Concepts in the Paradox

I think what really keeps me going at the end of the day is knowing that when it is time to go home, I’m going back to San Francisco, 5 days a week.

Also, I watched some SFGovTV tonight. Yes, pretty dry stuff, but I found the meetings on the Third Street Light Rail, Transbay Terminal Project, and Financing for the Caltrain Electrification Project rather fascinating.

Points of interest:
* The Board of supervisors insists on a Jan 1, 2007 revenue date for the third street light rail

* CalTrain is willing to do what ever accommodations are required to integrate into the new Transbay Terminal, even arrogantly implying they’ll be done first anyhow (no doubt they will, talk about having your shit together)

* The Electrified Caltrain trains and tracks will have an estimated operating life time of 100 years!

Anyone that knows me knows that I like trains. I have since I was little, and now that I can actually ride trains every day, and I’m talking classic street cars here, I’m in a virtual train paradise.

There are plans to expand these Museums in Motion to not only go from the Castro to Fisherman’s warf, but to go from the Caltrain station to the Presideo via the circa 1912 Fort Mason Tunnel.

This is all pretty exciting to me, and I’ve been looking for ways to help contribute to the culture of San Francisco. Some people help out with gay rights, women’s rights, or helping the homeless and drug addicted. I’ve chosen to help the transit system. I’ve sent off a $100 donation, which will be matched by one of the Market Street Railroad’s sponsors, then attending the MSR’s meeting on July 11th to see what is going on in the group. They hold their meetings literally next door to my apartment, so making the 6:30pm meeting shouldn’t be a problem.

So the next time you see some kid scratching a window on a train, or pulling out his felt tip marker, you’ll know that I’ll be the one possibly cleaning that up, or putting fresh paint on the side of the train, or calling you up at dinner time asking for $35 to go to the street cars.

Even with three of my friends helping, moving into my new place took for ever, plus it was 2 trips in the uHaul to get everything. I ended up with a couple of losses in the process, the first being my pink sofa (anyone want a pink sofa?) and my box spring (uh, need a box spring?). I need to make a shopping list, because I’m throwing out so much old stuff and I want new stuff. For example, a sofa would be nice. Perhaps some sort of move-able wall to partition the front room for the rack. The front room is turning out to be much larger than I expected, same with the bedroom. More shelves would be nice, who ever made this place made tiny closets without shelves! I need a dish drying rack: no dishwasher! I’m thinking about getting an Areon chair for the office too.

I have Comcast cable for the moment, 6mb by 286k/b, for those in the know. The computers aren’t setup yet, just the laptop. I’m still debating on where everything should go. At the moment I’m putting them in the bedroom, but I have so much space in the front room I could put it there and just leave the backdrop of Market & Mason for what is behind my computer.

The car needs to go somewhere. I’m 2 miles away from where I can park my car, and there is a Cityshare spot (a Civic Hybrid! with a bike rack!) not 20 feet outside my door, and a Budget up the street. The no-car idea is as strong as ever.

Speaking of getting rid of stuff, I have oh so much more to throw out. As I unpack, I think to myself, “Why did I bring this?”

And then I think, “Why not just get new stuff, something nice, since you have the money to do so now?”

House warming soon. Maybe when I have places for people to sit other than the floor or my two wooden dining room chairs?

You Belong in San Francisco

You crave an eclectic, urban environment. You’re half California, half NYC. You’re open minded, tolerant, and secretly think you’re the best. People may dismiss you as a hippie, but you’re also progressive, interesting, and rich!

In movings news, I’ve topped 40 boxes, and my pile o’ crap takes up a quarter of my bedroom now. Going off line for a few days, since it is time to pack up the ‘ol iMac and Linux box, so see ya kids around!

The stack of boxes keeps growing!

Pile ‘o crap:

Hi Muni. I see you are 20 minutes late to our outing, as usual.

