Hoosier in San Francisco

Unemployment & advancement

2009-05-08T23:23:00.000-07:00

My philosophy is that the government shouldn't be so concerned about people losing jobs in obsolete businesses. But the government should help ease the transition between the old employment and skills required for new employment. ...and people shouldn't have to worry about losing health care benefits.

This is a step in the right direction:
Obama aims to refocus unemployment system (SFGATE)

Boom Bust Boom

2009-04-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

In the eight short years I've lived in San Francisco, I'm now witnessing the second bust; the first being the dot-com implosion.

As someone who could barely afford a tiny condo in the worst neighborhood, it's nice to imagine that the spoiled children whose parents are footing their rent and the trust fund babies are getting their allowances cut.

There seem to be more moving trucks than usual in the nicer neighborhoods. But you know the turnover mostly occurs in the marginal fringes, and the prime locations are firmly held or passed on to friends (not entirely true... all it takes is a pocketful of cash?). When the boom happens, the elite converge from Ivy League schools and make their millions, then jet off to Europe or some country with a favorable exchange rate to sit out the downturn.

The rent's still outrageously expensive, and there's an empty Pacific Heights lot on the market for $25 million.

Radio Talk Show Assholes

2009-03-25T01:06:00.000-07:00

While waiting for MUNI, a shuttle bus pulled up with the radio blaring, "WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A GUY WHO RAPED A 12 YEAR-OLD..." BLAH BLAH BLAH Someone else who was also waiting for MUNI looked at me and we both shook our heads. Pathetic.

This, of course, related to the shoot-out between police officers and a 26 year-old who had been in and out of prison. This is a tragedy, the man is dead, the police officers are dead.

Of course, people want to understand why he got crazy and shot the police, but there are also people, myself included, who have seen the police get crazy and shoot people. Most of us think there needs to be less shooting. I suppose some people ventilate their anger through radio talk shows, but to me it just seems this venom spewing only hardens people in their wrong-headed perspectives.

I'm not saying the guy who shot the cops was a choir-boy, but the blaring headlines and shouting radio assholes are convicting a dead man of multiple crimes based on bits of information leaked by angry law enforcement colleagues. This is about as disgusting as running up and kicking the corpse, or hanging it from a bridge, or dragging it through town behind a pick-up truck. It doesn't encourage respect for the law. It doesn't encourage respect for a judicial system and giving citizens fair trials. It doesn't encourage civility. It encourages more shooting and vigilantism.

Who's telling the truth here?

2009-03-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

hmmm... the writing has taken a turn for the more dramatic? You'd think that some day these entities would be able to get together for some solutions... but also realize there may be all sorts of details we don't know; lack of evidence? police have been known to set people up for convenience sake, or target individuals out of spite or revenge. You'd think this wouldn't be necessary in the Tenderloin, but it's a tricky game all these people play.
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Fri Mar 6, 2009 4:45 pm (PST)

Tenderloin District Newsletter
Captain Gary Jimenez
Friday, March 06, 2008

Captain's Comments:

In the desperate battle your Police Department has been waging against a
constant stream of criminals invading our neighborhood with their bitter
brand of senseless violence, Tenderloin Police Station has lost six
Officers who are not expected to return to work for some time as they
recover from surgery necessitated by injuries received in the line of
duty fighting this hoard of drug dealing resisters to the Justice
System.

On Monday evening at approximately 7:50 PM on the corner of Ellis and
Jones two of your Tenderloin Officers heard shots fired moved quickly to
where two men were on the ground fighting. The man on top was punching
the man he had just chased and tackled. Your Officers immediately
approached and proceeded to separate the combatants. As they pulled the
man off the other person he yelled out; "He shot me!" Your Officers
observed he was bleeding from three gun shot wounds. The 19 year old
man on the bottom had a gun fall out of his pocket. The shooter was in
possession of drugs for sale and in an angry voice declared, "I'm from
Oakland and he owed me money!" One of your Officers thought this remark
was made to justify the shooter's shooting someone who doesn't pay his
debt. The shooter gave no apology for the bullet he put into a passing
Muni bus.

In light of all the violence we have had over just the last week
imported from outside our neighborhood, it would seem reasonable that a
District Attorney's requests that a stay away order be imposed by our
Court for one of these dangerous invaders would be a simple thing to
expect. Judge Wick in Department #9 of the Superior Court does not
concur and another dangerous element is given a pass to our neighborhood
to lurk and spread his vile trade and the violence it promises. In
thirty days a motion will be heard for Judge Wick's consideration
regarding the need to impose a restriction on this East Bay drug dealer
from returning to the Tenderloin. In the meantime he lurks on our
streets and threatens our residents. If this be the protection we can
expect from our judiciary, the war we wage is multiplied by the
blindness of justice.

