Marcha De Las Letras – The Other 24th Street
I’d like to buy a vowel:
(Perhaps a perverse multi-array version of hangman? Or a horribly flawed implementation of a postscript stack. I do love the “TV” in the rounded rectangle at the top.)
Current Senate seating chart. Democrats on the left, Republicans on the right.
Snow and Specter look longingly to the center.
Señor Burbujas!
His maquinas are grandes. (Get a taco suave across the street while you wait.)
GREMS
On Poplar.
El Tonayense vs THE WORLD
In an actual feat of ‘reporting’, I went to City Hall to attend the El Tonayense hearing at the Board of Appeal (and even testified!) I feel so civic.
I had never actually been inside City Hall. Quite nice.
Up on the fourth floor hearing room, I ran into ’emamd’, aka Armand, from Mission Loc@l. (No I did not take a panorama of him, sorry ladies.)
Anyway, to the point — the Board of Appeals upheld the revocation of El Tonayense’s permit, but stayed the decision until June 9th. In English, this means that El Tonayense got their permit pulled because they are within 1500 feet of a school, but the board is giving them a couple of months in an effort to get a compromise worked out. From what the board and the lawyer said, they will be working with David Campos.
El Tonayense’s lawyer pushed for a grandfather exemption, as seems to have happened in the past, but he was up against many barriers. Ridiculous as the law may be in El Tonayense’s case, the truck is within the limit (albeit the back of the school, and with few if any student customers), and the SNPAC Nutritionistas are taking a pretty hard-ass stance.
- Best piece of evidence – a picture of a 3 inch wide burrito in front of the chain-link fence with 1 inch holes.
- Most interesting comparison – for domestic abuse you often see only a 500 ft stay away order, not 1500ft
- Most ironic revelation (at least relative to my previous article) – Gateway High School (a charter school) is looking to hire El Tonayense for lunch twice a week!
The law has good intentions. In our society, easy food is too often unhealthy food. Before the law, food vendors would collect outside the front of schools and sell candy, potato chips and soda. Obviously bad. But I find the school board nutritionistas to be intellectually dishonest. They did their damnedest to try to paint El Tonayense as a cause of the declining health of students, but it simply is not. They cling to Tonayense’s unwillingness to move two blocks as some sort of evidence that ET secretly wishes to poison the minds and bodies of the O’Connell student body. They raised the spectre of armies of food trucks at the door of John O’Connell if El Tonayense is grandfathered in. Best quote from Nutritionista Waldow (via ML) – While she failed to clearly connect the truck to poor student health, Woldow maintained that she had “no proof that the truck is helping students to become thin.”
In six years of going to the truck, I haven’t seen kids there. While I am sure there are some on occasion, the student body just doesn’t frequent the truck (which in my burrito-centered mind is a problem!) When the principal and vice-principal of the school don’t see the truck as a threat to the lunch program, you have to take a step back. The issue is many students do not like the cafeteria food, and there’s a double standard for food trucks vs restaurants.
The board seemed to struggle with the case. I got the impression of reluctance from the cops and skepticism from the commissoners. Commissioners Goh and Peterson asked if they really had jurisdiction. Fung was focusing on the fact that El Tonayense was given no notice after the law was passed. Commissioners Garcia was pushing hardest for a compromise (he asked for the stay) and Commissioner Mandelman seemed most sympathetic to the law being overkill for El Tonayense.Let’s hope that Campos and the Board of Supervisors can bring some sort of compromise that doesn’t punish adults while maintaining the spirit of the law (or perhaps write a better law).
At one point, a commissioner mentioned “good truck, bad truck”. El Tonayense is not the bad truck, and regardless of the nutritionista repetitive dogma, it simply is not causing the downfall of the San Francisco school lunch program.
El Tonaynese Takes Over John O’Connell Cafeteria
In an unusual joint closed session, the Board of Supervisors and the Board of Appeals granted the Harrison & 19th El Tonayense taco truck a permit to take over the John O’Connell school cafeteria.
“The San Francisco school lunch program is a clear failure,” noted President of the Board David Chiu. “When students would rather fast for seven hours or jump the fence rather than eat at the O’Connell cafeteria there’s a serious problem. El Tonayense tacos are tasty and healthy, especially compared to the current soggy, undercooked and wet offerings at ‘The Beanery’.”
