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Solidarity with Greek Uprising at Westfield San Francisco Centre

Around 50 to 75 people were allegedly involved in a spree of vandalism, masquerading as a protest, at Westfield San Francisco Centre on Saturday. The mall rally, which started at about 4:30 at 24th and Mission and moved to New College, happened at 6:30 p.m. According to reports, some protesters threw food, one protester "tried to toss a large planter onto the food court below," trash cans were overturned, and lots of yelling was heard.

Apparently this was all part of something called "Solidarity with Greek Uprising," a protest over the "death of a young man in Greece in early December."

However, one of the protesters at the scene, Alex Crumbsnatcher, contacted SFist. Crumbsnatcher tells us a slightly different account of what went down.

We chanted for a while and some people talked and we decided to sit in the streets and decide where to go next. It felt like it was too late to go back and take over New College, and alot of people were losing steam and hope ... We literally ran to Wells Fargo and screamed and chanted and talked outside. We had recruited a few more people along the way and decided to take over market. We kept marching and running and filled up the whole street and stopped oncoming traffic. It was about that time that we decided to go to Westfield Mall.

Then, things got ugly. Or not.

We got there and stormed in, all screaming, and one person jumped up on a directory. He sat there for about 5 seconds and then jumped down. The cops ran at him, and the rest was a huge blur. People started screaming, and the cops took the guy down, and started throwing down and hitting everyone within arm's reach with their nightclubs. It was horrifying. Shoppers who were just there shopping and not involved started screaming at the police as well that we didn't do anything wrong and to stop. We had a cart with soup in it that was to feed the people marching, and in the violence, people got thrown into it, and it got knocked over. This was later said by the police to be us "throwing food." We were literally pushed and thrown out of the mall with nightsticks and police were assaulting anyone who came near them or the paddywagon they had the few arrests that they made locked in.

Then, things got even more police-y.

They took off, and we marched down Market a little ways, and then ran down an alley where we thought the police wouldn't be as likely to follow and harrass us. The police came speeding through on bikes, and almost hit several innocent people who were not even involved. I heard several people talk about being in terror of the cops, but not of us. One person tried to block an officer who almost hit him with his bike out of reflex, and was thrown on the pavement, and arrested violently.

The rally ended at the Christmas tree at Union Square. Few arrests were made.

Who's at the Office Today?

"Am I the only one at work today?" read several Facebook updates this morning.

Nope.

So: in lieu of navigating through airport traffic and dodging clinically-obese, out-of-state passengers, are any readers still at the office today? (If so, we feel your pain.) Where are you at? And when does/did happy hour start? Managers, what will you do to make today a bit more merrier for your underlings? Let us know all about your inter-office holiday anguish in the comments.

Image: Darwin Bell

Was Your Car Damaged on Capp Street?

If so, an SFist source, who saw what happened and asked to remain anonymous, writes in to tell us:

Walking last night around 10:30 near Capp & 22nd I saw some guys kicking the shit out some cars, breaking the side view mirrors off and denting them and basically just attacking them. I followed them from a safe distance while they continued down Capp past 23rd kicking the shit out of every car along the block, sometimes pausing to really lay into them. I was on the phone to 911 the whole time so the cops caught them. They came pretty fast. This was probably unrelated to Greece. The culprits were two very hammered dudes who probably just stumbled out of the El Trebol bar on the corner, though I didn't seem them leave that bar.
They broke the side view mirrors off of 5 cars just on the blocks between 22nd and 24th. They dented and scratched about a dozen others. Some pretty badly.

Of course I got screamed at by anti-cop people because I called the cops. [Note: Your typical, privileged USC/Stanford/East Coast college grad cum failed novelist turned bad tech writer cum pseudo-liberal turned Mission resident will do this. Please use caution when you smell their self-righteous tofu farts nearby. -- SFist] I know a lot of my neighbors in the Mission want to give these guys their rights to do whatever they want. I know many who think we need to ban the cops. I know many others think it's the car owner's fault for having a car in the first place. But it just sucks to think about all the people who have to wake up today and pay big money to fix their old cars now so they can make it to work or home for the Holidays.