In this violent ridden week and half since the cold blooded murder at
Turk and Taylor Street, we have confiscated five guns and three knives.
Your Officers have arrested 140 drug dealers, 45 fugitives and four more
of your Officers received injuries which will keep them off duty for a
week or two. I light of all this, another purveyor of evil has
callously been sent back to our neighborhood for us to deal with.

This brave fight is not only being made by your Police Department but by
many of your Tenderloin neighbors who constantly step up to be witnesses
to this violence even in the face of harms way. If you live or work in
the Tenderloin you have much to be proud of, for this is a good
neighborhood made up of good people. Be proud!

KKK and the Underground Railroad

2009-03-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

Visited MoAD today, Museum of the African Diaspora. I was expecting more of an expansive historical look at the migrations of people and the current cultural spectrum of various populations. It wasn't that, though there were some tidbits of that, it was mostly... top floor -- modern art and "statement" art, next floor, things about slavery (not expansive), South Africa (rather more expansive), the spread of culture, food, music (not expansive), a bit about the 60s, Howard Thurman, and Toussaint L'ouverture (liberation of Haiti).

...and so now, I tell my story that I recall from childhood mention of the Underground Railroad...

Growing up, I recall my grandmother and my father mentioned numerous times that the large brick home my grandparents owned was a link in the Underground Railroad. This is Middletown, Indiana. They said escaped slaves would hide in the basement until it was safe to move on to the next stop. On my last visit to the area (around 2006?), I asked my father, and he pointed out another larger home (or mansion, it might be called) that was also part of the Underground Railroad. The other home was a few doors over, and my father said it had trap doors that people could hide in.

Keep in mind that this is an all white town, somewhat redneck (or extremely redneck, depending upon your perspective). It is not far from Elwood, Indiana, which has been known as a KKK headquarters.

Though I don't know much of the history (Indiana is not big on Black History), and Indiana was never a slave state, I would guess that the KKK became active as slaves migrated northward. My guess is that there were people who wanted to help them find a new life, but also knew that there was too much local prejudice, and so it would be best for the escaped or released slaves to keep heading northward to Chicago.

And so the Underground Railroad was a necessary component even in a "free" state, because even if it was a free state, there was lots of prejudice and KKK activity.

For awhile, my aunt was elected mayor of this small town. There was concurrently a move by the National Park Service to begin some sort of exploration towards exhibits related to the Underground Railroad. I talked to my mother, "You know, Middletown could get on the map if they established an Underground Railroad museum. They might get visitors from Indianapolis." Of course, many of the visitors would be black, and my mother just laughed at the notion. The last thing that Middletown would want would be a lot of black tourists nosing around town, because on the surface, Middletown is still an all-white town, and those would help the blacks get ahead are a silent minority.

RVCA

2009-03-01T10:59:00.000-08:00

Passed by this store on Haight several times on the bus, wondering what the heck it is... They've cut the corner off a building and made this huge display window (in relative terms) that has nothing in it (that I could see from the bus) except a forest-like setting?

So I was curious what the store was... apparently, boys clothing ??

...but they're carefully targeting their market (this is their flagship store), with an art gallery in the back and kicking off with free art lessons? (this through a yelp post, apparently the art lessons have ended)

So, maybe someone else has realized (a la Academy of Art University) that there's a ton of money to be made from relatively wealthy kids who want to be "artists" and whose parents can afford to send them to SF for that dream.

Makes me want to visit the store just out of curiosity -- hey FREE ART MAGAZINES upfront... RVCA website

Surprise! SF has a homeless problem?

2009-03-01T01:21:00.000-08:00

Apparently, some people have come from Los Angeles to educate people on the sidewalk that San Francisco has a homeless problem. Really? Yes, please give us money so we can tell you there's a homeless problem ?! Story in SFGATE

New kid ?

2009-02-24T11:28:00.000-08:00

New boss in town? Somebody owe somebody money? New kid have to prove he's part of the gang? Five people shot in the Tenderloin, one dead SFGATE

And let's think about how someone could escape across a very long bridge with police in pursuit... well, I suppose if they blocked off the bridge, there would be lots of hostages and some idiots with guns. But then, there's the issue of "losing" the car by the (ahem) Oakland police... Homeland Security? You can't have lots of drug cash floating around without mayhem and corruption. How many replays of the Tenderloin shooting/escape to Oakland/Richmond have we seen?

