You might think "potatoes" when you hear this street. Something big and red, there you might meet. If figuring out rhyming, city-themed clues is your kind of fun (and why wouldn't it be), lace up your sneakers! It's time for the fifth annual SF City Guides Treasure Hunt! SF City Guides are, of course, the folks who bring you those awesome themed walking tours of San Francisco, like Bawdy and Naughty, about Barbary Coast prostitutes,......

Well, at least he lives in the Richmond, right? (Some) affordable housing advocates and ethicists are shaking their heads over District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick's poor party timing this week. Remember that lot on Cesar Chavez and Mission that everyone's fighting about condoizing? Well, the Board of Supes had a contentious debate about it on Tuesday, and narrowly voted for development on a 6-5 vote. (hey, Michela Alioto-Pier must've shown up that day!) The swing......

We are giddy with glee to welcome Richard, author of the Sparkletack blog and podcast, to the SFist family. Richard's encyclopedic knowledge of San Francisco's past makes his history podcast mandatory listening for anyone who cares about the city -- where we came from, how we got here, and why we're so bizarre. His expertise stretches back hundreds of years, and we're totally hooked on his ability to link modern-day San Franciscoisms to their......

Killer Cupcakes, served at night? Sounds like some dark, sexy, yummy fun is happening tonight at at Albion Alley near the Kilowatt Bar. Pretty hostesses will serve killer cupcakes and candies, and there's a mural project to take in. There's the added bonus of refreshing bevvies available for purchase inside the Kilowatt. 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at 3160 16th Street in SF. Skip over to the Roxie after your sweet tooth is satisfied,......

Somebody must have been breaking out the bubbly early because yesterday's Chron had a big, lead story by Carl Nolte saying that we here in SF are living a "Golden Age." According to him, things are better here than ever and someday, folks will be talking about SF during the aughts as "the good ole days." As Nolte puts it, San Francisco these days "looks like a small polished gem." ...

The good folks who bring local political junkies our daily news updates and analysis at The Usual Suspects are all affiliated with a political lobbying/consulting group known as Barbary Coast Consulting. So you know when you see the bright green headline on Usual Suspects that says "Supes Question Giving Contract To Lobbying Firm" and the note in bold from Usual Suspects publisher Alex Clemens that says "We think everyone who reads Suspects should be aware......

Check out Barbary Coast this Sunday and Monday at the Balboa's Reel SF film festival! Don't you think you'd want more protective clothing and not less when you're working in carpentry? Montclair residents called the cops on a guy buck-nekkid in his backyard, sawing wood (ha!). When a neighbor came by to complain, the woodworker seemed "unconcerned" and said he was running behind (ha!). When the cops arrived, the handyman said he was going to do some work underneath his house and didn't want to get his clothes dirty. Turns out the guy's been cited three times before in Berkeley for naked home repair. Five 8th graders at Stanford Middle School have been suspended after the school determined they were responsible for spray-painting graffiti on the school. The graffiti included anarchy signs, smiley faces, swastikas, references to Columbine, dirty pictures, and mean things about teachers. Quite a mix there. Authorities also report that at least one of the students suspended was a girl. ...and in this week's Susan Polk drama, oldest son Adam called his mother "bonkers" and "cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs" as she continued a third day of rambling questioning about whether he had been satanically abused and whether he had threatened to kill her in the past. Jurors were seen trying to conceal smiles and giggles through the testimony....

We had such fun at last year's Reel San Francisco film series at the Balboa Theater, their series of movies set in and/or made right here in San Francisco (not Vancouver masquerading as such). The second annual series begins this Sunday and runs until Thursday, April 27. Sure, we've seen a lot of these movies before, but this is our chance to see studio archive prints of these classics in a big-screen theatre setting.......

All good San Francisco political junkies have Usual Suspects bookmarked on their browser. The local clearinghouse of all things political keeps everyone up to date, diligently reading and summarizing all the articles about anything even remotely related to local politics -- and not just the articles featuring Chris Daly doing something vaguely embarrassing, like some other websites we might mention. We sat down (virtually) with the seven folks behind the scenes and chatted 'em......

It's raining buckets out there. It's raining so hard, it's practically washed the streets of North Beach clean of tourists. Not only that, but we're getting some exciting thunder and lightning! Man are we glad we got all our moving done last weekend -- we saw one poor soul driving an open-bed pickup that had wood furniture and an uncovered mattress. Moving a mattress is one thing, moving a wet mattress is really gonna......

