Until last year the San Francisco Public Utility Commission (SFPUC) was run by Harlan L. Kelly, Jr., a civil engineer appointed by Mayor Ed Lee. Lee, who died in 2017, was fond of talking about the “city family,” which some believe included a familial attitude towards quid pro quo favors. Kelly resigned in 2020 in…
The federal government has finally joined the State of California in a spirited effort to vastly reduce anthropogenic discharges that are fostering a hotter, drier, planet. The state and fed plan to forestall the worst effects of human-induced climate change by squeezing fossil fuels out of our electricity system within the next 15 years, deploying…
The monkeys popped into my head, as if they’d been waiting for the right moment to swing down from the tangled jungle of my subconscious. I’d last seen them many years ago; a row of thumb high wood carved chimpanzees that sat on my father’s desk. One held his hands over his eyes, another over…
“You got a mortgage without meeting with anyone in person,” my brother-in-law, Harvey, asked, incredulously. “From a bank you’ve never been to?” It was the end of the 20th Century. I was buying my first property, an exhausted two-flat building on Kansas Street. I’d found a low-interest rate mortgage with HSBC by paging through the…
The virus-fog that’s enveloped the world will slowly dissipate, cleared away by its inability to reach masked, sheltered, and increasingly inoculated or already-infected recruits. As we emerge from our seclusion, like so many gophers looking for our shadows, what will we see? What do we want to see? Many of us will surface from near…
My wife, Debbie, and I were invited to a small dinner party last fall, to be held on an outdoor deck in the North Bay. Our host had assured us that he was COVID-compliant, but it turned out he was COVID casual, greeting us without a mask at his front door before ushering us to…
Polling data suggests that the Democratic Party will sweep the election. Joe Biden will become the 46th American president, the U.S. Senate will tilt Blue by a couple of seats, and the U.S. House of Representatives will remain solidly Democratic, though it’ll take time for all votes to be counted and legal skirmishes resolved. …
Voting is the heart of democracy, an opportunity for citizens to choose their leaders, and adopt or reject new laws and tax measures. According to Thomas Paine, “The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery,…
Time never appears directly, but rather presents itself in an array of costumes, some invisible. The sun rises and sets, signaling the passage of day into night back into day. Coastal fog chases summer heat inland, reminding San Franciscans to don their seasonal hoodies. The clock, tracking the sun and the moon, tells us it’s…
The road to racial equality will continue to be long and difficult. To get where most of us want to go we’ll need to learn how to (re)see things with fresh eyes, become much more mindful of our actions, and make considerable sacrifices. The alternative to taking this journey, though, is to live in an…
The Population Bomb, written by Stanford University Professor Paul R. Ehrlich and his wife, Anne Ehrlich, in 1968, predicted that overpopulation-induced global famines would boil up well before the end of the 20th Century. At the time Earth had 3.5 billion inhabitants. Since then population has doubled, to 7.8 billion. While there have been localized…
“During negative tides you can walk along the seashore all the way from Muir Beach to Pirate’s Cove,” the old-timer said. “I did it once with my dog, when he was a pup. Had to carry him over boulders the size of haystacks.” I was smitten. Pirate’s Cove is a small Marin County beach decorated…
Over the years I’ve periodically encountered cheek kissers; people whose preferred greeting consists of a series of puckered lipped head maneuvers. When I was younger the kissers were usually someone’s girlfriend, a “glamourous” White girl from Seattle or Los Angeles who pronounced “Nicaragua” as if ordering a fancy cocktail and blurted out “Guatemala” so that…
Picture yourself on a transcontinental flight, economy class, sitting in a middle seat with a weary mom trying to console her crying baby on one side of you, and a large man who is intently staring at his blank video screen on the other. A bit of turbulence starts, then intensifies, the plane bouncing up…
Last month I was privileged to travel to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. The isle is a speck in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, 2,190 miles from the Chilean coast. The Pitcairn Islands are 1,290 miles away; Tahiti, 2,700 miles distant. It’s one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands, with perhaps…
My wife, Debbie, and I often marvel at the steady stream of airline mileage points we collect just because we purchase items through our credit cards. The freebie enables us to periodically fly to Michigan to visit Debbie’s family at little or no cost. It’s a regular reminder of the adage “the rich get richer.” …
Over the years I’ve learned that how I experience a place or activity is greatly influenced by what I bring to it. This was certainly the case on a recent trip my wife, Debbie, and I took to Nashville after dropping off our only child, Sara, at the University of Puget Sound to start her…
More than one-dozen households have responded so far to the View’s call for up to 2,000 readers to subscribe at $5 to $10 a month; less than the cost of two cups of coffee. These generous community members will both receive the paper in their post and ensure its availability to others. Please consider doing…
Last month’s front-page editorial announced that the View would fold on its 50th anniversary, August 2020, unless new revenues sources can be secured. Readers responded with a plethora of ideas, and not a small amount of money, including contributions that ranged from $50 to $500. One thought, if acted upon, would ensure the paper’s…
“It went by so fast,” my 80-something father exclaimed, when I told him my daughter would be attending college in the fall. “Yeah,” I said. “I know.” In a year and a quarter, I’ll turn 60, an unimaginable age to my younger self. Sixty was when people started preparing for retirement, purchasing the necessary plaid…
His six children called him Siegfried the Dragon Slayer, a name he embraced. His 13 grandkids knew him as Grandpa Ziggy. His beloved wife, Luba, called him Freddy. Fred S. Findling earned all those appellations, and more, leading a life of courage, compassion, charisma, and love. His heart, crushed by the loss of his parents…
There are lots of things for which to be grateful. A baby’s soft laugh, a puppy’s cutely clumsy gait, the rain. Our lives are filled with people, places, and things that bring us joy, comfort, safety, and much more. In this issue of the View we identify a number of the boons our communities are…
Each of us is born into a beautifully flawed world, though the balance differs depending on individual circumstances. Some of us, emerging newly slick from the womb, are welcomed into a family full of hugs, smiles, and material well-being. Others are left cold on the table, confronted with immediate, wrenching, long-term physical, emotional, and spiritual…
A more than 20 percent increase in San Francisco’s property tax roll, combined with a state program, the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund, which shifts a portion of “excess” local property taxes to public school systems in each California county, has showered $415 million of unexpected revenues on the City. The windfall is indicative of San…
Dr. Peter Venkman: This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions. Mayor: What do you mean, “biblical”? Dr. Raymond Stantz: What he means is Old Testament, Mr. Mayor, real wrath of God type stuff. Venkman: Exactly. Stantz: Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Dr. Egon Spengler: Forty…