Blackhawk in Tenderloin

2009-02-24T10:55:00.000-08:00

Though I'm not fond of "BeyondChron" for it's sometimes ultra-left politics, and claiming to operate a forum, though it refuses to acknowledge diverse opinions (it's essentially a Fox News on the other side of the fence), I give them credit for bringing up a bit of history I didn't know about the entire time I lived in the neighborhood. ...although I did know that the area was "uptown" once, and what are now "adult theaters" were then popular theaters. Source notes follow...
==============
222 Club, 222 Hyde St (at Turk St) In the 50s and 60s this used to be a famous jazz club called the Blackhawk. Today it is a cutting edge underground venue with DJs and live music. The Blackhawk was actually at 200 Hyde St, which is now a parking lot. (WikiTravel)
===============
From the start, the Blackhawk presented all the jazz stars, local and national, and until the Jazz Workshop opened in 1956 (with former Blackhawk regular, pianist Jeannie Hoffman). The small, ugly, 'Hawk was the Bay Area's principal modern jazz club outside the Filmore District.

Dave Brubeck, Cal Tjader, Vince Guaraldi, Vernon Alley, Art Tatum, Johnny Hodges (with John Coltrane), Anita O'Day, Oscar Peterson, the MJQ, Chico Hamilton, Red Norvo with Charles Mingus, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Barker, Miles Davis, Shelly Manne, Thelonious Monk, all played (and many recorded) there. (this from a Logitech promotional site)
===================
The New York Times recently described how American Beauty was the quintessential Grateful Dead album. That album was recorded across the street from the Blackhawk at the Hyde Street Studios.

So was every Creedence Clearwater Revival album after Green River, and Santana’s legendary Abraxis. Keith Richards recorded there, along with stars too numerous to name. BeyondChron
================
Well, above paragraphs have named a lot of them, but thanks to BeyondChron for pointing out this landmark -- which is actually now a parking lot, in spite of 222 claims to be the reincarnation)

Indiana police implicated, readers blame Obama

2009-02-24T00:24:00.000-08:00

In a perfect example of twisted conservative logic, a large number of policemen were implicated by their part-time jobs working for a company where stolen goods were commonly sold. Yet, the reader responses in a very convoluted twist of logic, turn this around and say this is an example of Obama's administration?!

read: Police raid major metal recycling firm

Sad retail implosion

2009-02-18T01:07:00.000-08:00

Sad to see the Metreon doing so poorly. The place had such high hopes that slowly dissipated. Now in the hands of Westfield, I don't foresee anything mind-blowing, but let's see what they can pull out of the hat in what seems a prime downtown location. SF GATE Article

Mean Streets

2009-02-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

This guy was clean for 2 years, and then wiped out by his neighborhood gangstas.

The killer ? "He's our basic stupid guy gets out of prison, wants to be a thug," Johnson said. S.F. burglary victim killed for going to police

Chinese New Year Parade Treasure Hunt

2009-02-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

The Chinese New Year Parade is fun, but it can seem really long and occasionally tedious, and you always end up moving around to get a better view or just because you're tired of standing in one place.

Enter CNYP Treasure Hunt... Fun to run around through the crowd following clues looking for various points in the city, winding around through the parade route. More of a challenge with a larger "team." (bathroom breaks? hungry? tired now of wandering?)

At every spot there were a few other clipboard-wielding teams searching for the clue, and if the thing became too popular, that could reduce the fun and intrigue. But last night, good fun team (if a bit scattered due to size?) and a nice excuse to roam from the Ferry Building to Chinatown and North Beach.

Oh, and and looks like we got 10 of the 17 "treasures," though I haven't looked yet to see if our answers are correct.

Hipster Meltdown

2009-02-08T10:43:00.000-08:00

uh oh, the notion that American Apparel is opening a store in the Mission is causing a hipster meltdown, as chronicled on Scott Beale's blog...

photo of hipsters posting signs on the storefront "no more hipster scum" ?

Scott Beale's twitter survey "what is a hipster" (crap, I refuse to follow any links from twitter to see what they're pointing at as their definition)

A great hipster commercial, and another video "hipster olympics" which apparently is a re-make of a Monty Python skit. Scott Beale Blog

Success?

2009-02-06T14:42:00.000-08:00

What happens when you take 30% of the buildings in a city core off the market, and house homeless people, drug addicts, and people who can't really afford to live in the city there?

Here's the quote from the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation's newsletter:

Thirty years later, we can declare victory: 30% or more of the Tenderloin is owned or controlled by nonprofit and public entities, and the threat that the neighborhood will transform into an exclusively middle class enclave is much diminished. Quality of life, not gentrification, is today’s primary issue.

I repeat the claim I've shouted before... wouldn't it be more cost effective to house these people somewhere besides the most expensive real estate in the country?

Rowing on the Bay

2009-02-04T12:26:00.000-08:00

Finally passed all the hurdles to allow me to take the gorgeous rowboats outside the Aquatic Park cove ! It was an incredibly gorgeous day for February. A woman was lying on the pier in her bikini, and I took my shirt off to get a little sun on my row back. This time of year, it could just as easily been pouring cold windy rain.

