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News and Politics | San Francisco Bay Guardian

Presidio bust

City officials and residents push the Presidio Trust to pay attention to more than just the bottom line
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amanda@sfbg.com
Can the Presidio Trust afford to listen to its neighbors? If not, it may just find city officials willing to play hardball over a controversial housing project.
Look at a map of San Francisco. Look closely at the northwestern corner: there are 1,491 acres of federally owned and operated land occupying about 20 percent of the city's space. Read more »

Never mind Brookers . . .

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numa@techsploitation.com
TECHSPLOITATION In the world of weird cultural appropriation that is the Web, nothing can compare to the strange tale of a Moldavian pop song called "Dragostea din Tei." It began in 2003 as a catchy disco tune by boy band the O-Zone, who sing in Romanian and look like a queer version of Duran Duran (or perhaps a queerer version). Read more »

Cooler heads

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andrea@altsexcolumn.com

Dear Andrea:
I've been dating a beautiful girl, and I mean she is hot. The problem? She's really jealous and we fight all the time. I can't look at another girl. She is incredibly possessive and wants to be involved in every element of my life.
I've never had any sort of sexual problems before, but I'm having problems orgasming. We have sex all the time. It's never boring; she has an amazing body and is a great lay. But I just don't come. I have no problems coming on my own. Read more »

Don't give the tides to PG&E

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EDITORIAL It's been three years since former supervisor Matt Gonzalez suggested that the city build a tidal energy plant, but the mayor is finally catching on. Gavin Newsom told the Chronicle editorial board last week that a new study shows San Francisco could generate a phenomenal amount of electricity from Ocean Beach waves and the tides under the Golden Gate Bridge. If it can be done without disturbing marine life, it's a great idea — as long as the power stays in public hands.
The legal and philosophical case is simple: Nobody owns the tides, the wind, or the waves. Read more »

The best health care plan

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EDITORIAL The health care model that's been established, largely by default, in the United States is an utter mess. Most working people get their insurance through their employers. Read more »

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tredmond@sfbg.com
The local daily newspapers haven't paid much attention to it, but there's a ferocious fuss going on in the blog world over political power and journalistic ethics, and it's all swirling around a 34-year-old who runs the world's most popular political blog out of his home in Berkeley.
It's a fascinating story because of what it says about the revolution that's taking place in media and politics today.
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga runs the blog DailyKos, which started off as just another liberal political blog by a liberal political activist (who used to be a political consultant Read more »

How to end the violence

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OPINION Despite its loss at the polls earlier this month, the spirit of Proposition A, the homicide prevention charter amendment on the June 6 ballot, lives on. Prop. A would have mandated that the city invest $10 million in violence prevention efforts. Instead of the typical police response to violence, Prop. A sought to address the root causes of violence, the social isolation and limited opportunity that are so endemic to the neighborhoods most impacted by street violence.
Prop. Read more »

For bicyclists, some good news...

City aims to open up its hidden waterfront with trails, parks, and art
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steve@sfbg.com
San Francisco's southeastern waterfront is a natural jewel buried under the city's industrial past.
The coastline is warm and often beautiful but marked mostly by collapsing piers, rusting skeletons of industrial centers, two power plants, and other long abandoned maritime projects.
But city and port officials, with the support of civic groups, are embarking on an ambitious effort to open up the waterfront with new bicycle and pedestrian trails, rotating public artwork, improved aquatic access, spruced up waterfront parks, rebuilt piers, and the transformation of industrial pr Read more »

Pier review

Burning Man art and a sense of how far the Embarcadero has come awaken the new Pier 14
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This summer there are three giant additions to San Francisco’s Embarcadero and all three represent huge victories in uniting the city with its waterfront and artistic roots.
For the next six months, Passage — two 30-ft welded sculptures, representing a mother and child and covered with countless recycled metal objects, including horseshoes, herons, and even a kitchen sink—will grace the entrance to the newly dedicated Pier 14. Read more »

...And some bad

Lawsuit by virulent antibicycle activist halts all pedaling projects
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steve@sfbg.com
Bicycle projects in San Francisco — from the ambitious Blue Greenway initiative to new bike lanes to the simple shared-lane arrows, or "sharrows," that have been painted on some roadways — have been shut down by a preliminary injunction that Judge James Warren signed as one of his final actions before retiring.
The ruling is part of a lawsuit brought by Rob Anderson, a 63-year-old dishwasher, blogger (whose District 5 Diary regularly blasts the "bike nuts" and "anticar activists"), and failed District 5 supervisorial candidate. Read more »