History of SF Pet Cemetery Unearthed, Preserved
Image via honan.net
Today the Chronicle published my friend Sally's wonderful piece about a pet cemetery in San Francisco's Presidio national park. In danger of being demolished during the reconstruction of a main thoroughfare, the story caught Sally's attention while she visited from her current home, Berlin.
There is almost no official documentation on the cemetery, and little is definitively known about its history. . . . The cemetery, which has been officially full since 1963, has always operated in something of a gray zone."We don't patrol," said Harrell, who said that while he does not encourage the practice, "if you want to go bury your cat at night, nobody is going to arrest you."
Thanks to pet owners who flaunt the rules, the pet cemetery remains active - something that Ruth, an architect in San Francisco who did not want to use her last name, cited as a reason she buried her beloved 24-year-old cat Blinken there.
"I wanted someplace special," said Ruth, also noting the spot's spectacular bay view. "So my husband and I went on a Sunday afternoon, and I dug a hole up in what we call the 'good neighborhood' - an area with marble headstones, under a shade tree - and read a poem."
And thanks to Sally, a few more people have learned about this piece of local history and of the memories whose safety is now assured.
Moving Day Leads To A Big Surprise
Kira yawning in C's new office.
C and I moved today, which was big enough news in itself. We'd lived in the Inner Richmond for four years -- the longest we'd lived anywhere together and the third-longest stretch in any one spot for me. Ahh, IR, we'll miss you so. Velo, the Presidio, Golden Gate Park, Clement St. and your impossibly inexpensive culinary delights, Rossie Park, The Fog... damnit, I feel the need to visit already.
Fastest move I've ever been a part of. One hour to load the truck, ten minutes to unload. Three reasons why:
- C was, umm, uncomfortable, until everything was packed neatly and ready to go. And I mean everything.
- J let me borrow his truck early, so I made a couple trips before the big day, and
- Our friends are dominant and made short work of the remaining boxes of books and our all-IKEA furniture collection
Productive morning, no? I think most people would be more than happy to relax, take a load off, and enjoy the new home. Most sane people, maybe. But not yours truly.
See, I've been jonzin' for a dog for a long, long time, and had been searching for just the right pup for a while. Volunteering at the SPCA didn't quell the compulsion to adopt, so eventually we just gave in. Hence the move.
For at least a week prior to truck rental, I'd been like a five-year old on Christmas Eve. I could hardly contain myself knowing that soon, soon! I'd be able to have a dog. So of course I knew that a bunch of puppies would be available for adoption in Palo Alto that afternoon, and of course I'd already been in touch with some rescue groups and had a lead on a one-year old Jindo in need.
C, wonderful woman that she is and unable to hold me back any longer, drove with me first to Palo Alto and then to South San Francisco where, in a warehouse, we met the newest addition to our family. Kira.
From that start, she's been a hit. Indoors, she's great -- she's house trained, and will sit, lie down, shake and drop her ball on command. Tug-o-war and fetch are her two favorite pastimes, and while she's extraordinarily friendly and outgoing, she'll need to practice pulling less when on-leash.
Upon reflection, she is confirmation that I prefer athletic, intelligent, beautiful, loyal, kind, willful women. Typing this post from my back patio, pup at my side, there's no way could I be happier.
The Fruity Tree
The Fruity Tree
7×7 Knows Nothing Of SF Cafes
Last week 7x7 magazine published their list of their favorite coffee shops to "sit down, plug in and plug away. Here are seven of [their] favorite spots for free browsing and good coffee."
Their list:
- Coffee Bar
- Caffe Trieste
- Café Que Tal
- Tazza D'Amore
- Java Beach Café
- Sugar Café
- Café Muran
Now, I'm not normally one to nitpick, but this list is terrible. San Francisco is one of the best cities in the country for café hopping, but if you only read 7x7, you'd never know it.
Quarters Unnecessary In SF
My friend Matt was the first person to point out that all of the parking meters in San Francisco now have a slot for payment cards. These are "Pre-paid parking meter cards that can be used in lieu of coins at all city parking meters except port meters. Available in $20 and $50 denominations"
To buy the cards, order online or use your zip code to find a nearby vendor. As always, meter rates vary by region and are still the same as if you'd paid with quarters.
Don't want to carry around anything new? San Francisco also tested a pay-by-cell phone system in 2007. I liked the idea, but poorly designed phone-tree registration systems and extra fees for using these services kept me away. (If you try it out and have problems with DPT, contacting the service provider seems more effective than contacting DPT.)
Still, parking in San Francisco is rarely easy. Says NPR,
Finding a parking space in San Francisco can be about as easy as winning the lottery. Drivers are known to circle for 30 minutes or more searching for a spot, clogging up traffic and sometimes causing road rage incidents. But they soon may be able to use their Blackberries or cell phones to snag a spot.
Unfortunately, congestion is a problem that's going to remain. SF is dominant, and people want to be here. Services like GottaPark might eventually help with finding a spot, but at least now we won't need to keep scrounging for change while we settle for meters.
S.F. Holiday Gift Guide
My better half is tough to shop for. She has excellent taste, but generally already owns most of what she wants.
For those of us in the Bay Area who are running into this problem, the SF Bay Guardian has put together a series of articles with suggestions on where to shop for the holidays. Their enormous Holiday Gift Guide should also help point you in the right direction.
Other places to check for ideas:
- Josh Spear's Gift Guides
- Etsy
- The Hipster Holiday Gift Guide
- Uncrate (for him) or Outblush (for her)
Any other favorite places to look? Let me know...
The Wiggle
San Francisco is the hilliest city in the U.S., and the second hilliest city in the world. So you might think that SF would be a terrible city for biking. Not so! Indeed, the opposite is true.
