Aaron, what's going on? Things okay at home? You can tell us, man. Because:
The Trumpification of Aaron "Payback Is a Bitch" Peskin
Day Around the Bay
- First eco-friendly homeless shelter opens its doors. Glamour, glitz, green. [Oakland Tribune]
- The Mayor uses Muni funds to pay his posse. [SFGate, N Judah Chronicles]
- Speaking of which, buy your "The N Is Near" t-shirt now. No, now. [N-Judah Chronicles]
Bike Plan Injunction Injunction, What's Your Function?
Today's rally at City Hall in support of Bike Plan implementation
Help SPUR Some Transportation Conversation
Want to hear and participate in a thought-provoking discussion about planning regional transportation? Tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. you can head on down to SPUR's (a.k.a. the San Francisco Planning + Research Association) office at 312 Sutter St. (@ Grant), 5th floor. While open to the public, it will cost you $5 if you're not a member (membership details can be found here). The discussion will involve regional social justice, transit, walking, and bicycling advocates, and is coordinated by the Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC), in an effort to influence the next Regional Transportation Plan.
"We recognize that the quality of service Muni has provided is unacceptable."
It's not as good as getting the trains running on time, but it's a start. Muni leaders have clearly been in over thier heads for the last few days, with trains running ridiculously unpredictably. The inauguration of the T line's thrown the whole system into a tizzy; and so far, dealing with it has simply been beyond the abilities of the people who are supposed to be running the show.
No Soup For You
Remember how members of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association have been whining about increases in minimum wage and the newly mandated health care initiative? Well, they're talking about turning whining into action and the association is threatening to go on strike.
Au revoir, Annemarie
It's being reported that everyone's favorite whipping girl, Annemarie Conroy, has resigned as of this morning. Conroy was the Executive Director of Emergency Services but was recently demoted mainly for the sin of having no real experience doing anything emergency service related. After being demoted, the Board of Supes then pulled the financing for her recently created position. She was so popular that Aaron Peskin couldn't even say anything nice about her leaving; saying instead "there was no resignation. Her job was evaporated." Ouch.
The Homeless. Again.
Last week, Gavin gave his State of the Homeless speech. And you'll never guess what he said? He said we're doing swell. He also said that there's still more to do and gosh-darnit, he's going to do it.
What Would You Ask Mr Ford?
We're totally afraid that we're gonna jinx ourselves by spilling the beans like this, but we can't hold back any longer: this week, we're actually going to get to ask Muni's Executive Director Nathaniel P. Ford all the questions we've been (rhetorically) asking since his appointment in January of this year. That's right: Mr Ford has graciously agreed to be interviewed by SFist -- but something tells us we won't get to the question about who he'd set Gavin up with.
SFIFF Opening Night: Perhaps Love
The opening night screening of a film festival is like having sex with a celebrity -- the experience itself is never that impressive, but it makes for a fun memory and it's nice to be able to say that you did it.
Dear Mr Ford
Thanks to the super-secret source who sent us the email address of the Executive Director of Muni, Nathaniel P. Ford! We emailed him to let him know about this column, and to request an interview. So far he hasn't written us back, but we hear he's really busy with work. Never fear, we're not giving up until we get an answer from him or his people. But when (not "if") we do interview him, we plan on bringing up the concerns all of you have raised to us, so please send your Muni stories of happiness and sadness our way.
Across The -ist Network
LAist tracks an award-winning TV writer who worked on Good Times to a homeless shelter and sees a Little Old Lady get a jaywalking ticket because she can't get across fast enough (in the same post!). Poets invade Metro and an LAist contributor's new book asks WWJB.
Green Day at Music for America's Icon Awards
On Thursday night, political non-profit organization Music For America presented their inaugural Icon Awards to honor influential musicians, outstanding political achievement, and social responsibility. Honorees included Gavin Newsom, Green Day, Death Cab For Cutie, Oakland-based Youth Movement Records, Working Assets, and MFA Board Member Dan Lipski. With 60,000 members, Music for America endeavors to engage young people in politics through partnerships with musicians and music communities.
SF360 Revealed! Part One: New News
Well, we enjoyed being all coy and evasive for a while, but now that the SF Film Society has officially announced their SF360 campaign, we're free to reveal to you all the juicy details, like a new broadbanded network of digital projectors that they're installing around the city; or a brand new film festial-convention-market for animation; or their new initiative to, as Executive Director Graham Leggat put it, turn all of SF into an "exploded theater." Neat!
SFist Watches: Movies This Weekend
Hello, Mr. Fancy Pants! The San Francisco International Film Festival has chosen Graham Leggat to be their new Executive Director (replacing Roxanne Messina Captor). We just want to burn our resume after looking at his, which includes the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the New York Film Festival, and Film Comment magazine. It'll be interesting to see what he brings to the 49th Festival (April 2006 - May 4, 2006), given the mixed response last year's roster seemd to inspire.
SFist Rants: An Open Letter to Muni
We were having such a great week that we didn't even publish a Rant. Unfortunately, all of this changed when we got on the N Judah this morning. Expand to see the letter our crap Muni experience compelled us to write to Michael T. Burns, Executive Director of Muni, and please feel free to commiserate with us in the comments.
SFist on SFist
It is with a sigh and a fair bit of surprise that the Office of the SFist Ombudsman reports the following: Our site has grown predictable. April was yet another month in which a MUNI post generated the most comments. April saw the continued explosion of food-related posts, reflecting our Area's preoccupation with things that go in our mouths. April brought the return of a high frequency of baseball posts. And April saw us once again use Chris Daly as our favorite punching bag, the one we return to when we're feeling low because we know how to hit it just right to make us feel better. (Thanks, Rita! We needed that!)
SFist Watches: The Bay Area Hog the Camera This Week
SFist made a startling discovery this week. The Bay Area is a fame whore! How else can you explain there being eight (at least!) weekly TV shows named after our fair neck of the woods? How can one small area of this vast Golden State warrant that much coverage? How much TV time does the Bay Area really need? Do we really want to be seen as the Paris Hilton of Northern California?
Reminder: 'Shoot-In' Tomorrow
We would like to sincerely thank everyone who has offered their stories, thoughts and support in this matter. We were honestly expecting maybe half a dozen people to show up tomorrow, but now we think that it's going to be a lot bigger, which is awesome. This story seems to have really touched a nerve! We notified local press and relevant city agencies through an official press release [PDF] yesterday. Once again, it's tomorrow, Saturday, at noon. Please assemble quietly at the Embarcadero Station Muni Fare Gate. We'll be catching a train at 12:30, and finishing around 2:00 at the Castro station if you miss us.
Homeland Insecurity: Photo Ban on Muni?
We've been a bit remiss in keeping up with all our blog reading, or we would have caught this story on BoingBoing ourselves. But it was big enough to have been forwarded to us by friends of SFist Ross and Jeff.

