SF is better than you

The jury is out, San Francisco is better than you.

People, who live here, really do like it. I know what you’re saying. What makes this so special?

They found that Maya Fink, who grew up in Stockholm, Sweden, says things like the weather and the many opportunities for things to do make the city more enticing than, say Alameda, where she currently lives.

“The East Bay is limited, there isn’t much to do out there,” she said. “There’s just more to do out here in the city.” Well that very uninteresting. Great, all this fog and sunshine is probably worse than blizzards and ice.

SF State boasts all the time about how the University has the highest enrollment of out-of-country students; that the campus is internationally diverse. Even Fink commented on the city’s diversity.

“You don’t see this everywhere,” she said.

Are more people from other countries and parts of the nation inundating this city because of the weather? Or is it more than just that?

Could it be the progressive people’s republic that San Francisco offers? Everyone we interview said yes.

Another random sitting down trying to snack on some lunch complained about the homeless population in the city. So not all people like the city.

“I hate the homelessness in this city,” Akeem Little said. Who doesn’t like homelessness? Little did very little to expand on this belief, but he did mention that the city’s image depends on its population being off the streets. What interesting food for thought… He also impulsively proclaimed his love for Michael Jackson.

Arron Trank, who was handing out fliers for Jews For Jesus, grew up in Sacramento and now lives in San Francisco. He says it’s purely the weather that keeps him here. I want him to tell me this on a rainy day.

He says he enjoys going to Blue Bottle Coffee Co. in Hayes Valley. I’m sure Sacramento and the East Bay don’t have good coffee shops.

So what is it that’s keeping and enticing people to this wonderful western utopia? It’s climate, it’s atmosphere, and the fact that you can find a good cup of coffee – apparently.

Ramparts

The Bay Area needs to believe again. It needs to believe there is something that has their back.

Ramparts Magazine was the quintessential poor man’s magazine. When I say poor man, I’m ultimately referring to the underdog’s magazine – the left man’s magazine.

The publication was started in 1962 and rapped its cover just 13 years later. It saw the civil and social uprisings of the 1960’s along with the blood soaked war in Vietnam.

The direction of the magazine was simple: Write the facts, the facts that people should care about and know about, the facts that were true, and the facts that would make every American citizen want to question their country and their social surroundings.

Many of Ramparts’ editors and founders went on to create some of the most read publications in the United States, from Rolling Stone to Mother Jones.

These people, from Robert Sheer to Brit Hume, have become some of the biggest political mind-shapers of our time.

Where are the Ramparts’ of today? Is it the San Francisco Bay Guardian? Is it 7 X 7? Could it even be San Francisco Magazine? The answer is no.

You could go on journey of speculation as to why the Bay Area doesn’t have a modern-day equivalent, but the answer might be more simple than most would think – people aren’t as pissed off as they used to be.

What made Ramparts successful, were the times. Ultimately, in 1975, the magazine shut down – after most of the civil and social rights fights were declining due to winning the battle.

However, the Bay Area could use a magazine like Ramparts no matter what time it is. We need a Ramparts to publish letters by Al Qaeda, we need a Ramparts to be concerned about the health care bill, and we need a Ramparts to let us know it’s okay to question the things are skeptical about.

My life flashing before my eyes

I'm riding down the pavement with my eyes closed, and I'm about to die.

At first I wasn't sure what happened, and then I thought, “I'm about to fly off a bicycle into Muni tracks.”

I didn't have time to think about what was going on, I only knew that I wasn't wearing a helmet, and there was an oncoming trolley - not 400 feet away.

My right arm hit the asphalt first, followed by my legs and finally my head.

I can't feel my arm; I know I'm bleeding.

I lie there, completely vulnerable - and then the oncoming J-line street car comes to a screeching halt 20 feet from my head.

"Are you okay honey?" Yells the Muni operator who sticks her head out through the side window of her train.

"Yeah, I'm okay, I can't feel my arm, but I'll live." I respond in agony. I quickly pick myself up and head over to the nearest driveway, collapsing on my back.

The train speeds off while everyone on board looks at me with empathy because they see me, they see my bicycle, and they see the obvious pain I'm in.

"What just happened?" I keep asking myself while I lay in the driveway, and then I realize I could have died.

I remember talking to my father last month about bicycling, and in the middle of our conversation he made me promise him to wear a helmet – no matter what. I could hear the worry in his voice. My old man in his prime was an avid rider in the East Coast – he’s seen his fair share of head injuries from not wearing a helmet.

Head injuries account for more than 60 percent of bicycle related deaths in the United States, according to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute.

However, I was not destined that night to become another statistic. Perhaps because I hit my arm first, ultimately softening further impacts between my body and the ground, but I’m not a doctor.

As I lay on the driveway, I remember something about my front wheel getting caught between the pavement and the Muni rail. There just had to be a space between the two that is the exact same width as my front wheel.

The first drops of rain this season began to fall as I stared into the night sky. I was certain now that I hadn’t broken anything as I began to stiffly move my right arm – and then I became bathed in light by a sheriff’s patrol car.

