San Francisco Metblogs » Richard Ault

The Reverse Graffiti Project

Richard Ault — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:23:56 +0000

Ever heard of reverse graffiti? Neither had I until earlier today. Reverse graffiti artist Moose makes a big statement about clean in San Francisco’s Broadway Tunnel. Shot by documentarian Doug Pray. For most information visit www.reversegraffitiproject.com.

The Ten Commandments of SF

Richard Ault — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:37:18 +0000

In an effort to keep church and state separate I give you the Ten Commandments of SF!

1. Thou shalt always vote on principal and not political party
2. Thou shall move your family to the suburbs when your children are of school age
3. Thou shalt always have an earthquake preparedness kit in your home
4. Thou shalt drive a hybrid car
5. Thou shalt always yield to a bike if driving, and a ped if driving/biking
6. Thou shalt ~~not~~ pay for muni
7. Thou shall hate the dodgers like the devil himself/herself. Unless of course you are a satanist. Then thou shall hate the dodgers like god himself/herself
8. Thou shalt be tolerant, to the point of absurdity
9. Thou shalt pickup after your pooch, homeless denizen, drunk buddy defecates
10. Thou shalt keep your winter clothes out of storage all summer long

See things differently? Let’s hear your commandments in the comments!

h/t to David at the LA Metblog.

The Raven (Pic)

Richard Ault — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:13:35 +0000

Juvenile Raven(s), Inner Sunset.

The Broadband Census

Richard Ault — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:31:49 +0000

The PEW Internet project is supporting the Broadband Census, a project that is being overseen by Drew Clark, a telecommunications and technology journalist. The point is to gather as much information about peoples actual upload and download speeds. From home or work.

The census is open to anyone who wants to participate. So get to IT.

According to the government, San Francisco has 10 service providers. Not sure if that’s truly the case, as I can only think of two, Comcast and AT&T, with very different offerings.

Participate in the census so we can truly see how we stack up to other cities and communities in the U.S.

Photo courtesy of Xamad, Creative Commons.

Bullet Train hits Snag in LA/SF/SD Route

Richard Ault — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:23:17 +0000

Pacific Union has withheld their “Right of Way” over key segments of the LA/SF corridor that the Bullet Train would traverse. They claim safety issues as the reason.

From the LA Times last week:

Officials at Union Pacific railroad recently told the California High Speed Rail Authority that they have safety and operational concerns about running a bullet train close to lumbering freight trains.

“Just look at what happened in L.A. a few years ago,” said Scott Moore, a Union Pacific vice president, citing the 2005 crash of a Metrolink passenger train that killed 11 and hampered rail operations.

“Those accidents happen.”

This is kind of a big roadblock from what I’ve gathered. And if you’re motivated, for or against, drop them a line here.

Here is a sample trip:

SF to LA
Distance: 432 Miles
CO2/Saved per trip: 324 lbs
Travel Time: 2hrs, 38 mins.
Estimated Cost: Train $55, Car $86, Air $120

Poll and linkage

Reminder: John Wayne! BYOWB!!

Richard Ault — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:19:28 +0000

A quick reminder about this afternoons BYOWB, Bring your own Water Balloon. If you are attending and take pics, feel free to send them to us at Metblogs and we are happy to post.

Date: June 11th, 2008 (The Duke’s Birthday)
Time: 6pm
Place: Alamo Square in San Francisco, CA

If you’re siding with the Mexican’s, wear blue shirts.
If you’re siding with the Texans, wear brown shirts.

Send pics to richard AT metblogs DOT com

A Day At the Park - Pic

Richard Ault — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:49:17 +0000

An amazing day at the park last week, been offline for a few days, otherwise I would have had this up sooner. Nice to see the Giants on a tear for a change. In this shot Aaron Rowand is attempting to pwn John Maine. Enjoy!

Petition for Google to add bike routes to maps

Richard Ault — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:18:40 +0000

I’m betting anything that this is already underway, but if you are interested, may as well let your voice be heard on the matter.

Sign the petition!

To: Google, and the Google Maps team
We would like a ‘Bike There’ feature added to Google Maps - to go with the current ‘Drive There’ and ‘Take Public Transit’ options. The feature would take into account actual bicycle lanes from the locality being mapped, and it would automatically plan a route for a bicyclist, possibly even providing the cyclist options for either the most direct route, or the most bicycle-friendly (safest) route. The Google Maps-based third party site, byCycle.org (http://byCycle.org/), provides these features for two metro areas - Portland, Oregon and Madison, Wisconsin, and there are countless other mapping initiatives around the world aimed at accomplishing the same goal. We hope that Google will consider building this feature into the core Google Maps service.

There are many reasons why this feature would be a wonderful edition to Google Maps. Among them, some of the most influential would be to:
* Make bicycling safer for millions of bicyclists around the world.
* Empower world citizens to better adapt their lifestyles to face the challenges of global climate change.
* Help Google realize its core mission of ‘organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.’

By implementing the ‘Take Public Transit’ option, Google and the Google Maps team have shown themselves to be concerned and capable world citizens; a ‘Bike There’ feature addition to Google Maps would be the ultimate statement in support of sustainable development.

For more information on this feature request please visit the Google Maps ‘Bike There’ website (http://GoogleMapsBikeThere.org/).

Thank you, Google and the Google Maps team! And thank you, petitioners, for joining us in attempting to realize this very important goal!
Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Landlord Vs. Tenant Pt. II

Richard Ault — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:17:04 +0000

A couple of weeks back we posted about a court battle that is raging in sf between a tenant and his alleged slumlords. The alleged were brought up on criminal charges and were jailed at the time with an amazingly high bail for their crimes. The judge has decided to lower bail and the fur is still flying as the husband paid bail and the wife sat in jail. And I guess the Chron published a picture of one of the accused today, although I missed that, maybe in the paper today?

Prosecutor Max Peltz urged that bail remain the same, saying Morrow was hardly a vexatious litigant. He also stressed that Morrow was just one of four tenants who allegedly had been victimized by the Macys.
Peltz said that over nine years, Morrow has filed four legal actions: a still-pending lawsuit against the Macys, one against the building’s prior owners in which he won a settlement, and the failed request for restraining orders against both Macys. Labeling Morrow a vexatious litigant was a baseless effort to “malign the victim,” Peltz said.

Bail cut for S.F. landlords in tenant terror case.

It is about time…

Richard Ault — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:56:00 +0000

Thank you to the mayor and thank you to all the great people who lobbied and supported the right for all people to be married in the eyes of the law. Proud to be a californian today.

Great MLK quote from Dennis Herrera, “The arc of history is long, and it bends toward justice”.

Go Connecticut Go!

Here’s some video footage of the Gav at city hall yesterday.