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SF dance group told to stop the music

06.30.2009
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By Patricia DeckerThe Public PressWhile thousands of revelers were dancing in the streets at Sunday’s Gay Pride celebration, a group of swing dancers in Golden Gate Park was told to beat it.Lindy in the Park has been putting on its free weekly public dance event for almost 13 years, but park security shut them down this weekend, citing a need for a sound permit, according to a statement by the group’s organizer on their Web site.A spokeswoman for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department said that they are working with the dance group to issue a permit, although it is unclear who decided the dancing was a disturbance. Other outdoor dance parties have been relatively uninterrupted, like the Michael Jackson flashdance party that rolled into the Ferry Plaza on Thursday night and thrilled the crowd until they were finally asked to leave around midnight.To allow for amplified sound at their events, the swing gatherings require a special events permit, which requires a $50 nonrefundable fee to start the review process. The permit itself costs a minimum of $500.  In light of recent crackdowns in San Francisco — by the Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control on some of the city’s iconic all-age venues and the limitations imposed on this year’s Bay to Breakers event — this is just another example of how expensive it can be to have fun in the city by the bay.LINKS:Lindy in the Park:  http://www.lindyinthepark.com/Department of Recreation and Parks:  http://www.parks.sfgov.orgSpecial event application:  http://www.parks.sfgov.org/site/recpark_index.asp?id=101651Flashdance:  http://flashdance.org/FlashDance/Home.htmlChronicle article on ABC’s all-ages venues crackdown: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/11/MNK217038L.DTL Photo by bweisner via Flickr.

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Fast food calorie counting starts Wednesday

06.29.2009
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Pick up a Big Mac this Wednesday and you might be in for some surprising information.California is set to become the first state in the country to require chain restaurants to reveal the calorie content of their standard menu items, the Associated Press reported Monday.The law also prevents schools from selling fatty foods or sodas.Data collected by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis from over 60,000 school age children over 11 years shows that fast food restaurants in neighborhoods do significantly impact childhood obesity, the San Francisco Examiner also reported Monday.The research revealed a slight elevation in obesity rates among high school students with a fast food restaurant within one tenth of a mile from home.  

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New efforts to help farmers deal with drought

06.29.2009
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At a town hall meeting in Fresno, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar outlined several steps intended to ease the impact of the state’s water drought on farmers including highlighting Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes as a key figure in water policy, the Associated Press reported Monday.  Salazar said he wanted to direct $160 million in Recovery Act funds to the federal Central Valley Project, the agency that manages California’s dams and canals.  Three years of below-average rainfall has taken a toll on Central Valley farmers who must also contend with environmental policies restricting water deliveries from lakes Shasta and Oroville via the state’s system of aqueducts. In order to protect threatened fish species, such as salmon and smelt, the federal government has limited farmers to 10 percent of their allocation this year, a move that has forced them to fallow hundreds of thousands of acres.  According to researchers at the University of California, Davis, as of May, water shortages in the San Joaquin Valley have cost roughly 35,000 jobs and $830 million in revenue. Farmers have appealed to Salazar to loosen the water restrictions, but he has stood firm thus far.  On the other side of the issue are environmental groups, fishermen and coastal communities impacted by the decline of salmon in the delta, which has resulted in the cancellation of the commercial fishing season for the past two years.   A representative of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association said the shutdown of fisheries has cost the economy $1.4 billion and 23,000 jobs.

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SFMTA approves bike plan, adds 34 miles of new lanes

06.26.2009
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The number of bike lanes is set to nearly double after the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s board of directors officially gave the long-awaited city bike plan the green light.
 
Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the addition of 34 miles of bike lanes, which would increase the total number by 76 percent in the city. » Read more

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Marriage proponents called successors to ’60s Stonewall activists

06.26.2009
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This weekend’s Pride celebration will elevate the status of marriage-equality activists to a position of parity in the gay-rights movement with advocates from four decades ago when the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Celebration Committee joins local veterans of the 1969 Stonewall protests to form a new parade contingent called “Stonewall 2.0.” » Read more

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Supes on: the budget — Cutbacks are fiscal ‘armageddon,’ Daly says

06.25.2009
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Part of the community-funded City Budget Watchdog series

San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly fighting for a ‘people‘s budget’

District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly sat down with the Public Press to discuss the budget crisis, his legislative priorities, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s political agenda and the circumstances surrounding this year’s budget. » Read more

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KALW’s Crosscurrents Radio talks to City Budget Watchdog

06.25.2009
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Holly Kernan, news director at San Francisco’s KALW, interviewed Kevin Stark, one of our City Budget Watchdog reporters, for Crosscurrents on June 22. Here’s a description from www.crosscurrentsradio.org: “The city is trying to find ways to close a nearly half billion dollar deficit, which means cuts. After the board of supervisors reworked Mayor Newsom’s proposed budget last week, the debate seems to be centered on funding public safety or funding public health programs. Reporter Kevin Stark of the Public Press has been following the city’s budget blues and joins us now to help us sort out the budget quandary.” And here’s a link to the segment: www.crosscurrentsradio.org/features.php

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Chronicle reporter accepts award from anti-immigrant group

06.23.2009
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Jaxon Van Derbeken, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, has accepted an award and cash prize from a group that has been criticized for its racist roots and anti-immigrant agenda by the Southern Poverty Law Center, The SF Bay Guardian reported Friday.The Eugene Katz Award for Excellence in the Coverage of Immigration is awarded by the Center for Immigration Studies for works that bring light to immigration issues.Van Derbeken penned a series of articles on San Francisco’s defiance of federal laws requiring the city to turn in any arrested immigrants to the federal government. Today’s San Francisco Chronicle features a Van Derbeken article about District Attorney Kamala Harris’ approval of the release of about a half-dozen undocumented immigrants for first-time drug offenses.According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “CIS’s reams of reports, as well as its blog postings, editorials, and frequent panels and press conferences, incessantly push the idea that America’s immigration system is an unadulterated evil and that the only way to save America from impending doom is to cut drastically the number of immigrants. CIS has blamed immigrants, both legal and undocumented, for everything from terrorism to global warming. To make its case seem as strong as possible, CIS often manipulates data, relying on shaky statistics or faulty logic to come to the preordained conclusion that immigration is bad for this country.”

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Mayor restores funding for Tenderloin drop-in center

06.22.2009
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In a reprieve for San Francisco mental health services, Mayor Gavin Newsom restored funding to the decades-old Tenderloin Self Help Center, a drop-in counseling and service provider, according to Jackie Jenks, executive director of the parent organization, Central City Hospitality House. » Read more

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Less busy fire stations revealed in old audit

06.22.2009
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View Less-than-busy SFFD stations in a larger map Of the 42 fire stations in San Francisco, eight average no more than three calls a day, the Web site SF Appeal reported Monday.The site based its data on a 2004 Controller’s report that said stations around the Twin Peaks area and near the ocean field fewer calls per day than other stations.Local firefighters have been protesting the Board of Supervisors’ effort to block budget increases for their department. One truck with a bullhorn cruised by the Mission Street offices of The Public Press shouting for San Francisco citizens to block the board’s actions.The Board of Supervisors fired back by publishing a survey it funded, that says  San Francisco firefighters work fewer hours than other nearby fire departments and earn the highest hourly wage, at $42.86 per hour, SF Weekly reported Friday.