July 2, 2007
Day Around The Bay
--We're up to 130 Galaxies now. [picture from the Fillmore Jazz Fest this weekend by megac0rp, from the SFist Flickr stream.]
--Huge fire on University Avenue in Palo Alto; officials suspect arson. [Merc News, Palo Alto Daily News.]
--A drag Loretta Lynn? Awesome! [Civic Center.]
--Building housing over the main Caltrain station. [The Examiner.]
--The return of the N-Judah to Mission Bay seems to have worked okay. [Chron, N Judah Chronicles.]
--31 layoffs at the Mercury News today. [92510.]
--Nancy Pelosi has a blog? She's outraged about the Scooter Libby pardon. [The Gavel.]
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I'm sorry to see Victor Chi on the layoff list at the Mercury News. He was the Sharks beat writer, and a consistently good one, I might add. Here's hoping he lands on his feet.
-ian, the Fishmonger
I passed Frank Chu on the way home from work tonight (he's almost always at New Montgomery and Market at around 6:00 PM) and he was back down to 85 galaxies.
I saw the Frank Chu around 4:30 and his sign said 85.
Oops, someone already commented on Frank Chu.
I wonder if David Pollak will cover all games or just home games? It would be pretty sad if all we got were AP reports of the road games this season.
Whatever number galaxies Frank reports, his issues remain a universal constant...in fact there are hundreds of galaxies, he says, but the voices he hears vary; the careful Rainman-style variations on his signs reflect those "updates." Remember, when a "movie star" is deprived of his celebrity shouldn't he chase TV cameras to compensate? ;)
Encouraging Frank by giving him the attention he craves isn't just San Franciscans being innocently irreverent, it also exploits him and seriously hurts his long-term health...he's incredibly opportunistic of the curiosity and gullibility of his captive audience...Like Elaine Santore of fogcityjournal getting the wild parrot thing wrong, feeding isn't always kind, it kills where inappropriate...likewise here with blog attention to clever zaniness, kind Mike...Frank, if ever ignored and given a healthy break, might someday be a positive community asset and a much happier man...
I meant "kind Rita," not blogger civiccenterMike...and I think that voice came from galaxy number -40- :)
I wonder who could be happy sleeping while diesel trains lumber underneath your bed?
"Honey, you rocked my world!"
"No darling, that was CalTrain # 196".
How do I get into the fraternity that allows me to be found guilty by our legal system and still get a freedom card to not spend a day in prison like Scooter Libby? That George W. Bush is one dictator who sure takes care of his own.
it's called presidential pardon. look it up, then run for office.
malcove, you are one funny mother.
From The SPUR Report:
The overriding planning imperative of our age is to organize our regions so that most people live and work in places where they have the opportunity to take transit and walk.
The overriding planning imperative of our age? Isn't that a bit presumptive?
The fallacy here is that SPUR assumes that all housing competes directly with all housing when in fact the housing markets are segmented and stratified.
It is segmented in that Victorian/Edwardian flats do not compete with luxury condo new construction which do not compete with exurban spreads.
It is stratified in that the price points are as determinative of market share as the housing typologies are.
So with all of this in the mix, it is a far stretch to conclude that unless we densify San Francisco's east side, we will see exurban sprawl into the greenbelt.
There are many many miles of BART line that runs from Pittsburgh to Richmond to Fremont which are prime spots for development along transit corridors.
SPUR uses environmentalism as a fig leaf to cover for its subservience to its developer funding base. The diverse members of the Task Force SPUR assembled run the gamut of developers:
Chris Meany, Wilson Meany Sullivan (Fourth and King Task Force Chair)
Contacts with adjacent planning processes was tacit at best. But that did not stop them from recommending rezonings to 85' north of Townsend that are in stark conflict to those being considered at the only democratic community planning process in San Francisco, The Western SOMA Citizens' Planning Task Force.
-marc
"There are many many miles of BART line that runs from Pittsburgh to Richmond to Fremont which are prime spots for development along transit corridors."
Yes, that's true. And in case you haven't noticed, many BART stations are in the process of developing transit villages. But San Francisco, the most transit-rich part of the Bay Area, also needs to do its fair share. The fact is that this region's population will be increasing. Surely you don't expect San Francisco to maintain a constant amount of housing stock while the population increases, do you? That would force more people into exurbs, which leads to more driving, more congestion, more pollution, etc. In other words, more of the same crappy cycle we've been dealing with already. So yes, there absolutely is an environmental concern here. Your claim "SPUR uses environmentalism as a fig leaf to cover for its subservience to its developer funding base" is nothing but a fig leaf to cover your NIMBYism.
I don't think the phrase "The overriding planning imperative of our age" is the least bit presumptive. If you actually look at planning, this is indeed an overriding feature. The Bay Area has made some stupid mistakes in the past 50 years, and it's time to correct them.
130 galaxies? I have a video from the iPhone launch in SF on June 29 that shows *800* galaxies on Frank Chu's sign: http://youtube.com/watch?v=4njGWUBq1L8
So Marc, you prefer suburban sprawl? because if SF doesn't do its part and increase housing density, that is exactly what it will contribute to.
I hear it's nice out in Tracy and Fairfield...
On Sunday Frank had 1000 Galaxies
On Friday outside the Apple Store, it was 800 Galaxies on one side and 111 Minna on the other.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/672651393/in/set-72157600556299632/
I asked why he had changed from from 12 to 800. He said it was because "the prejudice treason were against 800 Galaxies too."
I thought real estate was all about "Location, location, location" - gotta check my references better. What was that about a town for sale for a little over $1 million? Where is that located exactly?