"In the past four years, the number of people biking has increased by nearly 60 percent," said Leah Shahum, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
This year, the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency was awarded more than $160,000 by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's bicycle facility program to implement a bicycle parking project throughout the city as well as two city bikeways.
The BAAQMD's bike program provides grant funding to projects designed to reduce motor vehicle emissions through the creation of new bicycle facilities in the Bay Area.
Lisa Fasano, spokeswoman for the BAAQMD, said $84,000 was assigned to the bicycle-parking project that will accommodate 1,400 bicycles in 802 different locations along commercial corridors and near transit routes throughout the city.
Neighborhoods such as the Mission, Castro and the Financial District have the highest demand for bicycle parking spaces from business owners and residents, according to the San Francisco Board of Supervisor's agenda.
"It is wonderful to see the city creating new parking for the growing number of people moving around San Francisco by bicycles," Shahum said in an e-mail.
Along with the bicycle-parking project, the SFMTA will also provide cyclists two new bikeways. One bikeway, which Fasano said was awarded $66,900, will measure 2.23 miles and will stand on John Muir Drive, between Lake Merced and Skyline boulevards.
"As a student, I feel access to getting to school can always be improved," said Jacob Rich, a 32-year-old master's student in public health at SF State who bikes to campus from his Outer Sunset home.
The second bikeway, which was earmarked for $15,300 from the BAAQMD, will be located on the Great Highway, from 48th Avenue and El Camino Del Mar to Fulton Street, according to a board of supervisor's document.
Rich, who bikes to the University for economic and environmental benefits, also believes additional bikeways in the city increase bike safety to cyclists.
According to the SFMTA website, work on the John Muir bikeway started this winter and all three projects will be fully completed by June 30, 2012.
"We believe strongly that bike projects are a healthy alternative to single passenger vehicles," Fasano said, who added that the BAAQMD has provided over $400,000 to the SFMTA since 2004 for the implementation of bicycle projects.
According to Les Hilger, legislative assistant to Supervisor Eric Mar, who sponsored the grants, when the SFMTA applies to the BAAQMD for grant funding that exceeds $1 million or proposes a project with a contract of more than ten years, which is the case for these three bike projects, then the board of supervisors must approve the grant agreements.
Hilger said Mar, who ocassionally rides his bicycle to work from the Richmond, introduced the proposed agreement on Jan. 12, and it was approved by the board on Jan. 22.
"The board's approval means they allow the money from the Bay Area Air District to go to the MTA," Hilger said. "But the board does not have a say as to when or how the projects will be executed."
]]> class=2011s"This can help with our budget," said BART Director Robert Raburn. "It also will make our stations a more vibrant area."
Partnering with San Francisco-based company TranSmart, the board will begin considering proposals for individual agreements with vendors after the completion of reports on station capacities, utility access and interference with transit operations. TranSmart's role will be to find interested vendors and present them to BART.
"We want to make sure this isn't going to interfere with our business," said BART President Bob Franklin. "Our primary business is transportation."
Franklin emphasized that they will be looking primarily for locally-based businesses. Raburn also noted that the system they have in place with TranSmart "allows us, on a station-by-station basis, to look at small businesses that complement the needs in a given area."
While many BART riders would welcome the additions, it also forces some questions about modifying current BART policy regarding food and beverage consumption on the trains.
"It's a little confusing," said SF State junior Eileen Miranda, a family and consumer studies major. "People might assume you can take your coffee, muffin or whatever on the train."
Franklin said that, given the current upgrades to train car floors, the board might revisit food and beverage consumption on trains in the future.
"We're replacing floors, so they're not carpet, and we're getting a new fleet in 2016, so that's up to the board at the time," he said.
Raburn also raised the issue of restrooms.
Currently, restrooms are closed at all underground BART stations for security reasons.
"This pushes us to reassess the bathroom closure," Raburn said.
Despite the current ban on food or drink on BART, the number of citations issued throughout the system during the last two years has been relatively small given the number of daily riders.
According to BART Police Crime Analyst Officer Ken Dam, in 2009 there were 97 citations issued for violating the code that prohibited smoking, eating and drinking in restricted areas of the transit system.
In 2010, that number rose to 205.
"For us to be able to move forward with this new venture gives me a lot of optimism about the future," Raburn said. "This is the first baby step toward transit-oriented planning."
]]> class=2011s"They forced everyone out of the building Jan. 18 at 10 a.m. after they sold KUSF to the classical station without telling anyone," said former KUSF disc jockey Steve Abbate, also known as 'Stereo Steve'.
The biggest concern around the sale was that the community would lose its diversity, according to several speakers, including host and producer Farinaz Agharabi. "How many stations do you know that play 13 other languages? We are a diverse community, and this station represents that," Agharabi said. "It has to stay!"
KUSF music director Irwin Swirnoff was also concerned for the community.
"It is not about a format change or classical music, it's about robbing a community of its voice," Swirnoff said. "USC does not serve us. This is our station! Whose station? Our station!" Swirnoff chanted to the crowd of around 100 protesters wearing various "Save KUSF" paraphernalia.