El Tonayense, a popular taco truck, had simply intended to appeal the 2007 city ordinance that banned mobile food vendors from being within 1500 feet of a school. Benjamin Santana, the truck’s owner, left today’s meeting in a state of shock. “We really didn’t expect this. We thought we were going to have to move, but we didn’t expect to be *closer* to the school.”
While students will have access to El Tonayense all day, local customers are unhappy to learn that they will only have access to El Tonayense from 1:30 to 2:30pm, after lunch is served to the students. Lipra Sloof is a software developer who works nearby. “This is ridiculous – there’s only a one hour window for the general public to get tacos? I don’t eat at the same time every day.” Other regulars were seen sizing the exterior fence, especially regulars at Mission Cliffs. “I could totally climb that, even with an al pastor in one hand,” said a customer who wished to remain anonymous.
The Board of Supervisors have little sympathy for inconvenienced taco lovers. “Education takes priority over dining convenience,” said David Campos, District 9 Supervisor. “The Board sees this as a tool to increase student attendance as well as improve student health.”
Janet Schulze, the principal of John O’Connell, agrees. “Interest in John O’Connell has skyrocketed. Hundreds of parents have moved O’Connell to the top of their school lottery picks. We’ve even had inquiries into GED and continuing education programs. We may have to start night classes.”
In a rare show of unaninimity, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Daly issued a joint press release describing plans to expand the program throughout the city. During their press conference, Newsom and Daly noted enthusiasm from unexpected sources. “We were most surprised by Gus Murad’s application for a charter school permit at the current Medjool site. We think we can make excellent use of the rooftop bar as a city garden to supply our new cafeteria program.”
Neighboring schools are scrambling to find food partners. Mission High Principal Eric Guthertz has placed several calls to neighborhood restaurants with little success. “Delfina told me they are booked a month out, and Bar Tartine didn’t return my call. Anthony and Karen of Mission Street Food told me that there was no way they would wear the required hair nets.” Many Mission restaurants are now screening calls from schools. “No way I am getting sucked into this socialist nightmare,” said Ruggero Gadaldi, Beretta’s chef/owner. “This is too much even for this city.”
Principle Guthertz is holding out hope though. “The Magic Curry Kart has expressed interest, as has the Suriya Thai crew.”
Dana Woldow, head of the Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee, was unavailable for comment.
Animals With Guns, Part II
animals with guns = AWESOME:
From Love Letters to SF. .
“Just a dolphin, ma’am.”
“Plumber.”
I am not sure I want to know the other 25,634 scenarios.
Good news is the orcas will be on our side.
Valencia Street Park – Alternative St. Luke’s Plan
Mission Loc@l and SF FYI net reports that there are several rather unpublicized meetings this week — St. Luke’s and El Tonayense.
Tuesday, 2 PM
- Rebuild of St. Luke’s Hospital – Evaluation of temporary hospital structure
- Question: Shall this Resolution be ADOPTED? (easiest search for ‘Luke’)
Wednesday, 5 PM
- El Tonayense (19th and Harrison) public hearing
- UPDATE: City Hall, Room 416, 5PM – agenda
- Mission Loc@l will be tweeting (guys, will this be on the MLnow account or another?)
Wednesday, 6:30-8 PM –
- Mission District Community Task Force Meeting – St. Luke’s Hospital
- When: April 1, 2009 – Wednesday, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
(Ed: This particular task force meeting was last year.)
More on Tonayense later. Re St. Luke’s – remember that the favored plan is a souless, two-story blank wall along Cesar Chavez, with the service “ass-end” of the hospital overbearing the houses on Guerrero.
Current layout – translucent red is 1970s tower that is too expensive to retrofit, blue are existing hospital buildings, green are houses at the corner of Cesar Chavez on the left and Guerrero on the right.
CPMC proposal – solid red is suggested replacement building, solid blue is future expansion building, no windows on the first two stories. Both are flush with the sidewalk on Cesar Chavez with no street access. Loading and garbage is between existing green houses and red replacement building.
This does not seem to be the neighborhood’s favored solution — feedback from the March 4th Community Workshop available for download from CPMC. (Strange how there is littel to no mention of the strong opposition to the new building on the doctor’s parking lot and over San Jose Ave, or the poor integration with the Cesar Chavez street improvement plan.) Secret CMPC plan to enrage neighbors, or just lazy? Regardless, a better plan is in order.
