Cyclists: Let the Backlash Begin (or Not)
Muni Ticket Agent Arrested After Assaulting Juvenile
So Much For That Plastic Bag Ban
Verizon Droid: Big Deal? Or Just Another Late Arrival Rival?
Feinstein : Will She Or Won't She?
--They tore down that house everyone's laughing about.
--The Niners got San Francisco to cough up money originally intended for parks to go to fixing up Monster Park instead. They're just going to move to Santa Clara anyways, guys!
--Mission Bay bores Chron architecture critic John King.
--Fiona Ma sponsors legislation to make it easier for, say, Gavin Newsom to change his name to Gavin Newsom-Siebel.
--Aaaaaaa-choo!
--The SF Sentinel's photo tips. Also, they loved Spider Man 3.
--And.... did Britney Spears actually end up coming to town last night?
Picture from the SFist Flickr stream by seamusfurr.
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The situation with the house falling and endangering an entire neighborhood isn't funny it's tragic. Everyone lost in this, the homeowner, the neighbors who had their homes damaged or likewise destroyed. How did someone with no experience in construction obtain a permit from the city to do this major undertaking? What is especially troubling is that the head of the inspections department, Chief Building Inspector Carla Johnson, is commenting on tv and in the media about the inadequacy of the homeowners shoring but saying nothing about her not following up on her staffs report that the building was a hazard. Her own staff issued notices 2 months prior that the building was a hazard, has Ms. Johnson been off the job for two months? She might as well have been. Maybe if she had done her job in the first place and stopped this earlier (as her inspectors had recommended to her to do) this tragic accident wouldn't have happened. Doesn't she keep track of buildings after her staff warns her that they are hazardous? There can't be so many problem buildings in SF that she can't do her job and take action on them. One of the neighbors could have been killed or the homeowner that she let do this in the first place, yet now she's on camera commenting like an expert on what was wrong, what is clearly wrong is a city chief inspector who couldn't be bothered to do the job she's getting paid to do and endangers the life of everyone on that block!
It's been suggested that the accident was fortunate in avoiding years of carrying costs while trying to get the demolition permits to clear the lot.
Tragic for the homeowner..maybe not.
What does it say about the state of housing in this city if people are fighting to pay $500K+ for a structurally unsound shack that should have been torn down before the property was sold? And the media was hyping it as "The Cheapest House In SF". Shame on them for creating additional hype around this property.
My heart goes out to that poor couple who had to watch their "American Dream" crumble around them.
Insert your favorite cliche here. "You get what you pay for." "If it sounds too good to be true it probably is." "A fool and his money are soon parted." "There's a sucker born every minute."