Singleton control over almost every daily newspaper in the Bay Area. "Any thoughts on that?" I ask.

His response:

"No. He's elected, and I've moved on."

Good to know your heart was in it, Bill.

By Tim Redmond

Wow, Carla Marinucci is almost breathless at the discovery that a lot of bloggers are covering the state convention.

I like the Calitics post on this and the poll on the "whiney ass tittey baby" who anonymously criticized the bloggers. Even if I don't think that's how you spell titty.

And Carla: This is old news.

For commentary and images from last night's Critical Mass, check the Guardian's San Francisco.

By Tim Redmond

Barack Obama is scheduled to speak shortly after 2 pm, but first we have to pass a rather large and loud choir that is performing in the convention lobby. I catch the posters in front, talking about the unlimited potential of nuclear energy and the tagling at the bottom: larouchepac.com.

Yes, it's the followers of Lyndon LaRouche, one of the great oddballs of American politics -- and they are singing. "What do you think?" one of them asks me. "I think Lyndon LaRouche is a nut," I answer, honestly. The young man is deeply offended: "How can he be a nut when he's mastered the technique of the human voice"?

"Yeah," says another one. "We have used scientific principles to create a beautiful choir."

(Photo by Dave Rolland)

He's still a nut.

By Tim Redmond

During the Hillary Clinton press conferece this morning, one of the reporters asked Clinton to respond to the perception that she's the old guard of the party and Barack Obama is the upstart. She sidestepped politely, but here on the convention floor, there's some evidence that the reporter was right. There were a lot more Hillary signs and a more organized contingent this morning, but Obama's people are distinctly younger.

Like Clinton, Obama has staged a surprise entrance -- not even the rank and file of his supporters know exactly what door he will enter. I look for the custer of security folks, and get to a back entrance just as the candidate bursts through the door.

From a few feet away (as close as I can get) he looks even younger than he does on TV. He jogs forward toward the stage, then is mobbed by supporters. When he finally emerges on the podium, he's joined by San Francisco DA Kamala Harris, an early supporter.

What we get is mostly a stump speech, revolving around his theme that "we must find a way to come together." But he's an inspiring speaker, and he does promise universal health care "before the end of my first term" and directly says the he will "stop the drug companies from price gouging."

"The insurance and drug companies will have a seat at the table," he says, "but they don't get to buy every seat at the table." That's more direct than Clinton.

He's also more direct -- way more direct -- on the war. "I'm proud to say I stood up in 2002, when it wasn't popular to stand up, and say [the war] was a bad idea." That gets a long ovation.

When he wraps up, it's clear who thbe majority in this particular crowd favors right now -- and it's not Hillary Clinton.

By Tim Redmond

My first headline for this entry was "Angelides bores small crowd." Poor guy -- almost nobody is paying attention as the former candidate for governor makes an utterly uninspiring speech. Then it's time for Chris Dodd, the senator from Connnecticut who has about as much support now in the polls (that is, very little) as Bill Clinton did at this point in his first presidential bid. (Dodd likes to point this out.)

No giant mobs with Dodd! signs, but he makes a decent speech, focusing perhaps a bit too much on his history and reminding everyone how long he's been around. A few not-so-subtle Kennedy references, and a paen to the civic spirit of the 1960s ("that's where we want to get back to.")

He holds a press conference afterward, takes a question from me and says that he thinks the death penalty should be "reformed, not abandoned." Then he tells a woman from an LA queer publication that he supports civil unions but not same-sex marriage. Why? "I'm not prepared to use the word 'marriage' as something for people of the same sex.'"

My brief private interview after the jump.

By Tim Redmond

The warm up for John Edwards is L.A. Rep. Maxine Waters -- and she utterly steals the show. "We cannot deal with our domestic agenda until we end this war in Iraq," she says to rousing cheers. She talks about "the most dastardly lie ever told to the American people by their president." She goes through an amazing litany of what's gone wrong in Iraq, then says:

"Democrats, your presidential candidates and elected officials must stop nuancing and playing it safe."

I'm voting Maxine for president.

By Tim Redmond

Former Senator John Edwards can't let Hillary and Barack show him up, so he has his own carefully staged entrance, surrounded by signs and supporters. He looks like a llittle Ken doll in the middle of the crowd, perfectly coiffed and impeccably dressed. But he's got the right lines for this audience. "We are past the time for cautious, poll-driven politics," he announces. He goes on to win loud cheers for the comment the directly separates him from Hillary Clinton: "I voted for this war, and I was wrong to vote for this war."

Edwards affects a folksy manner, repeating aw-shucks phrases like "I don't know if this is a good idea, but ..." and "I don't know if this is going to be popular, but ..." To his credit, though, he actually mentions poverty -- something the other major candidates haven't discussed at all. "Thirty-seven million people wake up in poverty every day, and it's wrong," he says. "If my party can't be the voice for the poor .... why do we exist?"

