Yikes there’s a lot of people running for the District 3 Seat. OK I’m going to create a little cheat-sheet, and update it as I get more information (as this will take forever to write). Feel free to add in comments corrections/additions. I picked out four major issues:

• Crime: escalating homicides, and the ongoing Broadway Corridor issues.
• Development: everyone’s abuzz with the plywood-ing of North Beach, and general development efforts (letting in chains, not letting in chains, spot zoning, etc.).
• Transportation: The Central Freeway is coming! And, well, the usual suckiness of the 30-Stockton crowded scene on Grant St. any given day, and oh, the rudeness of drivers… cycling hostility, I could go on.
• Rental Protection: Whether you’re for it or against it, it’s an expensive city and people get elbowed out- like our firemen & teachers, and rising rental rates mean less interesting mom & pop stores.

The chart reflects my notes made from the candidates’ web sites and not any other journalistic writeup, observations, conversations or gossip (that’s at the end!).

Candidate Sites:
- Lynn Jefferson (LJ)
- Wilma Pang (WP)
- Joe Alioto, Jr. (JA)
- Claudine Cheng (CC)
- David Chiu (DC)
- Tony Gantner (TG)
- Mike DeNunzio (MD)

More reading:
Extra! ‘Culture of fear’ stalks Grant Avenue! by Tony Long

Joe Aliot, Jr. Enters SF Sentinel

District 3 - S.F.’s hottest supervisorial race Wyatt Buchanan of SF Gate

Opinion & Hearsay
So, I know someone who knows someone in the David Chiu campaign, and he sounds neat. I met Lynn at a fundraiser, and she was nice and eager to fix things. I walk by the Alioto headquarters every day. I haven’t really noticed my favorite shops endorsing one candidate or another. I’m mostly concerned, personally, with transportation and the plywood issue. I’m impressed with Connie’s Angel Island experience, that’s a really interesting bipartisan, historical and cultural level. Wilma has some energy and interest, and I like the global perspective that the Chinatown candidates have.

The issue with this race is that the 3 major areas- North Beach, Downtown & Chinatown - require someone who doesn’t have a real core bias, and can manage the peripheral, but also important areas- North Waterfront, Russian Hill & Telegraph Hill. If you get someone really entrenched with the residential communities like Lynn or Alioto, you miss out on the other areas- same with a Chinatown vote, as well as city-wide concerns (as transit is important across the city of course). So I looked at the more well-rounded candidates, that seem to target and address the issues that I’m mostly concerned with, and ended up with… drumroll please… David Chiu. Note: subject to change.

[Image by this guy.]

Not long ago I blogged about Festival of Sail. If you haven’t seen this yet, check out the impact a different fleet had on San Francisco: the Imperial Fleet.

[Via Kevin Kelly's article, The End of Video as Evidence of Anything.]

This is a series, see: Coit Tower, St.Francis Elevators, Chinatown
Note: make sure to have a hangover and/or huge appetite before heading out.

Breakfast/brunch at Cafe Divine (Union & Stockton)- get seated at the sidewalk tables, and, with mimosa in hand, watch people in the park. I’d recommend the fruit bowl w/ granola or the poached eggs. Divine doesn’t have a huge menu but the ingredients are top notch. OR hit La Boulange (Columbus, Green) for a pastry and a bowl of cafe au lait. Describe how the park used to be the common for the neighborhood- the patch of ground where you could garden or keep livestock. Mention the falsehood that DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe at the church- actually just photographed in front of it.
continue reading & map!

This is a series. Earlier ones: Coit Tower, & St. Francis glass elevators

You’re on a slim budget, and have guests in town. What to do? Chinatown, baby! (pedometer link here)

Enter at Bush & Grant, and take the requisite dorky tourist photo of your arm in the Lion’s jaws. Next off: walk up Grant to Sacramento, take a left, and halfway up take a right onto Waverly alley, where most of Joy Luck Club took place. Stop at Uncle’s for some duck-egg joe like Mama makes, or go for the cheapest eggs & hash browns anywhere in town. Walk up Stockton and witness the craziness that is the open produce market hell. Either shop for some gai lan (chinese broccoli) or grab an apricot to munch and freak out your tourist friends by live fish in the open meat & seafood markets near Broadway. Walk over to Pacific and walk up halfway to the large & boisterous Y Ben, for some cheap & greasy dim sum and endless tea. Walk off the grease by heading farther downhill, take a right 2 blocks over to Washington & Walter Lum, where you can checkout some intense Go games. Walk 1/2 block North on Washington, take a right on the alley WentWorth to see mahjong gambling dens, then at Jackson, walk up the hill past Grant 1/2 block to loop back on a parallel alley- Ross- and check out the fortune cookie factory. The guests might need a snack, so get bubble tea at the edge of Chinatown at Grant & Columbus. If they’re still up for more, and resisted the lure of North Beach, walk through the labyrinthine hardware stores on Pacific & Columbus, and puzzle over the funeral items for sale near the doorway. They should be tired and full by then.

