San Francisco and what to do in it

well, that's definitely what NOT to do in San Francisco

Well there's some light in the world -- a day after City Lights announced their fundraiser to keep themselves going, they've already reached their goal and the donations are still coming in. Very reassuring.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/aeany-keep-city-lights-books-alive

Anyone know of any lawyers doing pro bono stuff for tenants in the east bay? One of my wife’s friends has a landlady who wants to put up the rent because of the ‘additional wear and tear on the appliances’ due to people being at home all the time. She wants to move as soon as she can, for this and other reasons, but shitbag landlords should not be allowed to get away with being shitbags.

check out Justa Causa or Centro legal de la Raza (I know ppl at both orgs)

both are Oakland non-profits specializing in tenants rights work.

East Bay Community Law Center is another great org (based in Berkeley)

SF just lowered the testing requirements to only having one or more of the following symptoms, or to nothing for essential workers:

Anyone living in San Francisco can get tested if they either:

Have one symptom
Have been exposed to someone with COVID-19 within the past 14 days

Symptoms of COVID-19:

You have a fever over 100.4° Fahrenheit or 38.0° Celsius
You’re shivering a lot
You have a cough
It’s hard to breathe
You feel tired or sore
You can’t smell or taste anything
Your throat hurts
Your head hurts
You have a runny or stuffy nose
You have diarrhea, feel sick to your stomach, or throw up

For essential workers

Any essential or frontline worker can get tested.

A frontline or essential worker is anyone who leaves their home for work and:

Interacts in person with members of the public
Cannot maintain social distancing at their jobs
Works directly with vulnerable populations (such as those who are experiencing homelessness, have serious medical conditions, or who are over age 60)

Frontline and essential workers include those who work in healthcare, public safety, food service, grocery, construction, delivery, janitorial, transit, social work, or street cleaning, among other jobs.

Workers may work for a private organization/company, a small business, a nonprofit, a public entity, or the City and County of San Francisco. Active volunteers who meet the criteria are also eligible. ​​​​​​

https://sf.gov/find-out-how-get-tested-coronavirus

Far-right news outfit America's Voice was filming in Dolores Park today, obviously going right up to people while not wearing masks and just basically acting like jerks. My friend started talking about Black Lives Matter to them and hooooo that got them angry.

https://sf.gov/information/masks-and-face-coverings-coronavirus-outbreak

:/ I think this is unnecessary

I agree that the 30 feet on the street rule may be unnecessary

but I'm all for people respecting others' health concerns in public so I'm going to comply, I'll just have to get a somewhat less constrictive mask so I can walk up these hills without choking

yeah that is draconian. wtf. i hope berkeley doesn't follow suit.

Yeah, that is morality cosplay, especially knowing that in 16 days restaurants will be supposedly be open.

Walking outside and you see someone within 30 feet (about the length of a MUNI bus)

this is horseshit

I've been walking through SF a lot and I encounter people walking the other way continuously. At first I was really concerned about people approaching me without masks and without social distancing, but I've been relaxing about it a lot more lately

Went outside and could actually hear it - the Golden Gate Bridge. It seems the remodeling they did to the rails to increase wind resistance has an odd emergent property: it is a very loud wind instrument. The sound is kinda eerie and it's driving people mad. Worse yet, this weather can last for weeks during the summer

Anthony J.:
“Engineers designed new sides for the sidewalk to help with wind resistance but didn’t take into account the EXTREME sound it creates when wind passes through it. The bridge sings crazy songs now it’s so trippy. It hurts the ears and unbearable it’s that loud.” pic.twitter.com/GWdVia1GNS

— Mark Krueger (@markkrueg) June 6, 2020

TIL: The Golden Gate Bridge has just become the world’s largest wind instrument.

No, but seriously:

There is now a permanent creepy 3-tone dissonant soundtrack flooding San Francisco thanks to some recently completed bridge construction. pic.twitter.com/05ImVT7Im7

— ʀeeᴅ (@reedm) June 6, 2020

maverick sound artist civil engineer listens from the top of a hill, chuckling softly to herself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_harp

I wonder if people in the Marina can hear the Wave Organ in tandem with it.

Thousands of demonstrators take over the southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge during today's #BlackLivesMatter march originally organized by 17 y/o Tiana Day of San Ramon @sfchronicle pic.twitter.com/h6UXWldpls

— Jessica Christian (@jachristian) June 6, 2020

made me happy seeing this

also tangentially I like that the new west side handrails of the Golden Gate Bridge now act an Aeolian harp

Definitely a good couple of bridge days overall there.

