Photo by bikelikeme/Flickr Worthy of your love or a tetanus shot?......

Lucas (1986), Say Anything (1989), My Bloody Valentine (1981): The first film has socially-retarded Corey Haim falling head over heels in love with a sensitive football player, Charlie Sheen, or something like that; Cameron Crowe's tale of teenage love and angst has John Cusack causing egregious noise pollution when he holds up a ghettoblaster pumping out a Peter Gabriel ballad; and the final film has a murderer in a small coal mining town killing......

Our friends over at CurbedSF brought to our attention that Hayes Valley will soon be getting a new makeover, via the redevelopment of 55 Laguna. The proposals for the "mixed-use" of the former UC Berkeley extension -- which was relocated four years ago -- has recently been approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission. So what can we look forward to at 55 Laguna? Plans for the property include a community center, retail space (specifically......

You get a very special blotter today. Alas. Carrying on San Francisco's lightning-hot crime wave, a drive-by shooting occurred on the Hayes Valley/Lower Haight nexus last night. At around 6:40 p.m. at Oak and Fillmore, "[a]s many as eight bullets rang out in rapid succession during," three of them hitting a Department of Public Works truck. Yikes. The vehicle is described as a "light-colored SUV" in hot pursuit of another car. Charming. Oh, and......

Charming! And the Curbed Cup award goes to: Hayes Valley. San Francisco's top hood took the crown with 262 votes (52.8%) over second-place Mission's 234 votes (47.2%). Total burn, Valencia Street! And you know what? Well played, HV. Well played. Ideally, it's just the perfect neighborhood. No, it really is. For starters, the area lies flat and stands as the nexus of many other neighborhoods. What's more, it has perhaps one of San Francisco's only......

Well, the bad news is still that we've hit a 12 year high for homicides in the City and County of San Francisco, with two weeks left to go in the year. On the statistical side, though, the SFPD year to date murder count has moved down by three victims, from 100 to 97. What happened to those three victims? Well, they're not any less dead, unfortunately. Rather, three of them were reclassified into non-murders.......

At one end of Ivy St., the vibrant sounds of Afro-beat float across Octavia from the African Outlet. A single pigeon observes the sidewalks and street from its lofty perch upon a sill of the Ivy Hotel, kitty-corner from the retailer. Nobody knows if the pigeon has taken note of the owl less than ten feet above its head. At the other end of Ivy St., low income housing strikes a weary pose across Laguna, a relic from the era when Hayes Valley was known as a freeway-slashed slum. Turning 90 degrees to the left, the newly gentrified and boutique-crazy Hayes St. is a 30-second walk to the south. Visible from our vantage point is a corner retailer, Alabaster, that deals in self-styled “treasures for the home.” Clearly, Hayes Valley remains in a state of transition. Even the pigeons can’t see everything going on here....

As mentioned in today's Chronicle, the idea of a safe-space in which intravenous drug users can shoot up -- without fear of arrests, beatings, rapes, or whatever happens in those movies after heroin's sweet release -- might become a reality. Or at least, discussed in length at this Thursday's all-day symposium hosted by the city Department of Public Health....

The Poop is getting literal. Well, almost. Yesterday, Aidin Vaziri brought up Poo&Pee, the delightful abjection characters for kids. See, one is a hunk of adorable excrement and the other a darling volume of urine. Ick, sure. But seeing as how we have serious body and bodily function issues -- unicorns and Smurfs shoot out of our ass as far as everyone else is concerned -- we surprised ourselves last year when we bought......

Few San Francisco burghs are as tucked away as Glen Park. Despite the ingenious presence of a BART station and a handful of popular restaurants (Chenery Park, Gialina, La Corneta), the neighborhood isn’t the kind of place most people randomly end up on a stroll or a ride. Unlike, for instance, Hayes Valley, or much of the Mission, you make a bit of an effort to get here. Aspiring to become a high-profile destination-neighborhood is not on Glen Park’s agenda. Its reputation as a charming, homey little district stems from narrow, hillside lanes such as Sussex St., where the mood is assuredly residential. There’s something vaguely coastal New England in the air at certain moments along this block between Castro and Diamond, and it stems from more than the street’s name. It could be called Constantinople Place and we’d still be tempted to naively pin the “Cape Cod meets San Francisco” tag on the place....

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly. Hey, why is Sucka Free City before the letters this week? Anti-Jewish slurs at Rainbow Grocery. The story behind that weird killing in Hayes Valley you guys got all worked up at us about (blah blah blah, hipsters, blah blah, SFist is racist, blah blah). Cover article: Disbar more lawyers. We are adoring the cautious yet game-for-adventure tone in this Southern Exposure pie delivery service piece! Meredith Brody bills......

Photo of car with a CHP 11-99 Foundation license plate holder...

It is with a very heavy heart that we report the passing of Hugues De La Plaza. The young audio engineer was returning to his home in Hayes Valley last night at around 2:15; his neighbors called police when they saw a struggle outside his apartment; and his body was found a few hours later. Friends have set up a memorial site, and have extended to the world an invitation to remember Hugues: Hugues......

Send your Bay Area finds to found at sfist.com! We call on you to submit discarded photos, objects, letters, and other items that you plucked from streets, thrift stores, flea markets, et cetera! Tell us where/when you found the item and any other helpful info. The find must be from the Bay Area, and its previous ownership shrouded in mystery. Special thanks to Captian Disco for sending us this link to an auction on eBay of a photo album containing photos from San Quentin circa 1932, including mug shots, suicide photos, and a track and field event. The auction ends tomorrow. Today's two featured lists were each separately found on the sidewalk near Hayes Valley about three or four years ago. The grocery list was at Hayes and Buchanan, and we honestly couldn't tell you the exact location of the "Reason for Blockages" find....