This is a series- the first one was on Coit Tower

I had another visitor in town- from Belgium, and we were walking around Post St. on a Thursday night. She didn’t drink- and wanted to see something odd/unexpected, so I navigate to the front of St. Francis on Powell at Post St. entered the lobby, walk past Michael Minna, past the first set of elevators to the rotating door, and take a right before the door.

Description & but alas, no photos, after the jump

Had visitors in town- local Bay Area folks- and we went up Coit Tower. I personally love doing touristy things.. After I went to Alcatraz (age: 30) I realized being a local is about knowing *when* to hit the touristy stuff. Today, it was: go when it’s overcast with high cloud cover. Alcatraz? Evening tour. Convincing my companions to go was a little tougher:

Me: “We’ll never do it again. Carpe Dieum!”
Brother in law: “The kids won’t even remember it.” [they totally lost the significance of Lombard] (To 4 year old:) “Will you remember this forever and ever?”
I look at sister, her husband, “Have you ever gone up?”
Both shake their head- all our lives here, and we’ve never done it.
“So how much?”
We figure out it’s going to be $14.00, three adults, and two kids under 6.
Later, we agreed that the lack of a line was the major reason we decided to go up.

For those that haven’t gone up, description & photos after the jump.
More Pictures & Description

First, overheard:
“I want you to tell everyone that I am going to personally kill you.” Man, with an eau de homeless about him, into a cell phone, walking past me, and another woman with a stroller. I turned to her and we exchanged a horrified look.

The weather was amazing- t-shirt weather. Stopped in the smallest Starbucks ever- well minus that tiny hole in the wall on Sutter at Market- at the Hyde St. turnaround. Two Norwegian journalists were chatting with a tourist, neither of them had a big opinion about the Gavin affair (overheard).

More random observations…
Read more

I live my life with a very “be here now” attitude. I appreciate what I have while it is right here within my grasp, and I don’t tend to linger over thoughts of what isn’t here with me. For that reason, when I go on vacation, there are things that I miss generally about San Francisco but I don’t really think about them much. Sure, I joke to friends and family in my hometown that when I feel the BART leave the city on its way to SFO, my heart leaps out and lodges itself somewhere in between Lombard Street and Coit Tower and I know that I won’t fully feel anything until I’ve returned my body to its rightful home. But for the most part, I enjoy my vacation and don’t really think twice about the city.

This attitude of mine exists much to the chagrin of my friends here in the city, who often feel snubbed by my ability to easily forget them when I am not here living life with them. But I’m the first to admit my faults, and this is one of them. I simply just don’t really miss people that I know I’m going to see again shortly. However, there are always exceptions to this rule. Interestingly, when I leave San Francisco, there is a person that I miss. No, there’s no San Francisco romance that I feel compelled to share here. Instead, when I’m sitting back at home, thinking that I miss someone in San Francisco, that person is … my chiropractor.
Read more

photo credit: Jeff at Coit Liquor
I got this email in my inbox yesterday, along with a photo, that has a photo of me in it. Mise en abyme! Needless to say I was already planning on going to the tasting, so it was a fait accompli. I’ll stop speaking French any day now. What’s better than a glass of champagne? 8! It was a dark and stormy night but still managed to get out to Coit, which in total North Beach style is a wine tasting room. There, I learned from other attendees that Canteen is a little gem restaurant. I’ll check it out. The tasting was a unique opportunity to taste various bottles side by side. More on backwoods rudeness…
Read more

… and obviously not shy.

Story #1 goes like this: I’m a fan of my local liquor store/wine seller (Coit Liquor!) after I walked into a wine tasting one night, bought 3 bottles and enjoyed each one of them. Now, that isn’t something that would make me think that the proprietors know me. So when, last Thursday, the owner was like “I know you from somewhere…” I was confused. My friend joins me, and we’re both kind of like, where in the hell do I know this wine maker-store owner from? Then it hits me: my photo on the Yelp review (pictured here). So I slyly ask him if he’s reviewed by Yelp, and he starts talking about the various reviews (even knows the exact number). So I make the connection, we laugh, toast, la la la. Jeff (owner) is in this month’s 7X7 (specific article isn’t online, it seems). I think they’re having a champagne tasting soon, but haven’t gotten the November wine tasting schedule yet. This just in: 11/2 is champagne testing, Thursday, 10$ for tasting, and they refund if you buy a bottle (thanks, Jeff).
Read more