Don't feed the pigeons ?!

2009-01-31T23:28:00.000-08:00

Seems I wrote to Mr. Nevius, or was it someone else, about this ?

Services too focused on the Tenderloin

US workers get the shaft?

2008-12-20T00:29:00.001-08:00

Interesting... So workers in other countries get healthcare through the government. Well, workers in US plants owned by foreign auto companies probably get healthcare too... we hope??
-----------------
Condition of Bush's bail-out plan for automakers:
The United Auto Workers union will be asked to rework contracts to make wages and work rules comparable with those at nonunion plants in the U.S. owned by foreign automakers by Dec. 31, 2009.
White House rescue plan for US auto industry SFGATE

Stealing from a crackhead?

2008-12-18T20:53:00.000-08:00

Found a dime on the sidewalk where the crackhead usually sits to panhandle. Did he drop it out of his cup? Who knows. Meanwhile, a very happy looking crackhead was bouncing up the street -- but he was still panhandling, throwing his arms around passersby, singing songs to them, and everybody in the world was his best friend. I'd say he got his rock, and I picked up the extra dime.

Suicide online

2008-11-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

"Crane said she knows of at least one other case in which a South Florida man shot himself in the head in front of an online audience, although she didn't know how much viewers saw. In Britain last year, a man hanged himself while chatting online."
Florida teen commits suicide in front of webcam SFGATE

Whoa. A new fad? Brutal. Makes jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge seem like a stroll in the park.

Hilary as Secretary of State

2008-11-21T11:55:00.000-08:00

Would this be a tribute, or payback for that commercial ? Barack: I need my sleep. Hilary, you take those pesky 3 a.m. phone calls!

Bloated Ballot

2008-11-21T11:51:00.000-08:00

Court: Sex-offender law unfairly restrictive

Wouldn't it be nice if they quit piling the ballot with initiatives that don't hold legal water?

Welcome to the Moon

2008-11-15T11:28:00.000-08:00

"But while the celebrations conjured up images akin to that of the U.S. flag unfurled on the moon by Apollo astronauts, India's flag is most likely scattered over a wide swath of the moon's Shackleton crater after the probe slammed into the surface at more than 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) per hour."

India celebrates planting its flag on moon SFGATE

Ah, new wealth -- always wanting to crash the party.

Government Bailout

2008-11-12T10:47:00.000-08:00

Just give us $700 billion. Oh wait, we decided to do something else with it. Well, it sounds a little better than "Plan A," but still looks like a monkey trying to catch a fish flopping around on dry land. A monkey with $700 billion in its pocket?
Paulson: Government won't buy troubled bank assets

Blue / Red

2008-11-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

At 05:28 AM 11/8/2008, you wrote:
some revealing cartographic versions of the election's red-blue distribution.

Hey, study that enough, and you might be able to redraw some district boundaries in a way that favors one party or the other !

Some time ago I realized it boiled down to a large difference in the problems encountered by rural or small-town people vs. the people who live in large cities. Different problems encountered every day, different ways of dealing with those problems, and different ways of thinking about the world, based on these encounters.

Gun control -- probably just as many idiots with guns in the country as in the city, but when they fire them off in the country, they're most likely to only injure themselves, their friends, or their family members, whereas in the city, they're going to injure strangers.

Abortion -- rural areas are the baby factories and breadbaskets. In the city, it's ENOUGH PEOPLE ALREADY ! ...and of course, we want to fund abortions for people who can't afford them, because those people will have more problems raising their kids if they can't get abortions. But if you own a farm, you can have 6 wives and 40 kids, and it won't bother your neighbors (or they can shoot at them when they cross the property line!) You can bury the miscarriages in the back yard, but people in the city don't want to see them in the apartment garbage can !

Property rights -- when the next neighbor is 1/2 mile away, who cares? When only wealthy landlords can afford to own rental buildings, of course everybody wants some standards for those buildings and some rights for the tenants, and control over whether someone builds a dynamite factory in the building next door.

Endangered species -- no one in an office cubicle has to worry about their cubicle encroaching on endangered species habitat; those species were driven out years ago ! On the farm, it's, "oh crap, now I'm not going to be able to plow that strip of land, which is going to lose $XX a season."

So the challenge is trying to regionalize the laws -- the current big legal dichotomy is federal / state, but it seems like the dichotomy should instead be federal / county. "States" seem much more artificial than rural / urban boundaries. Maybe there should be a movement towards rural / suburban / urban associations that better define the issues in each area, and work out compromises that are more agreeable, rather than a blanket of laws that don't fit either situation very well.