urbanesque.org

A possibly unnecessary heads up to our favorite food vendors!

Monday, March 8
San Francisco Board of Supervisors, City Operations & Neighborhood Services (CONS) Committee
10:30am in City Hall, Room 263
Committee Members: Sup. Carmen Chu (chair), Sup. John Avalos, Sup. Sean Elsbernd
Guest: Sup. Bevan Dufty

"A Hearing was requested by District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty about Mobile Food Vendors, will explore this growing new concept – which includes proposals for operations in our neighborhood. Are current regulations adequate and fair? What types of businesses should be regulated, and how? Do Mobile Food Vendors add to an area’s vitality, or do they represent unfair competition? Is there a way to level the playing field, so there’s a “win-win” for all?"

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I seldom respond to long-comment threads on Facebook but this one hit a bit close to home considering it came from one of the candidates for Supervisor of my SF district (6). The initial post (and I believe all the subsequent comments) can be found here.

The jist of the post was regarding the City's new movement around using a sit-lie ordinance to help combat homelessness and vagrants on the street. I generally try and stay away from the topic of homelessness in SF because, well, it's pointless, dirty, volatile and trite. However, I decided to be a dumbass and provide this little rant:

I love a good housing debate but I'd WAAAAY prefer to see folks have access to stuff like, oh, you know, mental health clinics that don't take three weeks and a assertive vocabulary, cell phone and white male privilege to get into. I realize that housing is a key component of treatment adherence and providing a foundation for folks to access said services but it's become such a fucked-up tokenized albatross for this town. I've lived here my entire life and seen PC "activists" come and go; create a program here and there.

I'd find it insanely refreshing to see a holistic approach to well being of San Franciscans, especially with the huge lack of jobs increasing the size of those of us who are relying on public services such as Healthy SF, MUNI, the Community Health Network. Housing (and homelessness) I feel are partly the byproduct of these other services' failures.

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So, a - um - friend recently signed up for the Twitter. He claims that it's to receive better and more frequent updates about San Francisco goings-ons. But we all know the real reasons: one and two. Anyhoo, rather than sit and get all type-A on his ass (figuratively) and log in as him and follow folks, I figured I'd make a list of (hopefully) wonderful suggestions for reliable, informative, fun news and event San Francisco updates.

The shortlist...

@ActionNewsSF (by far the best), @511SFBay, @sfappeal, @StreetsblogSF, @SFist, @Emergency_In_SF, and @CAquake

And for my Mission District neighbors out there: @MLNow, @94110now

There are obviously tons of local twitter accounts (like the local news outlets) but I find that often they report on things that as a snobby, native San Franciscan, are desperately unimportant to me: like things that happen in zip codes not starting with "941". Or they just post too damn much.

I would love any additional suggestions!

→ My SF Updates twitter list

UPDATE: He also said that he heard there was free porn. That's a whole other list altogether.

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So, it's 12:45am and I should absolutely *not* be starting a lengthy entry - as this one would become; however, it's on my mind and I have a few thoughts so I figure I might as well go and throw them out.

Barebacking among queer men

I wouldn't exactly say that what surrounds barebacking is a stigma, as we are more than happy to discuss and accept the behavior; however, we certainly enjoy attaching any sort of opinion to our observation. In keeping with this trite attempt at 'advancing' queer culture as is popular among some groups, we love to push the bar. But change is hard, eh? The post-AIDS (can we say post-AIDS yet?) porn industry is certainly a great example of said difficulty. This post really needs to end about here so my point without going into it yet is that I feel perhaps the stigma is not on the act of sex without a condom but rather on the idea of subjecting viewers to sex with a level of intimacy to which many are not accustomed. The act of actively and (borderline) sensually exchanging fluids which we have been trained to fear is indeed horrifying. It speaks to larger topics such as how we communicate with one another in gay male relationships, how we meet one another (hello, Grindr), etc.

As I mentioned, it's way too late/early to go into this but here's my brief brain-barf. Hopefully more to follow. Your comments are absolutely welcome.

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The new (to me) Bat for Lashes CD has completely captured me. What a developmental leap for the singer, Natasha Khan: this album is so clearly a next-stage for her, she sounds so much more grown up. The soul of the cd just pours onto one as he listens. Give it a gander.

Click here to download:

06 Siren Song.mp3 (11754 KB)

→ Bat For Lashes - Two Suns {Amazon MP3}

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Click here to download:

05 No Dice.mp3 (8641 KB)

A little something to get us through the rest of the afternoon.

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eloquently she
moved to the beat of my drum
the bus was empty

--

the woodwork defied
our common experience
it danced with such ease

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