38L, GEARY LIMITED, TO TRANSBAY TERMINAL.

Listen, I know we’ve been having some fights, and well…

NEXT STOP: FILLMORE

You do a pretty poor job at keeping yourself clean…

NEXT STOP: LAGUNA

…and I don’t know about all these strangers you pick up.

NEXT STOP: O’FARRELL AND VAN NESS

I guess what I’m trying to say is… sigh.

EATING, DRINKING, AND SMOKING ARE PROHIBITED ON ALL TRANSIT VEHICLES

Then there are your issues with food and a good smoke. I just don’t think we are on the same page.

NEXT STOP: JONES — TAYLOR

I’ve been seeing someone else. I thought this was the best time to tell you.

A MUNI SECURITY REMINDER: ON CROWDED BUSES, ALWAYS PROTECT PURSES AND WALLETS.

I think I’m just going to see BART exclusively for a while. We can still be friends, okay?

*DONG DONG* PLEASE EXIT THROUGH THE REAR DOORS

Don’t be mad. I know we see each other every day now, but maybe we need some distance.

LAST STOP: POWELL

Goodbye Muni. I have your FastPass if I need you get ahold of you.

THANK YOU FOR RIDING MUNI.

I’m moving. Not away from San Francisco, of course, but closer to downtown. I’m moving to the east edge of the Tenderloin, near Union Square. I found a nice penthouse apartment for just a little more than what I’m paying now for my Pac. Heights place. I ink the deal Saturday.

Features:

• Ninth floor private entrance

• Hardwood floors in main room
• New kitchen (no d/w though)
• New bathroom
• View of SoMA and the Mission
• I won’t have to take Muni to work any more. That’s right, F* YOU Muni.

Oh, and it has a shared deck on the opposite side of my unit.

Photos coming soon!

When I walked into my polling place at 1845 Ellis St, I thought there would be a line at the door to vote in this year’s primary election. There were issues to vote on, important ones, like eviction notification, the transbay terminal, and a reduction in city violence.

When I voted at 5:50pm tonight, there had only been 125 people before me. In the great city of San Francisco, in Western Addition / Lower Pacific Heights, there were only 125 people interested in city politics? I can only hope there are tons of absentee ballots out there, or the voter rush was between 6pm and 8pm.

Friday was Critical Mass, and I decided that it would be an excellent time to try out my bike on a long bike ride. Upon showing up to the site at 6pm, I found over a thousand cyclists, with a constant stream of of new arrivals from Market St.

I don’t remember the exact route that we went, but at some point I took a look back onto Market St, and there was nothing but a sea of bikes. Maybe 8-9 blocks worth of all sorts of people on all sorts of bikes. Some people brought their kids along, others were riding fully custom bikes, and some were just using their regular commuter bikes.

The head of the pack chose the direction we should go, and people further in the back of the group would yell forward what direction we should go next, or if we needed to slow down to prevent the mass from getting too thin. We went up, down, and around: going through the Haight twice. That’s when trouble started brewing.

Most motorists and pedestrians waved, cheered, and even stopped cyclists to ask what this mass cyclist event was about. Even stuck in a flood of bikes for 15 minutes, people in cars would smile and wave. Cabbies seemed to take it the hardest though. I saw an incident where a female cabbie was upset a cyclist was block her, as some people in the mass would do to prevent cars jumping in at intersections. The cabbie got out, tried to remove the bike blocking her, and the other cyclists would circle around to watch what happened next. In this case, the cabbie sulked and got back into her cab.

Around Haight street was a different story. An irate pedestrian pulled a random cyclist from his bike, causing him to careen into the side of a parked car. This guy looked exactly like Fabio, a tall, built, and long blonde haired man, dressed like he was going out for a night on the town. Per usual, cyclists swarmed around him to see what the fuss was about. With over 300 people surrounding him, this muscle-bound man declared what the cyclists were doing was “stupid”, “no one cares” and we were only there to cause trouble. Sure, some people were, but the vast majority were enjoying their urban disobedience against cars.

