February 2009Short CutsRecessionary Deaths Add Baraka Restaurant and Delirious Shoes and More to the growing list of businesses felled by the economic slide. Both shops provided excellent products and neighborly services. They’ll be missed…While many enterprises are suffering, car repair shops, cooking supply stores, home beauty outlets, pharmacies, and sex toy boutiques are apparently doing a booming business. Gone are the days of purchasing a new car every three years, replaced by long-term patching and repairing. Eating out at expensive restaurants, seeing the doctor, and mani-pedis are giving way to cooking at home and off-the-shelf health and beauty products. And sex toys? What else are you supposed to do when you can’t afford new shoes to wear as you dine out at the finer establishments?
Speaking of mani-pedis, at a recent Potrero Hill Association of Merchants and Businesses meeting, and in response to concerns raised by Pinkies Nail Salon’s clients, who’re afraid of theft or something worse while being clipped and buffed, Police Captain John Loftus stated that Potrero Hill is “actually a very safe area. Crime happens throughout the City. With 140 officers stationed in Bayview, we’re very well staffed. Still, while it’s just not that bad, you have to be careful.” You heard the captain: walk tall, be aware, and sharpen your nails!
A vigilant View reader pointed out that Betty Crocker, who was identified as Debbie Epstein’s great-aunt in last month’s paper (“Home Cooked Meals That You Don’t Have to Prepare”) is a fictional character. Betty Crocker, a General Mills brand name, was developed by the Washburn Crosby Company in 1921 as a way to give personalized responses to consumer product questions. According to Epstein, General Mills hired her grandmother’s sister, among other women, to travel the country teaching about food. Betty Crocker is a composite of three of these spokeswomen’s faces, including Epstein’s great-aunt, whose looks may have contributed to the character’s nose and mid-face. Next time we quote the Michelin Man, or talk to Captain Crunch’s grandnephew, will make sure to get all of the details.
San Francisco Bay Guardian publisher Bruce Brugmann is concerned that View publisher Steven Moss is in PG&E’s pocket. Brugmann’s suspicions were aroused by the fact that Dogpatch-based San Francisco Community Power (SF Power), which Moss manages, receives PG&E payments to run an energy management program focusing on small businesses; that the View didn’t actively support Proposition H, last year’s losing public power initiative; and that Moss has editorialized against the City’s proposed peaker plants. SF Power does receive PG&E funds, but only by order of the California Public Utility Commission, and generally against the monopoly’s wishes. What’s moore, the nonprofit and the utility are currently locked in a regulatory case arguing about how best to fund small business programs and whether San Francisco-specific energy management programs should be used to help close the Potrero Power Plant. As far as Moss’ position on public power and the peaker plants, the View suggests that interested readers review past issues, of the paper, transcripts from the Potrero Power Plant Citizen Task Force meetings, and our publisher’s commentary’s on KQED Radio (www.kqed.org).
Coming back from downtown on Muni last month, a family – mom, dad, and daughter – left a half-full bag of Cheetos on top of a pay telephone, with the idea that it’d be picked up by a hungry homeless person. Within minutes a well-dressed 30-something gentleman carrying a laptop computer, grabbed the bag and started munching on its contents. “That’s the problem with dating in this town,” said the mom, after witnessing the transaction. “They may look normal, but you never know what you might get.” On the other hand, if you want to catch a well-dressed but hungry man, perhaps setting az Cheetos trap isn’t a bad way to go about doing that. What would Pringles get you? |
This Month's StoriesResidential Areas Exempt from Parking Meter Plan, According to MTA Official City Hopes America’s Cup Runneth Over Starr King Elementary Leads SF Schools in Improved Test Scores Southside a Center for Metal Harvesting History Lives on Wisconsin Street San Francisco Breweries Chug Water Dogpatch Hosts Design Residency Project Monte Cristo Club Serves-Up Salty Fish UCSF - Mission Bay’s Scientist Dave Morgan Studies Segregation Foreclosure Crises Lingers in Bayview Black Population Continues to Dwindle Bayview Foreclosure Fighters Take a Stand Radio Africa & Kitchen Puts Down Roots in Bayview Downtown High School Teaches Environmental Lessons San Francisco Firefighters Distribute Toys, Just Not Through Chimneys Hill Resident Publishes Book About Apple’s Post-Jobs Future Henry Joseph Judnick 1927 ~ 2011 On-going FeaturesCrime & Safety Report: Potrero Hill Resident Works Cases at District Attorney’s Office
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