While we might turn our heads the other way at the occasional keying of an evil ex's car -- what?! -- we cannot condone this kind of behavior. Anybody else catch what went down last night in the Mission?

SFO to Install Questionable Carbon-Offset Kiosks

Oh wow. We need to get in on this racket. See, San Francisco International Airport plans on installing carbon-offset kiosks, so guilt-ridden travelers can donate to saving the Earth and stuff. It works like this: Travelers enter their flight info at the green kiosk, which figures out how many puppies and kittens will die as a result from the carbon dioxide emitted from their flight. A cost for offsetting your environment-crippling flight plans will then be deducted from your credit card, then sent to one of several carbon-reducing projects. While this sounds like an inspired idea, it could have corruption written all over it.

Photo du Jour 299

Photo by seancoadysf

Transplant pride in SoMa.

Lesbian Brutally Gang Raped in Richmond

After being taunted for being a lesbian, a woman in the city of Richmond was "repeatedly raped and left naked outside an abandoned apartment building" by four strangers on December 13.

Detectives say the 28-year-old victim was attacked Dec. 13 after she got out of her car, which bore a rainbow gay pride sticker. The men, who ranged from their late teens to their 30s, made comments indicating they knew her sexual orientation, said Richmond police Lt. Mark Gagan.

The rape started when one of the attackers hit her "with a blunt object, ordered her to disrobe and sexually assaulted her with the help of the other men." Unless the men in question aren't brutally and slowly murdered beforehand by citizens, a $10,000 reward is being offered for their capture. One of the men, it seems, went by the nickname "Blue" and another was called "Pato," according to police.

The rape is (correctly) being considered a hate crime by police. According to Avy Skolnik, a coordinator with the New York-based National Coalition of Anti-Violence Program, "Anytime there is an anti-LGBT initiative, we tend to see spikes both in the numbers and the severity of attacks ... People feel this extra entitlement to act out their prejudice." Gay rights advocates say that hate crimes based on sexual orientation have increased nationwide over the last month.

Naked UC-Berkeley Streakers Jiggle, Flap Throughout Library

Warning: NSFW.

About three or so dozen naked Cal students ran throughout the library in some sort of stress-relieving effort the other day. It's an annual tradition that inevitably gets captured on film and sent across the Internet, ripe for the masses to use for self-pleasuring.

You're welcome.

Oh, and to check out last year's nude run, go here.

Sousa Family Sues SF, SF Zoo Over Wrongful Death

With Tatiana's brutal attack nearing its one-year anniversary, the tiger's victim family sued the city of San Francisco and the San Francisco Zoo today for wrongful death. If you recall, the big cat escaped from her grotto last Christmas Day, attacking and killing 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. According to reports, Marilza and, Carlos' parents, claim that "the zoo and the city, as owners of Tatiana, the Siberian tiger that jumped over its enclosure and mauled Sousa and two of his friends, are liable for Sousa's death, according to their attorney Michael Cardoza." The bumbling Dhaliwal brothers, Carlos' "friends," were also injured when the Tatiana jumped out of her pit. Word is the brothers, while drunk and/or high, taunted the tiger, which prompted the attack. Allegedly.

SFPD Chief Heather Fong Calls it Quits

Just as Mayor Gavin Newsom jump starts efforts to get the hell out of San Francisco, Police Chief Heather Fong announced her retirement. The big news came on Saturday on the Newsom's All-Star Cabaret Variety Hour, or whatever it's called, when Fong, 52, after five years on the job and seeing San Francisco's homicide rate reach 13-year high, said it's time to move on.

While Fong has been criticized for not doing much during her tenure --- e.g., Videogate, ~~Fajitagate~~, and, um, murdergate -- she was the first Asian American woman in the country to lead a major city's police department, San Francisco's first ever female police chief, and was a cop with SF for 32 years.

