San Francisco News Blog

The Giants may not be able to afford Barry Zito, but Giants fans on a budget can now only afford to go to his games

​Let me say it up front and outright: The San Francisco Giants' long-planned move to charge more for more desirable games makes good business sense. Including factors such as the day's starting pitcher, the weather, and the team's place in the pennant race all adds up -- at least on a calculator.

I expect the team will make scads of extra money, though not enough to write off the Barry Zito fiasco. But I sincerely hope that this is a dismal failure, and those responsible for it are disgraced into finding non-baseball avenues of squeezing every last dollar out of rubes. Maybe they could go work for the Department of Parking and Traffic.

The oft-quoted model for the new, likely soon-to-be-ubiquitous baseball pricing system is airline ticket purchasing. It's almost certain readers have experienced first-hand the joys of last week's $300 tickets this week being priced at $410. It's a strong incentive to buy early before myriad contrived supply-and-demand factors are tossed into the algorithm and you end up paying through the nose. As noted before, inducing people to spend quickly and pinging those who do not is good business sense.

Brainchildvn

Pick. Up. The. Phone.

​Artists install working phone booth in front of Newsom's office as part of Call the Mayor Day. [SFAppeal]

But maybe the message machine picked up because he was at the Central Subway ground-breaking? [SF Citizen]

Valentine's Day: Just so much pink fluff. [SF Girl By Bay]

A Muni Town Hall user's manual. [N Judah]

SFUSD school assignment changes: A or F? [Akit's Complaint Department]

Oakland cafe bans laptops on the weekend. [Oakland North]

​Keandre Davis, 20, will face three charges related to a shooting outside the Suede nightclub on Bay Street on Sunday morning that left one dead and four injured. Davis will be charged with murder, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, and negligent discharge of a firearm, said DA office spokesman Brian Buckelew.

San Francisco resident Phuc Le, 42, will face a murder charge following his arrest Sunday in the Tenderloin, Buckelew said. Le called 911 and was allegedly found covered in blood by police. He led officers to a nearby apartment where Tuan Nguyen, 36, was found stabbed to death. (Note: Le's name was misspelled by police -- and in initial news stories -- as "Phuck Van Lee.")
 

Jamal Trulove, who enjoyed a brief bout of celebrity as an unsuccessful contestant on the VH1 reality TV show I Love New York 2 in 2007, was found guilty of first-degree murder in San Francisco Superior Court this afternoon.

Jamal Trulove, a.k.a. 'Milliown'

​Trulove, known on the show as "Milliown," had faced the murder charge and one charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm following his arrest for the killing of 28-year-old San Francisco man Seu Kuka in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood in 2007. Following four days of deliberations, the jury found him guilty on both counts -- as well as a firearm enhancement to the murder charge that means Trulove faces a minimum sentence of 50 years in prison, according to Brian Buckelew, spokesman for District Attorney Kamala Harris.

Buckelew characterized the verdict as an against-the-odds victory for police and prosecutors, since the case rested on no evidence beyond the testimony of a single witness. In Visitacion Valley, as in other city neighborhoods plagued by gang violence, witnesses are notoriously reluctant to testify in murder cases. "Twenty-five people saw it. One person was brave enough to come forward and say what she saw," Buckelew said. "The takeaway is that one person can make a difference."

And yet, SF Weekly has discovered that Palin's use of her own personal palm pilot is nothing new. Here's the photographic evidence:

Rapid City, S.D., Jan. 11, 2009

​

​Patrol Special Officer Robert Burns -- who was on duty outside the club under contract with Suede -- wounded the suspect, whose name has not been released, during the incident early Sunday morning, according to a statement from Jane Warner, president of the Patrol Special Police Officers Association. The suspect was being treated at General Hospital.

According to the statement, "Officer Burns evaluated the situation. He noted that the suspect continued to threaten to fire or fired his gun, prompting Burns to draw his side arm and return fire, injuring and stopping the suspect." The statement also asserted that "Burns' quick action avoided additional harm to the public."

Dorothea Lange

Yes, San Francisco's economic 'stress levels' have been worse...

​If you needed a statistical analysis to back up your gut feeling, here it is: San Francisco ain't such a bad place to be. At least that's what the Associated Press' Economic Stress Index reported on Monday.

The index -- which is also a somewhat addictive statistically based interactive Web site -- is based upon "scores" ranging from 1 to 100 derived by crunching together a county's unemployment, foreclosure, and bankruptcy rates. It's like golf in that lower is better; a score of 11 or more earns a county a "stressed" designation. 

And how is San Francisco County doing? Well, could be better -- has been worse.

Joe Eskenazi

Wave back at the nice man cleaning detritus from the antebellum era out of the city's sewers...

​Posit the question "How do they clean the sewers in San Francisco" and you'll be surprised. Unless, of course, your answer was "They roll out a device resembling a Victorian-era laboratory contraption painted tomato red, emitting more noise than a diesel locomotive, and employing technology more often seen in fountains and vacuum cleaners." If that was your answer -- you're on the money.

As to what, exactly, the Department of Public Works is cleaning out of the sewers with the aforementioned contraption -- there, too, you'll be surprised. The answer we were given Monday at the corner of Fourth and Berry was "bricks from 1860."

Here's how "The Sewer Hog" and "The Grit Gator" work:

Bad form, lads. Bad form.

​A pair of Bernal Heights men's conversation about a member of the opposite sex turned violent Sunday, with the confrontation concluding like all too many poorly refereed quidditch matches.

Police were dispatched to the 300 block of Crescent after a gent reported that he "got into an argument with a co-worker about a woman they knew." The disagreement escalated out of the realm of the verbal when the victim's colleague wielded a broomstick, beat the victim twice, and fled the scene (presumably not on the broomstick).

Per police and wizarding policies, the suspect in this case is He Who Shall Not Be Named.

N-Judah Chronicles/Lauren Oliver -- Used with Permission

Is the relationship between Twitter and Muni symbiotic?

​Pencils up! Which of the following actually has a shot at improving Muni's lot?

A. Prayer
B. Paramilitary squads
C. Workers control the means of production
D. Twitter

According to an increasing buzz, it's "D." And while we thought this was simply another case of New Technology Emerges In Futile Battle Over Muni Accountability, who knows? It seems Twitter may yet play a part in a better Muni.

Our favorite transport-obsessed blogger, Greg Dewar, sees an actual role for Twitter beyond annoying the hell out of Gavin "Transit First" Newsom. Even though Muni hasn't yet begun sending out Twitter alerts -- something like if ur standing on Fillmore 'n' Haight, sorry 'bout the mess! would be a good start -- many individual users have done just that. (Via Twitter, Muni did offer a free fastpass to whomever could guess the amount of money pillaged from the transit system by the state -- good fun and intelligent marketing, too).

Does heading to an Municipal Transportation Agency board meeting for several hours in the middle of a work day sound feasible? Not for those of you with jobs. Maybe not even for the unemployed. But transit-centric bloggers -- streetsblog and transbay to name two -- have taken to live-tweeting key meetings.