Synonymous with ‘60s counterculture, the plethora of rock posters adorning the walls of the Fillmore once served a more modest purpose. Concert promoter Bill Graham used to pass them out to the first 500 people out the door. If you love San Francisco’s role in rock and roll history or the very mention of Wolfgang’s Vault sends you scrambling for your collection of vintage vinyl, you will probably enjoy Merle Becker’s American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art. Abandoning her corporate TV job, Becker traces rock poster art from its birth in the 1960s to its modern resurgence with burgeoning online communities such as gigposters.com. The subject matter might be inspiring, but the documentary’s execution is ultimately unsatisfying. While Becker reflects how Vietnam and the hippie era shaped the art form in the ‘60s, she lacks the conviction to dive headfirst into modern influences, glossing over the palpable imprint of pop culture, advanced technology, and the Iraq war. Although the film provides a few entertaining diversions with eccentric rock poster artists recalling how they gleefully flouted art school conventions to create their own psychedelic styles, Becker, providing the film’s monotonous voice over, fails to captivate. For a passion project, she sounds surprisingly dispassionate, not to mention disingenuous as she extols the virtues of nonconformity and independent art while ultimately returning to the corporate fold.
American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art Sat/20, 5 and 7 p.m., $6-9 Red Vic, 1727 Haight, SF
(415) 668-3994
The nomination of Anson Moran for a seat on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission was delayed today after Sup. David Campos asked for more time to review Moran’s record.
We’ve argued against the nomination, as have many public-power advocates. There is, of course, the argument that Moran is better than some of the turkeys Mayor Newsom might put forward and at least has some qualifications for the job. But on balance, this is someone who, when he had a chance as the agency’s general manager, did his best to sabotage public power.
After the jump is an excerpt from a detailed chronology of the PG&E/Raker Act scandal that we did back in 1997. The entire chronology — the most detailed history of the scandal every published, as far as I know, is available here.
The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee heard a resolution urging city agencies to not privatize city services last night. It’s the sort of measure that would normally pass without much debate — the local Democratic Party has always taken the side of the unions on contracting-out disputes.
But in the midst of the budget mess, the head of the firefighters’ union, John Hanley, showed up to berate the committee members, some of whom are also supervisors, over the latest budget moves.
As Hanley raged about putting firefighters’ lives on the line, committee chair Aaron Peskin and other members tried to make the point of order that this resolution was about privatizing city services, not changes to the budget. Hanley raised his voice louder yet, and, with his face a deep shade of red, he waved a pointed finger around as he yelled about $80 million in cuts.
At that point DCCC member and supervisor Chris Daly rose from his chair and pointing his finger at Hanley demanded, “Don’t point at me!” Hanley became even further agitated, and some committee members demanded that both Daly and Hanley leave. Both then ultimately quieted down, and neither was forced to leave.
In spite of the jarring display and repeated attempts to bring the focus back to the privatization of city services, commenters continued to speak on budget concerns. Former DCCC member and Deputy Sheriff David Wong said the Democratic Party should be for working people, and asked to not have the sheriff’s budget cut. Committee member Robert Haaland asked him if he supported or opposed contracting out sheriff services, but Wong didn’t answer.
Several SEIU members and Department of Public Health workers followed, speaking of seniors missing meals, nursing-to-staff ratios at SF General that result in less skilled workers doing responsibilities above their level of training, and even clients who had just been killed while on a wait list for city services.
When public comment closed, committee members addressed the hotly contended budget decision in a general way. Peskin began, “I want to refute the politics of fear and demagoguery,” referring to Hanley’s intimidating style of speaking. “There’s no question the pie has shrunk,” he continued, reiterating that in a fundamental notion of fairness, all departments must share the pain.
Haaland noted that 1,500 people would be laid off in the Department of Public Health, and that just wouldn’t be true of all departments. He said that cutting the DPH by $100 million would gut the Healthy San Francisco program, and result in $4 million cut from HIV services.
Peskin followed, declaring flatly, “I don’t want my house to burn down either.” He urged everyone to be part of the solution.
The members moved to take out language referring to specific professions that might be privatized, and with those changes, overwhelmingly passed the resolution against privatizing city services.
