A member of Generation X finally takes a stand, and it isn't pretty!
Read the restA samurai sword-wielding man attacked three people early Thursday in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, authorities said.
The 47-year-old suspect, who was not immediately identified, began yelling from his window at the small group of people in their 20s on the 400 block of Eddy Street around 5 a.m., according to San Francisco police.
I'm heading to San Francisco next week for a launch party on December 11th celebrating the release of The End of Trust, a collaboration between EFF and McSweeney's on internet surveillance and the future of the net; the event is at 7:30PM at Manny’s at 3092 16th Street (RSVP here), and I'll be on a panel with EFF exec director Cindy Cohn, moderated by the amazing Annalee Newitz! Read the rest
Timothy from Creative Commons writes, "In the US beginning Jan 1, 2019–after a devastating 20 year drought brought on by the infamous 1998 'Mickey Mouse Protection Act.' Creators, commons advocates, librarians, legal activists and others are celebrating in San Francisco at the Internet Archive on January 25, 2019 to mark the 'Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain.' There will be keynotes (including from Cory Doctorow and Larry Lessig), panels with legal experts like Pam Samuelson and EFF, and lightning talks to showcase the important, weird, and wonderful public domain." Read the rest
My pal Shalaco (previously) shot this bleak video of the smoke in San Francisco using his drone.
He writes:
...A look at SF’s skyline. San Francisco’s Air Quality seems to be getting worse, current AQI is 239, purple, very unhealthy. The city skyline is obscured by smoke and Northern California’s air is rated worst in the world as a result of smoke from the Camp fire.
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If you live in an affected area, wear an N-95 mask, no joke. Read the rest
At times this week, wildfires made San Francisco's air the worst in the world, and the city's stores have largely sold out of the N95 filter masks that make the air barely breathable, leading to at least one enterprising Uber driver selling the masks out of his car (at a substantial markup: $5 each, compared with $1.30 each on Amazon in ten-packs); other drivers are giving the masks away for free. (via /.) Read the rest
In anticipation of the brand new Tales of the City series (!!), Netflix is now playing the documentary about its creator, The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin.
THE UNTOLD TALES OF ARMISTEAD MAUPIN examines the life and work of one of the world's most beloved storytellers, following his evolution from a conservative son of the Old South into a gay rights pioneer whose novels have inspired millions to claim their own truth. Jennifer Kroot's documentary about the creator of TALES OF THE CITY moves nimbly between playful and poignant and laugh-out-loud funny. With help from his friends (including Neil Gaiman, Laura Linney, Olympia Dukakis, Sir Ian McKellen and Amy Tan) Maupin offers a disarmingly frank look at the journey that took him from the jungles of Vietnam to the bathhouses of 70's San Francisco to the front line of the American culture war.
On Netflix: The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin Read the rest
San Francisco's housing crisis is also (of course) a homelessness crisis, and homelessness crises beget public defecation crises -- and San Francisco has a serious public defecation crisis. Read the rest
San Francisco has a homelessness epidemic that is both heartrending and a threat to public health, and it has only worsened for decades, and continues to get worse even now. Read the rest
Sean Kayode, a homeless person hustling to make ends meet in San Francisco unsurprisingly received a lot of parking tickets, in San Francisco. Naturally, the best way for San Francisco to secure payment was to seize his method of earning money. A federal judge has ordered the car be returned, for now.
Via the SF Examiner:
Read the restA federal judge on Wednesday ordered the city of San Francisco to return a towed car to a homeless man who couldn’t afford to pay the parking tickets he received while working as a food delivery driver.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said Sean Kayode had raised “serious questions” about whether the March 5 towing of his car because of unpaid parking tickets violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures.
White wrote that in a situation in which a car owner can’t afford to pay overdue parking tickets, “it is not clear…that seizure is reasonable in an effort to secure repayment of the debt owed.”
The judge issued a preliminary injunction requiring return of the car. The order will remain in effect until there is a full trial on a lawsuit filed by Kayode, 52, and James Smith, 64, whose car was towed on Dec. 28, 2017.
Kayode’s car was towed from a street-cleaning zone outside a homeless shelter where he was staying. In the previous 10 months, he had received about 30 parking tickets and had paid some but not all of them.
A state law allows local authorities to tow a car whose owner has five or more unpaid parking tickets for at least three weeks.
San Francisco's giant fleet of semi-illegal electric scooters have come to symbolize the tech industry's worst excesses, inspiring all kinds of creative resistance Read the rest
Over 20,000 reported cases of crap on the streets of San Francisco wins it a funny smelling crown.
Via KRON4:
San Francisco has been named the 'doo-doo' capital of the United States with 20,899 poop complaints reported in 2017, according to RealtyHop.
RealtyHop did a comparison of 311 poop complaints in Chicago, New York City, and San Francisco.
This study includes dog and human poop sightings.
While 2017 was the worst year on record in San Francisco, research shows that 2018 is on track to beat that.
The 'Doo-Doo Map' from RealtyHop shows the which neighborhoods have the most poop complaints in the city.
Don't blame the dogs, tho:
San Francisco Department of Animal says that the city has 120,000 dogs, but the real issue is the number of homeless people without shelter.
The research conducted says there is no correlation between a neighborhoods home value and poop complaints.