San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi made an appearance at the protest around 1:30 p.m. before attending the Board of Supervisors meeting. "I consider it reprehensible that the USF Administration did not provide some logical conversation or explanation," Mirkarimi said.
He told the crowd that if the article opposing the sale of KUSF's FCC license to broadcast on 90.3 FM did not go through in City Hall, the fight would not be over.
"If we go down, we go down as warriors of public access," Mirkarimi said.
Former USF student and volunteer disc jockey Edna Barron also said the efforts against commercialism taking over community radio was not going to soon falter.
"This doesn't end today, tomorrow, or at the FCC," Barron said. "We aren't dead. We are like a ghost with unfinished business."
Protesters spoke during the supervisors' weekly meeting. A volunteer disc jockey of more than 20 years who goes by Jet began by saying to the board: "Thank you for letting me use your microphone today. Please help us get our microphone back to help serve the community."
The online station for KUSF, kusf.org, has only 15 online listeners as opposed to the 50,000 listeners that the radio broadcast circulated, said Jet. "We have been forsaken. Our radio voices have been silenced," Jet said.
The Board of Supervisors agreed to extend the vote on the article that opposes the radio sale until next Tuesday, Feb. 8.
]]> class=2011svisual=true
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]]>The biennial homeless count is supposed to provide the federal government information on how much funding each city needs to combat homelessness. Major cities like New York, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., also perform similar counts, which help determine where the most assistance is needed in terms of creating housing and other support for homeless populations.
"There is no real way to tell if someone is homeless or not," Friedenbach said. "Many may not be counted because they don't have tattoos or carry bags, but they are still homeless, even for that night."
Dr. Rajesh Parekh of the Department of Public Health knows these issues well, noting that every volunteer group has an official who helps with judgment calls of that nature.
"This may just be a snapshot of one night," Parekh said. "But it's information that helps us change that."
The lack of manpower is a major flaw in the homeless count, according to Friedenbach.
"The result of the count is dependent on the number of volunteers that attend," she said. "Less volunteers, the less people to count. The less counting, the less counted."
The approximate 150 volunteers were sent out to cover San Francisco's nearly 50 square miles on Thursday.
At the volunteer orientation, policy analyst Ali Schlageter discouraged enumerators from interacting with homeless and to avoid encampments and people living in cars.
These encampments are calculated separately through a "mathematical method" according to Schalgeter.
These types of variables fuel Friedenbach's argument toward inconsistent counts.
David Nakanishi, a volunteer since 2001, said that determining the differences among transients, homeless and someone drunk on the streets is a very difficult judgment call.
"Places like the Haight, Tenderloin and Mission might cause a lot of confusion for someone who doesn't have a familiarity with the people of the neighborhood," Nakanishi said. "Some people may admit to being homeless if you just walked up and asked them, not everyone would. Especially if they're younger."
After safety precautions and other business were discussed in the orientation, groups were supposed to be separated in teams of two or three with an accompanying escort and given a section of the city to explore, either by foot or by automobile. Some teams ended up traveling in packs ranging from two to eight.
The count, which took place between 8 p.m. and midnight, becomes a part of the data that San Francisco sends in to the federal government, in addition to additional counts in parks, shelters and food banks. Testimonials from homeless surveyors also add into the data given.
"This information will give both quantitative and qualitative data," Parekh said. "It's more than just a number that we're aiming for. We're following a trend."
Though the final goal is to obtain a definitive number to gain funding that will help combat homelessness, it may be all for naught.
"The process is a waste of time and resources," Friedenbach said. "It's not worth the money that can be used to create housing for every man, woman and child."
The data from this count and accompanying information will be completed by early April, according to Pamela Tebo, assistant to the executive director of the Human Services Agency.
]]> class=2011svisual=true
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Macaraeg was one of the demonstrators at a downtown rally in support of the Egyptian people in San Francisco on Saturday. She saw a parallel between the oppressive regime in the Philippines and the regime of Mubarak in Egypt.
Professor Mohammad Salama of the foreign languages and literatures department at SF State left the country in 1999 because of its oppression of democracy and attacks on intellectual freedom.
He said that his reasons for leaving his homeland are the same reasons for the pro-democracy demonstration in Egypt.
"People understand ... this is a struggle for human rights, which is a universal human struggle," said Shiva Bayat, a 22-year-old art major who was born and raised in Egypt.
In response to huge protests in many Egyptian cities, Mubarak fired his entire cabinet this week and announced that he would reform the government.
"It's ironic. He's going after all his ministers rather than resigning, which is the demand of the people," said Omar Ali, a 21-year-old SF State student organizer from the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition.
Ali, a junior history major, said the problem could be solved if Mubarak stepped down to end his 30 years of dictatorship; however, he has so far refused to step down.
Salama, who taught English when he was in Egypt, said that the Egyptians had a built-up momentum. The protest did not happen out of the blue and they demand Mubarak to leave the office.