Up next? Her replacement. According to Newsom spokesbuddy Nathan Ballard, "We are looking for the complete package in the next police chief ... A commitment to continuing the path of reform that Chief Fong has initiated, operational experience and respect of the rank and file." According to the Examiner, a few suggested replacement candidates "would be Northern Station Captain Al Casciato, Taraval Station Capt. Paul Chignell ... Mission Station Capt. Stephen Tacchini ... [and] former SFPD captain and current San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer."

Pope Benedict XVI Says Nope to Gays and Trannies

The main man who gives something so important as religion a bad name, Pope Benedict XVI, has publicly said that "saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction." Surprise! This backwards bit of wisdom came during his year end-of-year hate speech to senior Vatican staff.

According to reports, his chat went something like this.

Rainforests deserve, yes, our protection, but the human being ... does not deserve it less," the pontiff said.
It is not "out-of-date metaphysics" to "speak of human nature as 'man' or woman'", he told scores of prelates gathered in the Vatican's sumptuous Clementine Hall.

"We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way."

Somebody needs to sic Bambi Lake (at left at right) on this sick man. Because more of this is bound to happen whenever Benedict opens his mouth.

Speaking of men who give conservative thought a bad name, Debra J. Saunders' shout out to gays as intolerant faggot stupidheads, "Intolerance 2009," was sad. Pro-Obama gay leaders are hypocrites for not loving those who oppress them? Becoming unglued over politically incorrect terms like "bigot" and "hater"? THIS argument? Again?

Really, Chronicle, you can, and yet won't, do better. Thank God for Melanie Morgan.

Image: Moon Trent's Celebrity Gallery

The Best Hitchcockian/Christmas Gift Ever

Yeah. We are throwing a serious temper tantrum until we get this: The Birds' SF society darling Melanie Daniels getting attacked. In Barbie form. It is genius.

(Sent to us by Plug1, found at Awww Damn.)

Oakland Mayor Dellums Peeved at HBO Pimp Drama Set in Oakland

An HBO drama called "Gentlemen of Leisure," based off of the 1999 documentary "American Pimp," wants to film in and take place in Oakland. But not so fast, says Mayor Ron Dellums. While the production might give Oakland an economic lift when/if it starts filming next year -- and be handed loads of blind praise by male critics who hoover this kind of shit up the way they do with cocaine and Simpsons reruns -- Dellums isn't thrilled about further promoting the whoreriffic image the East Bay city already has. According to Dellums' chief of staff, David Chai, "While the mayor understands that there are certain benefits to having a major film project in our city, he is not willing to support this project at this time. The people of Oakland have come too far to have our city's name trampled upon in the name of entertainment." And, in many ways, he's absolutely right.

This is Your Muni on Microsoft

Snapped up by Flickr photog Mike G., this is the new system that replaced the "unreliable" OS/2 system.

Let the hair pulling start...now.

Man Arrested After Chaining Himself to City Hall Christmas Tree

In an effort to protest Newsom's recent budget cuts to public health departments and services for low-income San Franciscans, a totally awesome guy used a bicycle chain and handcuffs to attach himself to the giant "Tree of Hope" (sigh) at San Francisco City Hall today. The incident happened around 11 a.m. Aaron Buchbinder, 25, was arrested after the one-man protest. According to reports, Buchbinder "poured glue into the handcuff lock, forcing deputies to cut him free from the bindings before they could detain him." He was stuck up in the tree for about an hour. "The Tree of Hope," the Chron goes on to say, "was not harmed in the incident." We repeat, the tree was unharmed. (Photo: Jim Herd)

Photo du Jour 301

Photo by klimari1.

A very WASPy crown pork roast is being served at SFist HQ for X-mas dinner. What's on your menu tonight?

Oh, and Happy Christmas, etcetera, etcetera, and so forth.

Photo du Jour 300

Airline travelers wait in the security gate line at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

We were at SFO yesterday afternoon, and we must say that it was just delightful. No lines at check-in or security, no long wait for our $5 Peet's tea, ample seating space to watch planes arrive and depart as we finished Caroline Knapp's Drinking: A Love Story, our flight to Orange County (alas) wasn't sold out, and we got two -- two! -- cans of tomato juice. It was practically a day at the spa.

Have a safe and sane travel time, folks. Happy holidays.

Pigeon Win

Photo by Darwin Bell.

Who's the bitch now, scare-away owl?

Photo du Jour 298

Photo found at SFCitizen by Jim Herd

Colorful trash.

Today in San Francisco History - the First Cliff House Burns

Timecapsule: December 25, 1894

On Christmas Day, 1894, the first San Francisco Cliff House burned to the ground.

As the Chronicle poetically reported the next morning,

San Francisco's most historic landmark has gone up in flames. The Cliff House is a smouldering ruin, where the silent ghosts of memory hover pale and wan over the blackened embers.

Ah, yes. We discussed this first incarnation of the Cliff House a few weeks ago -- its novel location at the edge of the world, its singular popularity with San Francisco's beautiful people, and its subsequent decline into a house of ill-repute.

Well, before it could rise from that undignified state to the status of a beloved landmark, San Francisco's original "destination resort" needed a white knight to ride to the rescue. That knight would be Mr. Adolph Sutro, who -- in 1881 -- purchased not only the faded Cliff House, but acres of land surrounding it.

Mining engineer millionaire and future San Francisco mayor, the larger-than-life Sutro had already established a fabulous estate on the heights above the Cliff House, and by the mid-1880s could count 10% of San Francisco as his personal property.

Unlike the robber barons atop Nob Hill, though, Adolph believed in sharing his good fortune. His first order of business upon making acquiring the property was to instruct his architect to turn the Cliff House into a "respectable resort with no bolts on the doors (ahem) or beds in the house."

This was just a small part of Sutro's grand entertain-the-heck-out-of-San-Francisco scheme. The elaborate gardens of his estate were already open to the public, and the soon-to-be-famous Sutro Baths were on the drawing board. His goal was to create a lavish and family safe environment out at Land's End, and that's just how things worked out.

With streetcar lines beginning to move into the brand new Golden Gate Park, and the City's acquisition of the Point Lobos Toll Road (now Geary Boulevard), the western edge of the City was becoming more attractive and accessible, and over the next decade, families did indeed flock to Adolph's resuscitated resort.

And then in 1894, it happened.

About 8 o'clock on Christmas evening, after most of the holiday visitors had gone home for the day, a small fire broke out in a kitchen chimney. As the flames shot up inside the walls, the horrified staff quickly learned that none of the fire-extinguishers around the place actually worked. Within minutes, the entire building was engulfed in flames.

The resort burned so quickly, in fact, that its famous guest book, inscribed by such notables as Mark Twain, Ulysses S Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes, was lost along with the building itself.

As the Chronicle went on to report, the Cliff House

"... went up as befitted such a shell of remembrances, in a blaze of glory. Fifty miles at sea the incinerating fires easily shone out, reflected from the high rocks beyond."

Sutro hadn't taken out insurance on the place, but he was so determined to rebuild -- and so damned rich -- that it just really didn't matter. And in fact, the burning of Cliff House number one was a sort of blessing in disguise. That fire cleared the decks -- so to speak -- for Cliff House number two, which would rise from the ashes like a magnificent 8-story Victorian phoenix.

Cliff House mark 2 would become everybody's favourite, an opulent monstrosity as beloved by San Franciscans in the Gilded Age as it still is today, frankly -- but guess what happened to that one?

Photos: Flora Grubb Gardens

Flora Grubb Gardens, a wonderfully green (the old use of that word) place to get a gift, will be open until 8 p.m. tonight and tomorrow night for those of you interested in giving the gift of beauty, oxygen production. Check them out over at 1634 Jerrold Avenue, right off of 280 in San Francisco.

Flickr photog DavityDave snapped up some lush shots of Flora Grubb worth a moment of your time. Enjoy.

