Oakland's Central Station was once the western terminus of the Transcontinental Railway, and the Beaux Arts train station that still stands at the end of 16th Street near the 980 freeway has seen better days. Various plans for renovating and preserving the structure have been proposed and scrapped -- including a museum honoring the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, a first of its kind African American labor union which had its start here -- and it now sits amid multiple new residential developments. Bridge Housing, a non-profit developer of affordable housing, now owns the building and the property it sits on, and they're renewing efforts to figure out a cheap way to reuse the building after HBO recently used it for a set for their film Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen. In order to get it ready for filming, HBO invested about $200,000 into replacing windows, patching the roof, and painting the place. more ›

This is most exciting news, folks. The theater scene here sucks so hard now that even the San Francisco Police Department is working on the problem. Check it: more ›

In North Beach fights breakout and mild vandalism occurs after bars close at 2 a.m. This chaos, typical for any city, makes some of our sensitive city dwellers cranky before bedtime. Or whatever. So, the City Planning Commissioners somehow got it into their heads that closing pizza parlors on the the Broadway strip, pizzerias that normally stay open until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m., before 2 a.m. will solve a slew of problems. According to the Examiner: more ›

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.
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