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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Medjool's Rooftop Bar Appeal on Hold -- For Now

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 5:14 PM

Fun on the rooftop bar...
  • Fun on the rooftop bar...
After it was discovered in February that the owner of the Medjool restaurant in the Mission, Gus Murad, had violated the city's zoning laws with the height of his rooftop bar (and then got away with it temporarily with a little help from his friends), Murad struck up a campaign to "Save Medjool," from the sudden wrath of the planning department.

The department showed little mercy for the Mission's favorite scofflaw -- the bar was ordered closed in April. Today's Appeals Board meeting was Murad's last chance to keep it open. But both parties apparently requested to postpone the item, and the board rescheduled for Dec. 16. Which meant that tonight's meeting hall quickly cleared out of Medjool supporters and haters alike.

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Is Toxic Waste is Good for the Environment? S.F. Official Explains Logic behind Green Business Program.

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 4:59 PM

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This week's Matt Smith column notes that Sims Metal Management dumps into municipal landfills tens of thousands of tons of waste California Department of Toxic Substances Control scientists say is hazardous. Yet the company somehow received a San Francisco "Green Business Award."

The column asked: How could a toxic-waste dumper be stamped officially green? Isn't that taxpayer-funded greenwashing?

In response to our inquiry, (but after our deadline) Sushma Dhulipala Bhatia, who directs the city's Green Business program, kindly investigated the matter, and offered some insight into how a major toxic waste dumper might become an officially designated local green business.

The designation was based in part on the fact Sims didn't use toxic chemicals to clean up the San Francisco pier they where collect recyclables, and that the company made sure wastewater at that pier didn't spill into the bay, Dhulipala Bhatia reported.

To our minds, this is kind of like Typhoid Mary earning a health and safety award for washing her hands after going to the bathroom.

But we'll let Dhulipala Bhatia speak for herself. Here's the e-mail we received from her:

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Bay Links: Kids, Strikes, & Stormwater

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 4:30 PM

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Is the school lottery-system one of the reasons S.F. has more pups than kids? [City Insider]

Muni shelters go defunct before route and riders are left in the cold. [Akit's Complaint Department]

Liveblogging the U.C. Berekeley strike. [Daily Cal]

Photo: Define "anything." [We Built This City]

Slapping a layer of New York on S.F. will solve all the city's problems! [Burrito Justice]

On-street stormwater facilities coming to two locations in S.F. [Streetsblog]



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City Teetering on the Brink, and Mayor Is ... Where?

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 3:30 PM

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When Mayor Gavin Newsom's new spokesman -- replacing the freshly resigned old spokesman -- said things are "business as usual" for Newsom these days, it was a brilliantly ambiguous choice of words. Truly, what the hell is ever "business as usual" for Gavin Newsom -- especially now?

Having a mayor acting a little bit loopy is an interesting novelty for a while, just as it was to have a former action star or pro wrestler serving as a state governor. But, barring Ed McMahon heading to City Hall and handing stunned city controller Ben Rosenfeld an oversize check, this city is in dire financial straits right now. And this kind of political theater begins to lose its charm when people begin to throw around terms like "insolvency," and "deficit" while coupling them with figures exceeding $50 million.

That's why it's a mistake to think the media is giving Newsom a hard time over his self-imposed press blackout because we feel threatened. Rather, we feel a bit cheated. This is a mayor whose critics -- with some merit -- have accused him of governing by press release. When you take the press releases away, well, then what? Newsom's not saying. And as for the notion that the mayor is now going "directly to the people" -- this is an awesomely half-baked concept. As if globetrotting, gadabout Gavin Newsom needed more ways to resemble "Where's Waldo," now he's randomly popping up at receptions, open mic nights, and, for all we know, keggers at S.F. State.

"Even if he's licking his wounds after the gubernatorial race, Newsom can still give the appearance of running the show -- and he's not," one veteran political consultant told us. "This not talking to the press is just not good." Added another: "In bad times, sometimes the most valuable thing an elected official can provide is that ephemeral quality called leadership."

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ACLU Launches Internet Privacy Campaign

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 2:30 PM

Do you know your dotRights?


Dot what?

A portal to the soul
  • A portal to the soul
The American Civil Liberties Union's San Francisco-based Northern California office is launching a campaign to beef up Internet privacy. In a statement released today, the ACLU seeks to "spotlight the need to upgrade laws protecting consumer data" and unveils its nifty new Web site, dotrights.org (try saying that URL aloud five times), which features a two-minute video primer on the issue.

The statement notes that the federal law which ostensibly safeguards Internet privacy, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, was drafted in 1986, back when the only folks with Internet access were Army scientists and aliens. Today, companies and even government agencies take advantage of this lax legal landscape to collect, subpoena, and sell personal information gleaned from our Web-browsing habits -- such as what books we've recently bought.

