The NY Times today ran a piece on Healthy San Francisco, the city’s attempt to provide health care for some 80,000+ uninsured residents. If you haven’t heard of it, that’s likely because you don’t live in Chinatown. The only two clinics offering these gratis services since earlier this summer are in Chinatown.

That’s supposed to change by next week as over a dozen new clinics are added, but my attempts to log onto a supposed Healthy San Francisco city website went on for hours to no avail.

Maybe you’ll have better luck, go ahead try it:
( http://www.sfhp.org/HealthySanFrancisco )

Of course the fact that the website is down currently, and all the people who thought this up & are in charge of this program are simultaneously writing resignation letters due to the mayor’s personal personnel issues, either does or doesn’t bode well for the success of the program. Supposedly taxes won’t need to rise because expenses are just a few hundred million a year, rationalized as basically what’s being spent on emergency care in SF already.

That all sounds dandy, but I just don’t quite see how this form of “care not cash II” scheme” will magically eliminate the bulk of emergency care expenses. Those bills aren’t just going to simply disappear because the city offers more casual clinical care as well. We’ll still have our gun battling boys, crazed crackheads, random red light runners, drunk driving dudes, and tawdry tangential tragedies all getting into medical mayhem monthly won’t we?

At least Gavin got a nice photo op with Michael Moore out of it so far, and the lady featured in the NY Times who moved here from China last year is being seen, so good for them…

So who knows about what will happen for the rest of us, just stay tuned …

Uh,
I’m no doctor, but my advice is, if any of you have existing health insurance, don’t quit your day job…

Today I went to Chinatown in search of Szechuan pepper. My search was successful, and I also got a mortar and pestle with which to grind it. Even better, I got some pictures! More after the jump.

(Also, even though it has nothing to do with what I saw today, a few days ago I heard somebody yell “HEY, PAUL! I’LL TRADE YOU THREE PLAYBOYS FOR A LIGHTER!” over on Hyde, near the library. Gotta love the Tenderloin.)

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It’s so amazingly beautiful out. I am on a few mailing lists that are seriously dormant (inc. this one, I have to say- I think I made the last comment!) and I rack it up to gorgeous days and people getting off their computers and out to frolic in (sadly) global warming inducing warm pre-Spring. Well I’m sick, so I get to sit here under blankets blogging about trends I perceive. Walked through Chinatown when I was well, a few nights ago, and wondered if it was a new New Year’s festivity I didn’t know about, there were so many folks pouring out of restaurants, wandering around. It wasn’t night market, so what was the deal? Then same thing in North Beach- every outside table was taken, and there are a lot. It’s just nice weather. Well, on Monday there’s a little showers icon with a questionmark, so who knows.

Sped over to Justin Herman Plaza yesterday at 4:30PM to start the San Francisco Treasure Hunt. Hundreds of folks filled the plaza, and we stood around, coming up with a name last minute: “Days of Swine and Roses.” We were surprised when it won 3rd place in punny team titles. Then, off to One Market to get beer, and concentrate on solving 18 clues. Here is a sampling, #18:

Take the six-letter word for what people often sing in (and subtract an ’s’); knowin’ you is a reversal but sounds like it can help. It reaches 700 when it starts going uphill…

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I don’t care too much for the tourist trapping Grant Avenue section of Chinatown, but I really dig the open air markets and hanging duck butchers a block over.

The full Chinatown set can be found here.

No funny stories of dumb burglars in this week’s blotter, instead sad news, quoted from Capt. Dudley:

Last week we were called to a scene where a body was found in a remote area in Chinatown. The person apparently died from a fall or other such natural cause, but had been lying in the rain for over a day. I would like to make sure that does not happen again. We are looking to turn the neglected area into a playground for neighborhood kids with help from the YMCA, Nike and the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services.

FYI: The Police Community Meeting is held on the third Thursday of Each month at Tel-Hi Community Room at 660 Lombard Street from 6-7 PM.

I needed to buy about a few umbrellas, and as I walked down Stockton street, I checked the prices in a few stores. mostly it bottomed out at $3.99 for a tall walking one. A lady in front of one of the produce markets told me it was 3$/umbrella. Well, she just held her fingers up. I started asking her if I got a discount if I bought more than one. Quickly realized she doesn’t speak any English. So this is a first for me- negotiating in Chinatown, which I’ve put off doing for 2 years, despite negotiating quite a bit in China itself. I broke down and said, in Chinese-Mandarin “How much for 2?” and she got a big smile on her face. The charm only went so far since she still refused to go below $3, and pulled in some woman walking by to translate that it was, really, just 2 for 6$, not cheaper. The lady she pulled of the street wants me to follow her up the street to her store-saying this in Mandarin. I say I’m walking the other way, towards home. As I start to walk, the umbrella vendor yells above the crowd ‘Hao!” - roughly, good, ok- and, I say “2 for $5″ And she agrees, and we start to exchange money.
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Local Political Blog Buzz:

Included are links to SF’s Usual Suspects website that has posted a large map graphic by David Latterman showing the percentages of voters in different parts of the city during the last election. The heaviest turnout of over 50% was in the outer avenues, and close to that in most districts where supervisor races were to be decided, and less than 35% in Chinatown & Bayview Hunters Point.

Daniela Kirshenbaum has written a lengthy post election piece for Fog City Journal on some growing disenchantment amongst District 2 denizens with so-called “Mystery Supervisor” Michela Alioto-Pier, who maintains a home in St. Helena and has vague City Hall office hours and a somewhat spotty attendance record for Supe’s meetings.

Of interest to parents with kids in SF’s public schools, “Left in SF”’s, Kim Knox posts the results from an analysis she did of an official SF school district document handed out this weekend that is showing the trends in the top choices of SF parents to send their kids too…

Word of an emergency Critical Mass scheduled for outside the Mexican Consulate in solidarity with Oaxacan protestors at 4pm Monday has local bicyclists a buzz.

Meanwhile, back in District 5 Diary blogger Rob Anderson’s cyber turf, he continues to take much flack from irked bike nuts & anti-car zealots. Anderson, a former D5 supe candidate in ‘04, had an election day victory, not at the polls, but in court in where his lawsuit slowing down SF’s “Bike Plan” was upheld.

Go beyond the jump to read more of the latest hub bub riling up local political bloggers…
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30 Stockton yesterday, heading to Union Square. I noticed this weird phenomenon of possessive townie “pissing on” their tourist and thus marking them as Theirs.

It started with a dark and stormy night…
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The Chinese character is “look” in Chinese, just like it’s translated, “kan“. I love the comic element. There are a lot of school kids around. It’s at Broadway and Columbus, at all four corners. So cute!