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As if SFPD police spokesman Sgt. Neville Gittens's day wasn't bad enough with the Castro car fires -- about an hour before Castro Street went up in flames, someone walked into a crowded community center gym in the Western Addition, where up to 50 people were playing basketball, and shot a part-time employee of the center to death. On the footage we saw of this on the news, poor Gittens had clearly been called in on his day off to respond to the first shooting, and then had to run over to the Castro 30 minutes later; you could see him visibly aging on screen. In South City, two guys held up a pizza deliveryman, but panicked when they saw cars driving by. They grabbed the pizza but left all the cash. And people in Burlingame are getting exercised about a recent lowering of the speed limit from 35 mph to 30 on California Drive between Burlingame Avenue and Murchison, with scads of people calling into City Hall to complain. Must be nice living in Burlingame! Turns out the speed limit was lowered because the average speed on the road has dropped to around 30 mph. The Burlingame city manager is now telling everyone that they won't get tickets if they drive 35 mph on that section. more ›

You may have already noticied the surprising tactical move to seize local public transportation, or the advance battalions who've landed on the Embarcadero, sending skirmishers down Market street. Word is that their supported by another invasion force on the North Coast, while yet another detachment is rumored to be marching from South City. BARBARians have us cornered on this damn peninsula! more ›

We really do feel pretty bad for the poor Berkeley high schooler who tried to throw a little house party while her parents were away and ended up with around 100 people at her place and a guy from another school stabbed to death over a skateboard. Her mistake? Putting up a post about the party on MySpace. (We heard that last bit on KRON 4 news but can't find it confirmed in print anywhere.) The Examiner starts running an online Police Blotter for the South Bay. So good. Items include: a man who called the cops to "arbitrate" a dispute at the South City Papa Joe's because he forgot his wallet and couldn't pay for his meal; a Redwood City woman cutting her ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend with a car key, and the robbery of two bottles of Red Bull from a convenience store on Willow Road (the obligatory joke about it giving you wings was made as well.) And a car chase went bad last night, as a person fleeing the cops in a stolen VW Beetle lost control and spun into a Honda as he ran through a red light at Fifth and Brannan. The Honda plowed into the Golden Gate Tennis Club, and the Beetle ran into a fire hydrant, sending water pouring into the air. The cops caught the Beetle driver trying to hide in the tennis club. more ›

We're kind of on a pro-BART kick today -- which may be due in part to the fact that we've been taking the BART down to Millbrae all week. We understand that not too many of you are doing that, which may explain why we haven't heard very much about the coolest station art ever, these totally rad pictures/murals on the walls of the South San Francisco BART station. The picture above doesn't do it justice, but they're holographic scenes. They show these little pictures of local scenes, like sailboats and California history -- but as the train zips by (or as trainwaiters walk by), the pictures change! They're like art versions of flipbooks! Animated murals! IT IS SO COOL!!! For example, one of the pictures is a series of photos from the South SF Fire Department showing a firefighter sliding down a pole. Other pictures include the changes on South City's Grand Avenue, factory workers, and the biotech industry (we haven't seen that one yet, but we hope it's a DNA strand undergoing transcription and translation). How'd they do it? Is it something about polarized glass? The only news article we could find about it says something about "multifaceted glass tiles," but isn't that just like our kitchen counter? It doesn't show us scenes of South City. Could someone please explain it to us? Meanwhile -- if you're heading down South Bay-wards, or just glumly staring out the window with your roller bag wedged between your knees on the way to SFO, make sure you look out when you get to the South City BART stop. Public art at its best! Picture from the South SF city site more ›

Okay, the downer news first: a 29-year-old woman in Redwood City has been arrested for tossing her dead newborn into a trash can. She first claimed it was premature, but the baby was full-term. She's now claiming the baby was stillborn. Investigators are looking into it. A number of Chinatown businesses flooded in yesterday's monsoon. (Though wait, aren't monsoons warm?) The PUC investigated and found out it was because local restaurants were illegally dumping oil down the drains. This caused a "huge greaseball' in the sewer, which caused about six inches of flooding. We love ya, Chinatown, but don't dump grease down the drain! And was your Caltrain ride delayed yesterday afternoon? You can thank a "bored" 19-year-old South City resident, who called in a fake bomb threat at 1:30 p.m. He's been arrested. more ›

Pass the basket, please! The San Francisco-based US Bread Baking Guild competitive team won this year's Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, described as "the World Cup of bread baking." The team coach and one of the bakers are from the San Francisco Baking Institute (in South City), and the Baking Institute also offered training space for the team. The team beat out perennial powerhouse France and third-place winner Japan in all three categories: baguettes, viennoiserie (pastries and sandwiches), and artistic design. Team America's artistic design was a bread sculpture featuring Mt. Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty with a flaming torch of wheat and -- Marin ups! -- a Golden Gate Bridge painted with paprika and little savory rolls for cars. (No mention if a suicide barrier made out of breadsticks was featured.) Rad! SFist loves baking competitions. more ›

traffic woes of the last few days. more ›

Making your world a little more paranoid, the Examiner reports that gang wars are back in the Mission. more ›