Bernal Heights Revisited

Precita Park by streetcar photos (1915-1945).

State of Mind

Poverty can drive you crazy, but chances are, that if you're poor, you won't get mental health care.

Crocodile Tears

Poverty-pimping, San Francisco style, is a class act. As in ruling class concern for the displaced and homeless after eight years of aggressive loan fraud, evisceration of rent control, and heartless evictions by the venture capital and real estate industry many politicians laid down for.

Now, after hundreds of thousands of working poor and the welfare class have been driven from the Bay Area, top politicians are pimping poverty and displacement to HUD, no doubt looking for major bailout slush funds down the road. Crocodile tears, indeed.

A City Worth Fighting For

As noted by Ben Terrall, public space for artistic and political expression in San Francisco has been disappearing. In his Counterpunch article Streetopia, Terrall recounts creative offerings by people like Erick Lyle, aimed at revitalizing the progressive culture in a city which occupies 'a particular utopian place in the public imagination of the country'. With a rich humanitarian history, Lyle observes, "San Francisco is still a city worth fighting for".

Farallon Blues

Weighing in at 200 tons, the Blue Whale is the largest animal on earth, and they are making a comeback on the California coast.

Noir at the Castro

I Wake Up Dreaming, a series of film noir showing every Wednesday in August, celebrates Elliot Lavine's 25 years of digging through studio vaults for forgotten films.

That Sinking Feeling

The 58-story Millenium Tower at 301 Mission Street is sinking--16 inches since it was completed in 2008. Built over fill in what was historically part of San Francisco Bay, the luxury downtown high-rise--next to the Transbay Transit Center--is still deemed safe, but lawsuits will undoubtedly be in the works for years to come.