Walked to Panhandle Pizza today hoping to get a delicious cornmeal crust slice, perhaps even toy with the popular vegan/soy cheese options…

But instead i saw the sickening site of a hollowed out storefront, devoid of ovens, refrigerators or anything related to pizza making. A couple bags of garbage were being dragged out, the sinking shock was so disturbing I shirked my journalistic responsibility and didn’t even ask the folks working , uh, what’s up?

The place has always been rather eccentric, a relic of daze gone by, sorta like the whole stretch of Hayes St. it’s located on. The workers were generally neighborhood teenagers, and an unreliable junkie delivery guy hung in there for awhile. I once asked the owner why he’d stopped selling beers, and he said it “wasn’t making any money”…

uh, I know it’s hard to lose money in the alcohol biz…but if ya try hard enough…I guess anythings possible…

There was an ad on Craigslist in May that this place was for sale, well I’ll just assume there were no buyers, and it must have finally just ended.

A cursory review of their last city health inspection in June didn’t look great and included several violations:

1. Certain food that is not hot enough or cold enough.
2. Food stored improperly.
3. Empty soap dispenser or towels.
4. Dirty utensils/equipment.
5. Improperly cleaned kitchen surfaces.
6. Deteriorated walls/floor/ceiling.
7. Unclean premises.

and my favorite

8. Severe Rat or mice infestation.

The grumpy hippie pizzaman owner who bought the joint a couple years back has hung up his Birkenstock cleats…

Maybe we’re all safer for it…

I’ll assume the “herbal relief remedies” biz continues to be better received around his social circle…

R.I.P another local small biz quasi- institution…

this afternoon, outside Molotov’s (on Haight bt Fillmore & Steiner)

Last night before the earthquake rattled windows and nerves, a crowd of already rattled neighbors crowded into the Cafe Neon in District 5 to hear updates from the police department and city policy pushers on the recent spate of shootings & unsolved murders in the North of Panhandle area. The overflow turnout was considerably larger than one anticipates at these usual community shuck & jives where one hears how your taxdollars are being systematically siphoned and spent on who knows what.

Amongst the presenters gathered by organizer & concerned mother of two Leela Gill were reps from SF’s Drug Court, the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of staff for Public Safety, reps from the DA’s office and the headliners of the event… D5 Supe Ross Mirkirimi, as well as the affable Captain Ehrlich of Park Station and Lt. John Murphy of the Gang Task Force.

While no solutions were likely to come from the meeting, there was some info shared, the usual venting, some back slapping, connections being made and the sense that there are many people concerned about doing some positive things in a city that can’t afford any more negatives.

Some random opinions on the meeting, and also after the jump : some potentially useful numbers you might want for reporting crimes, or contacting city agencies about issues.
(more…)

I took this Sunday in the aftermath of the Haight Street Fair — it’s the old Gap building, and the tag is so big it wraps around the corner. A local told me it went up sometime Friday night. Anyone know anything about it, like what it says? Also, anyone know what’s going to happen with that space (corner of Haight and Ashbury)?

Doc filmmakers Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco bust out the archival footage of the Haight Ashbury tonight at 9 pm on KQED to examine the impact of the heady & hazy daze of yesteryear. Says Dolgin of reasons for focusing on the city in ’67 “San Francisco, in 1967, seemed like mecca, the center of a visionary new society, one that rejected war, hatred, conformity and money. The Haight Ashbury, for a brief period, was the playing field for a new way of life.”

Summer of Love survivors like actor and former Digger Peter Coyote, the indescribable Willie Brown, SF Chron’s dinosaur rock writer Joel Selvin and others are heard from as well as narration provided by M.A.S.H 4077 survivor David Ogden Stiers. Other locals behind the scene in the mix include footage from Stephen Parr’s Oddball Film & Video, and Les Blank’s Flower Films.

“American Experience : Summer of Love” airs tonight at 9 p.m, and for those with insomnia, again on Wed, Apr 25th, @ 3:00 am and click the pic below anytime after the premiere date to watch the entire program online

,/a>

A proposed plan to move part of the City College Campus to Haight street may have an impact on parking and traffic in the Haight, Panhandle, and Cole Valley neighborhoods.
The shuttered William De Avila Elementary School at 1351 Haight St. may soon be the site of a temporary 2000-student City College annex, as the college renovates its John Adams campus, with unknown consequences for an already dense corridor.

There will be a neighborhood hearing held at the De Avila school at 7PM on Thursday Nov 30 so that residents can comment and find out more.

(more opinion after the jump)

(more…)

Went to a Halloween party last night on Belvedere St, Upper Haight, and drove because I wanted to hit another party earlier that night in another neighborhood, and when you added it all up, it would have been over $50 in cab fares. That was my excuse, I explained to my passengers, despite the hostess saying “Don’t drive. There is no parking. Really” on her invitation.
(more…)

Really, what would be cheaper? Printing up new signs or just registering the mispelled URL?

Photo taken by me, in the Lower Haight.

The Lower Haight Merchants Association is hosting its first neighborhood Block Party on Sunday October 22, 2006 from 11am to 6pm on Haight Street between Filmore and Pierce and Steiner between Laussat and Page.

The Block Party will feature live music, special events for families and children, and reasonably-priced booth spaces to accommodate local and emerging artists. The event will not include alcohol booths, and food booths are available only to the existing restaurants within the confines of the event.

(more…)

This is the largest one I’ve seen yet — we LOVE us some Stephen Colbert here in San Francisco!

Spotted this at night with a friend while in Lower Haight, which I offhandedly called “the Haightstro” to indicate the area between Lower Haight and Market — and my friend (who lives in Lower Haight) said, “Ooo, that’s good. But I’ve been calling it ‘the Castraight'”.