On a warm San Franciscan night... (a photo journey)

by citisven

The last two days have been truly gorgeous in the City by the Bay. Warm, almost balmy November nights. Not completely unusual, but after a relatively cool summer and early fall, this has been an unexpected treat.

Now I know that there are a lot of problems in this world and that life can be incredibly difficult at times, but there are those moments when all the heavy burdens fall away and I'm just in awe at the stunning beauty of the planet we live on and how blessed we are to be alive.

continued at Daily Kos....

"Coldest winter I ever spent"

by LaughingPlanet

Do you really need to be told about the famous quote falsely attributed to Mark Twain?

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco

A funny thing happened to me yesterday on my way to the cold, foggy, town in which I grew up:

I nearly melted.

It was the warmest August date ever in San Francisco, which topped out at 98 degrees, smashing the previous high for Aug. 24 by 9 degrees.

This is my hometown. It is never, EVER boiling hot in the summer. It is cold like the chasm where Dick Cheney's heart would have been.

Thanks to {do not say global warming}, things everywhere are changed. It's a change of a weathery pattern of some kind.

All I know is that the most beautiful city I've ever seen was an ugly, fetid, stinky swamp yesterday, and it sucked. Except for all those homers the Giants hit. w00t!

continued at Daily Kos....

RECOVERY: SF Breaks Ground on High Speed Rail's "Grand Central"

by greendem

Construction began Wednesday with a groundbreaking ceremony for the Transbay Transit Center, San Francisco's new state-of-the-art, multi-modal transportation hub designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. Scheduled to open in 2017, this landmark glass-and-steel structure will connect the city and the Bay Area via 11 public transit systems.  Notably, the Transbay Transit Center will be the San Francisco station for California High Speed Rail and the first new high-speed rail station in the United States.  Conceived as "the Grand Central of the West," the building is designed in the spirit of the great train stations of the world. The highly sustainable and accessible building is distinguished by dramatic light-filled spaces and a 5.4-acre rooftop park.

continued at Daily Kos...

Bees 'R' Us

by citisven

Who would do such a thing???

From the Hayes Valley Farm (SF) blog:

Sometime between the late afternoons of Monday July 19 and Tuesday July 20, an unknown person(s) intentionally sprayed pesticide into the entrances and ventilation holes of the two San Francisco Bee-Cause (SFBC) honey bee colonies at HVF.  The same person(s) tried to do the same to a third, smaller colony on site, belonging to Chris Burley.

it goes on:

The killing of the two mature SFBC colonies was complete.  The thousands of bees that died immediately or rushed to the entrance for fresh air fell onto the screened bottom board and clogged up the entrance to the hive, making escape impossible for any of the other bees and turning each hive into a gas chamber.  Chris Burley’s colony sustained a loss of approximately 60-70% of its individuals.

continued at Daily Kos...

Gavin Newsom: Making the Environment His Personal and Political Mission

by Ella Arnold

San Francisco Mayor and California Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom is a man who stands up for what he believes in. His willingness to take bold political risks and his unwavering personal integrity have led him to constantly be ahead of the curve on many important social and economic issues, from marriage equality and universal health care to homelessness and education. But the environment is truly the sole issue where Mayor Newsom’s unrelenting desire to create revolutionary reform by staying true to his personal convictions is most apparent.

continued at Daily Kos....

California: Break the Oil Addiction Cycle

by Ella Arnold

For weeks on end we have watched our dependence on Big Oil cause the greatest environmental disaster this country has ever seen. We have been horrified by pictures like this. We have been saddened by the stories of all of the Gulf Coast residents who have lost their jobs and are now struggling to make ends meet. And we have been angered by the ineptitude of the BP executives who allowed this tragedy to happen and could not care less if the Gulf Coast ever recovers.

The attitude of corporate greed and environmental irresponsibility has once again reared its ugly head, this time in the state of California, where on Monday, a deceptive ballot initiative called the California Jobs Initiative qualified for the state's November ballot.

continued at Daily Kos....