A handbill advertising a bikerelated event...

On Saturday, fantastic Hayes Valley comic book store Isotope played host to Ed Brubaker, who's as hot a writer in the comics industry as anyone. Recently, a story of Brubaker's made headlines nationwide (and Colbert, of course): the death of Marvel Comics' icon Captain America. ...

--Civic Center's SFMike reports on a Hayes Valley-themed mini-golf public art installation. That's the eponymous Mr. Hayes (not Rutherford B., but another guy named Thomas) to your right. --Gavin's now all pretending he meant for Theresa Sparks to get on the Police Commission after all. --The Merc News names its top five area Venture Capitalists under 40. --The KFOG KaBoom fest sounded like fun last night. --Pat Murphy shares his tips on keeping maggots out......

Seeing beyond Sight What happens when you give visually impaired children cameras and ask them to capture their everyday life? Come find out at this exhibit for a new book by Tony Deifell, Seeing Beyond Sight: Photography by Blind Teenagers. Accompanying the revelatory photographs is commentary and reflections by the artists. If you can't make it tonight, the show runs until May 12 but stop by around 6 until 8pm to catch a glimpse of......

In a big press conference yesterday, city officials announced plans to have police officers start patrolling four projects in the Western Addition. Up until now, police weren't able to patrol those places due to issues concerning who had jurisdiction over them-- San Francisco or the Federal Government. The Federal Government had supported community policing in those areas, but the money dried up years ago. After looking through what Ross Mirkarimi called a "Khafka-esque" relationship between HUD and the SFPD, a solution was reached. ...

-There was a protest in the Mission over the the latest bit of immigration raids. -Flaks o' Gavin on gay porn proclamation: we did what? Oopsie. ...

Last week's winner, the East Bay Express: Hey, maybe you could let the Laotian community know, in Laotian, when your refinery blows up? Cover article (which is by the same person that wrote the Lao article -- Kara Platoni had a busy week!): People hoarding gene patents. Book section: Books about eating, and a book about how a dowser found someone's missing harp. Nontraditional BBQ in Berkeley. And the digital music industry still sucks. And......

Quick -- which one of those pictures above is of Valencia Street in SF and which is of Williamsburg in Brooklyn? Bay Area blogger Overstated has put together his list of what New York neighborhoods correspond to which San Francisco ones. Check out his list, and let the great debates begin! Here's some calls we agree with: --Totally Williamsburg is the Mission. Last time we were on Bedford Avenue, honest to God we thought......

All of our comics this week have been struck by some kind of diabolic decontextualization ray, leaving them to fend for themselves in the bleak tundra of WTF. From local artist Chris Wisnia come inside-jokes so confusing you won't be able to find your head to scratch it; from Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale come a Superman so divorced from modern superhero style we found ourselves enjoying it in spite of our deep-seated loathing......

We love how warm and unpretentious the 24th and Bryant area is. We especially love the harmonious balance between the hipster and Latino cultures which is threatening to become less and less harmonious due to the construction of various sets of condominiums in the area. Each business has its own distinct personality that enhances the overall vibe of the neighborhood, and that's the way we like it. ...

--Last Tuesday, a 300-pound woman beat up the DPT officer trying to ticket her car. --There weren't as many shoppers in Hayes Valley as there were in Union Square. --Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf have sold their Tiburon house at a loss. --Things they hate at Cal. --Stanlee Gatti's art exhibition. --Ed Jew was wearing a jade pig necklace for good luck during the election ballot-counting. --They might lower cable car fares for kids......

More art tonight! Feeling hungry? Check out Détourned Menu: Food in the Form of Activism at The Lab(2948 16th Street @ Capp) from 6-9pm. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi continues his predecessor, Matt Gonzales' tradition of art shows in his office. Tonight, photos by Amy Auerbach and Ethel Mays! (City Hall Room 282) - 5-8pm. Saturday Writers With Drinks, two hours of trauma and nihilistic epiphany (and drinks), returns to the Make Out Room (3225 22nd.......

Doctor DeBunko is awash in fools. The creation of local artist Chris Wisnia, Dr. DeBunko's comics follow a familiar pattern: a group of hysterical idiots, foaming at the mouth over some unexplained phenomena, are patiently condescended to by a skeptical pipe-smoking intellectual with slick 1950s hair and a passing resemblance to Vincent Price. A farmer wails over the eviscerated corpse of a cow, "it's the paranormal mystery crime of the century! Is this the......

Always looking to balance his chi, Barrespondent SFist Nico braves the panicked drivers of Hayes Valley and hits up a bar in line with his Kundalini. Ok, we're ashamed to say we are a bit of a new-ageist. Sometimes, even in the middle of a noisy drinking establishment we can feel the ebb and flow of the natural forces of the universe. Sure, it may just be the cheap Tequila talking but we know when......

What mysteries lurk in the minds of men? Well, there's the one about the all-knowing ham. And then there's the mystery about Vincent Price insisting that someone put an imaginary shoe on his foot. And the one where the letter L was killed in a shoot-out, and who can forget when Lucky the Leprechaun had to wear white bell bottoms? Oh, what a turgid threshhold we cross when pondering the hauntings of the psyche!......

We were out of the area for most of this week, so we're only just now getting our hands smudgy with the alternative press! (Virtually smudgy; we're also reading everything online, because we can't be bothered to go outside and hunt for weekly distribution boxes that still have weeklies in them halfway through the distribution cycle.) Sorry for the delay! Last week's winner, the East Bay Express: Bottom Feeder was attacked by a Canadian goose......