He's very popular in a lot of Democratic circles for his willingness to talk about class issues, about the "two Americas." And at a post-speech press conference, I push him on it.

By Steven T. Jones
First came the crash, then the fire, then the melting of the 80/580 interchange onto 80/880, and then came the politicians -- including SF Mayor Gavin Newsom, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums -- showing up to look concerned. Or, in Gavin's case, to look sort of, well, strangely detached.

Photo by William Foster, Office of Governor Schwarzenegger

Meanwhile, all public transit is free today, BART is running more and longer trains than usual, and you can click here for the latest info, including detours and other commuter info.

By Sarah Phelan

My morning commute from the East Bay was exactly the same as it was before the MacArthur Maze meltdown. But then, I was traveling to San Francisco on a ferry.
My friendly ferry crew predict that ridership will jump, once people experience the living hell of thousands of drivers trying to find an alternative to an overpass that now looks like a strip of toffee that’s been left out in the sun--a meltdown that has put the connector linking westbound I-80 and southbound I-880 out of commission, as well as the elevated roadway that carried eastbound traffic from the Bay Bridge onto I-580.
They also might get religious about riding the ferry, or the Transbay Express or BART, once they also realize that all public transit is free, at least for now.
The Loma Prieta earthquake and the collapse of the Bay Bridge was what got ferry service between the East Bay and San Francisco started in 1989. Maybe now, a tanker overturning and the melting of an overpass can get people to do what they outta be doing anyways, in the face of climate change: take public transit. Added bonus: if you're lucky enough to take the ferry you can shout "Adios suckers!" as you glide to and fro beneath the Bay Bridge climate-changing commute.
Double added bonus: maybe this meltdown will get people talking about making public transit permanently free. Right now, commuting to SF by ferry costs $4.00 one way, if you buy 20 tickets, or $5.50 if you buy one.
Commuting by BART costs $2.75 one way, while driving the Bridge costs $4.00 (the toll from Oakland to SF) plus the cost of gas and wear and tear in car to the driver, plus the cost of air quality and wear and tear on the road (including the cost of a possible meltdown when a tanker explodes!) to the Bay Area, plus the cost of climate change to planet Earth.
Can we really "afford" to keep on driving and screw up conditions on the third rock from the Sun?

By Sarah Phelan

Shipyard artist Lynn Rubenzer in her studio

So, the artists at Hunters Point Shipyard succeeded in getting their concerns mentioned in the "Conceptual Framework" for the Bayview Hunters Point redevelopment project, which is more than they had a week ago.
States the new improved draft, "The Project shall provide at affordable rates new or renovated permanent space at the Shipyard sufficient to accommodate the existing artists. The construction of the Project must be phased to ensure that the existing artists have the right to move to the new or renovated permanent space, without being displaced from the Shipyard. To achieve these objectives, the City, the Agency and the Primary Developer will work in consultation with the artists to create the plan for the permanent affordable facilities, including any relocation plan."
Now, objectives aren't quite the same as the end product. Experience suggests that the artists are gonna have to focus on a whole bunch of meetings if they're going to have a prayer of keeping Building 101 and getting a Shipyard Center for the Arts, as they apparently would like.
Especially, if the 49ers dump San Francisco for Santa Clara as planned.
sure, Lennar's conceptual framework also aims to "ensure the revitalization of the Project Site, comprised of Candlestick Point and Phase 2 of the Shipyard, and the generation of public benefits to the community and the City from development, even if the 49ers do not build a new stadium at the site." But that doesn't mean anyone, least of the artists, should take their eyes of the ball just yet, especially as the debate about an early transfer of the shipyard's Parcel B, C, D, E and F is far from over. Stay tuned.

By Tim Redmond

You can scroll down a bit and see all of my observations from the state Democratic Convention in San Diego, but now that I'm back, a few last thoughts (until I have more last thoughts):

The most bizarre statement by a major candidate: Hillary Clinton saying that we need to bring illegal immigrants "out of the shadows" -- so we can track them in case they're terrorists.

The most startling fact: Unless I missed something, John Edwards was the only major presidential candidate who mentioned the word "poverty."

Worst sense of history: Assembly speaker Fabian Nunez calling the era of the Clinton presidency "the golden years."

Loser: Hillary Clinton, who started off great but lost the crowd, and got heckled, when she timidly got into Iraq. .

Disappointment: Barack Obama, who came in like a rock star, spoke brilliantly,was great on the war, but offered few specifics and didn't stop to talk to the press.

Winner: John Edwards didn't get to speak until Sunday morning, but I agree with Paul Hogarth: He turned around more delegates than anyone else.

Best speech: hands down, Maxine Waters

Lessons: The bloggers and reform upstarts got their asses kicked by the old guard on some key resolutions. But these folks learn fast, and they'll be back.