We'll 'fess up. We haven't been to the Cow Palace since the 2005 Tattoo Expo. With that said, we're a bit torn with how to feel about the possibility of the Cow Palace being demolished. With such historical events as the Beatles playing there and John F. Kennedy speaking to the masses about starting the Peace Corp, on that hand alone, we'd hate to see this place go. The other hand, however, has to admit......

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....

(Barry Bonds is on SFGate's Crime page. Ha!) -- A 19-year-old woman was shot -- "in the back today...at 5:39 p.m." Huh?-- during an attempted street robbery in SF's Visitacion Valley. Attacked at Velasco Avenue and Santos Street, she is currently at SFGH and listed in stable condition. And the two suspects? Are still at large. -- UC Berkeley journalism student Kevin Jones, 27, "pleaded no contest today to a misdemeanor charge of vehicular......

-- March, rally, die. [Bluoz, SFGate] -- Zombie, thrill(er), dance. [SFWeekly] -- Mac OS X Leopard...on your PC! [Laughing Squid] -- San Francisco's Visitacion Valley Middle School's principal to receive highest honor available for principals. Okay then. [CBS5] -- Half Moon Bay gang rape sentencing delayed. (Karma's a bitch, boys. Well, for you all it sure will be.) [Examiner] -- 32 Heron Street. Mmm, bricky SOMA goodness. [Curbed SF] -- Plane high dives into the......

According to Bay City News, "two separate Friday night shootings that occurred within about an hour of each other sent three men to San Francisco General Hospital." (And it's not even Halloween yet. Jumping the gun a bit, yes?)...

You know we usually try to hoard up all the crime-type news for the Tuesday and Friday blotters, but there was enough vaguely unsettling news this weekend to warrant a post a little early, we thought. To wit: --Fernando Gonzalez, an 18-year-old Redwood City man, died after he fell into a vat of sulfuric acid. Gonzalez was working the early-morning shift at Coastal Circuits Factory this weekend, without a protective face mask, when he appeared......

...And that's not even the curviest part! A car chase that started in Marin County around 3:00 a.m. Monday morning ended abruptly when the driver, speeding at around 75 mph over the Golden Gate Bridge, overshot the turn from Doyle Drive onto Lombard Street and flipped over. A open fifth of Hennessey was found in the car, and the passengers are in SF General with non-fatal injuries. Your SF Labor Day weekend homicide count: 3.......

What a day, what a day, what a day... -- Man who killed cop in 2005 receives death sentence. [Chron] -- Dow Jones down. [Chron] -- Police raid Your Black Muslim Bakery, arrests made in connection with yesterday's murder. [Chron, Examiner, KGO, Oakland Tribune, The Snitch (SFW)] -- 29-year-old SF man killed in Visitacion Valley on Thursday. [Chron] -- Matt Smith on the resignation of New College of California's president. [The Snitch (SFW)] --......

Well, just to follow up on yesterday's day of violence, we can't find anything about the late-afternoon incident on Ellis Street that a couple of you guys saw, but there was another shooting around 11:50 p.m. in Visitacion Valley. That one was fatal. (The Examiner also has a list of other recent daytime shootings in SF, if you're interested.) Phew, let's get to the less life-endangering stuff. Politicians! Matt Gonzalez's 2003 mayoral campaign team was......

Remember the folks in Atherton whose high-quality wine was stolen from their cellar (about $145K worth)? Turns out it was their maid and her boyfriend. (For many reasons, this crime would never have happened to us, we'd just like to say.) The police set up a sting operation where the owners asked the maid to clean the house, and saw her on a hidden camera run into the cellar (where there was no cleaning to......

This might be a surprise to some of you (well, all of you) but the T-Third line isn't even official yet but already there are problems. According to the Chron, the line is already slower than predicted and the Examiner today reports that there are shortages in trains, not enough drivers, and so far not enough passengers. As this is the weekend the train goes pro, these are not the things Muni wants people to be hearing. ...

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. ...

-The Board of Supervisors really don't like Annemarie Conroy. -Members of Visitacion Valley gang plead guilty for gang-like behavior. Meanwhile former gang leader in Oakland shot dead. -Building inspector who bought property that was under review resigns. -Headline in the Onion: Nancy Pelosi Wants Congress to Want to Pass Bill: New Speaker Thought House Knew This Was Important to Her. -You know how several months ago everyone was talking about buying hybrids and the need......

Remember that bad neighbor dude Bob Bertone in Visitacion Valley who terrorized his neighborhood with loud music, mysterious gunshots, explosions, and lots of junk in his yard? Well, his house caught on fire Wednesday when his water heater ignited a bucket of gasoline that was sitting too close by. The neighbors did a pretty good job of not looking too smirky as they were interviewed. Incidentally, Bertone ran for the Board of Supes in 2000......

-Being a new state legislator involves lots of learning. ...

Your SF weekend assaults roundup: A shooting at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Mission and 18th, followed 45 minutes later by a stabbing at Mission and 17th; a shooting in Visitacion Valley Saturday night/Sunday morning; a shooting at Broadway and Columbus outside Vietnam Restaurant; and a shooting outside 330 Ritch. Hey, if you hate alternative music of the late 80s that much, just say so! Good Samaritans at the North Berkeley BART stop -- people waiting on the platform Sunday interceded to stop an attempted robbery of a woman waiting for a Richmond-bound train. Four people were injured (one seriously), but they caught the would-be robber. The BART stop was then closed for three hours as the police came by for interviews, a weapons search, and to clean up the station. BART says maybe September 11 is not the best day to try anything funny on a transit system. And yesterday, an Alameda County jury returned two second-degree murder convictions in the Gwen Araujo case, and hung again on the third defendant. The jury rejected first-degree or the hate crime enhancements to the penalties. ...

Four unrelated shootings in San Francisco over the long Labor Day weekend -- one at 24th and Alabama, one at Turk and Laguna, one at Harrison and 1st, and one in Visitacion Valley near the Cow Palace. Two victims are dead, two are in the hospital. PG&E announced that it figured out why that generator blew the other week underneath the Ralph Lauren store -- water leaked into the transformer, which caused an electrical short, which then blew up oil in the chamber used for insulation. Who uses oil for insulation? (Okay, engineers, enlighten us.) In other news, another transformer blew up on Market Street due to a failed cable splice, there was a power outage near UCSF when a tree blew into some power lines, and another outage in the Outer Mission when a car drove into a pole. And celebrating Labor Day the old-school way, 61 union members were arrested outside the Grand Hyatt at a sit-in over the year-long hotel strike. The union organizers have agreed to end the boycott against the Westin St. Francis because the WSF management has agreed to support several of the union's key demands. ...