The new taxes, of course, include the repeal of a couple of big tax breaks that essentially hand state money to a tiny number of giant businesses.
But Schwarzenegger doesn’t care — he’s going to keep threatening the Legislature and putting forward random deadlines and trying to get an all-cuts budget.
Remember: It’s going to be hard to get to the two-thirds requirement for any new taxes anyway. (BTW, Sen. Mark Leno points out (and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano agrees) that in fact, due to some complicated legal stuff, it will indeed take two thirds to repeal the tax breaks. So already we’re looking at a budget that will need GOP support.
And the taxes are about $2 billion, matched with more than $11 billion in cuts.
And while the governor, and the major news media, keep talking about a budget deadline as if this were a typical summer, Leno points out that the Legislature has already passed a budget. This is all about revisions.
But I’m starting to think that ol’ Arnold really wants to shut down the state. There’s no other way to explain his behavior.
Fresh for the heat of the summer, Brooklyn based beatsmith Nickodemus — seasoned selector for the acclaimed Turntables on the Hudson party — drops a gem on us. In his inspired sophomore effort, Sun People (ESL Music), Nickodemus delivers a groove pummeling sound collage that expands on the cosmopolitan spirit fundamental to the Afrobeat tradition. He manages to inform Afrobeat’s free-formed jazz sensibility and funkified polyrhythmic arrangements with raw elements of celebratory music from around the world. Swaying jazz horns give way to uplifting blasts of air from Latin American and Balkan brass sections that loosen up the heavy hitting, grounding percussion. This strategy allows the drums to thrust in endless hypnotics without feeling too claustrophobic, a subtle formula for creating holistically sanguine dance grooves. And the fusion feels organic, perhaps due to the lively multinational character and experimental ethos at the very heart of Afrobeat, allowing the music’s dynamic nature to morph, mutate, and evolve in provocative directions.
Collaborations bless nearly every track on the record, giving Sun People an organic, outernational party flavor. Quantic helps to arrange the infectious Latin number , “La Lluvia”, where Richard Shepherd croons joyful bars over congas and drums, wistful vibes, and swaying horn riffs. On “Brookarest”, the name tells it all; New York’s multicultural sound, armed with a drum machine and transformer effects, meets Romania’s hypnotic vocals and boastful, wedding brass band. All the influences converge in “N’Dini”, a monster jam bookending the album (“Sun People” on the jump), simultaneously taking on the cyclic role as closing and opening. The joint is impressively crafted out of, well, the nearly infinite histories bounded within the album; Afro-latin rhythms, dub percussion, blaring Gypsy horns, and electronic inspired bass. Such cross sectioned travels across the globe from Columbia to Guinea to Hungary and everywhere in-between might seem crass in the hands of a less skilled producer, but Nickodemus effortlessly pulls all the pieces together in a simple, innocent cry of joy. The coherent element might just have something to do with the sun, that giant ball of heat and energy, that ultimate source of life, shining above every single one of us on terre nostre. This ain’t world music anymore. Time to get down to sun music my people!
In her new weekly feature, writer Mayka Mei profiles Bay Area-based fashion Web sites.
Social network newcomer Shopseen only went live publicly this winter, but it already has big plans to revive physical traffic in local boutiques.
A product of Oakland-based Proletarian Design, the concept of Shopseen came to CEO/Founder Adeel Ahmad in late 2007. Although it doesn’t seem likely that a hardware engineer would dream up the idea of a site devoted to shopping, Ahmad’s passion for photography and fashion designer wife (fellow Canada native Sarah Zins) probably had something to do with his move into social media.
Even before he got his iPhone 3G, the upswing of cameraphones and geotagging technology appealed to Ahmad for what they could potentially do for the appreciation (if not accumulation) of materialistic goods.
“Why don’t we use our phones to be a kind of citizen fashion reporter?” he asked. The capability was there, Ahmad just had to build it.
Customer crowdsourcing: Users vote on new product and event finds that they share amongst themselves.
>> “Love and Sex in the Spin Cycle”
The Marsh presents Lambeth Sterling’s comedy concerning relationships, dating, marriage, and The Secret.
Wed/17, 7:30pm. $10-$15.