Thanks to some creative navigation, hard work from the SF Bicycle Coalition, and a willing city government, SF is also one of the most bike-friendly and accessible cities in the U.S. ... if you know which routes to take.
The most highly trafficked of these paths allowing travel despite the hills is The Wiggle.
Click here for a great map of The Wiggle.
Look for the green signs with route 30 on street corners or (as works better for me) the giant cyclist with two arrows painted directly on the street.
SPUR beautifully describes how The Wiggle formed:
Where most linear streets like Page and Haight cross the fairly steep ridge where fingers of sand dunes once stretched from the western beaches toward downtown, The Wiggle follows the gradual incline where water carved a gentle valley over thousands of years.
Don't worry about the details. Once you get on The Wiggle, you can just sorta zig-zag and wing it. Also, there are usually tons of people on bikes, so it works itself out.
I like to take the Wiggle from Inner Richmond to the Mission, especially when I want to study, do some work or read at a cafe.
There are three quality cafes right around Duboce Park. Also, if you just continue on 14th into the Mission, you'll run into the Mission Beach Cafe, which is excellent. Blue Bottle coffee, homemade pastries, and great brunch on the weekend. Good place to study, too, b/c they have a few outlets but no wi-fi.
If you're coming from Lower Haight or the Mission, the Wiggle is a great way to get to NOPA, Cole Valley, Haight St. My favorite cafe -- the Velo Rouge Cafe -- is on the Inner Richmond end of the Wiggle, and makes for a great turnaround point, or a great stopping point on your way across the Golden Gate Bridge.
For more info on The Wiggle, and on biking around SF, see:
- Walking map of The Wiggle
- Wikipedia article
- The Wiggle on Yelp
- San Francisco Bike Map & Walking Guide
- More great SF routes and maps
Prop H And The SPUR Voter Guide
A letter to the editor opposing Prop H, penned by my great friend Laura (of the San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association (SPUR)), was published in the Chronicle today. Writes Laura:
Proposition H will not bring more renewable energy to San Francisco. Prop. H is so poorly written that it could even result in our electricity mix becoming dirtier. Across the state, renewable energy developers and utilities alike are scrambling to add solar, wind, and other renewable projects to the grid, in order to meet strict state energy rules. The rules will be even stricter next year when our landmark climate change legislation, AB32, takes effect. Our real "clean energy" challenges are improving transmission - to the city and throughout the state - and lowering peak-time demand through energy efficiency. San Francisco taking ownership of the local distribution system will not solve these challenges at all. What we'll get with Prop. H is one of our largest employers leaving the city, a loss of oversight and support from the state to meet clean energy targets that apply to private utilities, and an aging local grid that won't have workers to repair it. There's simply no evidence the city will do a better job running the local grid than PG&E does. Prop, H is a distraction from the real goal of bringing about a clean energy future for San Francisco.
I'm a big fan of SPUR, dating back even before they showed their characteristic wisdom and hired Laura. My favorite SPUR publication is their voter guide for SF/CA propositions. The guide is transparent, thoroughly researched and well-considered.
If you're having trouble cutting through the double-talk and getting to the core of ballot issues this November, give the SPUR Voter Guide a look-see.
GottaPark To Find Spots In San Francisco
Driveways in the Inner Sunset
Just caught a KRON report on this new, innovative service for adding more parking spaces in San Francisco.
GottaPark will help you find and reserve parking. We are reaching out to private residences, commercial businesses and other organizations interested in posting their parking for rent through our site. You can then use GottaPark to search through the available parking spaces and reserve and pay for the ones you want.
GottaPark is a privately held company with headquarters in San Francisco, California. Our goals are to reduce parking congestion and to simplify the process of finding parking. To reach these goals, we provide a simple online tool for individuals and organizations to rent out their parking spots, and for the general public to reserve and pay for them.
The founder said he got tired of circling blocks looking for parking around Van Ness and in the Inner Richmond when there were tons of open driveways that could alleviate the congestion. So he created a website where homeowners can post available driveways and available times. Drivers can then use a credit card to rent out the spot for a given time.
Great idea, but the system isn't perfect yet. In the KRON test run, the reporter reserved a spot for $2/hour, but when he arrived at his driveway, he found that 1) the spot was blocked, and 2) someone had listed a spot that was only 8 feet long, too short for his car, and half the size of a standard spot.
The founder says that if this happens to any other customers, those customers can email customer support and will be credited an immediate refund. He hopes to implement a feedback system whereby people trying to game the system can be banned, but that's a work in progress.
Another issue is that the system is fundamentally based on the honor system. If someone doesn't move their car, what is the next renter (or the spot owner) to do? Then again, Zipcar and City CarShare have overcome these problems, so there's hope.
Despite the growing pains types of problems, this is a tremendous idea. Post-Bar, I'm going to give this a shot and see if it works. If anyone tries it out, drop a line in the comments.
(Photo by ehoyer licensed under the Creative Commons.)
Tuesday Noon Siren
A siren sounds in my neighborhood every Tuesday at noon. Why it sounds has been a mystery during my time in law school - everyone knows about it and hears the siren each week, but all are too lazy to figure out what, exactly, the siren is for.
Well, C finally took a minute to hit up Google and was rewarded with the answer (via Yelp):
Every Tuesday at noon, San Francisco tests the Outdoor Warning System. During the test the siren emits a 15 second alert tone. In an actual emergency, the siren tone will cycle repeatedly for 5 minutes. Should you hear the sirens at any time other than Tuesday at noon, go indoors and immediately tune to a news source such as KCBS 740 AM, or other local media stations.