Tomorrow, on what will reportedly be a hot day, government officials and and local activists will ask you to bike to work to "promote pedal power." While your Editor won't be riding anywhere tomorrow, SFist Jonathan manages to pedal from San Francisco to Palo Alto almost every day, so one day out of the year won't kill you, will it? Just be sure to stay hydrated; swipe on your toughest deodorant; snap on that......

A city worker ignores city policy...

If you're done with your pagan tree-worship holiday, head on over to MeTransCo's 511 Survey, and let them know just how bad they suck. 'Tis the season! You could win an iPod, as if you didn't already have four or five of them already. The MTC is interested in how people use their services (if at all) -- for example, which of 511's many sites do you use most often? Or were you, like......

-- Watch out, SF. Last night's armed robbery spree shakes up, shakes down residents. [SF Crime, SFGate] -- Ding, ding: bike rally at City Hall. [Left in SF] -- Your Contemporary Jewish Museum. [Curbed] -- At Harvard U seasons change, feelings change. [Beyond Chron] -- "Come on feel the Noyes." [I'll Flip You] -- Top Bay Area noisemakers of 2007. [SFBG] -- This morning's police chase/fatal accident killed two, including Benjamin Bratt's nephew, Kristopher.......

Today's rally at City Hall in support of Bike Plan implementation...

This was the scene the other day on everybody's favorite piece of landfill, San Francisco's Marina District. Larger version here Of course SUPER-visor Chris Daly took action to keep Segways off of our sidewalks about a half decade ago, but our law doesn't appear to stop folks from just driving around in bike lanes. (It doesn't seem to stop people from riding on sidewalks either, but oh well.) Anyway, you'll be seeing these things in......

Photos from the San Francisco Bike Coalition's Winterfest ...

-- Post-Postcard 11: the 11th Annual Small Format Art Sale: At this event, you are the artist and your work is on display. "Artists are encouraged to submit small format multiples--whether that be a series of hand-made paintings or a stack of production run postcards." Plus, this is the perfect SF-y place to go to buy your holiday cards. The postcard kickoff goes from 6-9p at the Lab; free admission. Also, cash/checks accepted; $20......

The SFBC will have its annual fundraiser party this Sunday at 6:00 PM...

Blah blah blah soup kitchens blah blah fun-runs blah holiday schedules. All that stuff's fascinating, of course, but here's what we really want to know: Muni, where can we find all the hottest Xmas shopping deals? Aside from Dress Barn, of course. Fear not, shoppers, for Muni's assembled a guide to holiday buying, starting on the day after Thanksgiving and extending to late December. Thanks to the MTA, you are now fully prepared to......

Our ride home from the Caltrain station takes us through the strange, anarchy-prone intersection of Division, 10th, Brannan and Potrero streets. The other night, as we gasped for air while sprinting for the green light on our 40-Year-Old Virgin-style commuter bike, we had an unfortunate encounter with a bug. Bitter experience tells us that when a cyclist feels the splat of a gnat on the back of the throat, there is little to be done......

Three weeks ago, a Caltrain conductor told the San Jose Mercury News that "Trains stay on tracks and if you stay off the tracks, it's very easy not to get hit by a train" ("Family of Man Killed in Caltrain Accident Files Suit"). Let's hope that no one got hit today -- trains are running at least 20 minutes late in both directions. These folks are waiting at the Palo Alto train station at......

News of a new law expanding the requirements for bicycle lighting. ...

Free bike light giveaway today only. ...

We have incredibly exciting news about bus shelters! The city just reached an agreement with Clear Channel, your favorite company, to provide bus shelters and advertising and revenue. It's a complicated relationship, and totally boring -- like, alt-weekly-level boring -- but here's what it all means to you, the common man on the street: - New shelters will speak NextMuni information out loud, will have a beacon for waiting passengers to notify approaching vehicles, will......

The best sports, we say, combine beauty and ridiculousness, and that’s why cycling is a favorite of ours. But, like many others in the Bay Area--too many, it turns out--we’ve recently discovered cyclocross, a form of Pure Sweet Hell. Others have written eloquently on the attractions of this "bike-riding amalgam of roller derby, steeplechase, mud wrestling, and ballet" -- so let us just say here that, as a spectacle, it combines all the beauty......

LAist began the month with a new food series exploring the popular and unknown late night eats around town. If a Top Chef winner opened up a late night spot in Los Angeles, denizens would flock it, yet the LA Times and other media might be wary. Turning to sports, the Dodger season was quite memorable in the way that it imploded and the LA County Sheriff's Department made some games of their own such......