"Enough is enough. We would not accept anything but to change," said Ahmed Kamel, 35, an Egyptian who supported the demonstration in San Francisco.
Kamel joined the march with his wife and three children but said he wished he could do something more for the people in Egypt.
If Mubarak resigns, Salama sees an opportunity to go back to Egypt to help rebuild.
"I hope, finally, people who leave the country in desperation, all the expatriates of Egypt who live all over the globe, will be able to go back to their country with dignity and contribute to its progress," Salama said. "I think it's time to rely on these people."
Regarding the sort of democracy that Egypt should look up to, Salama was not able to point to a single country but rather said Egypt should invent a new type of democracy.
"Egypt should look back to itself, to what it is capable of doing in this global world and it should create a system that would respect the law to prevent the creation a disaster of the Mubarak sort again," Salama said. "Whatever democratic system has to be there. It's the system that respects the rights and will of the people."
]]> class=2011svisual=true
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Z Space Theatre Company, in conjunction with local director Mark Jackson and actor-singer Beth Wilmurt, has created "The Companion Piece," an alternative mixture of modern theater and the long-forgotten vaudeville genre playing at the Z Space theater at 450 Florida St. through Feb. 13.
"There's such a variety of things going on in the piece," Jackson said. "There's music, there's dance, there's movement, there's scenes, there's vaudeville."
Vaudeville was a form of theater popular in the early 20th century that incorporated everything from comedians, magicians and singers into a single performance.
"The Companion Piece" is about a pair of failing performers, Wilmurt and actor Christopher Kuckenbaker, who struggle to deal not only with developing a functioning vaudeville act, but also with interpersonal conflicts.
Their failure to develop a cohesive act is contrasted by veteran vaudeville star Jake Rodriguez, who has his act down pat and performs confidently.
While not a true vaudeville show, Jackson said the genre is used as a basis for characters and the piece as a whole.
"I still enjoy watching it even after I've been working on it for so long," Jackson said. "I just went to go see it last night and it surprises even me because it doesn't unfold in a traditional way, so it has a lot of unexpected turns to it and the characters and the themes come at you in a way that's unexpected."
Wilmurt was originally inspired by the book, "A General Theory of Love," which takes a scientific look at the process of love and its affect on biology.
"One of the subjects of the book was how our bodies need other bodies in order to survive," Jackson said. "Our heartbeat is regulated by other heartbeats around us. This mystical thing we love, that we think about, is actually also a biological necessity."
As a result, "The Companion Piece," while attempting to be a comedic experience, delivers some points about what it means to need another person rather than being alone.
Watching vaudeville documentaries in Berlin, Wilmurt and Jackson felt that the genre and its performers were a great fit for what it meant to rely on something to survive, such as depending on paying gigs.
"It acknowledges the great struggle we all seem to have in life dealing with the extent to which we need other people," Wilmurt said. "Themes of desire for credit and recognition, loneliness, feeling stifled, et cetera, are all a part of that endless struggle."
The script for "The Companion Piece" was not worked out in advance by a playwright; instead, Wilmurt, Jackson and a team of others worked to create a script through improvisation and collaborative efforts.
Since graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in directing from SF State, Jackson has remained an influence on campus, serving as a freelance professor of viewpoints, biomechanics and directing since 2006. He was also a guest director in the 2010 SF State performance, "Juliet".
Costume and set designer Nina Ball and all three actors in the show are also SF State alumni.
After the show, some audience members were bursting with joy over the piece.
"I really liked the design elements, I felt they added to the work," said audience member Andrew Packard. "The idea was definitely out of the box."
"The Companion Piece" makes attempts at both comedy and poignancy in regard to relationships, yet in the end it makes some conscious choices to leave certain points unfinished.
"Something needed to be missing," Jackson said. "In life, things don't always end as neatly as they do in fiction and we wanted to someway reflect this in the piece so that it was a truer piece about being in a relationship."
]]> class=2011sYet nestled between a busy nightclub and a Walgreens entrance on a bustling block of 18th Street in the Castro is the new GLBT Museum, the only queer history museum in the country, which features these items in its collection.
The current main exhibit, "Our Vast Queer Past", features a display of items illustrating the story of gay life throughout the last century, particularly in San Francisco.
"25 years ago, in the midst of the AIDS crisis, young men's things were being destroyed, but some people decided it was important to save these items," said co-curator Amy Sueyoshi, a SF State associate professor of race and resistance studies and sexuality studies.
"Now we think of it as, oh, of course queer history is important," she said, "But back then, it wasn't thought of that way. It was highly stigmatized."
Exhibited items include Harvey Milk's kitchen table, around which he planned events and protests; glittery costuming showing the history of drag queens in the city; and diary pages and letters from Bois Burk, describing his difficulties as a gay man and the harassment he faced despite spending much of his life hiding his sexual orientation.
Burk was the son of the first SF State president, Frederic Lister Burk.
