The Why and How of the 49ers Move to Santa Clara
Gregg Easterbrook has a fantastic update on the status of the Niners' proposed move to Santa Clara in today's Tuesday Morning Quarterback:
Recent passage of a ballot initiative clears the way for the Squared Seven's new stadium in Santa Clara. The plan is for a $937 million structure -- a bargain compared to the $1.7 billion Monstrosity in the Meadowlands -- with $114 million paid directly by the city of Santa Clara, $330 million loaned by the city and the rest raised by the team and league. Backers of the plan say the city could receive $155 in rent and profit sharing, plus the city would receive $150 million in new revenue for the Santa Clara municipal utility. (Many California cities own power plants.) What's the plan -- leave the stadium lights on all night? California politicians and public-service commissions have for years been pressuring consumers to reduce electricity use. Suddenly, Santa Clara thinks it's good that a new stadium would increase fossil-fuel consumption. Here is the story behind the story behind the story of why the Niners are leaving San Francisco.
Published In Today’s SF Chronicle
Privacy concern in Google Voice call recording
Monstrous privacy concerns loom: What information will Google collect from the calls it connects, and what will it do with that information? Google's privacy policy says it will store and maintain recorded conversations. Is it preserving the numbers called, the duration of the call and even the name and address of the person the Google Voice user called? When I call a person who uses Google Voice or he or she calls me, what control do I have over what information Google collects about me or about how Google will use that data? Apparently none.
Many thanks to Prof. Tuthill for the opportunity, collaboration and guidance. I'd never shopped an idea around to different publications -- the entire process was interesting.
Happy Inauguration Day!
Returning to the Oval Office: truth, justice, and the American way.
Today's the day. Our first black President will take the oath of office with his hand on a Bible owned by the man who ended slavery in the U.S.
What a time to take over. W will fly away from the White House in his chopper, leaving his successor with an enormous mess.
Expectations for Obama are crazy. He's not a savior, but he is replacing cynacism with optimism, faith with reason, distrust of science with tech saavy, Machiavellian machinations with transparency. And that's a great way to start.
Celebrations in San Francisco, this wonderful bastion of liberalism, will be in full swing. Some even started a little early, making civic upgrades to usher in our new leader. Well done, team, well done.
Bush Street signs in San Francisco were changed to Obama down the entire length of Bush Street.
[Update: says Gidge "Thank artist Alex Zecca. He stickered the street signs from Presido to Grant... but police have made him remove them."]
* For more on Superman's famous line, see Truth, justice and (fill in the blank).
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.
If The Shoe-Thrower Were A SF Giant Pitcher
- Had Barry Zito thrown the shoe, it would have floated lightly toward W. Our President could finally have declared victory over something, as he'd have swung and crushed the shoe, launching it over the entire press corps. Still, most Iraqis would have said that Zito was such a nice guy that they appreciated the effort, even if he wasn't worth the big contract. Besides, Zito's still a lefty whose columns take up a vast swath of column-inches.
- Noah Lowry would have hurt himself.
- NL Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum wouldn't have been allowed in. Security would have thought he was one of the reporters' kids.*
- Jonathan Sanchez would have missed badly, high and outside.
- Matt Cain would have been dead-on with the first shoe, but another journalist would have stood up and gotten in the way. Unlucky. If he had time to throw his second shoe, though, it would have hit W square in the smacker.
* Had Lincecum somehow been let in, the first shoe thrown would have bored a hole in W's chest. That shoe, thrown with such extreme velocity, would have instantly cauterized the fatal wound. The Phenom would have used the second shoe to disarm and disable all of the Secret Service agents in the room, allowing him to escape.
Still, the rest of the Press Corps would be unable to follow through after Lincecum's super-human performance. They'd fail to score and would give up the game winning homer to Cheney with a fat pitch down the pipe in the top of the 8th.
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...
#50 Will Fix The 49ers
Eyes. Intensity. Focus. Singletary.
Mike Singletary is the best. I loved him when he was the best linebacker in the NFL and the heart of the Bears' defense. He's been a great mentor and coach to Patrick Willis, the Niners' middle linebacker and a beast of a player.
This week, after Mike Nolan was fired as San Francisco's head coach, Nolan said the next coach needed to be Mike Singletary... and if Singletary said no, Nolan thought it was so important that he'd be willing to talk to the Hall of Famer.
After another mistake-ridden loss by for the once-great franchise, Coach Singletary spoke his mind at the post-game press conference. Honesty can be so refreshing.
And in case you missed it, yes, Singletary kicked his star second-year tight end, a top former top draft pick and a guy who was supposed to be a core member of the team for years to come, out of the game.
From Rotoworld:
Interim 49ers coach Mike Singletary confirmed in his post-game press conference Sunday that Vernon Davis was benched and sent to the locker room in Week 8 after committing an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
"I will not tolerate players who think it is about them and not the team," the fired up coach said. "I'd rather play with 10 people...Rather than play with 11, when I know that right now, that person is not sold out to be part of the team. You can not play with them. You can not win with them. I want winners. I told him he'd do a better job for us right now taking a shower and coming back and watching the game." Singletary added that he'll "think about" whether Davis will keep his starting job during the Week 9 bye.
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.)
Timmy & The Mayor
A couple weeks ago some friends and I had an email exchange regarding the value of renaming a local sewage treatment facility after our 43rd President. The consensus was that it was a tremendous idea that should be expanded out across the country.
Thinking that one day's debate had settled the issue, I checked my email the next morning only to find a new email in the gMail thread, this time from my buddy Tim...
Story time. Let me start of by saying this is a true story and while it's not going to ruin my day I do feel like a jackass. This morning I had an opportunity to find out about ballot measures and potential costs to put one in action. However I choked.
I stopped by the neighborhood Starbucks this morning for the usual Friday grande, non-fat, sugar-free, hazelnut latte. While standing in line minding my own business a tall gentleman got in line behind me. The guy made a comment about fitting-in in the Marina because he is standing in line playing with his i-phone in Starbucks. I give a little chuckle, glance at him and see that he is talking to a photographer. I do a double take because who has a photographer tailing them? It's the F'n mayor. He is in his casual clothes with his hat pulled down a bit but it's him.
Anyway, like a dumb-ass I try to correct him by saying we are actually in Cow-Hollow. Habit I guess. Damn Marina. Then we talk about how he was up until 2:30 coming up with the city budget. Small talk.
Now we all know I am not the most eloquent one in the group but I am usually pretty grounded. I choked, got nervous and not only tried to correct the mayor on neighborhood boundaries but ended up stuttering little and to top it off didn't even offer to pay for his cup of coffee.
And today, what does one of the gang find in the paper, but a great photo of Timmy with the Mayor!
Timmy reps his hood and refuses to be part of the Marina.
7:45 a.m. Newsom waits in line at the Starbucks on Union Street for his morning coffee. “Aren’t I acting like I live in the Marina?” he says. “I have my iPhone and I’m at Starbucks in the morning.” Local Tim Heffernan, standing in line with the mayor, kindly corrects Newsom, saying the area is Cow Hollow. Newsom, a fifth-generation Marina resident, raises an eyebrow at the assertion. Heffernan also compliments him on his job as mayor.
I love that Timmy repped his hood, even before his first cup o' the day, and that he later felt guilty for not getting the details to settle our debate. Love the focus. Well done Timmy. We're proud a ya (and because we're so proud, we'll ignore the fact that you order ridiculous crap in your morning coffee).