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.
When day drinkers just could not stop pissing along the train tracks at Dolores Park, where every weekend tons of revelers gather to partake in booze and other inebriants, the city came up with a great idea to make public urination acceptable: install an outdoor urinal.
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 12:33 PM
Remember Super Bowl 50? The world's best-marketed sporting event — the few hours of football squeezed around the most expensive commercial messaging in America — brought 1.1 million strangers to San Francisco, shut downtown streets for about a month, and led to an awful lot of kvetching.
The Super Bowl also brought in some money to the city and county of San Francisco: after hotel and sales taxes were computed, and after the cost to police, traffic managers, and other city services were deducted, the Super Bowl netted us $792,000, to be exact, according to a City Controller report released today.
That's good news, in a way — at least the city didn't lose money. But that's also not exactly a financial windfall — and it would appear to be well below the promises that the city would "reap millions of dollars" made by the Super Bowl Host Committee as recently as January.
The game's critics on the Board of Supervisors, at least, are leaping upon this as a prime "I told you so" moment.
PostedByChris Roberts
on Tue, May 3, 2016 at 1:54 PM
click image
Lenny Broberg/Facebook
Sgt. Leonard Broberg of the SFPD's Gang Task Force Unit.
Sgt. Leonard "Len" Broberg is the San Francisco Police Department's go-to man on gangs. It is testimony from Broberg — an out gay man who, in his spare time, is active in the leather community — that is often the difference between a young (black) man from the projects going to jail for a little bit or to prison for a very long time on a gang enhancement.
Last year, police broke up a music video shoot for rapper Yung Lott in the Bayview. Cops said some of the people in the video were associated with the "Big Block" gang and arrested two. Following the bust, Broberg was called in — and his "post-game analysis" of the bust in the station house was captured on audio.
In it, you can hear Broberg call Rebecca Young, an attorney in the Public Defender's Office, a "bitch." You can also hear Broberg and other cops refer to the alleged gang members they'd arrested as "fat," "retarded," and you can hear him mocking them for hanging out in a park on a Sunday.
You can also hear how alleged gang members get "load[ed] up" with charges — even if they appear to merely be standing near gang members when cops arrive.
PostedByMax DeNike
on Tue, May 3, 2016 at 12:22 PM
Wikipedia
SF government is in the pines.
Sometimes the controversies in San Francisco can get so heated that it’s hard to remember that grassroots — and tree-roots — NIMBYism is still going strong here.
Added to the Board of Supervisors agenda late on Friday by Supervisor Mark Farrell, he and his colleagues will decide if a century-old, 100-foot tall Norfolk Pine hybrid growing on private property should be axed by the owner or spared felling and granted landmark status.
The Associated Press reports that neighbors have been trying to save the tree for a year now. (This is, of course, about more than just a tree.)
But his supporters do. They fill arenas and hotel conference rooms and convention halls. They were the easiest to spot on Friday: sporting the same air of detached and defiant triumph as their man, Trump supporters are the ones who look the most like they're having a party.
And his haters do. Where Trump appears, they follow, as happened Friday. Protesters infiltrated the Hyatt to shout and unfurl banners, and hundreds more squared off with police outside, turning the Hyatt and the convention into a fortified compound in hostile territory.
PostedByMax DeNike
on Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 1:09 PM
Last week, a millennial in Texas decided enough was enough after she witnessed a fellow millennial leave an elderly man to fend for himself against a closed door. With a smartphone and 2-plus minutes of her life, Alexis Bloomer made a video apologizing to “elders” for the behavior of her generation.
A millennial TV reporter in Texas, Bloomer's viral video has made her even more famous. It’s received tens of thousands of comments on her FB page (we recommend skipping all of them), and inspired at least a few saucy responses from other millennials.
PostedByChris Roberts
on Thu, Apr 28, 2016 at 12:24 PM
Yesterday, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune confirmed via public records what TMZ reported last week in a blind, unsourced item: Prince overdosed on prescription opiates on his private plane while en route from what would be his final concert in Atlanta. The plane was diverted and landed in Illinois so paramedics could give the musician a shot of Narcan, the same opiate overdose antidote used to revive overindulging heroin users (and with which San Francisco police are currently equipped).
In the last seven days, tributes have been paid to Prince from presidents and nearly every important musical artist still alive. Thus far, absent from the elegies have been any calls to action. It may now be time. He may have been our generation's greatest musician — meaning, it looks awfully like we lost our greatest musician to our country's ongoing prescription pill addiction.
Joining his father and his bodyguards outside the Hall of Justice were about 15 members of the Sikh community from San Jose, where the main Gurdwara, or Sikh temple, has pledged its official support for Chahal, who has met District Attorney George Gascon's efforts to revoke his probation — and possibly put him in jail — with charges of racism and bias against Indian-Americans. Much of that line has been echoed by an apparently-astroturfed Facebook and Twitter campaign.
This is not sitting well with other Bay Area-based Sikhs, who are openly questioning why the committee of the Gurdwara is getting involved at all — and what Chahal or his family may have done to earn the support of a religious institution.
PostedByMax DeNike
on Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 12:21 PM
A bit of good news emerged Tuesday in one of the sadder eviction stories to hit San Francisco in recent years — and, as everyone knows, these stories rarely end well — even if it reinforced the notion that there’s no such thing as a free lunch and, really, the world is full of jackasses.
Iris Canada, the 99-year-old woman who was facing eviction from her home of more than 50 years in the Lower Haight, can remain in her apartment under the terms of the unique lifetime lease she was given in 2005, according to a tentative ruling issued by Superior Court Judge James Patterson. However, it will come at a price (on top of the $700 a month she pays under the lifetime lease). The judge ordered Canada to cover the legal costs of her landlord, according to Bay City News, which could top $100,000.
Tindle rightfully points out that no matter what happened between her and Goldstein, the reaction to her has been nothing short of dehumanizing, horrific, and potentially criminal.
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.'"
