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.
PostedByChris Roberts
on Thu, May 19, 2016 at 5:34 PM
Hours after police shot and killed an apparently unarmed black woman in the Bayview, San Francisco police Chief Greg Suhr handed his resignation to Mayor Ed Lee, the mayor announced Thursday afternoon at City Hall.
Lee met with Suhr on Thursday afternoon following the fatal shooting this morning — which was the last straw for the mayor.
"The progress we’ve made has been meaningful, but it hasn’t been fast enough. Not for me, not for Greg," said the mayor, who dismissed the hunger strike demanding Suhr's resignation as "political rhetoric" but pressed the need to "heal the City."
"That’s why I have asked Chief Suhr for his resignation."
The police department is now led by interim Chief Toney Chaplin, who is black. Chaplin served as a deputy chief, in charge of a new bureau tasked with overseeing police tactics and reform.
PostedByChris Roberts
on Thu, May 19, 2016 at 1:19 PM
Jonah Owen Lamb/Twitter
An unidentified African-American female suspected of stealing a car was shot and killed by police this morning in the Bayview District, according to police.
It does not appear the woman — who was shot while in the vehicle, which she had crashed after fleeing from police, according to the San Francisco Examiner— was armed. She was later pronounced dead at San Francisco General Hospital.
Police working an auto burglary detail encountered the woman driving a stolen car at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday, police Chief Greg Suhr said at a morning press conference. Officers approached the woman, who drove off and crashed the car into another vehicle at Shafter Avenue and Elmira Street.
Chief Suhr says woman shot in Bayview had stolen a car, fled from police. She did not survive her injuries. pic.twitter.com/7AhEWtKwyo
PostedByBob Calhoun
on Thu, May 19, 2016 at 8:15 AM
This is the third installment in a three-part series on the disappearance of Valerie McDonald from her North Beach apartment on Nov. 9, 1980. Here are the links to parts one and two.
It took over 20 years to identify the human skull and pieces of torso found on the floodplain of the Kettle River just outside of Danville, Wash. near the U.S.-Canadian border.
J.R. Sharp was just a volunteer deputy with the Ferry County Sheriff's Office when the bones were first examined and stored in the basement evidence room, but he stayed with the case even after they failed to match a nearby missing persons case.
PostedByChris Roberts
on Wed, May 11, 2016 at 12:41 PM
Jane Kim/Twitter
Police Chief Greg Suhr (left) and Supervisor Jane Kim (right) in slightly happier times.
After the "Frisco 5" protesters starved themselves for 17 days in an attempt to get Mayor Ed Lee to replace police Chief Greg Suhr — by whose side the mayor continues to stand, even as like-minded supporters camp inside and outside City Hall and interrupt Lee's appearance at the Board of Supervisors — at least one voice from inside city government is now saying it's time for Suhr to ride off into the sunset.
“Chief Greg Suhr has served San Francisco for over 30 years and we should thank him for that service," Kim said in the statement. "But even he must acknowledge that leading a culture shift in that department would be easier and faster if there was new leadership there. It is time to launch a search for a new chief who can implement fundamental reform."
After the "Frisco 5" hunger strikers left their post in front of the Mission police station on Friday to go to the hospital — where, the following day, their 17-day protest ended — barricades were quickly erected, blocking the entirety of the sidewalk around the station.
This as done to apparently to ward off future protesters, but it also forced a violation of traffic rules, as it forced pedestrians to walk in the street and bicycle lane to get up and down busy Valencia.
Guarded by several officers at either end, the barricades were up through Tuesday afternoon — four days after the the camp had been cleared and the sidewalks dutifully power-washed by Public Works crews — and officials have yet to explain exactly why.
The deputies, 14-year veteran Luis Santamaria, and Paul Wieber, who has three years' experience, were pursuing Stanislav Petrov, a repeat offender who had allegedly rammed a deputy's patrol car and led authorities across the Bay Bridge in a high-speed chase before ditching his car in the Mission and fleeing on foot.