According to the study, the poop crisis in San Francisco reflects a social crisis and the problem has continued to increase since 2011.
This looks great. For the San Francisco History Association, John Law is giving a presentation on "How Everything Started in San Francisco (While We All Thought We Were Just Fooling Around)" at Congregation Sherith Israel on Tuesday, October 30.
Read the restJohn Law will discuss how the Free University movement and other pivotal former scenes, including the hippies, Beats, Situationists, Dada, adventure and pulp fiction, B-films, and a ton of other stuff prominently influenced San Francisco (and national) scenes. He will also examine related influences on the rise of Silicon Valley and its connection to the SF underground “art” scene.
John Law has been involved in the S.F. underground art and pranks scene since 1977. He co-founded the Billboard Liberation Front and the Burning Man Festival, and has crewed for Survival Research Labs and S.F. Cyclecide. He was an original member of the infamous San Francisco Suicide Club, and helped to establish the Cacophony Society. He is the coauthor of Tales of the San Francisco Cacophony Society (out in paperback from Last Gasp in 2019), the definitive history of the group that birthed Burning Man and SantaCon (sorry 'bout that one!) and influenced underground culture worldwide. He is owner and steward of the Doggie Diner Dog Heads, the ten-foot-tall, six hundred pounds (each) fiberglass symbols of an iconic post-computer-age San Francisco. He lives in North Beach and has an office atop the signature Oakland Tribune Tower.
Doors open at 7 p.m. with refreshments and a historical book sale; presentation begins at 7:30 p.m.
A couple of years ago, PBS NewsHour interviewed Flossie Lewis, a delightful and sharp 91-year-old teacher/writer who, in her words, still thinks she's 15 (Don't we all?). In the video, she spoke frankly about growing old. Over 7 million people saw her video, including many of her former students. All of them, including Lemony Snicket writer Daniel Handler, had words of praise for her.
Flossie is now 94 and documentarian Steve Goldbloom decided to visit with her again. This time, he took her to her old classroom in San Francisco and asked a few of her former students to come along. Watch.
World Teachers' Day is Friday. This one goes out to Flossie! Now, can someone PLEASE get this woman a ride on Ocean Ave.? Read the rest
It's almost time again for Boing Boing's favorite annual music event, the Treasure Island Music Festival (TIMF), taking place October 13 and 14 on the San Francisco Bay! This year, the festival takes over the Middle Harbor Shoreline Park in Oakland, California! As always, the stellar lineup is wonderfully eclectic, featuring Tame Impala, A$AP Rocky, Lord Huron, Santigold, Sharon Van Etten, and a dozen other artists. Orchestrated by our pals at Noise Pop and Another Planet Entertainment, the festival will offer plenty of artisanal food and drink to fuel you along with DIY activities, art installations, and indie vendors. Dig it.
Buy tickets: Treasure Island Music Festival
The director of housing for UCSC's Silicon Valley campus asked the university's 6,000 professors to consider sheltering their students to help bridge the shortfall between university-subsidized housing and the student body's needs, amidst the whitest of white-hot property markets in the nation. Read the rest
A general ban on people sleeping in public places, allowing the San Francisco Police to arrest homeless people for having no place else to go, has been ruled cruel and unusual punishment by the US 9th Circuit Court.
Police can no longer arrest people for sleeping on the streets if they have nowhere else to go.
KRON4’s Lydia Pantazes at San Francisco police headquarters this morning.
She says a federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled arresting people who are sleeping on the street with no where else to go is cruel and unusual punishment.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco sided with six homeless people from Boise, Idaho, who sued the city in 2009 over a local ordinance that banned sleeping in public spaces.
The ruling could affect several other cities that have similar laws, including San Francisco.
For example, In San Francisco it is a misdemeanor sit or lie down on a public sidewalk, or on a mattress or other object on a sidewalk, between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m.
The question now is whether cities can ban sitting, lying, or sleeping outside during a particular time and at a specific location. While that may still be allowed, an all out ban is not.
You may remember Ace of Cups, the all-female band who once opened for Jimi Hendrix but whose musical careers got sidelined by motherhood. I wrote about the group in January after seeing a short KQED documentary about them. At that time, four out of five of the original band members, now septuagenarians, were cutting their first album. That 20+ track album, which features collaborations with Bob Weir, Peter Coyote, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Taj Mahal and others, debuts on November 9, 2018 through High Moon Records.
Read the restIn the Summer of 1967, San Francisco’s first all-female rock band burst onto the scene. They were legendary from the beginning; 5 uniquely talented woman writing fantastic songs, rocking as hard as any band out there and harmonizing like beautiful, psychedelic angels. Their star burned bright – and briefly. Despite making a big impact as a live act, and making friends with everyone from Jimi Hendrix to The Grateful Dead, the band split up without ever making a record. 50 years later, they are finally releasing their debut studio album, a stunning collection of songs that reflect their unique origins and deep life stories. As the news began to spread that the Ace was recording, old friends and allies began to catch word and come by the studio to offer support and musical contributions. People like Bob Weir, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Taj Mahal, Jorma Kakounen, and others. When the dust and smoke had cleared, 36 songs had been recorded, and what started out as a chance to set the record straight turned into a history-making second-act.