The GLBT (Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender) Museum officially opened to the public January 13, but it grew out of an earlier incarnation on the corner of Castro and 18th Streets, according to Aimee Forster, operations director for the GLBT Historical Society, which created the museum.
"We had over 25,000 visitors in nine months there, and we realized we needed a bigger space," Forster said.
Primarily staffed by volunteers, the museum has been attracting "between 35 and upwards of 50 people a day," Forster said.
Volunteer Dan Liefker, who mans the entrance desk Sunday afternoons, said, "I would estimate that we take in $100 to $150 on Sundays. We've been very steady." The museum charges $5 for admission of non-members.
The society now has a five-year lease on the space in the Castro, Forster said.
In addition to the main room exhibit, there is also a smaller exhibit in the Front Gallery, which is currently showing "Great Collections from the GLBT Historical Society Archives," featuring oral histories from members of the GLBT community as well as other items from the society's periodical collection.
"It is important to collect, preserve and share these pieces," says Sueyoshi.
The community-based Historical Society was founded in 1985 as members realized that it was important for the stories and struggles of the gay community to be preserved, according to Sueyoshi.
"These histories would have been erased if these people had not collected these items," she said.
Sueyoshi said that the current exhibits will most likely be installed for about six months, with the main exhibit possibly staying longer.
According to Forster, the museum features "just a sample of our collection." The majority of the society's large collection continues to reside in their primary archives on Mission Street.
In addition to their sizeable research archives and the museum, the society also works on other ways of creating a lasting presence for GLBT history.
Leifker became involved in the museum after being involved in such a project. A few years ago, the society began working with the Bay Area Reporter to create an online searchable database of all obituaries since the newspaper, which focuses on the GLBT community, began printing them in 1979.
]]> class=2008sMore than 15 bands participated in the music festival, which was devoted to the emerging underground arts and music scene in San Francisco. Still in their experimental first year putting on the event, both organizers hope to continue The Huge Whisper annually. Gentry also hopes to start another concert series in the near future.
"The idea was to bring back the idea of the underground, focusing on art going back to the place from which it came," Gentry said. "The way we see it is, if it's completely organic, it's able to have roots."
Gentry and Welde met through a mutual friend, Kyle Lesley, who lives in the warehouse. According to Welde, Kyle put the two men in contact because both had the same idea for a gig, which eventually became The Huge Whisper. The planning began in June 2010 and with the goal of hosting the event that August, but when bands began canceling, the event was pushed back to January 2011.
"Me and Lynn know the music's already here, the creativity is already happening, and we wanted to get everybody together at the same time," Welde said and added that The Huge Whisper was all about real and live musicians and positive encouragement.
According to Gentry, the goal is not only about the event gaining popularity, but also for an underground to flourish in every city.
"In the future, we want the underground to be sustainable and concrete so it keeps growing, keeps nurturing the community around it," Gentry said.
As far as sustainability is concerned, those involved in planning The Huge Whisper printed the posters for the event and plan to release a compilation of music and a film for the festival, which they will duplicate themselves.
Gentry explained his philosophy about art, which he feels runs on three different levels. The first level is educational, the second level is on the streets, and the third level is professional. He said that if any level suffers, all of art suffers.
"The problem with sustainability is that the mainstream grabs elements of the underground and mimics it," Gentry said. "It's about creating a sustainable underground in such a way that it can't be mimicked."
Gentry described the vibrant underground scene in places like Harlem, N.Y., where artists, musicians and poets would gather to share the pulse of music, the power of words and the electricity of life through creative and original expression.
Inside the venue, the air was tinged with cigarette smoke, spilled beer and the heat from swaying bodies such as flannel-clad, barefoot women dancing in the dark.
In an empty room near the warehouse's only entrance, musical trio Dirty Boots - which comprises Gyasi Ross, 25; James Dumlao, 25; and Rachel Lastimosa, 29 - reminisced about their beginnings and discussed the most exciting thing about performing at The Huge Whisper.
"The seed was planted in vocal jazz choir at State," Lastimosa said.
According to Ross, the most exciting thing about The Huge Whisper was being able to play with other bands and being part of the festival in its first year.
"It's such a great community who gets to grow with you musically," Lastimosa said. "It's a blessing."
After the festival, Dirty Boots will continue performing at Mama's Art Café every first Friday of the month as the band in residency for the In Progress Open Mic and is in the process of recording their first full-length album, which is scheduled for release April 2011.
"Musicians need to have their space to be around one another," said Niki Escobar, 24, who hosted the festival's second day of the festival. "There needs to be a place of synergy for people, for artists to connect with other artists who are not in the mainstream. The basic level is to get people exposed to music they normally wouldn't look for. I want folks to be inspired by a band."
The Huge Whisper achieved its goal by bringing together different people under one roof in the name of art and music, bound by relentless creativity and imagination.
"In the end, there are no genres, only good music," Escobar said.
Roaring laughter spouted out of the Castro Theatre on Thursday as organizers paid tribute to actor and comedian Shandling as part of their annual comedy festival SF Sketchfest.