The Marsh
1062 Valencia, SF
(800) 838-3006 www.themarsh.org
————-
>> Frameline
The annual international LGBT film festival presents too many sexy, sensuous, thought-provoking, gender-bending, identity-questioning flicks to list (though I’d love to see Berated Woman, about an Orthodox Jewish woman who falls for a Christian Aryan Supermom). Check out the website for dates, times, and descriptions.
Thurs/18-June 28, times, locations, and prices vary.www.frameline.org
————-
>> Slinky Summer Tour of SF Strip Clubs
Slinky Productions hosts its award-winning walking tour of North Beach “gentlemen” clubs, this one open to couples. A professional exotic dancer will guide you through SF’s sexy history, host an elborate dinner at Chinatown’s infamous House of Nanking, and take you to Ruby Dolls, where you can pick up your own slink-a-licious outfits to take the magic home.
Fri/19, 6pm. $99/person or $190/couple, including club entrance, two drinks, and dinner.
Register at www.slinkyproductions.com
————-
>> MILF Fiction, Cougar Poetry and Cheeky Granny Literature
Anna Reed, author of Sleeping around Craiglist, hosts an evening of erotic readings about mature women and the carnal adventures they crave.
Fri/19, 6:30pm. Free.
Good Vibrations Polk Street
1620 Polk, SF
(415) 345-0400 events.goodvibes.com
Sen. Barbara Boxer’s office forwarded me a letter yesterday that highlights Boxer’s concerns regarding the cleanup and redevelopment of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
“As Chair of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works committee, I am focused on protecting the health and environment of the Bay Area, including the Bayview Hunters Point community,” Boxer stated in the May 18, 2009 letter that she sent to Power’s Alicia Schwartz, who, incidentally won a Guardian’s Local Hero award in 2008, for working to improve the future of San Francisco’s black and working class communities.
So, I’ve included her letter here, so folks can see what Boxer’s main concerns are. And also because it suggests that things may improve, at least in terms of working with the US Environmental Protection Agency, now that Lisa Jackson has taken the helm.
As Boxer writes, “Under Administrator Lisa Jackson, the EPA is returning to its mission of protecting American families and communities from environmental threats.”
Boxer’s communications director Zachary Coile told me today that as chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Boxer has oversight of the US EPA, and wants to play the role of “fair broker” at the shipyard.
That sounds like a worthy goal. So, here’s hoping that Boxer can pull it off in a way that’s truly equitable.
69-year-old Dave Cummings, the oldest active porn star in America, has filmed over 500 movies and performed over 1,200 sex scenes in his 15-year career in the adult entertainment industry. He swears he doesn’t use Viagra, and when he’s not filming hardcore sex scenes in movies like Screw My Wife Please 32: And Make Her Sweat Like A Pig, Dave works as an educator and speaker, offering online classes on getting into the porn industry. Dave will be giving a seminar at the Cybernet Expo (1500 Van Ness) on June 27 called “Producing and Directing Adult Videos with Dave Cummings,” and spoke with the SFBG about sex, life, and his career in ‘old man porn’.
San Francisco Bay Guardian: First of all, congratulations on being 69! You are at arguably the most apropos numerical age for doing pornography and not many porn stars stay in the game long enough to get there.
DC: Thanks! I love my present life and age, and wouldn’t alter my past or present life at all!
SFBG: Nice name by the way! It can’t be your real name, right?
DC: No, it’s a stage name. Almost everyone in the porn industry uses a stage name.
SFBG: When did the idea of doing porn first occur to you?
DC: It happened as part of my swinging experience, specifically while Playboy Television was including me in a segment they were filming about swinging; that led me to a husband-wife team that filmed amateur porn, and my very first day as a crew member I was forced into doing a “stunt” money shot for the actor who was unable to do it that day. Subsequently, I performed in a few amateur movies, and then decided to try becoming a porn actor. I liked the fun of having sex with hot girls, AND getting paid for it. It was Heaven!
SFBG: What’s the market like for the kind of pornography you make?
DC: Aside from the present financial challenges foisted upon us by rampart piracy and copyright infringement, the market for my porn is unlimited. Although I’m a “niche”, people of both genders and of all ages seem to patronize my movies. The fantasy is that if an old, wrinkled, overweight, bald guy like Dave Cummings can have sex with such beautiful young actresses, then viewers can more easily envision that they themselves could indeed also have sex with the woman if they ever had an opportunity to meet her.
