Happy Pride Week!

[Jamie Whitaker - RHNA President]

Greetings neighbors and friends,

LGBT Pride celebrations swing into full gear this week with the
nation's largest pride parade participants lining up along Beale and
Main Streets in the Rincon Hill neighborhood Sunday morning, June 27th
to start the 40th annual run up Market Street to Civic Center at
10:30am. If you have not attended a Pride Parade in San Francisco,
lather up the sunscreen, wear a hat, grab a water and the digital
camera, and join the festivities whether you are LGBT or not - San
Francisco is great because it welcomes all to enjoy the freedom to be
yourself without worries. Civic Center Plaza hosts all sorts of
entertainment, information, and businesses on Saturday and Sunday. A
full line up of official events can be found at http://www.sfpride.org

Before we reach the weekend, there is a District 6 Supervisor
Candidate Forum presented by the San Francisco Young Democrats
(www.sfyd.org) this Wednesday, June 23rd at 6:30pm. Chris Daly is
termed out in January 2011 as our District 6 Supervisor, and there are
approximately 26 folks tentatively running to replace him. Lucky for
us, we get to pick our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices for his replacement
if we cannot just settle on one favorite. The candidate forum will
be moderated by the San Francisco Examiner's irreverent political
reporter, Melissa Griffin. It will also be streamed live by VidSF and
online viewers will be treated to commentary by the always
entertaining Beth Spotswood, of CBS5's Eye on Blogs and SFGate's
Culture Blog. The Internet live stream should start around 6:30pm,
and the address to view the candidate forum live, online is http://vidsf.com/718/

The candidates who are invited to Wednesday's candidate forum include:
Matthew Drake
Glendon "Anna Conda" Hyde
James Keys
Jane Kim
Jim Meko
Theresa Sparks
Debra Walker

As a disclaimer, I'm sure I will be showing bias towards Jim Meko
throughout the campaign season because he is a good friend of mine who
asked me to work for his campaign as his campaign manager, and I
accepted that role as of May 2010.

Please be sure to register to vote if you haven't already - and when
you do register, check the option to be a permanent vote-by-mail voter
so that you don't have to find time to show up at a polling place on
November 2nd and can instead receive a ballot about 3 weeks ahead of
election day, mark your choices, and put it back in the mail without
paying a penny for postage (or, if you waited until a few days before
the election, you may want to drop that puppy off at your polling
place or City Hall's Elections Department if you want to make sure
your votes count). My professional career the past four years was
consulting counties, cities, special districts, and joint powers
authorities all over the western United States about their financial
challenges, and I can tell you that this election year is probably the
most important one to help determine whether we act like grown ups and
take our medicine (implement long-term solutions) or if we just kick
the can down the road to declaring bankruptcy just like our
neighboring city Vallejo. While I'm going editorial already, you know
it is the kids who always get the shortest end of the stick because
they do not vote and are expendable in the eyes of career politicians
because they don't vote. I HOPE that changes in 2010.

Okay ... whew, off my soapbox and on to neighborhood news stuff ...

The Planning Department's Planning Commission is starting to hear
requests for 12-month extensions for condo development projects that
are stalled due to financing/market challenges. Next up is 399
Fremont Street, that ugly hole in the ground that greets drivers
entering downtown San Francisco from the very first exit off of the
Bay Bridge. I think I'll be showing up for public comment at the
Planning Commission hearing on July 1st to ask that they put up some
fencing that covers the hole in the ground or something to spruce it
up - while not as prominent as the hole in the ground at 10th and
Market Streets, it is still a pretty prominent spot for a lot of folks
coming to or leaving from downtown San Francisco.

Also coming up on the Planning Department agenda (tentatively on July
22nd) is the approval for a medical marijuana (cannabis, whatever)
dispensary that wants to open up for business across the street from
Gymboree headquarters at 527 Howard Street. Welcome to San
Francisco! :)

John King talks about the 45 Lansing/Turnberry butterfly garden
project briefly: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/15/DDSQ1DTLOD.DTL

John King also adores the Millennium Tower in Rincon Hill ...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/20/BAPM1E0T6U.DTL

Our friend Carl Nolte takes a walk up Folsom Street from his home in
Bernal Heights all the way to Cupid's Span and the Rincon Hill
waterfront ... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/13/MNHT1DT8P7.DTL

Since I have not been updating my RinconHillSF.org blog very often,
I'd supplement my web browsing about neighborhood events with visits
to my friend Jeremy's LiveSoMa.com website (http://www.livesoma.com)
where you can actually read my partner's review of The American
Grilled Cheese Kitchen ( http://www.livesoma.com/2010/06/21/the-american-grilled-cheese-kitchen-an-official-review/
)

Have neighborhood news you'd like me to share? Email me at
Rinco...@gmail.com

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Happy Pride!!!

jamie whitaker

president
rincon hill neighborhood association
www.RinconHill.org