SFist Tonight

FILM: Tonight's your last night to catch Milk at the Castro Theatre, where the critically-acclaimed Harvey Milk biopic premiered. Really, you should check it out; almost every single San Francisco homo is in the Gus Van Sant tearjerker as an extra. So, you know, yay. Good for them.

4 p.m., 7, 9:45 // Castro Theatre (Castro & Market) // $10.50

THEATER: NPR fans, get your over-educated chortle on this evening! David Sedaris' popular Santaland Diaries gets the stage treatment in this reportedly hilarious take on the wacky holiday season.

8 p.m. // Off-Market Theater (965 Mission) // $25

FREE CHAMPAGNE: Get drunk for nothing when Rabat offers glasses of free champagne to chilly shoppers who stop by. Hic!

7:30 p.m. // Rabat (1825 Fourth Street) // free

American Football Spectacular: That Mustache Feeling

Holy living crap, we love this so much!!

This coming Sunday, the 49ers are having a throwback uniform day in the final game of the season as Washington comes to Candlestick.

Word is that the o-linemen got it in their heads to pay tribute to Niners of the past by breaking out throwback mustaches to go with the throwback unis. The glorious idea spread, and now much of the team will be attempting mustaches for the Week 17 matchup as sign of strength of silly solidarity.

The Redskins ain't gonna stand a chance.

If you're going to the game, be certain to wear a mustache of your own. Grow your own, get a fake one, bring a friend's -- whatever it takes.

Should you require appropriate clothing, the best Bay Area clothier for mustache-emblazoned shirts (and burrito reviews) would certainly be at burritoeater.com.

We'll have more photographic proof of former 49er facial foliage later on this week.

Week Around the Ists

Torontoist exposed infamous local fiend Dimitri the Lover's new protégé, Pavel the Lover—a man who approaches underage girls, calls them "elegant," and passes them business cards asking them if they'd like to "swing on a star."
SFist was disheartened to hear that Equality California's executive director refused to attend next month's inauguration due to Barack Obama's regrettable decision to have anti-gay and prop-Prop 8 pastor Rick Warren deliver the invocation, but perked up when attorney general and former (and future?) CA Governor Jerry Brown said that same-sex marriage ban Prop 8 was invalid.
Bostonist interviewed Jamie Sneider, a comedian who likes to be naked and checked out the action at Fenway's Cask'n Flagon, where fists flew at a charity ball.
Phillyist revealed the ten names rejected by the Campbell family before they settled on naming their son for the Fuhrer.
Chicagoist watched Governor Rod Blagojevich's quick speech and marveled at a local artist's interpretation of Blago in the nude, toasted Drew Peterson for getting engaged while his fourth wife remains missing and his third wife remains murdered, and talked about not much plowing and calling dibs on parking during a snowy week.
DCist commenters had a lot to say about whether MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski was really mugged outside the Georgetown Ritz Carlton or just fell prey to an aggressive panhandler.
Seattlest's coverage of Snowmageddon 2008 started off fun, with visiting reindeer and snowbound drink suggestions, but then two charter buses nearly took a 30-foot header off Capitol Hill onto I-5.
Houstonist started scheming to turn a Space Shuttle into a taco truck, a teaching lab or an arts center if they could get their hands on $42M to buy one when they are decommissioned in 2010.
LAist wondered if Obama choosing evangelical minster Rick Warren to speak at the inauguration would pick at the Prop 8 wound; to prove Prop 8 was still a priority, protests were organized this weekend, as supporters of the Prop filed a lawsuit to nullify the 18,000 gay marriages that took place in California this year.
Shanghaiist was amused by this video of a Canadian guy singing The Star Spangled Banner in Chinese.
Londonist salivated over space shuttles and skating Santas.
Gothamist got to see Governor Paterson (1) get spoofed on Saturday Night Live, (2) express him anger about it, and then (3) refer it the spoof again when he introduced a bevy of new taxes, including an "iPod tax" and "non-diet soda tax."