(By Travis Jensen) The S.F. Skate Club, a youth skateboarding program dedicated to providing children with skateboarding lessons and mentoring, hosted an art show last Friday in Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s office at City Hall. The show featured a series of hand-painted skateboard decks by local youth skateboarders, ages 8 to 13. Although none of the artwork was for sale, the club was hoping the show would help raise awareness about the need for a skateboard......

Nature lovers will be peeved. Under the budget proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today - dear God, just how did we get here? starting off a sentence like that? - nine local state parks would face a temporary shutdown until California learns how to balance its checkbook, pay its bills on time, stops disrespecting their mommas on Maury, or something like that. Statewide, the Gov is considering closing 48 state parks. Among those close......

Today Gavin Newsom announced that "a series of public hearings on the fatal Christmas Day tiger attack" that resulted in the killing of 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. will start as soon as this Friday. After these hearings, the Recreation and Parks Department Commission will "make a set of recommendations to improve the agreement that allows a nonprofit to run the public zoo." Or something like that. Although it's an attempt to appease the mayor......

Although he is "believed to be a good swimmer," 32-year-old Eric Wright's rescue search has now turned into a body recovery effort according to CBS 5. The Tracy resident was reported missing after Wright's father-in-law discovered his boat capsized this past Sunday in the Bethany Reservoir in Alameda County. Sheriff's deputies, park rangers, and CHP helicopters will still conduct "periodic checks for Wright on the shoreline and surrounding areas" along the the Bethany Reservoir......

Oh man, are you kidding? This is terrible. Not to get all tugging-the-heart strings today, but this spill is much worse than initially reported yesterday. This oil covered bird above was found at Fort Baker cove in Sausalito today. It seems that the Marin Headlands are getting crazy sloshed with oil on their shores. (The aerial shots of the spill on SFGate are jaw-dropping.) A Golden Gate National Recreation Area ranger claims that the......

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......

We stuck it in Day Around The Bay already, but thought we would let you hash it out here in its own pad, readers. It seems that, according to the preciousness that is Dan Noyes, "the Silent Drill Platoon of the U.S. Marine Corps wasn't allowed to be filmed Sept. 11 on California Street in San Francisco for a segment of its new advertising campaign." Stefanie Coyote, executive director of the San Francisco Film......

Sounds like a cosmo-swillin' kind of event: entertaining local female writers like Beth Lisick and Kim Wong Keltner (among others) are reading from a collection of essays entitled The Bigger The Better The Tighter The Sweater, about the hilarity of body image issues. Also: gift baskets and free eyebrow waxing! The event's sponsored by Green Apple, so the reading's at the Rockit Room, one block down the street (406 Clement, x 6th). 7 p.m., free.......

April, the Last R-month before September is going full throttle and our gorging on Dungeness crab and oysters, combined with the approaching swimsuit season lead us to search for a regular form of exercise. Being slackers, we know that even with a $60 a month membership, once the first week is up, we'll only hit the gym when our water boiler blows. So after contemplating joining a cheaper out-of-town YMCA to visit the Presidio YMCA as a guest, our thrifty mind saw the light at the University of San Francisco Koret Health and Recreation Center. ...

Last Saturday, a fight broke out at the "Hyphy High School Bash" at the Marin County Corte Madera Recreation Center. The police raced to the scene upon hearing reports of gunshots and a Golden Gate Transit bus being blocked on Tamalpais Drive by 80 teenagers. They couldn't confirm whether shots had been fired, but someone had sprayed pepper spray into the crowd and around the same time, someone broke into a nearby elementary school. Hilariously,......

ith fare evasion and it's effect on MUNI's budget being one of last week's big stories, we thought we'd ask our MUNI driver what the what is about all things MUNI fares. And remember, if you have any questions you'd like answered, send them to editor@sfist.com ...

It's the day after yesterday's big landslide and there's several developments, none of them really good. ...

Ah..it's President's Day. We don't know about you, but we love the annual President's Day parade down Market Street. Our favorites have always been the Taft Fat Mobile, the dance troop "the FDRettes," and the William Henry Harrison Tippecanoe Jazz Band. -Barack Obama Superstar to be in SF tonight for fundraiser for Sen. Barbara Boxer. -People return home late one night, stumble around, find dead body in house. -NASA holds an Asteroid Preparation Summit......

A few photos of the threatened snowy plover birds of S.F....

If you're man enough to go to the Fake Question Time townhall meeting this Saturday at the Richmond Recreation Center (281 18th Ave., between Geary and Clement), you're man enough to pop open a beer or three at 10 in the morning and play the Question Time Townhall Meeting Drinking Game with SFist! And you know who's really gonna want to play this drinking game? The star of the event! See you guys there --......

Like Frank Perdue always said: It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken. The Board of Supervisors cock-a-doodle-doo'ed a 10-1 vote in favor of putting Gavin Newsom and the Question Time he's intent on avoiding on their monthly agenda. So Gavin is now currently scheduled to appear every third Tuesday, and will be marked absent if he doesn't show up within five minutes of his scheduled time. Gavin buck-buck-buck'ed a testy response to......

Oh, those wags at the SFPartyParty! To gear up for this weekend's Fake Question Time "Policy Townhall meeting," they've started up a CafePress "The Chicken Mayor" online store for you to get your gear in time for Saturday's scripted encounter with the mayor in the Richmond. Check out their excellently bewattled Newsom logo! You can get it on a ringer tee, a dog shirt, a tote bag, or a trucker cap, among many other options......