SFBG: Describe the sort of fan base you have.
DC: Mostly men looking for women to masturbate to while fantasizing that they are actually the one in the sex scene (not Dave Cummings!); couples looking for movies that show respect and caring for women; gays who appreciate older males (although I am heterosexual, I fully support their right to enjoy whatever sexual preference they want with other consenting adults); women who want to assert their right to get turned on sexually; and, women into the “daddy thing”.
SFBG: A lot of your titles have words like “Daddy” in them. “It’s a Daddy Thing,” “Sugar Daddy,” and “Dirty Dave’s Sugar Daddy”. You also have sex with much younger women in some of your movies, like “Barely Legal”. Your website talks about “teens getting drilled by Dave Cummings”. Yet the people you have sex with are, obviously, of legal age, and basically you’re just playing out a fantasy for viewers of an older man sleeping with younger women.
MEXICO CITY/MORELIA — Despite a raging war against homegrown drug cartels, politics may well be Mexico’s most dangerous drug. Addicted to authority, Mexican politicos crave more and more power and are disposed to obtain same by any means necessary. Conversely, the powerless, who are legion, crave drugs to assuage their condition.
In three years of Felipe Calderon’s questionable presidency, both drug use and the powerlessness of the poor have skyrocketed. Meanwhile, Calderon’s self-inflicted war on drugs that has taken 10,000 lives since his dubious 2006 election has itself become an instrument of political power.
Frameline, the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival kicks off tomorrow and a quick glance through the festival schedule reveals that we are in for some sexy little treats. I have not seen any of the films, so I can only conjecture at their artistic or cinematic value. I did, however, sit through the trailers, and after doing so, I now know which films offer sex scenes.
Trailer for And Then Came Lola.
And Then Came Lola is the gay, San Francisco version of Run Lola Run. Because of the allusion to its German predecessor, in And Then Came Lola, Lesbian Lola is by plot’s invisible hand, forced to run – rather than cab – all over San Francisco in order to save her relationship with a girl named Casey. The film is described as a “fun-filled lesbian rom-com of 2009 complete with SF inside jokes and sexy bedroom scenes”.
Still from Boy
Boy is a Filipino movie about a young, rich lad who pays a gogo dancer at a party to go home with him, upon which they fall in love (and will forever have a great story to regale polite company at dinner parties when asked how they met). In the blurb on Frameline’s Web site, Michael Fox ambitiously alliterates: “lengthy, lovely, languid love scene”.
Trailer for Lollipop Generation.
According to its description, The Lollipop Generation offers these things: a bathroom blowjob, masturbation scenes, hooking, punks making porn, and lollipop licking. Shot on Super 8 film, the images might be too grainy to see all the dirty stuff, but at least you know its there.
Still from Dirt and Desire
Dirt and Desire is a set of dirty short films starring “sexy, hot, and porn-arific queers of all genders”. If something is described as “porn-arific,” you can bet there will be sex involved. Featuring shorts with titles like The Leather Daddy and the Unicorn, Kat-I’s Sex Toy Stories, and Tour de Pants, Dirt and Desire offers a feast of naked people doing, you know, all sorts of things.
Trailer for Greek Pete.
Greek Pete is a sexually explicit documentary about a year in the life of Pete, a rent boy in London who jumped in the game because he wanted to make fast money, and hooking was, in his own words, “the quickest and bestway to make loads of publicity”. Well, at least we feel less bad, in that case, for not feeling sorry for him.
Still from Thundercrack
Thundercrack is an underground porno/horror flick from 1975 that maintains the healthy cult following automaticlaly entitled to any movie of that description. The film stars 4 men, 3 women, and a gorilla, and “will arouse, challenge and question you through every torrid moment of solo, gay, bisexual and straight couplings, voyeurism and more”. Though not scary for a horror film, the scarily bad dialogue is truly something to fear. But hey, at least Thundercrack is funny, and there’s lots of sex.
Still from Shank
Sensitive, secretly gay thugs at so hot. In Shank, a sensitive, secretly gay thug named Cal drops trou in a “a sweet patio seduction scene” with a guy named Oliver.