“Are you okay? I completely saw what happened,” the officer yelled from his car.

“Yeah, I just need to breath, and I’ll be alright,” I said, more conscious than I’ve been since I fell.

He began to explain the numerous times he’s fallen as a kid growing up in the area because of getting his bicycle wheel caught on a Muni rail. We chatted for a bit; he made sure I wasn’t seriously injured and then swiftly advised me to get a helmet before patrolling along.

Why don’t I wear a helmet if I know what the consequences are? Is it because I don’t want to carry it around with me? Could it be because it looks stupid on me? Or is it because I feel like “it’s not going to happen to me?”

Whatever the reason, it’s trivial not to wear it, but I still don’t strap one on. I tend to think I don’t ride reckless and aggressively, but I don’t exactly come to a complete stop at a stop sign.

It’s about 3 in the morning by the time I start walking my bicycle home; luckily I live a couple blocks away. As I walk, I think about what could have happened if I had a serious head injury.

The words: hospital, vegetable, medical bills, and suffering come to mind. You could use statistics to prove anything, but how can wearing a helmet hurt your chances from staying off a gurney?

The safety institute says the direct costs if cyclists’ injuries due to not wearing helmets are estimated at $81 million a year with indirect costs totaling to about $2.3 billion annually.

I start thinking about my friends and family who would have to take care of me if I became a vegetable, the hospital bills and relentless sadness – just because I couldn’t be bothered with wearing a helmet.

It’s not something anyone should have to go through.

I walk through my door, lie down on my bed, and call the girl I like just because I want to hear her voice.

Photo: http://www.hsbcculturalexchange.com/fondation_hsbc_julia_fullerton-batten.php

Compost or Break the Law

There’s a new law in town, telling San Franciscans what to do with their compost – a law for which there is hardly any enforcement.

Last June, the Board of Supervisors in a 9-2 vote, approved Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposal for the country’s first mandatory composting and recycling law, which the city hopes will decrease greenhouse gas emissions and divert refuse from landfills in the coming years, according to Joanne Wong, residential zero waste associate with the Department of the Environment.

Beginning Oct. 21, all homes and businesses within San Francisco must have three separate bins for refuse: Black for trash, blue for recycling, and a new green bin for composting.

Failing to properly separate trash will result in several warnings, ultimately leading to potential fines of $1,000 in egregious cases, according to the environment department.

This really makes me think about the paper bag in my kitchen full of coffee grounds and partially eaten pizza – if it wasn’t there would I really have to pay a hefty price for it? Wong says otherwise.

Individual tenants will not be fined and only property managers and business owners will have to answer to the city’s monetary consequences for not composting their organic refuse, she said.

“If the fines don’t affect me, then I don’t care,” Zack Tell, an environmental studies major at SF State said. “I’d be willing to compost, but I won’t be willing to be fined for not doing it.”

The 21-year-old said if his landlord is responsible for non-composting fines, then they should incorporate a clause in the lease requiring him to compost, but until that happens, he feels noncommittal in adhering to the new ordinance.

I’m not so sure that everyone will follow his example, but I’m certainly going to continue to throw my food scraps in the compost regardless of the law’s ambiguity.

To even further their laxity of the law, the city currently has a hold on fining anyone until July 2011 in order to get people used to the change, according to the environment department.

Also, the new ordinance does not allocate any money for new trash inspectors to keep an eye on who’s composting and who isn’t, according to the department.

However, there have been green-friendly people fighting for an initiative such as this one for years.

“He’s making the right decision to fine people,” Emily Naud, the student center sustainable initiatives coordinator at SF State said of Mayor Newsom’s proposal. “People won’t do it on their own.”

I do it on my own and so do a lot of other people in this city. Creating an illegitimate punishment for people who don’t compost might deter them even more, ultimately making this new recycling law counterintuitive.

Wong hopes the new composting ordinance will cut about two-thirds of the roughly 600,000 tons of waste the city sends to landfills annually.

“People are still affected by [not composting], but they don’t realize that they are,” Naud said of the attitude many have towards not caring about composting if the fines don’t directly affect them.

A poll on http://sfgate.com displays that 42 percent of voters believe the composting law is too “Big Brother” for San Francisco, while 33 percent believe it will be one more law that won’t be enforced.

“I see how people can think it’s Big Brother-ish, but Americans produce so much waste.” Naud said. “I don’t feel sorry for anyone about it.”

San Franciscans are notorious for their love of boasting their progressive lifestyles, but living up to one’s own convictions is another matter entirely. It’s somewhat ironic that the city has adopted a law, which requires people to be environmentally savvy, yet hold off on their enforcement.

If 33 percent of poll voters assume this will be one more law not enforced, perhaps the law will get the attention it needs – people raising eyebrows toward the city, and others questioning what they put into their trashcan. Either way, people will think about the situation, whether or not they’re forced.

Photo: Jim Wilson/The New York Times