I think this is good, and it basically is in my backyard:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/After-decades-of-trying-SF-supervisors-finally-15477155.php

what do folks working on affordable housing / ending homelessness in SF / the bay area have to say about this ? 

where can i find reliable perspectives / voices on these things ? or in other words, where's a good place to dig deeper after an hour's worth of research has brought to my attention an array of initiatives, seemingly v well-funded non-profits, government programs, articles in the SF chronicle, etc.

reliable in terms of ...? Pretty much everybody has an agenda when it comes to SF development, as in much worse and pettier than in other US cities from what I'm told. The SF planning code is a hodgepodge of agendas pushed into policy -- as in, there are regulations that are written for the purpose of blocking (and occasionally enabling) specific projects. Then these policies end up having unintended consequences, including trying to figure out how to rationalize seemingly contradictory rules!

As far as that project goes, the fact that there is affordable housing being built on site is a positive ...

Yeah, seems like a net good, although COVID may end up draining a lot of people out of SF, since a bunch of big companies are letting people go full remote-work. I'm ok with that.

one of my Oakland neighbors was packing up a Uhaul to move back to SF last week

reliable as in not funded by the chan zuckerberg initiative / sufficiently disentangled from the mess that SF city politics seems to be / coming from somebody who actually does outreach and regularly interacts with homeless people / journalists, blogs, or twitter threads that don't feel the need to speak in sanitized jargon

just curious if people who actually live in the bay area can direct my attention / share links / etc., any tips appreciated

How y'all holding up, Bay Area?

Pretty well in the city itself. It's neither been as hot nor as smoky as past events since I've been here, so crossed fingers it holds up.

SF is fine. Healdsburg/Napa, Santa Cruz/Big Basin, Carmel/Salinas is a different story:

Rolling Western U.S. Is On Fire / Wildfires Thread

Yesterday morning, they arrested the guy who is suspected of starting the Carmel fire, he was from Fresno (of course).

it wasn't Bobby Salazar was it?

Sacramento Valley currently bad smoke & we have some light ash on the ground, nearest fires are 30-40 miles away but the cumulative smoke from the Sonoma County & Contra Costa fires are definitely compunding conditions here

Okay so: quick note here that my sis is looking for a new roommate at her Inner Sunset spot. She's looking for a woman for a roommate, someone in theiir 30s or older and very chill/easygoing, either working from home or at a setup that's VERY safety-conscious, obv. Drop me a direct line if you have any leads!

So the mayor has closed beach parking lots since a few hundred people had a mini burning man last night. On one of the hottest days of the year. Has anyone actually gotten COVID at the beach? I haven’t seen a single anecdote of someone thinking they did. If you have one, I’d love to hear it.

lol I wondered if there'd be an official response to that -- saw pics on fb -- burners gonna burn i guess

Collective punishment seems like a stupid response.

After spending the last few weeks in the smokey haze of the still yet to be contained CRZ lightning complex fire*, and also with the current Spare The Air policy in place, I agree with the Mayor on this one on prohibiting bonfires or any fires esp. if the city is indeed still under COVID restrictions.

*68% as of posting:
https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/czu-lightning-complex-including-warnella-fire/

VegemiteGrrl, we might have talked about this before, but where are you located in the Valley? I lived in Los Molinos and Chico for a while. (I recommend neither).

Sacramento!

Ah, yes. Despite some very weird times there, I always liked Sac. The last I spent any amount of time there, I went to a metal show in a suburban neighborhood and was one of the oldest people there, other than my friends who were playing. It was pretty fun, actually!

I also love that mural somewhere that reads "In Scarcity We Bare the Teeth." I caught a glimpse of it on public transit after coming into town from the Roseville train yard. Ate very cheap and good tacos and drank cold beer near the Megabus station on the west side.

ohhh yess i love that mural!! so great

https://live.staticflickr.com/7297/11129585563_76e4c0b57d_b.jpg

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rickele/11129585563

rick ele! he's up in Olympia now, i think?

So, orange enough for you?

not enough teal

so dark!

When my alarm went off this morning I thought it was someone calling me in the middle of the night with bad news.

I still don’t smell much smoke. I read that the smoke is being suspended between the calm atmosphere at the surface and the winds rushing far above it

It's still totally dark. This is some nuclear winter shit right now.

xpost Yeah, more on that:

https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/article/Bay-Area-yellow-glow-sky-wildfire-smoke-15550298.php

so weird

Just about noon and finally getting a bit lighter here in Marin. The birds and deer I've seen seem very confused like they know it's 2020 and everything is f'ed up.

lol the squirrels are probably having the same conversation