Blogs

By Benjamin Wachs

Last night the San Francisco Animal Welfare Commission held a public hearing on the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM) because they wanted to find out what kind of impact a spraying program designed to eradicate animals might have on…um…animals.

That was just the first of many ironies shot across reason’s bow.

The next one came when state Department of Food and Agriculture representative Bob Dowell (who heads the Light Brown Apple Moth program) tried to explain why the spraying was needed. I’ve heard Dowell give this speech before … and the justification for why the spraying is needed is always “crop damage.” If we don’t eradicate LBAM, it will wipe out California agriculture … it’s that dangerous.

But this time, he busted out a different explanation: we need to attack the Light Brown Apple Moth with pesticides because we’re worried about the impact of pesticides.

Say what? Dowell explained: there’s going to be a huge proliferation of LBAM across California in the next few years (if we don’t stop it), and since they can damage plants, farmers and people who see the LBAM in their plant nurseries or their gardens are going to want to stop them. And, to stop them, they’ll spray them with pesticides. Which is bad. So, if we don’t want to see an enormous spike in pesticide use to stop LBAM, we need to immediately use pesticides to stop LBAM.

We need to spray the village to save the village. Yes, we have really reached this point.

San Franciscans meet to Stop the Spraying
by Benjamin Wachs

Town School for Boys
2750 Jackson Street, San Francisco
6:00 p.m. Thursday April 24, 2008
Public meeting on the proposed aerial spraying of the Light Brown Apple Moth

Light Brown Apple Moth people like to talk. A lot. They also like to listen to each other talk about the Light Brown Apple Moth. That’s why they’re selling DVDs of previous meetings.

I repeat: the anti-Light Brown Apple Moth spraying forces have DVDs of previous Light Brown Apple Moth meetings for sale in the lobby.

“Stop Them Before They Spray Again: reports from the LBAM Frontlines” goes for $15.

But “Stop the Spray! A town meeting on forced aerial spraying, Corta Madera, CA, March 3, 2008” and “California State Senate Environmental Quality Committee Informational Hearing on Forced Urban Aerial LBAM Spraying, March 13, 2008, San Rafeal, CA, Sen. Joe Simitian, Chair” are sold together as a set for $20.

Think of them as cult classics.

A half-hour before the meeting, a mostly older neighborhood crowd is milling around in the lobby of the Town School for Boys, rifling through the DVDs and trading LBAM rumors.

Did you know that when they sprayed the first time, 640 people checked into the hospital, mostly complaining of respiratory ailments?

Windy day got you down? Well, get used to it.

By Joe Eskenazi

The last few days have been the sort that leave toupee-wearing San Franciscans thanking God (and Sy Sperling) for that money-back guarantee.

High hemlines and higher winds have combined to turn city dwellers into impromptu gynecologists. Less salaciously, your humble narrator has personally witnessed both a walk/don’t walk sign and the F-Line Trolley’s marquee being blown into the street. And, tragically, 50-year-old Kathleen Bolton was killed when a redwood branch landed atop her as she loaded her dog into the car (the dog was unhurt — we know you were wondering).

That San Francisco is a windy place has been a matter of national consensus ever since Stu Miller was supposedly blown clear off Candlestick Park’s mound during the 1961 All-Star Game.

And yet, the last few days have been exceptional — and, as Bolton’s survivors can tell you, the results have been a bit more dire than the balk and unearned run charged to Miller.

What’s up with the bluster? I asked a scientist to explain it — and he did.

If the killer pythons don't get you in 2020, the Big One will. A new report basically guarantees that California will be rocked by a major earthquake. Sometime in the next 29 years.

Scientists from the US Geological Survey, Southern Earthquake Center and California Geological Survey have improved their methods since 2003, and new data shows that San Francisco no longer has a 62 percent chance of being hit by a 6.2 quake by 2037.

We have a 67 percent chance.

The numbers paint an even darker picture for Los Angeles, which has a 37 percent chance of being hit with a 7.5 magnitude quake, verses our 15 percent chance of being hit with a comparable temblor. Phew.

Don't think all these fancy calculations will actually help predict when and where the Big One will strike, though. Tom Jordan, director of SEC wants you to know that "A big earthquake can happen tomorrow or it can happen 10 years from now."

So just to be on the safe side, you should start panicking now. --Andy Wright

Mayor Gavin Newsom rolls up his shirt sleeves, unbuttons the first three buttons of his shirt, and takes a tour of a state-of-the-art green dwelling in the Mission while murmuring things like, "Oh, are those LED lights? That's great."

Watch the video here. --Andy Wright

Farmworker advocates and environmental groups got together and filed a suit on Friday, suing the EPA for okaying the use of pesticides in California that they claim are harmful to people. The suit targets four specific pesticides called "organophosphates." It's amazing how tacking the prefix "organo" on just about anything can lull you into a false sense of security. Right now I'm picturing crop dusters gently sprinkling the agricultural landscape with granola.

The list of negative effects the groups ascribe to the chemicals reads like a laundry list of everything bad that a chemical could possibly do to you: dizziness, vomiting, convulsions, numbness in the limbs, loss of intellectual function and the kicker -- death. Oh, yeah, also: Hormone disruption, birth defects, cancer, loss of consciousness, seizures, abdominal cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, cessation of breathing ( didn’t we already say "death?"), and paralysis. Yeesh.

One of the pesticides may even be linked to the Great Disappearing Honey Bee Caper as it seems that using the pesticide for extended periods reduces the bees’ propensity for foraging. --Andy Wright

Do you hate the "vertical earthquake" that is transforming your quaint little San Francisco into some crappy facsimile of a certain east coast city that shall remain unnamed? Feeling a little contrarian? Want to sock it to those evil, money-grubbing developers? Then have we got the event for you! Tomorrow is the final Board of Appeals meeting concerning that new 50 foot luxury condo planned for 700 Valencia (at 18th) in the Mission.