101, the highway of doom! There was a drunk driving death near Willow Road Wednesday morning, along with all those random shootings the day before. The cops, for what it's worth, say none of those random shootings are connected -- but still: we'll take 280 this week, thanks. A student at Merritt College in Oakland was attacked and acid was thrown in her face in a college parking lot a few weeks ago. The police......

A man in a black leather jacket carefully backs his Yamaha into one of the six motorcycle spaces on Haight at the corner of Shrader. He's here to see Pinback's in-store performance at Amoeba Music across the street later in the evening, but he's also pulled his bike into a world where the warm early evening air is alternately punctured by the scent of patchouli, McChickens, pee, and smoke from silly cigarettes. Plenty of off-street fee parking and reminders of the 1960s glory days are also available. Certain parts of Haight between Shrader and Stanyan have seen better commercial days – specifically, the shuttered and boarded Cala supermarket at its west end, and on a much lesser scale, the former home of taco/burrito retailer Chabela's at 1805 (dormant since the mid-'00s) – and there's no escaping the persistently suffocating sense of flower power and "revolution" around here anytime soon. (Kind bud?) The vibe on the block's sidewalks can be construed as seamy or circus-like (or perhaps both), depending upon one's tolerance for American Youth in Very Big Pants, or for politely deranged men pushing shopping carts and singing "COME TO AFRICA!!" at the top of their high-pitched lungs. But regardless of one's frame of reference, there's always a lot to take in down here in Amoeba Gulch....

It’s a classic example of fixie bike lust: the carefully accented color coordination, expensive but mismatched wheels, improbably narrow handlebars, and, of course, lack of any unsightly “extras” such as gears and brakes. But wait...is that a basket we see? We love – and love to hate – those slim fixie kids. In our fair city -- and, apparently, in every other city and town on the globe (our friend just back from Budapest......

So, obviously, SFist can't even pretend to be neutral when it comes to Prop A. We've been covering its progress for months, and now it's evolved into a smart, fair compromise that has just about everyone on board -- everyone except a local Republican group. Our local GOP is backing the loathsome Prop H, which would, no joke, replace bus stops, trees, and bike lanes with parking garages. Could this be any more like......

Critical Mass bike ride turns 15 years old today...

Last week's winner, the San Jose Metro. Alas! They haven't updated their site for this week yet, and we didn't manage to snag a hard copy of the paper, so they'll have to forfeit in the Weekly of the Week contest for the week. Next up, let's call it for the SF Weekly. Ephraim the Track Bike is back! And he mentions us! We love you, Ephraim the Track Bike! Did Ed Jew's people spearhead......

At 4:30 p.m. today, a rally and march led by a cast of security officers will take place in the financial district. (We'll try to grab some shots of the officers getting all Norma Nae-y.) Unionized security officers of the Service Employees International Union Local 24/7 are in a huff and not taking it anymore. According to the Chronicle: The union said it is seeking to boost compensation for security officers so that it equals......

Photo of what may or may not be evidence of underground stolen parts bicycle workshops in San Francisco....

We were running in the Presidio this morning, and after a few cars nearly creamed us it struck us that one of San Francisco's preeminent outdoor plagrounds is a very dangerous place in which to play outside. Bike lanes appear and disappear randomly, and when they're doing maintenance and logging on the Coastal Trail (like today), runners and walkers coming from Arguello are forced to Washington Street, praying that cars don't splatter them on......

With unseasonable weather descending upon much of North America, schools getting ready to reconvene, and sports seasons getting exciting, it's a busy time of year for us here in the Ist-A-Verse. Luckily, even with all the things we have to do, we still managed to get together to let you know what we've all been up to. After cooling down from a hot weekend of many badass Sunset Junction Street Fair photo dispatches, LAist asked......

And now for another big city's mildly retarded view of San Francisco: Too much ink has been spilled and too much bandwidth used to praise/bury Critical Mass in length. Now the LA Times gets in on the action. We'd love to break it down for you, but it's a long article and we don't bike or drive; more or less, it's stuff you've heard before. So, we present to you some choice quotes from......

We're a "transit-first" city, and have been for years. That means that cars are a last resort -- rely on the bike, on walking, on the bus if you must, but don't clog up the streets unless you absolutely have to. Too bad nobody told the terminally out-of-touch 511.org; the MTC-run "service," designed to facilitate your movement around the bay area, continues to all about cars, cars, cars. Fuck you, Muni riders! In their......

Ritual Coffee Roasters' two locations are only about three miles apart. Not so bad on a bike, right? Well, what if you're biking with 130 pounds of coffee? Yeah, a little tougher. This Saturday, popular cafe Ritual Roasters, in conjunction with Bikes to Rwanda, is having a wacky, multi-tiered charity event that involves bike-race betting, film-watching, a raffle, and the consumption of both of our favorite beverages: booze and coffee....