When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, it’s a good core workout. If you’re sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More
Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
PostedByAdam Brinklow
on Thu, Dec 3, 2015 at 2:44 PM
Photo by Adam Brinklow
Ronald Haynes
Once the fireworks at yesterday‘s budget committee meeting (which approved financing a new city jail and forwarded the proposal to the full Board of Supervisors for a vote next week) died down, a much different voice than the 100 or so demonstrators who briefly shut down the committee spoke up.
Ronald Haynes is a 62-year-old San Francisco resident who just finished a 40-year prison sentence on August 28. Haynes shares most of the same complaints as yesterday’s demonstrators (who were mostly young people of color, as Haynes was when he entered prison): He says he’s seen firsthand how the justice system railroads vulnerable people, and how modern prisons have become dumping grounds for the mentally ill and socially undesirable.
The difference is, he told the committee, these are the reasons he wants a new jail.
Mayor Ed Lee has a new plan to help get homeless San Franciscans off the street, and it’s the most ambitious in nearly a decade.
As SFGate reports, the mayor wants to create a Department on Homelessness (not its official name) that will serve as a one-stop shop for the city’s various health, housing, drug rehab, and counseling services. The mayor has reportedly earmarked $1 billion to fund the initiative over the next four years — which isn't new money, but what the city would spend on existing homeless services in that period anyway.
The mayor will also launch a national search for a director to head up the department and oversee the approximately 30 current city employees expected to staff it.
PostedByAdam Brinklow
on Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 2:58 PM
Photo by Adam Brinklow
The protesters who took over the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee today (an action that is still ongoing; their chants of “Hell no, no new jail in San Francisco” are serenading me as I write this) waited through nearly two hours of budget wrangling so dull it could bring a statue to tears before making their move.
Give them credit: That’s endurance. A lot of people don’t make it through the first 20 minutes.
The clerk wasn’t even quite finished reading the agenda items relevant to the proposal for a new $240 million city jail to replace the decrepit earthquake hazard on Bryant Street before a whistle interrupted him and out came the banners: “NO SF JAIL” and “DON’T LOCK UP OUR BUDGET.”
At that point, the meeting descended into a festival-like atmosphere of shouting, stomping, and chanting that has been going on for over an hour now with no sign of abating.
At least 21 trans people have been murdered in the U.S. this year
A headline on Mother Jones today is depressing but not particularly surprising: “More Transgender People Have Been Killed in 2015 Than Any Other Year on Record.” It’s a poignant reminder on the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance that much legal and social legwork remains to be done — even in notoriously liberal California.
Just this week, a 25-year-old transwoman in San Francisco was assaulted for the second time since January. According to the Chronicle, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission says that 79 percent of transgender people the agency surveyed last year reported being the victims of violence in the city, and 88 percent reported being harassed.
PostedByAdam Brinklow
on Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 10:58 AM
Matteo Bittanti/Flickr
With a chorus of “ayes,” the San Francisco Metro Transit Authority’s Board of Directors made the Google Bus — and all of its cousins, great and small — a permanent part of the city landscape. You’d have to be a pretty big rube not to see the outcome a mile off. Or 35 miles, given the distance between the city and the Googleplex.
The chamber was so packed with concerned citizens last night that dozens were sent to the “spillover room” to await their opportunity to speak, with a “thank you for heeding the fire code” on their way out.
At issue was the city’s Commuter Shuttle Program, a measure originally set to expire in January that legitimizes the presence of private corporate buses at Muni stops.
San Francisco wants to eliminate all traffic deaths by 2024 — an ambitious plan, called Vision Zero, that combines new traffic signals and crosswalks with stricter law enforcement. A report released by the City Controller’s Office yesterday examines what could be a controversial new tool in the city’s war on mean streets: Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE).
You've no doubt heard of ASE cameras. Major cities such as Chicago are a perpetual Panopticon thanks to them, as are smaller metros including Denver and Portland. The cameras are mounted, Big Brother-style, on infrastructure like light posts or installed on vans that park in targeted neighborhoods. The cameras detect and photograph multiple speeding cars per minute, and issue citations by mail.
Sounds like a plum moneymaker for the city, right?
Today, neighborhood blog Hoodline caught up with Park Station Capt. John Sanford (the steely lawman behind this summer’s Idaho stopshitshow crackdown) to talk petty drug busts.
More than 700 students from Berkeley High School are protesting a racist message displayed on a computer in the school’s library.
As the Chronicle reports, yesterday afternoon school officials discovered a message on the computer referring to the KKK and threatening a “public lynching” on Dec. 9. According to a statement from the school’s Black Student Union, the message also included the phrases "'Fuck all the niggers in the world,' 'KKK forever public lynching December 9th 2015,' and 'I hung a n*gger by his neck in my backyard.'”
Berkeley High Walkout-1k students leave class, hold rally after racist message was found on campus computer @KTVUpic.twitter.com/NSpoAfitlK
“This is a hate crime and messages such as this one will not stand in our community,” principal Sam Pasarow said in an email statement to the community. “I assure you that we are giving this investigation the utmost attention, as well as involving the Berkeley Police Department.”
Per the Chronicle, the message appeared to be a modified screenshot of the library webpage, not a hack.
The school’s Black Student Union deemed the message “terrorism” and urged the school to investigate seriously.
“In the past acts of terror committed against the Black student body have been ignored such as the racist statement written into last year’s yearbook and the noose that was found on campus. We will not allow this to be trivialized like these other horrific instances,” the union wrote.
An unusual — almost certainly doomed — experiment is happening out at Ocean Beach.
As the Richmond District Blog reports, all of the trash cans along the beach's first ⅓ mile have been removed. The National Park Service, which manages the beach, thinks the experiment will force visitors to clean up after themselves.
Dan Collman, a representative from the NPS, is quoted as saying that removing trash cans will allow rangers to focus on other “high impact areas.” Plus, he said, the historic seawall looks prettier without trash cans junking up the view.
New details have emerged about Herbert Benitez, the 27-year-old man killed by an SFPD officer last week.
Benitez had been throwing bottles into the street on the south side of Eighth and Market and acting erratically when a nearby construction crew flagged down a police car. Officers attempted to talk to Benitez, but when he wrested an officer’s gun from its holster, the officer's partner shot and killed Benitez.
He died at the scene.
As KRON 4 reports, Benitez lived with his mother, a Salvadoran immigrant who came to San Francisco in 1982 (the pair had been at the Main Library together just prior to the shooting).
After graduating from high school in Daly City, Benitez worked as a bank teller at Washington Mutual, and also tutored children. In 2008, when the bank shut down, he worked as a dishwasher until losing that job as well.
Per KRON 4, Benitez and his mother moved from hotel to hotel, struggling to make ends meet. Benitez’s mother cannot afford to bury her son nor have a funeral ceremony.
Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"