The man yanked off his button-up shirt, with buttons flying every which way, just like in the movies. Underneath you could see that he went to the gym every minute of his life, and he wasn’t one you’d want to try to fight. He continued to created a fuss, tried to get people to dismount their bikes and fight, but luckily an SFPD bike cop came by and told Fabio to chill, to which he stalked off, grumping all the way home.

Our ride took us all the way up to Hyde and Lombard, famous for being the most twisted hill in San Francisco:

We also went both directions through the Broadway tunnel, yelling and screaming as we passed through. I have to admit that I was taken in by the whole scene, and found myself also screaming; joining the protest against the cars that dominate the city. We then headed through the Stockton tunnel, which after I decided to retire. The whole ride was three hours for me, and there was still a group of 200 or so headed back toward market.

I think that Critical Mass is an important monthly demonstration in the city, and for anyone from the outside world looking in. People take their cars for granted, and ignore the many social and economic problems they create. Oil prices are high, people are out of shape, and transit is almost non-existent or non-functioning. I hold CM has an example of people doing something, instead of complaining.

I’ll be there next month.

Nathan and I made it to the DNA at about 11:30, and started in on the agenda I published yesterday. There was some drinking, and I went past my 3-drink limit, though I only had one extra. The wine I had tasted sour, so I figured I deserved an extra vodka and coke.

Around midnight, The Spores came on stage. I didn’t even bother looking up the band that was playing in my haste doing the chores of Sunday on Saturday so I could stay up all night. However, I was so impressed with the band, complete with puppet show, that after her performance on stage I tracked her down outside, said what a great performace she gave, and bought a CD. I almost never buy CDs — what a waste of money, but I’m glad I did. She gave me the ever so rare “good person” vibe, so I hope she succeeds in her career.

We stayed at the DNA until about 3am, dancing the night away, and gawking at women, then made a stop at the famed Lucky Penny up the street from me, and crashed about 4:30am.

A walking tour

It was another nice day in San Francisco Sunday, so I gave Nathan the walking tour of the Mission, the alleys of SoMA, Russian Hill, Nob Hill, the TL, and North Beach: you know, for compare and contrast. I was able to make a couple of my apartment hunting stops: One place was on 19th and Valencia above a store. It had a really strange layout, with various small rooms all over the unit, but was otherwise alright. I didn’t fall in love, but if I had to live in the heart of Valencia, it would be a good deal at $1980/mo. The other unit I stopped by was on Grace and Mission: I actually feared for my life going down that alley. It was littered with used needles, qtips (!), and shattered window glass. The landlord didn’t pick up his phone, so I didn’t take a look inside, but I don’t think I’d like to be in that alley after about 10pm on any given night.

I still haven’t heard back about the place I liked on Dolores. Perhaps I’ll get a yes or no tomorrow?

Every Sunday, assuming the weather is clear, I take a bus ride to a random San Franscisco neighborhood and take a long walk around. Today I got on the 24 Divisadero and headed south toward Bayview, getting off at 24th street and Castro. From there I choose the steepest hill and went up, down, around, and even managed to slip down a steep hill and get myself covered in mud.

About halfway through my journey, I came across this gem:

Someone else seems to have problems with people urinating near their doorstep. If you click on the image, you can see some sort of green substance growing on the sidewalk. I don’t even want to think of what might cause that.

I think that my third place in the city will be in Noe Valley. It is really a nice area, with good transit too. The top of the hill had really breath-taking views, though the sound of the 101 echos all the way up to the hills, which is sort of upsetting. You can view the area I walked around in by visiting my Noe Valley photo stream.

I’m still looking for my Duboce Triangle or Valencia dream apartment at the moment, since I have only 115 more days left on my lease, and I’m itching to move closer to Bart as well as some sort of cultural center.