Yellow Pa Taut’s Burmese chicken curry with lemongrass
After a little jaunt to nearby Hall of Justice (wait, let’s hope that’s not the case), you might want to take notice of the unusual: Burmese food in an alley across the street. Though it’s been around awhile, it’s remained quietly under the radar. And it’s good, too. Yellow Pa Taut, named after a Burmese flower, is a small, welcoming SoMa restaurant lit with twinkling lights, serving curries, salads, noodles and a range of vegetarian dishes. Standard Burmese salads like the tea leaf or ginger ones ($9.95 each) are fresh and bright, curries are mild (some a little oily) and chicken tenderly falls apart. There’s also eggs with okra ($7.25), rice-based biryani dishes, samosa salad ($8.50 – with shredded cabbage and mint leaves) and Burmese curry pork belly ($9.95). Next time your friends want to try something new and cheap, win points by suggesting a Burmese spot they haven’t tried yet.
15 Boardman Place (between Bryant Street & Fargo Place)
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-701-8188 www.yellowpataut.com
By Steven T. Jones
I’ve had it with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s action hero bullshit, wherein he masks his cowardly failures with a tough-talking veneer. The latest example is his campaign’s (yes, the termed out governor’s Join Arnold campaign team is still quite active) latest missive on California’s $24 billion budget deficit deadlock titled “Tough Times, Tough Choices.”
“To close California’s budget gap, the Governor has proposed deep cuts to education, public safety, and health and human services. He has also made clear his commitment to making government more efficient and to finding innovative ways to stretch taxpayer dollars. Tough choices must be made to get the state through this crisis, but if these tough choices are not made, the state will again be on the brink of insolvency,” they write.
Ending public health programs, robbing schools, closing parks, letting infrastructure deteriorate, and weakening the state’s ability to keep citizens safe isn’t tough. It’s the act of a coward, a bully beating up on the weak to appear strong while cowering before the actual tough guys. Taking on his political base and advocating higher taxes on millionaires – which this state desperately needs to do – that would be tough.
Mayor Gavin Newsom joined the city’s police, fire and sheriff departments yesterday afternoon in protesting the Board of Supervisors’ move to slash funding to those departments in order to restore cuts to critical services that the mayor had included in his interim budget.
In essence, the mayor was sending a very divisive message, pitting one set of city employees against another. Because just a few yards away from Newsom’s rally, health and human service employees were holding an event of their own.
Standing upon a stage equipped with a very loud sound system and decorated with American flags, Newsom praised police and firefighters for being willing to step up and be part of the solution to the budget crisis. He was greeted warmly by cheering and drumming, and before they introduced him they blasted a song with the lyrics “A family affair.”
Across the street, public-health workers were joined by Sup. John Avalos in their own rally against the deep cuts to the department of public health. “All we’re asking is to give a little so that we can share the pain of this deficit,” Avalos said.
SFBG’s Laura Peach chats up the cute and cheeky girls behind Mint Mall, Genevive Dodge and Corina Bilandzija, to see what they’re loving for summer and how the rent as an indie designer gets paid.
SFBG: What’s hot on your radar for summer?
Corina: I am so excited about these jumpsuits and rompers I’m making right now. Hand painted fabrics I’ve been into, too. I just got back from a trip to New Mexico and I’m obsessed with Aztec print patterns.
Genevive: There’s this slinky tank dress with a swingy skirt that’s so summer. We’re experimenting with it as a one-size-fits-all in different prints. And loving organic cotton, using it all over the place.
SFBG: Do tell, how did Mint Mall start?
Genevive: Well, Corina and I met working at a restaurant together five years ago. We sort of hit it off and then both took a sewing class together as a crafty, ’70s home-ec sort of thing, and started making simple designs and were easy to execute.
Corina: We were getting a lot of attention on the street and at work, people almost never failed to ask where we got our clothes. Then they would say “You have to make me one!”
Genevive: So we decided that we would. People were pretty skeptical of our partnership at first, they didn’t think that Corina and I would work well together.
SFBG: And the name?
