San Francisco and what to do in it

jaxon would be happier if Sunday streets were dudes playing italo-balaeric in flannels and workboots. XD

that Missions streets video just reminds me why I moved to the East Bay. It almost looks fun to me now that I don't *have* to deal with the traffic snarls, annoying daytime drunks (including obnoxious aging frat-boy upstairs neighbors who used to make me dread any kind of special event in the city), and all the other baggage that goes along with the hundreds of festivals that seem to be going on.

Has it always been like this, and I'm just getting older and grumpier; or is it neighborhood merchants associations trying to drive more traffic into their main thoroughfares at the expense of the people who live there?

reading back over that, it's pretty clear to me that I am indeed older and grumpier than I was when I first excitedly moved to SF. :(

i hope you don't live in berkeley

you don't have to deal with traffic snarls if you don't drive

Why did you have to drive in SF?

yeah exactly. and in the mission, the only reason to complain about cars is that there are too many of them.

parking in the Mission is nowhere near as bad as it used to be.

I live in the Lower Haight, so I haven't driven to the Mission in eons; it's walkable or I take the 22 or I cab.

redistribute the rights of about .01% of the city's road system - for a few hours - and people start w/ conspiracies about the neighborhood merchants associations or whatever

most of my SF gigs are in the Mission, which involves transporting a drum kit.

Mission is probably the MOST walkable neighborhood in the city!

albeit not if you are carrying a drumkit

you could shut down half of the city's roads and still manage to drive a drum kit around. it would suck, but so does walking across van ness.

I don't drive, and we're very conscious of the negative effects of fuel consumption, and are big believers in commuting by bike, foot, train, etc., but it was occasionally necessary to take our old beater for errands that we could not cover on foot or train; and avoiding all of the various festivals (not necessarily just Mission Streets) made doing that a time-consuming pain in the ass. I understand that it's just a fact of life living in a tiny dense area, but for me, living in the city eventually turned into a really claustrophobic experience.

Mission Streets is like 6 hours out of one day a month btw

I actually have a pet rant about how they should just give certain streets to non-car traffic. Give cyclists, skateboarders, rickshaws - whoever - Hayes St, Mission St, and whatever else.

well try and get some more car owners w/ you on that one

I used to have to drive for work and I cannot express how much happier I am not to have to do it anymore and I used to get my parking expensed so even parking downtown was relatively ho-hum for me. I do feel a little bit of the bitterness about driving now being looked at as benignly as dealing or spitting at old ladies. The smugness is and some a little insufferable and some ppl have to drive or have a fully paid car so why get a Zipcar or one of those?

well try and get some more car owners w/ you on that one

I totally support the idea (oft proposed, never implemented) to bar all traffic from downtown except taxis, mass transit, and commercial vehicles. I never drive to work.

A few years ago I was offered a parking spot at work. we both used to work in SOMA, live in Lower Haight, and the parking spot was cheaper than buying two Fast Passes every month, so we drove for a while. It was stressful for the driver, and sometimes not even all that much quicker than Muni. I eventually bought a bike, intending to commute to work once I worked up the courage to deal with traffic, as it seemed the ultimate way to get around, but we ended up moving before I ever got there.

The smugness is and some a little insufferable and some ppl have to drive or have a fully paid car so why get a Zipcar or one of those?

I feel this. Our car is old but is extremely fuel efficient and doesn't take up much space. We only drive when we have to. Haters gonna hate.

Thing is, Shakey, there are lots of old ppl out in the Sunset/Richmond who are relatively ill-served by MUNI and who would have difficulty getting their purchases home on MUNI. Same goes for all the non-SF Bay Area ppl and the City neither wants to kick Union Square nor Downtown retail in the nuts. They also don't want to lose the revenue from their parking garages. I think the cost of gas and the cost of aprking are already a pretty good market-driven disincentive for most ppl to drive downtown unless they either really need to go or are rich, in which case let's take their money.

I totally support the idea (oft proposed, never implemented) to bar all traffic from downtown except taxis, mass transit, and commercial vehicles. I never drive to work.

― american thinker (Shakey Mo Collier)

Unfortunately my kids go to preschool downtown, and I can't spare an hour and a half to drop them off and pick them up from school...

there are lots of old ppl out in the Sunset/Richmond who are relatively ill-served by MUNI

tbf I think this is incredibly lame and it angers me to no end that the next giant MUNI train line being built is one that goes through Chinatown, rather than one that would replace THE MOST TRAVELLED BUS ROUTE IN THE COUNTRY (that's the 38 Geary fyi)

i'm going to be in SF in the middle of june. WHAT SHOULD I DO.

The 38 is great but if you live blocks away from a line, MUNI offers far less service than it does where I live.

it angers me to no end that the next giant MUNI train line being built is one that goes through Chinatown

I thought the idea was to connect w/Caltrans wasn't it?

tylerw, I recommend warm clothing first of all. Looks like we're in for another Junuary absed on how it already is in May.

I thought the idea was to connect w/Caltrans wasn't it?

it connects CalTrain to Chinatown. basically a tourist line.

ha, well it's snowing in denver today, so sf will probably be an improvement next month. i hope, at least.

And shoppers and business ppl and ppl trying get to the South Bay or, conversely, trying to get to the Giants...

xpost

tyler, today it was 53F, foggy (marine layer) and windy.

Currently 58F and sunny in the Mission. ^__^

Tbf, I haven't seen much of the day except for at lunchtime.

tbf I think this is incredibly lame and it angers me to no end that the next giant MUNI train line being built is one that goes through Chinatown, rather than one that would replace THE MOST TRAVELLED BUS ROUTE IN THE COUNTRY (that's the 38 Geary fyi)

I think the b46 in brooklyn has more?

but yeah the rest of this otm

I'm just going off what a coworker (former transit official, masters in urban transit etc) told me

b46 was 16,816,652 in 2009

38 geary had weekday numbers of 52,800 (all I can find) - which would be 19,272,000 if weekend numbers were the same as weekday. but they're gonna be much less. so I dunno. but regardless 16-17 mil people means a lot more in sf than nyc.

(^ annual ridership, I meant)

maybe he was referring to highest daily ridership? I dunno, I can ask if we really care lol

ask! not a sf-nyc pissing contest, I'd just be curious to see the #s

okeedoke - I'll get back to ya on this

anyone been to Candlestick Point State Recreation Area? what's over there?

since they're closing this and 69 other parks come september, thought maybe i'd check it out first

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/13/BAL61JG0QO.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea

my dad was just there yesterday, oddly. I haven't been in a few years. it's big! pretty nice - rolling hills, wetlands. lots of birds to see, if yr into that kind of thing

How do Parks "close" btw?

(srs q)

the gates get locked

What about the bigger parks that don't have gates?

they are replaced by black holes

stinging nettle seeds sprayed out of a cropduster

park surrounded by dogs that shoot bees out of their mouths