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Chronic City: L.A. District Attorney Says City Councils Have 'No Authority' Over Medical Pot

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 11:59 AM

D.A. Steve Cooley (left) and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich: They'll keep busting dispensaries no matter what the City Council says! - LOS ANGELES COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
  • Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office
  • D.A. Steve Cooley (left) and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich: They'll keep busting dispensaries no matter what the City Council says!
It was a petulant fit of pique, certainly entertaining, and potentially hilarious -- if safe access for so many medical Marijuana patients weren't hanging in the balance.

After things didn't go his way at Monday's Los Angeles City Council joint committee meeting, District Attorney Steve Cooley pronounced Tuesday that he'd keep prosecuting medical Marijuana dispensaries, even if the council adopts an ordinance that doesn't ban sales. Cooley said his office was already prosecuting some dispensaries, and he promised to step up such efforts in December.

The D.A.'s public meltdown was a result of his frustration that the council ignored the advice of L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and changed a provision in L.A.'s proposed medical Marijuana ordinance, allowing cash transactions as long as they complied with state law.

"The City Council has no authority to amend state law or Prop. 215. Such authority is solely possessed by California voters," Cooley said. "What the City Council is doing is beyond meaningless and irrelevant."

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Rats + Fire = Salvation of California Plant

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 8:30 AM

Growing manzanitas takes a green thumb -- and rodents - JOE ESKENAZI
  • Joe Eskenazi
  • Growing manzanitas takes a green thumb -- and rodents
These are heady times indeed for the scientists who crawl through the dirt to study the short, sprawling plant species that all but exclusively calls California home -- the manzanita. Yesterday we reported that two of the state's top experts have weighed in that the plant until recently hidden for half a century or more by weeds and the Doyle Drive highway is a Franciscan Manzanita. Genetic tests are pending -- but it seems this is the first Franciscan Manzanita found in the wild since 1947.

That grabbed some headlines. But work recently undertaken by San Francisco State's Professor Tom Parker may change the way scientists think about evolution. Parker -- one of the aforementioned experts called in to verify the Franciscan Manzanita -- asserts that one of the key factors in manzanita survival is ... rats.

While supervising his students' field studies on seed predation -- in plain English, seeds being eaten by rats and other rodents -- Parker noticed something interesting about manzanita growth patters in fire zones. Emerging from the charred earth, the young plants came up in clusters of 10, 20, or even 30 plants packed together in a small space. It occurred to the professor that an odd, symbiotic relationship might be going on: Rats may be burying manzanita seeds deep enough that they survive fires and form the next generation.

It's a nifty idea. But to prove it, you need to follow around some rats. So Parker did. 

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Media Advisory: Mayor Gavin Newsom's Schedule of Public Events for Nov. 18, 2009

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 7:59 AM

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***MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM'S SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC EVENTS FOR Wednesday, NOVEMBER 18, 2009***

The mayor has no public events scheduled. He will be eating fried peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches, watching reruns of The Price is Right, and contemplating resurrecting his dying career in Vegas. Thank you very much.

 
                                  
              Note: Mayor's schedule and game-show viewing are subject to change.

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Wire Dangling On Bay Bridge -- But Don't Worry! It's Not Structural.

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 7:07 AM

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Those of you who beat the system by enjoying a reverse commute to the East Bay may be have gotten a taste of what garden-variety commuters deal with. News reports abound of some manner of wire dangling within the Treasure Island tunnel on the bridge's lower deck.

While earlier reports described the wire as electrical (a "live wire"), California Highway Patrol officials have since confirmed that it is not -- though the makers of the doomed show Trauma are certainly slapping their palms on the table that they never conjured up this scenario.

In any event, the right lane appears to still be closed. But, on the plus side, thousands of reverse commuters can now make horrible puns with their co-workers about how they saw The Wire on the bridge.

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On Time -- Ha! -- For Your Commute: Muni Pain-O-Meter V. 2.0

Posted By on Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 6:30 AM

'Why would you want to sit down? Oh, I don't know ma'am ... maybe you're just, uh, tired?' - JIM HERD
  • Jim Herd
  • 'Why would you want to sit down? Oh, I don't know ma'am ... maybe you're just, uh, tired?'
See Original Version Here!

Pain Level: 0.4 -- Your Muni driver makes "Derail -- is de thing de train run on" joke.

0.8 -- He makes that joke -- and you have to deboard your derailed train.

1.1 -- I've never sat next to someone eating with chopsticks on the bus before...

1.4 -- Hey! Once you drop the won-ton into my crotch it's mine.

1.7 -- There's no better place to choose the ring tone for your cell phone than a crowded train full of surly, 8:15 a.m. commuters...

2.1 -- Hey, it's 42 degrees out and rainy -- but, please, keep those windows and roof vents wide open.

2.5 -- "Mommy, that man isn't wearing any shoes..."

2.9 -- Driver refuses to apologize, speak, or even make eye contact with crippled man he sent sprawling by accelerating too damn fast. That might be a "liability issue."

3.2 -- Ding! Ding! Ding! In this corner, weighing 115 pounds and hailing from parts unknown, it's the North Beach Gal! And in this corner, at 137 pounds and hailing from West Lafayette, Indiana, it's the Sunset Stunner! Touch shopping bags and come out fighting!  

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