In the tussle over the mantle of San Francisco’s Most Tucked-Away Neighborhood, Visitacion Valley gets our vote...particularly if by “tucked-away,” one really means “neglected.” Geographic and economic isolation have contributed to infrastructural decline - and crime - here for quite some time, although earnest efforts are being made these days to turn the tide. The block of Leland between Peabody and Rutland is dually zoned for business and residence, so the street is one of Viz Valley’s main drags. There’s plenty of foot and auto traffic here, and the 56 Rutland bus even shuffles by on occasion. Businesses bookend the nondescript strip as post-WWII housing, other small commercial concerns, and a pair of bottlebrush trees fill in the space between. Pretty? Not quite. But, utilitarian? Sure....

-- Smell that? It's the stench of awards season underway. And the San Francisco Film Critics Circle nominees are... [Hartlaub, Maximum Strength Mick] -- Rincon Hill? Is fit to be tied. [Curbed] -- The Hayward fault is coming to get you, us. [The Snitch] -- Mark and Carole and Tim and SFist. [SFBG] -- "[C]od sperm crostini." (Also: barf.) [Eater] -- Will you buy us this incredibly well lit house? [The Front Steps] --......

During the execution of the Academy of Art University's real-estate master plan for San Francisco, they came across a bit of controversy after purchasing the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. It seems that they hate black people. No, not really. We're just screwing with you, attorney Stephens. To be fair, the building's owner, Sutter Taylor, already planned on converting the building into high-end condominiums. But then the Academy came along to gobble up the property for......

Remember that budget surplus? Remember when we were flush with cash and we decided to go on this spending binge and Chris Daly got into a fight with everyone because he wanted to spend the money his way and not everyone else's way? Well goodbye to all that because Gavin announced that we know have a whopping $229 million dollar deficit....

BeyondChron's Paul Hogarth dares to go where many fear to tread: all up in Elisa Stephens' grill. Again. Hogarth writes about the Academy of Art College's plan to swallow up even more of San Francisco's prime real estate. TenderNob/downtown buildings such as the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, the St. Brigid Church, and perhaps the building you're in this very second, have been gobbled up by l'Academy of Art College. Preferring the taste of rent-controlled apartments......

Oh is it a voting day or something? It totally sneaked up on us! It still feels like Monday today. Actually it also feels like October. Anyway, you should probably vote yes on A and no on H, because that's what everyone else is doing. Prop A will protect The Mt Soledad National War Memorial and do something to the air force? and will transform some colleges. Also, Aristotle endorsed it it. Proposition H......

When he's not busy keeping it real or putting in a couple of loads at the laundromat -- he looks like a Biz kind of guy, doesn't he? -- Gavin Newsom is out pandering to the boomers for their vote. (Something we assumed he had in the bag.) Behold, the psychedelic Gavin Newsom for Mayor poster. This one, which was for a re-election benefit held in the Haight-Ashbury this past week, was sent to......

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....

Eastern SOMA's budding, unfortunately named condo "community" BLŪ, on Folsom and Second Streets, is about ready to bloom in all of its steel and glass glory. Problem is, we don't see any lottery for affordable housing on their site. Has the lottery already happened? Or are they planning on having some sort of learning annex or UC Berkeley extension, a la The Paramount, to skirt those types? We can't seem to get anyone over......

With Gavin caught up in a tough re-election campaign against...ummm...well...huh.... he's started playing up his street people street cred. Recently, he announced a plan to deal with all the vagrants caught doing vagrant-like by sending out "Homeless Outreach Teams" to deal with it. The teams consist of police officers and social services and when they catch somebody doing something unpleasant, they're supposed to give them a choice between going into outreach services or being issued a citation, which as far as we can tell, is the handing out of giant frowny faces that will be put on a giant white board in the local police station. The program will be focused on targeted areas around Union Square and SOMA, read, tourist traps. Apparently, tourists don't appreciate seeing people defecate in the streets while riding the Cable Cars and eating soup in a sourdough roll-- kinda gives new meaning to the phrase "San Francisco Treat." Gavin has been putting putting some of these policies into effect lately but is now making a bigger deal out of it. ...

Last week's winner, the deceptive SF Weekly. Letters abound, either outraged by the fake Barry Bonds story or entertained by the elk. Why don't the negative letters have the names of the authors? Are you now questioning all the journalism you read in the Weekly now, or did you just think it was a good joke? Matt Smith says Gavin Newsom is supporting a cult. No, not the cult of Gavin, though no doubt Gavin......

The Tenderloin Housing Clinic's properties may be among the worst places in the city to live -- but hey, at least it's cheap! Jeff, the proprietor of the Bluoz blog, recently posted a slew of eviction notices, going back several years; and man, it ain't pretty. Knives, fistfights, spitting, floods and fires, a cleaver, an abandoned dog, ripped-up smoke alarms, garbage-hoarders, broken limbs, choking with a telephone cable, stabbings, and (most shockingly) hateful comments......

One day in San Francisco politics you're in, and the next day, you're out. IN: District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick, who successfully managed to fend off the petitions calling for his recall, which have been vaguely annoying our readers for the last few months. The recall backers managed to get 3844 signatures (about 300 over what they needed), but the SF Dept. of Elections found that about 25% of the signatures were invalid. The recall......