Deputies caught up with him in an alley where he appeared to surrender before he was tackled and beaten repeatedly with batons. Unknown to the deputies, who did not activate their body cameras for the beatdown, the entire encounter was captured on surveillance video.
"When police violate the law, it impacts the work of every woman in man in uniform," Gascon said at a press conference at the Hall of Justice.
PostedByMax DeNike
on Tue, May 10, 2016 at 12:11 PM
Mike Koozmin/SF Weekly file photo
Police Chief Greg Suhr has a mess of a department, a panel of retired judges found.
The day of reckoning is upon San Francisco’s finest.
Or, in other words, the Police Department is fucked.
Cops who engage in racial profiling, old-school "stop and frisk tactics," poor discipline of problem officers, little to no accountability across the board, and a complete disregard for transparency. The SFPD has all of the above, according to the preliminary findings of a blue-ribbon panel of retired judges assembled by District Attorney George Gascon — who was those problem cops' boss just a few years ago (he was chief from 2009 to 2011).
The Examiner was first to publish the findings, which will be expanded upon in the coming weeks. But the findings go beyond a few problem cops. According to the panel, the SFPD “is, in fact, influenced by the [Police Officers Association, the city's influential and reactionary police union] and the POA’s influence has been an impediment to open dialogue and sustained reforms.”
The POA, as it happens, has been the panel's most-vocal critic. And, coincidentally, police Chief Greg Suhr, who has time and again promised swift justice and reform with the discovery of each batch of racist texts, racial slur, and each fatal officer-involved shooting of a mentally-ill person with a knife, is the POA's guy.
PostedByChris Roberts
on Mon, May 9, 2016 at 9:09 AM
Jessica Christian/SF Examiner
The Frisco 5 last week.
After making worldwide news, the "Frisco 5" hunger strike ended on Saturday after 17 days without solid food for five people, who had hoped to force Mayor Ed Lee into meeting demands — including the removal of police Chief Greg Suhr — with the longest hunger strike in recent San Francisco history (possibly, ever).
Lee stood fast, and the strike ended on Saturday, the day after 33 supporters were arrested at City Hall following a rally and an occupation of the corridor outside Lee's office. (Video of sheriff's deputies tackling protesters, dragging some away, and shoving journalists has been making the international rounds.)
As the strikers — Sellassie Blackwell, Maria Gutierrez, Edwin Lindo, Ike Pinkston, and Ilyich Sato — recover at an area hospital, the "Frisco 500" — the hashtag given to their supporters — are back at it again this morning, demonstrating in front of City Hall, and calling for a "general strike."
According to a Facebook post from organizers, the strikers — Sellassie Blackwell, Edwin Lindo, Maria Gutierrez, Ike Pinkston, and Ilyich "Equipto" Sato — were hospitalized after their heath deteriorated.The San Francisco Examiner reports they were sent to the University of California, San Francisco's Parnassus hospital in the Inner Sunset. Attempts to contact some of the strikers individually were unsuccessful.
Supporters of the strikers went ahead with a Friday rally as planned, and were as of late Friday afternoon occupying City Hall outside of Mayor Ed Lee's office. Meanwhile, the strikers are apparently still refusing food — at an untold and unknown cost to their health.
Lee hung around the station for about half an hour before departing. A photo of Lee and his criminal justice advisors sitting glumly in front of empty chairs, waiting for the agitators who never showed, was made available by the Mayor's Office.
The strikers said they declined the meeting because not all of them were present — and because they said this was all a "power move" from the mayor to pre-empt a planned march on City Hall today, when the strikers planned to demand a meeting with Lee.
That march went ahead and happened. And when the strikers, who were rolled in wheelchairs to City Hall and lifted up some flights of stairs when the wheelchair elevators were out, showed up to Lee's office and asked for a meeting, they were told he was out — at a community meeting in Bayview.
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.'"