Opponents claim that the building plan is out of scale with the surrounding structures, lacks affordable housing, and obscures the view of the beautiful Rigoberta Menchu mural on the eastern face of the nearby Women's Building on 18th. Proponents claim that, well, who the hell knows. But you can certainly find out tomorrow. Here's the skinny:

What: Board of Appeals hearing

When: Wednesday, April 9 (tomorrow) at 5:00 p.m.

Where: San Francisco City Hall, Room 416

photo courtesy/hansschnier on Flickr

-- B.B.

This is not a Light Brown Apple Moth - but it's not like you could tell the difference

By Benjamin Wachs

The California Department of Food and Agriculture appeared before the SF Supervisors today to defend their plan to spray insect pheromones over San Francisco to kill the “Light Brown Apple Moth” – an Australian pest popping up all over California.

They got their asses handed to them. I hope they can get home without those.

Supervisors look like they're poised to tell the state to back off, probably sometime next week. Representatives of both Carol MIgdin and Mark Leno appeared to say they're going to try to block the spraying at the state level.

Here’s a quick rundown of facts disclosed at the hearing, which a reasonable observer might consider “disturbing”:

Ahh, spring is finally here! Spring cleaning is such a pain in the ass though, why not ignore the inside of your disgusting apartment and focus on sprucing up the sidewalk instead? Plant*SF offers the perfect rationale with its upcoming two-day Sidewalk Landscaping workshop class. They'll cover getting a permit, swapping cement for shrubs, and picking the right plants for your little patch of urban jungle. It's this Saturday and Sunday (March 29 - 30). $85. Get some sun, freak. (via Ideal Bite)

Photos courtesy/Plant*SF

-- B.B.

An article in today's Chronicle describes the next major earthquake on the Hayward Fault as "inevitable" and declares that it will be "our Katrina." Yeesh. Experts estimate that the shaking alone will directly affect 5 million people and that if fires were to break out like they did in 1906, the number will be much higher. In case you want to mark your calendar, records show that a major earthquake has struck the Hayward Fault every 140 years between 1315 and 1868. The 140th anniversary of the last quake falls on Oct. 21 of this year. Are you one of those lucky San Franciscans who lives in a house with a garage? You're double screwed. Houses with garages are called "soft story buildings" because of the propensity for their heavier top floors to collapse into the ones underneath. Also, nobody has earthquake insurance and all our streets will drop into the ocean. -Andy Wright

Here's a pic of a rare, marbled iceberg that was spotted by 62-year-old Norwegian sailor, Oyvind Tangen. According to yesterday's Telegraph "green stripes are the result of algae growing in the ice, while brown, black and yellow lines form as the ice sheets from which bergs are formed pick up layers of sediment." So basically, this thing is pretty because it's really, really dirty.–Andy Wright

The pilot of the Cosco Busan container ship that hit the Bay Bridge and dumped 58,000 gallons of oil into the bay, killing 2,000 birds, is up shit creek without a paddle. San Francisco Business Times reported yesterday that John Joseph Cota will be charged with violations of the federal Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Act. Cota is looking at a combined year and six months in jail and $115,000 in fines. In related news, an article in today's Examiner reports that six members of the Cosco Busan's Chinese crew have been detained for more than four months without being charged with a crime. Arex Avanni, chief of Incident Management at the San Francisco sector of the U.S. Coast Guard, said the crew was being held "locally" but then referred further questions to the Department of Justice. The DOJ "wouldn't say where the crew was being held or answer any other questions about the men." The DOJ usually sticks its foreign prisoners in the Four Seasons, right?–Andy Wright

Market Street is the "deadliest" street in San Francisco for cyclists, according to Sunday's Chronicle. There have been a grand total of 215 bicycle collisions on the street since 1997, with three resulting in deaths and 14 in severe injuries. The corner of Market and Octavia is widely believed to be one of the most dangerous intersections for SF bikers. During the years of 2006-07, four cyclists were severely injured at the spot, partly due to motorists making illegal right turns. The spate of articles about bike safety follow the death of two Bay Area cyclists who were hit and killed by a deputy sheriff last weekend in Santa Clara. The SF Bike Coalition issued a statement on their Web site warning against the haste to depict cycling as dangerous. They site several studies that show, among other things, that "people who bike to work have a 39% lower rate of mortality than those who do not, even after adjusting for other risk factors." ( photo from edmsf.blogspot )-Andy Wright

SF residents will have to add their own estrogen to drinking water for now according to an article in today's Chronicle. Contrary to a report issued by the Associated Press yesterday, chemists who tested drinking water from 20 utilities nationwide said that they not detect a sex hormone in SF tap water.

The mistake apparently resulted from confusion over the waterworks foundation's laboratory test results conveyed by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to the Associated Press. The news service said it was looking into the matter.

Not only is our drinking water not full of crap according to the scientists, but they can't say enough nice things about it: "You guys have the best water that we tested. Period," Snyder said of San Francisco's drinking water. "I don't think we've ever tested drinking water that didn't have any of our target compounds in it." Claims that SF tap water flows directly from the glowing aura of Christ himself have been unsubstantiated.-Andy Wright

A study released a few weeks ago reported that some fish are experiencing gender mutations as a result of the hormones excreted in women's pee and flushed into the ocean. An Associated Press article today reveals the somewhat unsurprising news that people are consuming a "vast array" of pharmaceuticals in their drinking water as well. The article emphasisizes that the amounts of "antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers, and sex hormones" are "tiny" but goes on to say that "water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screening" because the public…doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed." They don't want us to worry our pretty little heads! Here are some of things you should not be worrying about: (click 'more')