SF Sketchfest was formed in 2001 as a local sketch comedy show by co-creators and SF State alumni David Owen, Cole Stratton and Janet Varney. In the past 10 years, the popularity and variety of the shows has soared, and this year performances included everything from live tapings of television shows like the Benson Interruption to the meeting of minds of Brian Henson and Neil Patrick Harris.
Tributes have become some of the more prominent events at SF Sketchfest, and this year one pays due to producers the Zucker brothers, known for such films as BASEketball and High School High, on Jan. 31. Diane English and Candice Bergen, stars of the 90s sitcom "Murphy Brown," will be honored on Feb. 2, with special guest moderator Connie Chung.
"The tributes are all from the heart, it really is, from the three of us," Varney said. "This is an opportunity for us to honor things that influenced us as comedians and as people. And we want to honor particularly the Bay Area because it has such a wonderful artistic sensibility and such a great, smart appreciation of the arts."
Shandling was witty and humble as he was honored as both a stand-up comedian and a writer during his tribute.
The event also celebrated the 25th anniversary of one of his most famous works, "It's Garry Shandling's Show". Joined by the show's co-creator Alan Zweibel, the two engaged in conversation on the show and other tangents, moderated by actor Zach Braff from the popular medical comedy "Scrubs."
Starting his career in the business early on, Shandling wrote episodes for shows such as "Sanford and Sons" and "Welcome Back Kotter", in addition to being a guest host several times for the "Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." Shandling began the "It's Garry Shandling's Show" in 1986 and was nominated for an Emmy for it.
However, his most successful show was the "Larry Sanders Show", an HBO program in 1992 that was nominated for 18 Emmys. Shandling won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for the series finale in 1998.
Shandling and his co-speakers kept the dialogue moving and constantly told jokes to the audience.
"This is how it's going to be at my funeral," Shandling said at the end of the show. "Then my boxing coach is going to come up, yes I have a boxing coach, and he's going to go 'one, two, three, four, he's out'."
Certain members of the audience said they enjoyed the experience of seeing Shandling where he truly belongs, on a stage and cracking jokes with ease.
"It looked great, it sounded great, I liked the whole thing a lot," said audience member Eric Cohen. "It's a great thing to be Jewish right now."
Event crew member and volunteer Darryl Duffy watched the production from the back of the theater.
"What I found to be really fascinating was the depth of it all," Duffy said after the show. "I didn't expect Zach Braff to do that much with it. The layers were really impressive."
Perhaps the proudest and most influenced of all those in the theater were the organizers themselves. Once a student at SF State, Varney remembered when her friends and she put on their first full length sketch show in a tiny venue south of Market Street. Now, she gets to put on shows for entertainment icons like Shandling.
"To get to the place where I'm standing in the back of the Castro Theatre with my wonderful partners and we're watching a classic episode of 'The Garry Shandling Show' in a 1,400 seat theater and Garry Shandling is sitting two people away from me, you think to yourself, this ain't too bad!" Varney said. "It's really wonderful."
For more information on SF Sketchfest, visit its website.
"It is an honor to represent and lead the city of San Francisco as Mayor," Lee said in an email.
Lee has been part of the city's political realm for a number of years. He started his career working for the City and County of San Francisco as an investigator for the city's first Whistle Blower Ordinance. Since then, Lee has been involved in various city departments, including a post as director of City Purchasing, the director of the Department of Public Works and, most recently, as the City Administrator.
With the full support of the board of supervisors, Lee became the 43rd mayor of San Francisco and is the city's first Asian American mayor.
"As a city, we have had a great number of Asian-American leaders that have served the City in various capacities," Lee said. "That I have been given this opportunity to serve as the first Asian American mayor of San Francisco is a tribute to their achievements and leadership."
The road to electing an interim mayor began in November. Members of the board of supervisors, as well as the public, voiced their opinions about whom and what they were looking for in the next mayor. The vote, however, was in the hands of the board.
After weeks of discussion, a decision was made and on Jan. 11, Lee was sworn in as mayor. The vote was a new experience to some, a relief to others and a unified decision by all.
New and old supervisors came together to back Lee because they believed in his work ethic and his experience in many of the city's services.
District 7 Supervisor Sean Elsbernd nominated Lee for the position of interim mayor. He said he didn't want someone getting in by a mere 6-5 vote. He wanted to find someone that the supervisors could be united behind.
"We wanted someone who can walk in with the support of the supervisors, and it turns out he did," Elsbernd said.
Newly elected District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell knew that the first big decision he and the rest of the new supervisors would have to make would be at their first meeting where they would choose the interim mayor. He, as well as the other supervisors, spent time researching the candidates and Lee was the one who impressed him the most.
Farrell was also fond of Lee's decision not to run for mayor after finishing out the term. He found this to be positive for the city because it would consist of "outside of city hall campaigning that would be a disservice." Lee would be able to keep his priorities and his focus to being mayor during the interim.
Both Elsbernd and Farrell found that Lee's work in various departments made him the best candidate for interim mayor.
