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!

Thought I’d help get the word out on a great group- the Community Center at Telegraph Hill (tel-hi.org), they have the playground, the community garden, the basketball courts, and a ton of classes and workshops all on that old warehouse looking building on Chestnut & Powell. Fund-raising dinner 5/10, with donation of $175. Buy Tix here.

More info: here, includes a dinner made by chefs from Kokkari, Piperade and Gary Danko. Not too shabby! And yes, I should have also written about Frances Ford Coppola’s darling project North Beach Citizen’s fund-raising dinner last month, but didn’t, mea culpa. It was fun! Photos here.

There’s a general workshop on what to do with the “triangle”- that is the parking lot that is now Parks & Rec property, bordered by Columbus, Lombard & Mason. At the North Beach Clubhouse (we have a clubhouse?) 4/30, 7pm.
official info from SFPL

The SF SPCA issued a condemnation today of an exhibit that’s been featured this month at the SF Art Institute, claiming that it is “barbaric and depraved”. Entitled “Don’t Trust Me”, the exhibition (originally slated to run through May 31 — but now canceled after outcry) was on display at 800 Chestnut St. and was featuring six short videos that are looped footage of animals getting hammered (and nope, we don’t mean getting drunk in North Beach ).

The critters, including an ox, a sheep, a horse, a pig, a goat, and a small deer are shown being beaten with a sledgehammer by the “artist”.

The invited presenting “artist”, born in Algeria, but based out of Paris, is Adel Abdessemed, who according to his own hype:

is open and generous, sensitive albeit controversial. For materials, he relies on bodily or embodied experiences (human and animal), ordinary household objects, industrial products, and even buildings. His work consists of the stark contrasts between beauty and violence, impulsiveness and rationality, romanticism and radicality, life and death.

Whatever ya wanna say about the guy, he’s from France and his money is worth more than yours these days, so there.

I actually wanna thank SFAI’s Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs and animal hammering fan Hou Hanru for bringing this unique artistic endeavor to my attention, where I once might have had to travel to a Chino slaughterhouse to see similar art. Hou’s SFAI website bio says of his curatorial and department chairing expertise :

“Hou is one of the first curators and thinkers to examine postmodern issues of nomadic identity, hybridity, globalized mobility, what he calls “in-betweeness,”

Way to go Hou !!! You impressive idea thinker you !!! Keep it up and I bet our board of supes will be fighting over which street to name after you !!!

Nothing seems so decadent as a 1 1/2 hour Friday afternoon lunch in North Beach. Just sayin’. Is it the weekend yet?

Pictured: from La Gondola at Columbus & Jackson

That’s a stuffed Flamingo, outside of Kennedy’s Sunday morning.

BTW: So glad we’re on Wordpress! Thanks everyone at Groop for doing the transfer.

Yesterday, Feb 19th, was the 4 year anniversary of the battle & seizure of 701 Columbus led by General Aaron Peskin and his regiment of Telegraph Hill Dwellers…

Check out Ranger Wayne Zebzda in a prescient 1982 interview under a long gone magnolia tree at this impromptu mock National Park in North Beach…

More on the controversial history of the triangular 4,119 square feet plot adjacent to Washington Square Park, and where it stands today after the jump…
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Planning Issues, A Scarf Drive, Parties, Eats, Openings, Closings, Sales, etc

For an update of local small biz happenings around the bay read on…
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- You want to eat in North Beach, but you’re confused by the dizzying array of restaurants. Answer this simple question: glass grapes or pumpkin ravioli?
- Best happy hour- 901 Columbus (at Lombard), $1.50, 4-7. Good food too if beer is not enough.
- Best trivia: Melt, (Filbert & Columbus) 8pm Wednesdays with Matt (you know, fondue? and trivia? Fondivia?)
- Best karaoke: Bow Bow, Grant @ Broadway (OK, this is Chinatown technically…
- Best product of the Chinese/Italian neighborhood: Ginger gelato on Union & grant - pictured
* more info after the jump
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SFPD is hiring & shuffling: Capt. Ehrlich heads to Tac Squad, Fong brings in new female “Community” Capt. Bennet , plus scroll for details for potential applicants and those that just want to know more about what the hell is it they actually do:

In a continual game that is SFPD’s version of musical chairs meets Stratego, respected local Capt. John Ehrlich, a 27 year vet, moves into the Special Operations’ “Tac Squad” and Northern Station’s former Community Policing Lieutenant, Theresa “Teri” Barrett becomes the Park station’s new captain. An ironic shift perhaps since Chief Heather Fong has been reluctant to give so-called “community policing” much headway. Ehrlich also seemed content like most others in the dept. to hopefully let the “community policing” issue fade away before officers ever were forced to move around outside their bulletproof squad cars like any of us ordinary citizens must do.

This personnel shuffle seems yet another shift in the department that on one hand is derided as being insular, ineffective, and wishy washy and then on the other hand is accused of being insular, insensitive & overly aggressive.

I mean how could one not put their faith in an organization that issues glowing reports on it’s own recruits like
“San Frasncisco Policec Academy to Gradtue 13 Lateral Officers” as seen in a press release link posted proudly on the SFPD website since September 21, 2007.

It’s never helped that the majority of SFPD officers don’t live in town, and for a long time many seemed to take gleeful pride in bullying those that do. Lately the embarrassing and stubborn refusal of the SFPD to get around to enacting basic community policing reforms has really strained community relations.

It’s simply ridiculous what we spend here per capita on policing, and the ultimately shoddy results we get for that $500 dollars a year per person. According to a recent editorial in the Chronicle SF spends $120 more per citizen than Chicago, and $180 more per citizen than Los Angeles does on police services. Yet from 1999 to 2005, unlike in those towns, arrests were down 35 percent, and homicides went up, up, up and not away. Especially troubling is the unsolved homicide rate, with less than 25% solved these days, a dramatic reduction since the 50% solved rate of the latter 1990’s under other leadership.

More ranting after the jump…

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