Corina: Mint Mall actually began in the actual Mint Mall downtown at 5th and Mission. We rented our first studio there at a steal of a price. Initially we rented it as a sewing space without any business plans in mind.
Genevive: Mint Mall has been a lot of work, but we’re gaining momentum and starting to grow and evole. People like to know that they are wearing something that’s going to be made just once. That’s why they buy vintage—it’s as close as you can get.
In a conference call yesterday, the unions representing BART workers talked about management’s insistence on a new contract — one that includes major concessions — by the end of June. That’s too soon, the union folks say; the BART proposal is too complicated and the system’s finances too confusing to sort out in just a couple of weeks.
In fact, when I asked the three union reps (Jean Hamilton of AFSCME, Jesse Hunt of ATU and Lisa Isler of SEIU 1021) whether they thought BART, even in these tough times, had enough money to meet the workers’ demands without further fare hikes, they insisted the money was there.
They also said that they won’t accept management’s plan to impose a new contract unilaterally July 1 — which means there could conceivably be a BART strike this summer. That would utterly screw up Bay Area transportation. I don’t think it’s going to happen, and neither, I gathered, did the union reps, but the threat is out there.
Meanwhile, the BART police oversight situation continues to deteriorate.
The Chron’s Marisa Lagos got a nice little snipe in at the bombastic leader of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, Gary Delagnes, who was blasting the supervisors for asking cops and firefighters to share some of the financial burden of the budget deficit.
Police Officers Association President Gary Delagnes went even further, specifically attacking Avalos, the board’s budget committee chair.
“I’m sick and tired of carpetbaggers coming into this city and making decisions about how we live our lives and how we’re protected,” said Delagnes, who now lives in Novato. “I grew up here, I care about this city. It’s about time these idiots over here start caring about this city.”
What the fuck right does Delagnes, who doesn’t live in the city, doesn’t pay property taxes in the city, doesn’t even get to vote here, have to complain about Avalos (who has lived here for years and been an active part of the community)?
The truth is, a lot of the cops who whine about the supervisors don’t live here. They’re off in the suburbs, where there aren’t as many homeless people, poor people, people who need city services … and that’s the attitude these carpetbagger cops bring to City Hall.
The Guardian’s Amy Monroe shares her favorite unusual, overlooked, and underappreciated wines every Tuesday. Check out her previous installment here.
In a country that’s famous for Mozart, coffee, and birthing Gov. Schwarzenegger, what does it mean that Zweigelt is Austria’s most widely planted red grape? To most people, nothing really. While Austrian white wines made from Grüner Veltliner, the most widely planted grape in the country irrespective of color, enjoy some love from sommeliers and adventurous drinkers, Zweigelt remains relatively anonymous. It shouldn’t.
Meet Ecker Zweigelt, a recession-busting, screwcapped liter bottle that tastes like a lithe Pinot Noir spiced up with a generous shake of black pepper. It’ll take to your Tuesday night turkey burger like a natural, but there’s no need to pair it with food if you’re trying to cut back on the solid stuff. This is a wine that defines smooth, thanks to the one thing it lacks: tannin, a naturally occurring preservative that causes many reds to feel astringent on the palate. It’s the kind of wine you can crack (Thank god for screwcaps!) and knock back any day of the week — and why wouldn’t you? The price is right (around $13); the package is large (30 percent more juice than a standard size bottle); and the wine is good (I could drink a gallon of this stuff).
Of course, there’s a time and a place for fancy Napa Cabernet and vintage Champagne, but it’s probably not out of a paper bag on a lazy Sunday afternoon in Dolores Park. That’s what Ecker Zweigelt is for.
Available at Mollie Stone’s
635 Portola Drive, SF
(415) 664-1600 www.molliestones.com
Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.
