At first, before reading this story, we were ready to shake our finger at the Vespa rider in question. Lord knows we worry about you kids. But it seems she wasn't at fault. You see, last night a 24-year-old San Francisco woman was put in the hospital with life-threatening injuries while riding a Vespa on South Van Ness Avenue. It seems that "a 1994 Honda Accord, which was traveling southbound, tried to make a left turn onto 21st Street and struck the Vespa...The Accord then struck two other cars on 21st Street, Mannina said. One of those cars was pushed backward into a fifth car," according to CBS 5. more ›

While Oakland received tons of press over the weekend for its recent spate of murder, this Mission murder, which happened near 25th and South Van Ness (be careful, Phone Booth patrons!), went all but unnoticed. Around 6:45 p.m. last Friday, two men approached 21-year-old Jose Reynoso and shot him in the head and chest. He was taken to SF General Hospital where he died the following day. more ›

Attention criminals: as of this week, your swashbuckling days of villainy and misbegotten Muni rides have become easy and breezy. Muni has "decriminalized" citations, which means that you won't have to go to court to deal with them. Now, you can contest or pay them through the Customer Service Center at 11 South Van Ness, just like parking tickets. You can also deal with citations via phone, or mail; and allegedly you can pay them via Internet, although we searched the CityServices site and couldn't find it, nor could we find any mention of it on Muni's site. The program starts Feb 4, so the links might just not be up yet. more ›

It's the new year so it's a new Ask a Muni Security Guy question. This one was inspired by seeing some lady eat chinese food on BART while also reading a magazine.... How do you handle food on MUNI? Technically it's not allowed but everyone kind of does it. more ›

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Every year at Thanksgiving, you're bound to forget one or two critical items. A shallot, cooking twine, mushrooms, Ketel One -- something will slip your mind and you run the risk of having your Thanksgiving dinner collapse in on itself. And then you've ruined everything. Everything! But who can we prevent such yellow wallpapered hysteria? This is where you come in: do you know of any grocery stores that stay open late on Thanksgiving... more ›

There's a money room in the basement of 1 South Van Ness, where the Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, is headquartered. Workers literally count by hand bags of cash and coins taken in as fares from passengers throughout the day. After we finished bashing our heads against the windows and swearing, we read on:

When Muni recently needed to pull some of those unionized bean counters away from the money room to staff kiosks around the city where transit passes are sold, its managers hoped to replace them with workers from a private contracting outfit.

Film School, Ali Liebgott, Facing East, Xocolate Bar more ›

From the SFist Tips line: yet another daytime shooting yesterday, this time at 23rd and South Van Ness around 1:45 p.m, by the post office, and fatal. In a particularly brazen act, the shooters then drove by the SFPD Ingleside Station to drop off the body about an hour and a half later. You'll all be pleased to hear that the cops did at least manage to catch the person driving the car. more ›

The SFPD arrested the guy who murdered the anti-crime activist in the Haight, Joe Konopka, in an S&M session gone wrong. They believe Konopka, who was found handcuffed, choked to death on plastic covering his face. After Konopka died, the murderer took his laptop, jewelry, and cell phone before fleeing the scene. more ›

Ever misplaced a grocery or to-do list? Your lost note could appear in Lost and Found in the Mission, a play based on true stories salvaged from scraps of papers found around the Mission District. The production, by Boathouse & Co., includes songs, dancing, beat-boxing and mass hallucinations. Tickets are available on a sliding scale ($15-$25), here, show starts at 8pm. Mama Calizo's Voice Factory in the Jon Sims Center for Performing Arts, 1519 Mission St.,SF. more ›

A gay African-American high school English teacher at the private Urban School is recovering from three stab wounds he received a few weeks ago while eating at the Taqueria Cancun down near Mission and 29th Street. A woman came into the taqueria and started yelling racial and anti-gay slurs at people in the restaurant, and when the teacher and his friends tried to get away from her, she attacked him with the knife. The SFPD responded and arrested the woman, who's pled not guilty to the charges. more ›

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As the political season starts to heat up, there's so many bloggers monitoring politicians' activities that we're thinking we need to start a new column, the _____Watch. There's so many people needing to be assessed these days! more ›

If you think riding Muni is confusing and unpredictable, just imagine how tricky it is for folks with disabilities. And that's why the Muni Accessibility Advisory Committee will meet this Thursday, March 15, from 1pm to 3pm in the Mission Conference Room #3075, on 3rd Floor of the MTA offices at One South Van Ness. The goal of the meeting: to set some goals. The MAAC agenda is flexible and open to suggestion -- oh if only the rest of Muni was so dialoguey -- so Thursday's meeting will be a great time to air your grievances. more ›

