New Original Joe’s: San Francisco’s Latest “Must Go” Spot
by Randy Shaw‚
Jan. 27‚ 2012
The new Original Joe’s opened this week, immediately becoming a “must go” destination for those seeking old school Italian dining and quality food at remarkably low prices. Elena Duggan and John Duggan, Jr., whose grandparents opened Original Joe’s on Taylor Street in the Tenderloin in 1937, have accomplished something very special in their new North Beach location: they have created an open, well-lit beautifully designed 2012 looking restaurant with a menu that includes all of the greatest hits that long made Original Joe’s a San Francisco icon. This means Joe’s legendary ¾ pound hamburger and fries is back (for only $11.50!), along with the unsurpassed selection of pasta dishes. The restaurant has an entire wall of articles and photos (including Time Magazine’s top recommendation of O Joe’s for visitors to the 1984 Democratic Convention), adding to the feeling that this is a very special place in San Francisco history.
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San Franciscans Advocate For Ranked Choice Voting Before Rules Committee
by Jonathan Nathan‚
Jan. 27‚ 2012
Activists and academics were joined by workers and voters yesterday to advocate in favor of an expansion of ranked-choice voting in city elections, and against a proposal that would return the city to old-fashioned runoff voting, in a meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rules Committee. Although a few dissenters from the business community made their presence known, the overwhelming majority of public comment was in favor of ranked-choice voting.
The committee members themselves — District 2 Supervisor Mark Farrell, District 9 Supervisor David Campos, and committee chair and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim — kept their own prefatory comments brief and factual in nature before turning over the floor to public comment. At issue were two competing amendments to the city charter, one which angled to repeal ranked-choice voting and return to conventional two-stage runoff elections, and one which called for an expansion of the system that would allow voters to rank as many candidates as currently available tabulation technology would allow.
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Paula West and the George Mesterhazy Quartet Comes to the Herbst
by E. "Doc" Smith‚
Jan. 27‚ 2012
Paula West, San Francisco’s favorite jazz singer returns to the Herbst Theatre for one performance only on Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 8:00 p.m. Performing with the noted pianist/arranger George Mesterhazy, (a familiar name to fans of the late, great Shirley Horn), she will perform songs from her new CD, “Live at the Jazz Standard.” The CD features many of West’s best loved tunes never before recorded by her.
A long time resident of San Francisco, West has been a staple of the SF Jazz scene with sold-out, long run engagements at Yoshi’s, the Plush Room, and SF Jazz Performances. She has also performed at the White House; Jazz at Lincoln Center (where she performed with Wynton Marsalis); the legendary Oak Room in Manhattan’s Algonquin Hotel; and top Manhattan jazz clubs; Birdland, the Jazz Standard and The Blue Note where she has built a loyal following. She has won the prestigious Nightlife Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocalist three times. In addition, she has enchanted critics and audiences from coast to coast – and as far away as Tokyo, Athens, Moscow, and Paris.
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Coal Miners Leave the Dust for Art; Little Brother Gets into Trouble; Film Noir is “Hot” Again
by Buzzin' Lee Hartgrave‚
Jan. 27‚ 2012
COAL MINERS GO TO ART SCHOOL
In England, miners founded an amateur art group in 1934. Had they ever painted before? No! But, amazingly the art appreciation class, called the ‘Ashington Group’ made History with their paintings. The Miners were skeptical at first, but surprised everyone – including high society. Along comes Robert Lyon, who was a lecturer at Armstrong College in Newcastle upon Tyne. He had been asked to discuss the possibility of forming an art appreciation class with the miners. And so began a long and tedious road for men who worked under ground. As you probably know – they worked in harsh conditions, now they were also painting their impressions of working men that they were familiar with. Basically, these men painted impressions of their own lives. The outcome is quite fascinating.
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The Mirkarimi Distraction
by Randy Shaw‚
Jan. 26‚ 2012
As the debate over San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi continues, one impact is beyond dispute: the controversy is eclipsing far more critical issues affecting San Francisco. In the past two weeks I have attended two press events involving Mayor Lee in which every media question ignored the issue at hand and instead focused on Mirkarimi. The January 12 event included a broad cross section of affordable housing advocates, builders, developers and others who were coming together to promote a vital San Francisco Housing Trust Fund; the media ignored everything Mayor Lee and other speakers said about this important issue and instead swarmed the mayor to ask about Mirkarimi. San Francisco faces challenges on job creation, the end of Redevelopment, the city budget, and a number of pending development projects. Yet the talk of the town remains Ross Mirkarimi.