We here at the BJPLC (Burrito Justice Planning and Landscape Committee) have decided on a different approach for St. Luke’s. Instead of what we have now — a block on Valencia with no residences and stairs to nowhere:
We create Valencia Street Park, and build the replacement hospital across the street:
Details of our modest proposal:
- Close down Valencia between Cesar Chavez and Mission to auto traffic and create a park greenery, with bike access (and bus access?)
- Build the replacement building (green) across Valencia on the old Sears parking lot, not on the doctor’s parking lot.
- Expansion (yellow) can still happen across the park on the 1970 tower site.
- Make a cul-de-sac off of Cesar Chavez as the primary access point to St. Luke’s.
- Free the 1912 steps (brown/orange) which would now lead from the historic building down to our new and glorious Valencia Street Park green belt.
Unreasonable? No less so than the current CPMC plan. This alternative lets St. Luke’s rebuild, expand and improve the neighborhood at the same time. There are surprisingly few parks in the area — Precita and Garfield Parks aren’t exactly close, and Bernal is a different case. There are surprisingly few parks and playgrounds in Noe Valley — in fact, other than Juri, is there another park within 23rd, Diamond, 29th and Mission?
So what about the doctor’s parking lot? CPMC could sell the doctor’s parking lot for reasonable height mixed residential-retail development, or use it for new medical offices as was the original plan.
Most importantly, we can let the El Tonayense truck sit in front of the 1912 steps! Magic Curry Kart and other vendors are also welcome.
Dolores Hula Kids
On Saturday, these two kids were going to town with their hula hoops.
The hula girl was hooping while practically standing still. Amazing. The boy failed miserably at first, but then figured it out (while using far more hip action).
Got several ovations from the suntanning Doloresos.
Taco… Taco Suave
I am totally naming my next blog “Taco Suave”. (That, or “Tamal Solo”.)
I love the torilla maker at La Palma.
I am sure he wakes up in the middle of the night screaming, “¿Cómo detener esta máquina loca?”
This could be a great plot device for a telenovela — a couple of unemployed hipster gringos go work in a tortilla factory. Their carpal tunnel syndrome causes them to quickly fall behind and they start hiding tortillas in their hoodies. As they grow increasingly overwhelmed they start stuffing them in their mouths, but they realize they aren’t organic, so out of utter desperation they jam them into their Timbuktu bags. However, there is a happy ending as their MacBooks keep the tortillas nice and warm on the way home.
Space Invaders
On Clipper. Looks like he got the gun and bunker in Noe Valley (perhaps the old Nike Missile site on Mount Sutro?)
(Sorry if I am confusing this with an octopus or some other 8-bit cepholopod.)
Space Invaders Trivia from www.spaceinvaders.de – these are memed on just about every SI site I see, but fun nonetheless.
The game was so amazingly popular in Japan that it caused a coin shortage until the country’s Yen supply was quadrupled. Many incidents of juvenile crime surrounded the release of this game. A girl was caught stealing $5000 from her parents and gangs of youths were reported to have robbed grocery stores just so they would have money to play the game.
And then there’s Space Invaders the street artist, with elegant tile SI mosaics.
Interview from Swindle Magazine, via Kumo.
It wasn’t until I traveled to Paris that the full scope and scale of Invader’s work hit me. He started his project in Paris in 1996, and most of his 589-plus installations there remain. Everywhere I went, there were invaders, either jumping or peeking out. Some older, lower mosaics were partially removed, not by building owners but by fans hoping to collect a piece; to combat this problem, Invader devised an elaborate hanging system to place the invaders out of reach.
He’s has exhibits and public installations now — I love this one in Vienna. Click the image for more pix.
I’d take SI art on any wall in the neighborhood. Let’s get at it, Mission taggers — any bitch can spray paint, now’s the time to show some skillz and lay down some nice Murano tile and grout.
UPDATE: Reader Lauren notes this guy in Paris:
Or, if you’re feeling the need to redecorate the inside of your place, why not get Space Invaders decals from Blik?
For old time’s sake — insert ¥50 to play:
Dolores Park Breaks 70, We Break 360
I love this city. It breaks 60 and we all act like it’s 80.
10,000 pixels wide 360 (actually more like 380), click to zoom.
Ganja treats man and the ice cream man are battling it out on the left hand side. This while 7 cops arrested some dude, reasons unknown. They walked right by GTM as they left the park.
(Panorama on the iPhone seems to get horribly confused by trees.)
Burrito Justice 