An anonymous, well-placed source forwarded a memo along to us -- it's about a month old now, but its humor is of a special timeless breed: that of the toilet. more ›

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She's like those paparazzi motorcyclists who killed Princess Di -- a drag-racing 18-year-old in a Mustang accidentally killed two members of the Tongan royal family on 101 in Menlo Park and their driver when she accidentally sideswiped their car Wednesday night. The teen was trying to pass them on the right, at speeds of around 80-100 mph, when she hit them, causing their SUV to roll over several times (all three victims were wearing seat belts). The 18-year-old Prince Tu'ipelehake and Princess Kaimana were in the Bay Area on an outreach mission to expat Tongans, and to celebrate the King's 88th birthday (he has a house in Hillsborough). The 18-year-old is in custody, and the cops are looking for her drag racing compatriot, in a black Escalade with spinning rims that zipped off the highway at Marsh Road. more ›

June 6 through July 15, Tuesdays through Fridays from 11a.m. to 11p.m., Saturdays from 1-5. Opening reception June 8 from 7-11 p.m. more ›

If you think the Ma v. Ja race is content-free, you should try the State Senate District 8 race between Leland Yee and Mike Nevin. Yawn, unless you like trying to figure out the byzantine nature of state politics personal relationships. (i.e., why didn't Gavin Newsom endorse San Franciscan Yee over San Mateo County's Nevin? Does it have something to do with the mysterious feud between Fiona and Leland?) more ›

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While we’ve been stuck inside our stuffy apartment in the Tenderloin, nursing a nasty cough amid empty tissue boxes and cartons of Chunky Monkey (hey, we have a sore throat), we’ve started to feel a touch of the cabin fever. Despite our frail and sickly condition, we’re determined to get a little fresh air and check out the following shows starting tonight. We hope to see you there, just don’t stand too close. more ›

, started compiling this book of essays on "the eve of the thirtieth birthday." Given that the tagline of the book is "Women on life, love, work, and pulling it all together in your 30s", that piece of data seemed ironic -- we're pretty sure we spent the eve of our thirtieth birthday watching "Knight Rider". Thanks for making us feel like even MORE of a screwup, Nikki! more ›

In our continuing search for cool stuff to buy for holiday gifts, we can't wait to hit Root Division's Holiday Art Show and Sale. Head over to Root Division (3175 17th at South Van Ness) Saturday any time between 11a.m. to 11p.m. to pick up works from local emerging artists -- perfect fodder for gifts, or to keep! more ›

The San Francisco 3 Minute Film Festival goes down this Saturday at Root Division (17th and South VanNess) with doors opening at 7:00. Being a big believer in the tried and tested theory that no matter how awful something is, anyone can put up with it for 3 minutes, we here at SFist will definitely be checking it out. After all, the next Michael Bay has to come from somewhere, right? more ›

Well, okay, this isn't really a crime movie, but if an octopus really did attack San Francisco, heck yeah it would make the Blotter! The cops think a robbery in the Richmond's Ocean King restaurant on Tuesday (glad Gourmet de l'Ouest wasn't there when it happened!) may be linked to a robbery in Oakland at the Korean Bistro. Both restaurants were hit by a multiethnic trio of robbers (two African-American, one speaking with an obvious Vietnamese accent). Despite what you see in the movies, multiracial gangs are actually fairly rare, which made the cops think the robberies were linked. We can't decide if it's depressing, typical, or a good sign that criminals can't transcend race. The gun battle on Tuesday at 18th and South Van Ness outside a tire-rim store, which injured four people (one of whom was a bystander), has been traced back to two Western Addition gangs whose members happened to cross paths outside their usual area. The Mission gang force is annoyed. "In the Mission District we have problems with our own gangs. We don't need gangs from other areas coming to visit us," he told the Ex. And Oakland's coming back strong in the 2005 murder count, after a surge forward by perennial second-placer San Francisco, with three killings yesterday and two today. Oakland's total is now at 13 murders for 2005, and San Francisco is at 16 as of last week. Hey, there's a Blotter special today too -- since you've asked, there's a list of all the pictures we've used as Blotter illustrations since we started, after the jump. more ›

http://www.bingwalker.com/archives/san_francisco/index.html Cancun more ›

Bay Area crime roundup more ›