Francisco Barradas

Every progressive has his price. For the San Francisco Bay Guardian, it's apparently $1  million.

For decades, the Guardian and its staff have insulted the Weekly and its writers because we were purchased by an out-of-town corporation. Now that the Guardian is seriously entertaining the idea of selling to a corporate interest group led by out-of-towners ... well, this is the foie gras of Schadenfreude. The delicious hypocrisy is so thick it's spreadable, yet it melts in your mouth like ice cream.

No irony could possibly taste as good -- except maybe Chris Daly moving to the suburbs, a superior, self-proclaimed feminist claiming that his domestic violence issue is a private, family matter, or Supervisor David Chiu being betrayed by the very person he put into power. The fact that all of this happened, that progressive icons have feet of clay up to their necks, ought to tell us something.

More >>

ANALYSIS:

Dionette Cherney

Randolph Ang was just like the majority of bike riders riding down the Embarcadero in San Francisco. He disregarded the law by blowing through a red light. Ang flew into a crosswalk because he was, well, in a hurry and, well, everyone does it. But unlike many riders, he killed a woman with his vehicle (yes, state law says a bike is a vehicle and riders must follow traffic laws).

In many communities the citizens would expect jail time for manslaughter whether it was an accident or not. But in this one, politics and tradition came into play, and Ang is reportedly getting off with community service in a plea deal with the District Attorney's Office.

But these facts remain: A tourist from Washington, D.C., Dionette Cherney, is dead; Ang knowingly broke the law, and ultimately that act killed her. In my mind, he needs to do some time if for no reason than to send the message that breaking the law and killing people in San Francisco is not to be tolerated, whether you do it with a bicycle, car, or bus.
More >>

The once and future way to run?

​Talking with Christopher McDougall, author of Born to Run, it's easy to see what has made him such a great interpreter of athletic prowess for the general public.

Born to Run -- part travelogue, part sports narrative, part anthropological sketch, and part investigative report -- was a book about super-athletes written for the average athlete. Today, despite his celebrity among fans and running enthusiasts, McDougall continues to approach the quest for the best way to place one foot in front of the other with an amateur's humility.

"I feel like I'm still working this out in my head, so I'm glad to have the chance to talk about it," he said when SF Weekly reached him by phone to discuss his recent story on running form in the New York Times Magazine. "I feel like I struggle with form all the time."

More >>

Albert Law

Huge red ladder trucks from Alameda were parked along the Embarcadero this morning, and it wasn't difficult to figure out why. It's traditional that firefighters come from miles away to parade their apparatus at funerals. It's also traditional for them to park in front of churches and cross their trucks' ladders as a salute to a fallen comrade, as if they were crossing swords.

There is another tradition among fire departments: Employees ― sometimes thousands of them ― from around the city and state get paid not to work and to attend the funerals of someone many of them didn't know. Off-duty firefighters can be called in to cover all those shifts ― and you would assume overtime is involved. (Our calls to the San Francisco Fire Department and Alameda Fire Department have not been returned.)

While many readers may think this is a crass approach to a tragedy where two San Francisco firefighters lost their lives, so be it. Of course, there is no way to put a price on the worth of the men who died doing their duty. But I think the question regarding the cost of the tribute is worth asking when the city and the fire department are facing huge budget cuts that may affect service and firefighter jobs.

I wondered: How could the Alameda Fire Department afford to have its employees here when it couldn't afford to have them trained in water rescue, which resulted in one man recently taking his own life while standing chest-deep in water with fire department personnel standing by?

More >>