Happy hour at Grand Cafe — delight on a stick. Photo by Virginia Miller
DEALS
Grand Cafe Happy Hour Grand Cafe is one of those long time SF classics it’s easy for locals to forget is here, inside Hotel Monaco. Ideally located in the "theater district" for a little tete-a-tete or pre/post A.C.T. performance, Grand Cafe recently reopened with a new happy hour that lasts four hours each weekday with a cocktail list 23-deep, playfully employing current nearby theater plays (like one of three drinks as an ode to "Wicked": Elephaba’s Wicked Emerald-tini, a refreshing mix of Hendrick’s Gin, Ciroc Vodka with a sweet touch from St. Germain Elderflower and herbal notes of basil, cucumber and lemongrass syrup). During happy hour, drinks and appetizers, like gougere d’escargot (delicious escargot sliders!), salt cod beignets, salmon or duck rillette, are a mere $3-7, plus there’s $1 oysters and a 400-plus wine list. PS: the bar menu online notes the "secret" employee discount they give off bar food (50%!) on Monday nights if you mention the password, "Moulin Rouge". A truly happy "happy hour". 3pm – 7pm, Monday-Friday
501 Geary, SF
415-292-0101 www.GrandCafe-SF.com
By Steven T. Jones
The Budget and Finance Committee tomorrow begins work on the 2009-10 budgets of 15 city department that are funded by the General Fund, and Budget Analyst Harvey Rose today released his annual recommendations, suggesting additional cuts to most departments to try to offset deep cuts proposed by the mayor that supervisors want to restore.
And it’s no surprise that the Mayor’s Office has a big, fat target on its back, particularly after progressives on the Budget Committee asked Rose to single out public relations positions and other fluff that serves Gavin Newsom the candidate more than the people of San Francisco.
So, in addition to the $444,415 in cuts to the Mayor’s Office that Rose recommends (a level consistent with his assessments of other departments), he also helpfully lists $2.12 million in areas singled out by supervisors. They are the Mayor’s Offices of Communications ($653,571), Criminal Justice ($361,855), Neighborhood Services ($789,652), and his education and greening directors that are largely funded by other departments, including Muni ($315,160).
As the supervisors today deliberate the interim budget and where to come up with $82 million to restore deep cuts to core city services, these Mayor’s Office plums are likely to be attractive targets for the progressive-dominated committee that convenes tomorrow.
B3: ON guard! PG&E is quietly moving on several fronts to lock up its illegal private power monopoly in San Francisco and keep San Francisco from generating its own public power and moving to enforce the public power mandates of the federal Raker Act. Rebecca Bowe reports on PG&E’s ballot initiative that could kill community choice aggregation (cca) and kill public power moves in San Francisco Meanwhile, Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is running as the PG&E candidate for governor, put up Anson Moran, a callup vote for PG&E, to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. And the PUC is working with PG&E and Mirant to bring more dirty fossil fuel power into San Francisco on the Transbay Cable.
Tip: pin down Newsom and pin down the supervisors and everybody who is running for mayor on these critical PG&E moves. After all, in this budget crisis, public power is the largest potential source of new revenue for San Francisco (upwards of $300 million a year) and public power would stop the enormous financial drain of PG&E’s expensive private power (PG&E yanks upwards of $650 million a year out of the local economy in high rates.)
PG&E’s new attacks on public power
The ability of cities to switch to public power could be eliminated if a proposed state ballot initiative moves forward
By Rebecca Bowe
rebeccab@sfbg.com
A ballot initiative backed by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. could amount to a death sentence for community choice aggregation (CCA) and expanded public power in California.
Dubbed the Taxpayers Right to Vote Act, the proposed initiative would require a two-thirds majority vote at the ballot before any local government could establish a CCA program, use public funding to implement a plan to become a CCA provider, or expand electric service to new territory or new customers.
And stop Anson Moran, a PG&E callup vote, from getting a Mayor Newsom appointment to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. (See footnote) And scroll down to see the Rebecca Bowe story disclosing how the Transbay Cable would bring dirty PG&E power from a PG&E substation in Pittsburg to a PG&E substation at Potrero Hill.
EDITORIAL One of the greatest threats to public power in a generation is quietly working its way toward the California ballot.
As Rebecca Bowe reports, a proposed initiative that would require two-thirds of the voters to approve any sort of public electricity measure, including community choice aggregation (CCA), has been submitted to the state attorney general’s office. And Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s fingerprints are all over it.
There’s no doubt whatsoever that this measure is designed to derail successful CCA efforts in places like Marin County and San Francisco, where the supervisors are moving forward to set up the equivalent of a buyer’s co-op for electricity. A San Francisco CCA would offer lower costs and much greener power — and would give the city far more control over its energy future.