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The New School Lunch Regulations Conundrum
by Dana Woldow‚
Jan. 26‚ 2012
On January 25th, amid much fanfare, First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack released the new school lunch regulations which have been over 3 years in the making. Early hopes that the original proposed rules, which were based on recommendations from the Institute of Medicine, would dramatically change school lunches from the pizza/chicken nugget/french fries model so commonly seen in school cafeterias, to something looking a little more like, well, food, were dashed when Big Food lobbyists were able to force changes in Congress allowing plenty of potatoes, and continuing the longstanding tradition of counting the sauce on pizza as a vegetable. Still, there will be some improvements.
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Students Step Up Tucson Walkouts
by Jeff Biggers‚
Jan. 26‚ 2012
Protest School District Folly and Mexican American Studies Banishment
As the nation watches the Tucson Unified School District’s spiral into disarray, hundreds of students walked out of their Tucson schools Monday in a coordinated protest against the banishment of the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program.
Pouring into the downtown Tucson area from Pueblo, Cholla and Tucson high schools, among other institutions, the students brought their march to the offices of floundering Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) administrators. In recent days, administrators and board members have issued a series of conflicting and inaccurate statements and carried out the extreme actions of confiscating books in front of children. Last week, a recently hired assistant superintendent from Texas made a troubing call for the deeply rooted Tucson students–many of whom trace their ancestors to the town founders– to “go to Mexico” to study their history.
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School Beat: California's White Elephant Budget Gives Schools the Gift of Uncertainty
by Beth Chagonjian‚
Jan. 26‚ 2012
Governor Brown's budget was recently (and inadvertently) released online. Unfortunately, what was revealed was a budget full of speculation and "what ifs" that could potentially leave schools and education in a worse condition than that in which they currently find themselves.
How could this be so? This year the budget is dependent upon you and I and our neighbors voting to increase our own taxes. And in and of itself, this is not an impossibility. Indeed, many surveys have indicated that the California voter is willing to spend money on education and other services designed to make this state a better place.
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The SEIU Takeover of UHW: Three Years Later
by Steve Early‚
Jan. 25‚ 2012
Three years ago this Friday (Jan. 27), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern declared war on one-quarter of his California membership. Mimicking the Pentagon, SEIU headquarters in Washington dispatched an army of paid staffers to seize the Oakland office of United Healthcare Workers (UHW) and other union facilities around the state. Stern’s trusteeship over UHW was aided by scores of high priced union lawyers, uniformed local police officers, and private security personnel from the OSO Group, which hires ex-cops, former FBI and Secret Service agents, and even retired CIA employees to provide corporate clients with surveillance, intelligence, and counter-terrorism protection. (OSO’s bill for its services totaled $2.2 million.)
Before the UHW take-over occurred, the 150,000 hospital, home care, and nursing home workers in UHW were part of a model local that was spearheading a much-needed movement for union democracy and reform within SEIU. Over night, they were stripped of their own elected leaders, from the shop-floor to statewide level. For the next several years, SEIU’s third largest affiliate was run by Stern appointees, with no accountability to the membership. Many of its overseers arrived from out-of-state and have never left, fulfilling their duties with far less competence and commitment than the local officers and staff they replaced. Once a fast-growing SEIU affiliate, UHW has done little or no new organizing since the 2009 trusteeship. Contract standards and workplace representation have both declined dramatically for its existing members (For documentation of that trend, see here).
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Should We All Start Praying for Mitt Romney?
by Sam Pizzigati‚
Jan. 25‚ 2012
Absolutely. The GOP Presidential hopeful from Bain Capital has become a walking, talking object lesson on how plutocracy works - and why we desperately need to end it.
Egalitarians seem to be doing a lot of praying since Saturday's GOP primary in South Carolina. If you listen closely, you can almost hear their prayer: Please, Lord, let Mitt Romney win the 2012 Republican Presidential nomination.
January 27, 2012