"(We) wanted someone who could hit the ground running and I feel that Ed Lee fit that profile," Farrell said.
Elsbernd echoed the statement. He felt that since Lee has worked in so many departments for the city and has headed up many projects, he would be able to bridge the needs of the neighborhoods and politics of city hall together.
"As city administrator, I helped spearhead government efficiency measures and reforms that reduced the size and cost of government, from reducing the vehicle fleet to consolidating departments and back office functions to save tax dollars," Lee said.
Elsbernd said Lee has the "breadth of experience that is really unparallel."
That experience has given Lee the confidence to lead the city during the rest of the term.
"My main priority as mayor is tackling the $360 million budget shortfall heading into the new fiscal year," Lee said. "My other priorities include finding a new police chief, preparations for our city to host the America's Cup, pension reform, and implementing the local hire ordinance."
]]> class=2011sColonel Mustard, Professor Plum, and many other iconic characters graced the stage Jan. 21 in the Boxcar Theatre Company's performance of Clue in downtown San Francisco. The performance was adapted from the classic whodunit 1949 board game and its 1985 film adaptation. Directors Nick Olivero and Peter Matthews, who both also act in the performance, showed their devotion to the film by adapting the screenplay of the movie to fit as a stage play.
"We're both obsessed with the movie," Olivero said. "We both have loved the movie for years and always talked about how much fun it would be to do the show on stage, because it's such a ridiculous project and it was like, well, why not do something we're gonna have fun with?"
Olivero and Matthews paid tribute to the movie's roots and created a floor plan on the stage practically identical to the original board game. The audience was seated on raised platforms that surrounded the stage in a square approximately six feet above. From this bird's eye view, the audience looked down on a unique nostalgic experience that changed depending on where their seat was located.
As a result, actors found themselves comedically stuffed in proportionally board game-sized rooms with imaginary walls and doors or hopping from square to square after rolling a head-sized die to get across the stage. The set even included trap doors that allowed characters to leave from one corner of the stage and enter from another.
"Obviously we can't create a mansion on stage, so using the board game is a fun translation," Olivero said. "I would think for an audience it's sort of fun to see a character exit one corner and come in from another corner, which follows the board game, not the movie."
In the movie, only a gloved hand of the killer is ever seen committing crimes to create confusion and anonymity. As a representation for "the hand," the company replaced it with a stage manager character who did everything from bringing out chairs to nonchalantly whacking the pesky policeman over the head with a pipe.
Olivero and Matthews also paid tribute to the box-office flop by highlighting the film's editing mistakes and other problems that stood out as comedic moments, including a character who never gets an entrance, a specific scream used twice in the film, and a French maid's accent that mysteriously disappears.
Brian Martin, who provided an energetic and sly performance as Wadsworth the butler - originally played by Tim Curry in the film, said there was a point where he watched the movie every day in preparation for his role.
"We wanted to be as true as possible to the movie," Martin said. "We really wanted to bring the movie to the people.".
In fact, Olivero and Matthews said that seeing the film is important to fully understanding many of the jokes made in their adaptation.
"Ultimately what we want is (for) people to just recognize how much fun the choices were for this production, because they were based on what was happening in the movie," Matthews said. "Where we chose to honor the movie and where we chose to depart from it are very specific, so if you're not familiar with the movie you might miss out."
As an added twist, besides doing a different ending of the show every night, the directors offered a different activity after the performance on each night of the week: On Wednesdays there was a post-show screening of the 1985 original; on Fridays, a life-sized game of clue was played using the actors as pieces; and Thursdays were reserved for disco dancing in downtown San Francisco at the Kat Club.
"We were trying to find a way to make a unique experience for each show, so it's like if you come on a Wednesday it'll be a little bit different than if you come on a Friday," Matthews said. "And '80s dancing on Thursdays is just because we love dancing."
According to the directors, the show has had a good reaction with audiences and its run has been extended two weeks, ending on Feb. 19, leaving plenty of time for audiences to figure out "Whodunit?"
]]> class=2011sThe hostess, Roxy, continued to yell out names to the crowd while her sister Atina schmoozed with diners and Ma, the matriarch charmed her loyal customers. Odwally, also known as Mac Daddy, looked on proudly as the chef and creator of Mac 'n' Attitude, which made its premier at San Francisco's first Night Market.
The Night Market made its San Francisco debut Dec. 11, unveiling a series of outrageous experiences. Each boxcar in the approximately 15-truck convoy housed an interactive art installation that lined the dead end of 24th Street.
A participant in the original Lost Horizon Night Market that originated in New York City who identified himself as Winkel described the gathering as "unpublicized, discussed and disgusting."
"This is wonderful," Winkel said. "There's something very special about the buildup surrounding the first event."
Partners Mark Krawczuck and Mark Balktick started The Lost Horizon Night Market in Brooklyn after Krawczuk constructed an art truck as a joke in 2008.
San Francisco's Night Market featured a variety of trucks. A freight loader housed a bowling alley, while a dodge ball tournament took place wagons away. One could race their slot cars and make a quick costume change to take a classic yearbook picture in the next truck. Creepy, claustrophobic fun could be had in the grope-a-clown truck.
"This was a first, I've never groped a clown before," said 24-year-old Martin Garfield. "At least not a dressed up one."
One truck in particular garnered an early crowd. Participants waited on the loading ramp for their turn inside the cramped quarters of the "dream library."
Upon entering the truck, visitors were welcomed by Slappy Dougland, the dream librarian. The crowd was asked to write a dream on a piece of blank paper and deposit it into a specified bottle for others to read.
Dougland, who is a librarian in real life, said her idea evolved from her love for the cult favorite comic book series "The Sandman."
Steve Wilkinson, a student at UCSF, sat in a cozy armchair thinking up a nightmare with his friend.
"Each truck is its own little burning man world," Wilkinson said. "I had no idea what this event would be."
Wilkinson and his friends heard about the night market through an e-mail. The time and location of the event were kept under wraps until promoters used Twitter to alert their followers the day of the event.
Mary Lee, a 27-year-old Oakland resident, was overwhelmed by the many options of surrealism.
"This is crazy but in the best way," she said. "I wish the lines weren't so long, I'm hoping to see everything before it ends."
A little past midnight, the trucks slowly began packing it in and driving off. The crowds started drifting back down 24th Street, and the Night Market ended as mystically as it appeared.
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On Saturday, the Bayanihan Community Center put on its 8th annual Parol Lantern Festival and Parade. Parol lanterns are traditional Filipino Christmas lamps that symbolize the star of Bethlehem that shone one the night of Jesus' birth. This year's theme was "Heritage: Let it shine!"
Twenty groups, both Filipino and non-Filipino, participated in the event. SF State groups included the Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor and sorority Kappa Psi Epsilon ready to present their own version of heritage pride.
This year was Kappa Psi Epsilon's second year taking part in the festival. Their parol was in the shape of an upside-down heart representing love, and inside it hung three smaller star-shaped parol lanterns.
Junior Felicia Escalona, 20, a Kappa Psi Epsilon sister said that the three stars represent the past, present, and future of their heritage.
"The first one shows women in the past who gave us light," she said. "The middle symbolizes us and women now, and the last one is a woman with a child to show that children are our future."
Community groups gathered together to make their own parol lanterns and show them off before a panel of judges to compete in the Tala awards for prizes. The groups gathered on Yerba Buena Lane and Market Street to set up their signs and lights.
Bernadette Sy, the Executive Director of the Bayanihan Community Center, said the parol is a symbol of hope, blessings, luck and peace during the holiday season.
"They are handmade. Many make theirs very elaborate," she said. "It's a source of pride."
Student groups from USF and the Guardian Angels were among the other organizations that came to show their holiday spirit and support in the parade.
Members of PACE handed out flyers to audience members to explain the meaning of their parol, entitled "Passing the Light and Continuing the Fight," as they watched the parade.
While waiting for the festivities to begin, families played with their children in the square where a 12 ft. parol stood on display and enjoyed the many other blinking lanterns and holiday music, courtesy of a live band.
After all the contingents presented their lanterns for judging, the parade filed into St. Patrick's Church for performances, inviting the audience to follow.
At the end of the performances, the winners of the contest were announced. This year the Tenderloin Community School took first place, followed by the Veterans Equity Center in second, and non-profit organization Manilatown taking third.
Elizabeth Adadi, 23, an SF State graduate student from Miami came to the event with a friend as they saw it on their way home.
"You never see stuff like this where I'm from," she said. "We ended up staying for the entire event. I thought it was really cool."
]]> class=2010fvisual=true
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caption=Students from SF State's Pilipino American Collegiate Endeavor (PACE) prop up their self-made parols--a traditional Filipino Christmas lantern--at the 2010 Parol Lantern Festival that was held on Dec. 11 at the South of Market district in San Francisco.
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Bay Area animal rights activists and environmentalists recently petitioned for legislation to ban all shark fin products in California in an effort to raise the shark population and restore balance in the ecosystem.
The San Francisco-based Aquarium of the Bay collected more than 3,600 individual letters that will be sent to the National Marine Fisheries Service in hopes of raising awareness for a ban on shark finning.
The tradition of the soup began centuries ago during the Ming dynasty in China as a delicacy fit for only emperors and noble members of society. The soup became a symbol of statues and families began serving it at banquets and weddings across Asia as a way of honoring special occasions.
In the Chinatown district alone, there are more than 20 restaurants serving the soup for an average of $32 per serving. The soups are priced as high as $100 per serving at some high-end restaurants.
"It's a way of sharing expensive, rare items to tell others that they are special," said SF State alumni Christopher Winn, an advocate for the protection of sharks from overfishing and a volunteer with Sea Steward, a non-profit shark conservation and documentary film organization.
Making shark fin soup is a tradition that SF State student Kim Nyugen and her mother practice.
"My mother makes it occasionally and a shark is just another fish for her," she said. "It's pretty tasty and we only serve it on rare occasions."
The shark finning process results in more than 73 million shark deaths annually, according to Oceana, the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation.
"Shark fins are the most unsustainable seafood product being served," said David McGuire, director of Sea Steward. "The problem is that fins are coming from other countries, almost entirely certainly from the finning fishery."
However, some cooks have found creative ways to take the 'shark' out of shark fin soup.
Award-wining San Francisco chef Corey Lee, of Benu restaurant in San Francisco, has cooked up his own alternative for consumers who wish to enjoy the controversial dish.
Lee serves faux shark fin soup to his customers in the belief that the flavor and nutrients actually come from the other ingredients that are used to prepare the soup.
"The 'shark fin' that we have on our menu is not really shark fin," said Carey Snowden, administrative manager at Benu. "Chef Lee, appreciating both the unsustainability of the dish and the culinary importance of it, used hydrocolloids to develop a faux shark fin for the soup."
By definition, hydrocolloids are substances that mix gel and water together. Many hydrocolloids come from natural substances and have been used in various cultures around the world.
Congress banned the practice of shark finning in U.S. waters in 2000. However, transporting shark fins by sea is not illegal, which allows fishermen to practice shark finning elsewhere and export the fins to the Bay Area.
The Shark Conservation Act of 2009 planned to close these loopholes. The legislation passed the House of Representatives last year only to be blocked in the U.S Senate by Sen. John Rockefeller in a filibuster blocking all committee votes.
Over the summer, Hawaii became the first state to pass a law that banned not only shark finning but also made it illegal to possess, sell or distribute shark fins in the state.
If the SCA, also known as SB 850, had passed in the United States, the loophole that currently allowed the transporting of fins to the country would be illegal. However, many sharks are still protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973.
With the 111th Congress nearly out of session, activists are unsure of where SB 850 stands. However, that has not stopped them from localizing the issue by campaigning for local legislation in cities worldwide.
Though many other species impact life under water, sharks affect the nature of the sea the most, swimming high on top of the food chain. Within the last two decades, the shark population has decreased by nearly 90 percent, according to Sea Steward's website.
Some consumers have no plans to quit consuming shark fin soup, however.
"I eat it because it is good and there are several different ways to make it," said Luly Lui as she stepped out of Mayflower Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown. "Also, it's good for you since it has a lot of nutrients in the soup. Unfortunately it is a bit pricey."
Aside from the animal rights argument, some groups have also said that the dish may not, in fact, be safe for consumption.
Studies conducted by WildAid, an organization with a mission to reduce consumer demand for endangered wildlife products and to encourage responsible energy consumption behavior, show that sharks have the highest levels of toxic mercury among other fish and that shark fins are a health hazard, especially for pregnant women.
According to the U.S Food and Drug Administration, most sharks have more mercury intake than is considered safe for humans.
Using digital media to raise awareness, WildAid started producing campaigns online featuring some of China's biggest celebrities, such as Jackie Chan and Yao Ming, in an attempt to change society's attitudes toward the soup.
For some, these campaigns have swayed them away from the tradition.
"When I lived in Hong Kong, I had a lot of shark (fin) soup" said Kwan Lee, a resident of Chinatown. "Last year, I saw a movie about it and it was so sad that I stopped eating shark fin soup."
]]> class=2010fTwo friends in the Bay Area have developed their own way of incorporating their own sustainability by a barter system that starts with hunting on the field to prepping and curing in the kitchen.
UC Davis graduate student Evan Jones, 29, has spent the last 17 years often outdoors duck hunting, abalone diving or spear fishing.
"I haven't really gotten any backlash from anyone who has disagreed with my hunting - or at least not to my face," he said. "I try to be sustainable as much as possible but the reality is organic meat is expensive."
Although he does purchase the occasional hamburger at fast food restaurants, Jones said he rarely needs to buy meat from the grocery stores because he usually has something frozen in his freezer.
Jones is not interested in reading labels perpetuated by natural or organic food industry fads. Instead, he enjoys being out in nature and feels he is participating in the natural order.
Meanwhile, David Tulkin goes by his own policy of, "If I can raise it, butcher it and cook it myself, I will." The 32-year-old Daly City resident worked in the restaurant industry for 10 years and says he likes he idea of knowing where his food comes from.
Tulkin has raised more than 30 rabbits in his backyard and has managed to create a sustainable system involving trading eggs or vegetables in exhange for their droppings.
"I put a listing on Craigslist and immediately I recieved five replies within an hour," he said of his sale efforts.
Although he said he sometimes receives a few hate emails from those in opposition, he has met a lot of individuals that are into what he has to offer.
"A lady who answered my ad wanted rabbit droppings for her garden," he said. "I never met this lady [and] I don't know what she looks like, but every week I leave her a bucket of rabbit poo on my front door and in return, she leaves me the same size bucket full of carrots. It all goes full circle. It doesn't get cooler than that."
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