Hey, remember way back in January, when Ross Mirkarimi declared that the housing authority had one year to get its act together or the city would take it over? Our guess is that he's going to have to introduce that legislation, because the SFHA is all over the news lately. If it's not Greg Fortner refusing Gavin's mass resignation request, it's the housing commission getting together about as often as some supervisors sleep at their......

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly: Someone's angry with the Bouncer. Local progressive Adam Werbach is a Walmart sellout. Why won't anyone endorse the mayor? Cover article: the back story about the Haight neighborhood activist killed in an S/M session gone wrong. These drawings illustrating the piece are pretty rad, though (see left) -- did Matt Smith do 'em? A Hank Williams Birthday Karaoke Sing-Off???? There's a tear in our beer too! The anti-war Berkeley......

Looks like Gavin's already started recruiting! After his housecleaning began last week, we were waiting with bated breath for the job ads to start appearing. But foregoing the mighty Craigslist for our lil' SFist job board? It's going to be hard to replace the head of the strife-ridden Housing Authority - if he's only offering equity, he should probably be looking anywhere he can!......

No, not Ed. That's been done. Homeless SF mayoral candidate Grasshopper Kaplan was booked "on suspicion of stalking and use of a vehicle for habitation" -- is that really illegal? using your ride as your home? -- after taking a nap in his taxi while parked in the driveway of Ed Jew's 28th Avenue (non-)residence yesterday. It seems that he did it to make a statement about homelessness, affordable housing, the moon, or whatever. Maybe......

When we began our daunting, three-month-long apartment hunt this past June, we soon discovered that the competition for affordable one-bedrooms suitable for two people was fierce. We needed to find an abode before our impending marriage at the end of September, but after spurts of fruitless open houses throughout the summer, we feared we were doomed to walk through our separate "thresholds" post-matrimony, with our various roommates lurking down the hall. So, last week, after......

Bad series of news items for the SFPD -- the rookie cop who accidentally shot himself at a party earlier this month when trying to demonstrate tips on gun safety was legally drunk (just barely), and that cop, Jesse Serna, who keeps (allegedly) beating up people like Barry Bonds' trainer and Willie Brown's friends in North Beach just got the city sued again, this time for beating up a doctor starting his residency at Harvard......

Larry Craig's police interrogation audio -- Senator Larry Craig still a lying homosexual. [Examiner, via AP] -- Tony Hall calls it quits. [Chron] -- Jackson West's last column for now. Good luck on the other coast, Jackson! Weep, weep. [Chron Blog] -- Harvey Milk Club hearts Tommy Ammiano and Kamala Harris. Of course. [Left in SF] -- Cupertino/Stevens Creek Canyon fire contained. [SJ Merc] -- BM suicide. [Chron Blogs] -- AIDS housing advocates and......

Step right up! Step right up! The Gavin Newsom San Francisco carnival is coming to town! SEE .... the horrors that abound in the San Francisco Housing Authority! GAWK..... at the desperate lives of people trying to get by in the sub-standard apartment units provided by the city! GASP..... at the pitiful amounts of money residents try to live on! And then.... open your wallets! Won't you help.... for the children? We're not even really......

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......

-- Tzssss: Golden Gate Bridge gets branded. (They won't really have billboards on the bridge, but who would want to see tasty Pizza Rolls high above, or why Sally Field stays so ramrod straight?) [Chron] -- Castro is now dead, says Perez. No, not the Castro. Although that neighborhood [insert your own joke here]. [SFBG, via PH] -- Man killed by J-Church on Thursday identified as John O'Neill, 47. RIP, dude. [Chron] -- What will......

We're both flattered an saddened by our witty betters at Gawker -- flattered that they stole our idea to spotlight comments (not that we're especially innovative in doing so, but still); a little saddened that theirs is already so much better in its execution. Depressing, yet we soldier on, because many of your thoughts deserve to be read a second time. Here's this week's top 5....

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take......

Update: See Paul's comment below about why they had to do what they did, and what they're doing about it. Are there quiet, law-abiding people on Sixth Street? Sure, but it's hard to stand out when your neighborhood looks like something out of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome -- take a walk down 6th, especially at night, and you'll find yourself surrounded by brawls, the mentally ill, drug deals, screaming gibberish, glazed-over eyes, and people......

Huh -- remember that huge fight we all got into about whether or not to put cameras at high-crime intersections in SF? Turns out the cameras at the public housing sites are pretty much useless. To wit, they've only been used for evidence in two cases, neither of which were the homicides that they said the cameras would help solve. Whether this is because cameras don't deter crime, or because the restrictions that the civil......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

The city provided a continental breakfast of "coffee, bagels, orange wedges, and blueberries" (delicious!) as well as temporary encampment tents for those that they evicted from Golden Gate Park at 4:30 a.m. this morning. (You can read Chron's article about it here, and SF Examiner's here.) SFPD and city outreach workers sounded the alarm for this election-year effort to clean-up the park. And "after eight hours' work, 44 people accepted the offer of a roof......

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......