In a move sure to shock the world of San Francisco advertising, Frank Chu has left his current sponsor, Barbary Coast Consulting for Adidas. Yep, first there was Mars Blackmon, then L'il Penny, and now Frank. The advertiser, an Adidas store that's advertising a new shoe (we'd say who they were, but then we would be playing into their little hands), bought exclusive advertising rites to the sign and also gave Frank some new sneaks. No word as to whether the sneakers he got were black and blue for when he likes to chill or yellow and green for when it's time to get ill. SFist thinks it's great that Frank is selling only exclusive sponsorships as it shows that members of the Zegnatronic Society have real integrity. We'd hate to see Frank walking around looking like one of those NASCAR drivers with logos on every inch of his well-worn suit. SFist wonders, however, if this is the start of something new. Shoe commercials? A shoe named after him (Air Chu?). Hell, Kobe has an Adidas shoe named after him and he blew up the Lakers. Even Frank knows you can't win without Shaq Diesel. ...

We fondly remember when we lived in New York oh so many years ago and we had a chuckle with a dear friend about a hilarious article in the New York Times about how they were going to name that little section of SoHo west of Broadway "NoLIta." "Nolita! North of Little Italy! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" we said. Both of us moved to San Francisco shortly afterwards, and now the name Nolita is so unremarkable that it's become the name of an indie-pop chanteuse's album. Go figure. We were reminded of this touching tale of New York in the 90s by a piece in the Chron's newly re-jazzed San Francisco section, about how the neighborhood by the Farmers' Market and the Waterfront is taking a vote on adopting a cool new moniker for the area. Residents and people who work in the area say it'll help their image and give them more clout at City Hall if they have a buzzy new name to call themselves. We giggled a little when we read this -- but hey, no doubt that "Nolita" has done pretty well for itself since we left New York. Names under consideration include: the East Harbor District, Historic Waterfront, NoMa (oh Noma!), Seawall, and Yerba Buena Cove. We kind of like "Barbary Coast." If you live or work in the area, you're welcome to vote from 6-8 at MacArthur Park. We're looking forward to seeing new Neighborhoodies with whatever name wins the election jauntily festooned on the front! ...

We're so excited to hear that Alex Clemens, the dude who had the genius idea to buy up the ad space on the back of Frank Chu's sign, will be appearing on the next Real World [PDF] along with the rest of the Barbary Coast Consulting crew. From the press release: “We’re giving these city slickers one bed, an intermittently functioning sink, and a variety of ‘colorful’ drop-in guests from the neighborhood,” said Real......

From noted swashblogger and "Oaksterdam" resident Scaramouche we were tipped to the upcoming BARBARians meeting this Thursday from six to nine at the Uptown, 17th and Capp. Then we were officially invited by John of Blogenlust, which made us feel special. Who are the BARBARians? Well, they would be the Bay Area Resident Bloggers and Readers. While normally they meet to do their pillaging in the East Bay, they've decided to move this week's meeting......

Adriel Hampton reports on his blog that Alex Clemens, the mastermind behind SF politics must-see site Usual Suspects, has confessed that he's bought ad space on the back of Frank Chiu's "Impeach Clinton/12 Galaxies" sign for his company, Barbary Coast Consulting. When accused of taking unfair advantage of an obviously-sick man, Clemens unblinkingly responds that Chiu has been taking ads for some time and that Chiu should at least make some money promoting his zegnatronic messages. ("Anytime someone says 'I saw your ad on Frank Chiu's sign,' he gets a $1 bonus.") While we're not entirely convinced of Clemens' humanitarian instincts, there's certainly no denying that Chiu's got good local coverage. Plus, the ad is awesome: "Creative Communication for 10 of the 12 Galaxies. Serving all 12 by 2007, honest." ...

SFist contributor and virtual TV pundit Rain Jokinen offers her Bay-area-centric TV picks of the week It looks like Indian summer may be over for good what with the wind and the rain and the whining about the wind and the rain. So SFist recommends that you stay indoors and enjoy some of San Francisco's local landmarks on the small screen. The creative partnership of Clint Eastwood and director Don Siegel is probably best remembered......

We came late to this because we always save Leah Garchik for the bus ride home. Lo and behold, we have a (admittedly tame) blind item! Since we have no Nick Denton equivalent here on the Barbary Coast, we'd like to ask for your guesses. Email the editor and your confidentiality is assured. "That chic South of Market restaurant's doing fine with customers but not so well with the staff. At least two food servers are gone, I hear, because the boss asked whether they were amenable to being spanked." Of course it had to be a restauranteur. Who knows some waiters, owners or cooks in SOMA? We're dying to know! And if you're the staff in question, we know lawyers. We'll post the likely candidates later today....