There's just a week to go before the Bay Area could be impoverished and paralyzed by the second BART strike of the year.
There has been progress -- both sides are trading proposals as we speak -- and that's a good thing, because as our friends in big business show, the Bay Area's not behind a BART strike.
Just 24 percent of local denizens support BART workers walking off the job, according to a poll conducted by the Bay Area Council, with 63 percent saying that workers should accept management's offer now.
And these aren't the opinions of mostly BART riders. Of the 509 people who responded to the poll, only 19 percent actually rely on BART to get around.
Days after the chess crackdown on Mid-Market, one man waged a lone protest with a vinyl board that could easily fold into a backpack -- which he did, furtively, at first sight of a beat cop strolling by.
Marvin Boykins, 57, told SF Weekly he'd been playing chess in downtown San Francisco since the '80s. After SFPD Capt. Michael Redmond ordered a Dragnet-style sweep on Market Street, Boykins was the last player left standing.
"Police decided there was too much 'surrounding activity,'" Boykins explained. To Redmond, "surrounding activity" meant drug peddling, loitering, and harassment of pedestrians. He said in subsequent interviews that SFPD received 100 service calls on the blocks between Fifth and Seventh streets in August alone. Until recently, those blocks housed 26 chess tables. Now they're largely desolate.
However, on Sunday a group of chess enthusiasts have pledged to fill that space again, turning mid-Market back into a public commons in protest of the new rules.
While lesbians may be winning the all-important war against hand holding, when it comes to real mental and physical health problems, a new study shows that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals suffer serious disparities from homophobia and prejudice.
"Our review is the first to bring together social and basic science research to demonstrate the truly negative impact that anti-gay stigma can have on the physical health of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people," said co-author Laura E. Durso.
Yeiner Perez, the naked acrobat who has been behind bars for nearly four months after dropping trou and allegedly attacking passengers at BART, is attempting to be released from jail.
According to the District Attorney's Office, Perez's attorney has filed a motion asking the court to release the defendant on his own recognizance, which prosecutors "completely oppose." The judge will hear the motion tomorrow afternoon, said Alex Bastian, spokesman for the DA's Office.
"In the interest of public safety and the community at large and the defendant himself, we are opposed to the defendant being released in the manner in which it's being proposed," Bastian told us.
San Francisco police are looking for 57-year-old Lynne Spalding who went missing 12 days ago fro her hospital bed while being treated at San Francisco General Hospital.
Officer Albie Esparza says Spalding was admitted to the hospital and was being treated for an illness on Sept. 19. Hospital staff had been reportedly checking on Spalding every 15 minutes after she suffered complications from a surgery.
But on Saturday, Sept. 21, the "feisty" woman mysteriously vanished from her hospital room and has not been seen since.
This morning, BART unions are hoping to please everyone, especially BART management with their latest proposal that would give them a lot less money than they'd been asking for.
The new proposal essentially asks BART for an 11.5 percent increase over three years which is nicer than the 21 percent increase they had been adamant about during labor talks. The new plan calls for a 3.75 percent wage increase for the first two years of the contract and a 4 percent increase the third year.
They calculated these new numbers based on this logic: For each .10 percent increase in ridership over budget projections, the unions want .10 percent increases in wages.
But wait, there's more ...
It's been nearly a month since 35-year-old Christy Svanemyr was killed; the new mother and Zen monk was enjoying the September sun in Holly Park with her infant daughter when a city truck ran over her, killing her almost instantly.
Today, the Bernal Heights community will hold a vigil to honor the woman who was known for her infectious energy and kindness.
Here's the details:
