1) Prepare for Battle: New Rent Laws Up for Consideration: "The roommate thing is a total scam. You can basically 'hand off' protection to your friends by bringing them in as 'roommates.' Its patently unfair, and violates the provision of rent control applying to current tenants then resetting when they move. In their typical zero-sum game, anti-ownership approach, the net effect in time will be that the proposals become so onerous that courts strike them down and we end up losing rent control altogether. Just like Manhattan. Just watch. ..."
2) Castro Ped Plaza Launches Amid Much Sitting, Strolling: "i've gone up there the past two days and just sat and drank an iced tea. it's amazing how many old friends and acquaintances you run into when you can stop in such a central place for 30 minutes while the pedestrian traffic flows around you. that's what public space is all about..."
3) Upper Market Whole Foods: Even More Renderings: "This building looks nothing like South Beach. No massive auto garage entrances onto the pedestrian areas, no enclosed courtyards, actual street front retail - absolutely no resemblance to the nightmare that is most of South Beach (the area closest to the ballpark is ok, since it was designed to fit in more with Mission Bay and has some decent urban design instead of the suburban gated complexes)."
4) Adventures in Advertising: Rincon Hill's Corporate Street Art: "The last time the Examiner put down those vinyl sidewalk ads that come up with a lot of pulling I went around downtown and pulled up every one I could find. I took the resulting beachball sized ball-o-vinyl and stuck it to the front door of the Examiner building.
I hate HATE people co-opting shared public space for private financial gain."
5) Property Values Love High-Speed Rail: "Britain would know. When I lived there I watched in astonishment as the high speed rail authority held up the completion of the project while they kept revisiting the route from the channel crossing ('Chunnel') to London, not as a matter of practicality, but to attempt to appease the towns and cities suing to have high speed rail service...stations and commerce.
The French were prepared to sue to have the matter resolved, as it delayed the completion of the entire service throughout Europe."