You can run, Gavin, but you can't hide -- the Board of Supervisors sees your "community forum" play, Mayor Newsom, and raises in response! The BoS Rules Committee has placed an item on the agenda (item 2) for next week's board meeting, for a motion to convene a special board meeting on.... Saturday January 13, 2007 at 10 a.m. at the Richmond Recreation Center, 251 18th Ave. (between Clement and Geary). Why, what's happening there......

Ques-tion TIME! Ques-tion TIME! Gavin Newsom sees your "immature" comment and raises, Board of Supervisors! Now the mayor's announced that his first non-Question Time "community panel" will be in Jake McGoldrick's District 1 on Saturday Jan. 13, at 10 a.m. at the Richmond Recreation Center, 251 18th Ave. Save the date! (oh, don't worry about writing it down -- we'll be reminding you.) The problem is, though, Newsom didn't bother to check with Supervisor......

Two months after Newsom became the umpteenth Mayor to try and roust the homeless from the parks the Examiner checks on in to see how everything is going. The answer? Just swell says Recreation and Park Department General Manager Yomi Agunbiade. According to their stats, the city has torn down 380 encampments and placed 66 homeless people in housing and 33 have been given services. They also tallied who was in the park and discovered that the majority of them are between 18 and 34 and between 30 and 40 percent were from out of town...

Firefighters in Redwood City had to call the humane society at the scene of a fire on Sunday, to rescue three snakes in a cage. One snake was saved but two died. Merriment (in a respectful way to the dead reptiles) ensues on the Chron's NWZCHIK blog. Okay, here's the depressing news. The dead body of a San Francisco woman was found in a trash can in Oakland, there's a rapist doctor from Dublin on......

Less than an hour north of the City, a lonely wedge of land juts out into the teeth of the Pacific swell. Almost completely separated from the Marin mainland by the grinding force of the San Andreas Fault (SAF), the Point Reyes Peninsula is a focal point for all kinds of natural forces.

RESOLVED: That you want to become more informed about the issues in the local SF elections. So we're trying to compile a handy-dandy list of all the forums we can find, arranged by district and by date -- but we can barely find anything out there! So we're posting what we've got, and asking everyone else to post other dates in the comments if you've got any. See you guys at the debates -- we'll......

SFist Rita has been going on and on about the District 6 City Life Supervisor Candidate Forum, or, as we refer to it at SFist HQ, "Everybody Hates Chris: Special Debate Edition!" See District 6 candidates Rob Black, Chris Daly, Matt Drake, George Dias and Robert Jordan (sadly, neither George nor Robert agreed to interview requests from SFist, so no links for you!) answer to The Usual Suspects' Jaime Rossi, as he poses quality-of-life questions......

Following up on our past posts on problems with Ocean Beach bonfires, SFist reader Owen has this to say (we added the links): The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is considering a total ban on bonfires at Ocean Beach. They spent approximately $90,000 last year cleaning up after beach fires and responding to law enforcement calls relating to them; neighbors and beach visitors have complained about hazardous litter (nails, glass, etc) on the beach,......

The Coast Guard is searching for a 22-year-old UC Santa Barbara student who was last seen on Wednesday morning with a friend, hanging out at the Sutro Baths on Ocean Beach. Shawn Attaie had been out all night drinking with a childhood friend and that morning, they reportedly snuck into a restricted area on the beach, where Attaie fell into the water. The police are still piecing together the story, but they know Attaie must have fallen in some time after 11 a.m., because his friend has a digital photo of Attaie from around that time. After Attaie fell in, the friend apparently tried to get help from other tourists, but the tourists thought he was drunk or lying and pushed him away. At that point, the friend became "uncommunicative," and went home, where his roommates managed to figure out what happened. The friend is on a suicide watch, and Attaie's family say the two men were close and they wouldn't suspect foul play. For some reason, no one notified the Coast Guard or the federal Park Police (who have jurisdiction over Sutro Baths because it's part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area) until late Thursday night -- when Attaie's father called the Coast Guard to request an update on the search and independent searchers called to report finding nothing -- only to find that that was the first they'd heard of it. Apparently everyone thought someone else had called the police. Because it was so late, the Coast Guard and the Park Police couldn't start their search until this morning. They've searched all day but found nothing. They estimate that a person could spend maybe 10 hours in the water maximum. Attaie's family and friends are hoping maybe he got himself out of the water and they just haven't managed to hook up with him yet. ...

Hear ye, hear ye! Tonight at 7:00 PM, the San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Commission is holding a special meeting that could affect the future of mountain biking in the Bay Area. ...

Julius Kahn must have done something right to have the 'Fistiest park in the city named after him. Whatever he did*, his best accomplishment is to have this playground to his name. Nested in the south side of the Presidio, facing the mansions of the well-to-do, it breathes the charme discret de la bourgeoisie. And it is a city park, so even you can afford it too. Bring your kid there, have them play......

Today's Examiner somewhat sensationally announces that "Sunset District neighbors say they are paying the price for out-of-control weekend bonfires at Ocean Beach, complaining that the rowdy parties have spilled out onto local streets and caused dozens of car break-ins and numerous acts of vandalism." Blame for this issue has been placed on the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the branch of the National Park Service responsible for Ocean Beach. As we are a resident......

When God Winked opens The Marsh's new space in Berkeley....