San Francisco Diary--Journal Of An Exile

The charming picture shows the Burdette Building, a survivor of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, located at Second and Mission Streets. The Chronicle took time to invite tourists and locals to visit this historic site. At the time of the quake, the building was a saloon. All the buildings around it were destroyed either by the quake or the ensuing fire. I wonder if there's a lesson there.

NOTE: The same edition of The Chronicle had an article on the gunfight and death of one man and serious injury of three other locals near Second and Minna Streets, which is less than half a block from the Burdette Building. Apparently, The Chronicle didn't see the irony in promoting history and live-action entertainment at the same time. It would have been helpful if The Chron had suggested that it would be a wise idea to visit the historic site some time before dark. Alternatively, it could have suggested that the activities at Second and Mission are strictly BYOG (bring your own gun). The Burdette Building article pointed out that nothing in the saloon was broken during the quake, save one small chartreuse glass. I wonder how well the saloon would have survived hot lead.

NOTE: Three men from the nearby East Bay suburb of Hayward have been accused of shooting a man in the face with BB gun in San Francisco's Mission District. They admitted they did it because they thought the man was gay. In San Francisco, you would expect that to be treated as a near-capital crime. But the District Attorney's office has agreed to delay the arraignment of the three, who freely admitted that they had come to The City solely to shoot gay people. The original charges were assault with a deadly weapon, negligent discharge of a firearm, attempted mayhem, and the added enhancement of a hate crime.

The District Attorney's office announced that they requested the delay "to see if there can be some resolution that would meet all the interests of the communities and parties involved. We've communicated an offer to the defendants, and they're considering it," said Deputy DA Victor Hwang. Aha, you say. What could there be that could cause the San Francisco DA to consider lesser charges in a city that prides itself on being the biggest gay-friendly city in the nation--the city of Harvey Milk and other gay icons?

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions. But before I do that, let me introduce you to the names of the three defendants: Shafiq Hashemi, age 21; Mohammad Habibzada, age 24; and Sayed Bassam, age 21. The defendants reportedly targeted nearly a dozen victims that evening, and recorded the shootings on a video camera which the police have taken into evidence, along with the rifle. The DA also doesn't seem to be asking the police to do any further investigation into the identities of the other victims, and so far, none have come forward.

NOTE: An eighty-three year old man was arrested at the Sun Valley Mall when his gun discharged inside a local 24 Hour Fitness Center. I have no further comment, but I do have a lot of questions. What the heck is an eighty-three year old doing at a public gym? Couldn't he just take a good walk occasionally? Was he there to pick up girls? What kind of gun does he own and what was its condition that it went off from being dropped with his gym bag? And for the legal beagles, how can someone be charged with willfully discharging a weapon in a negligent manner? Is that gross negligence, or merely gross stupidity?

NOTE: Contrary to popular belief (mine included), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is not entirely crazy. The Court in San Francisco ruled that infamous attorney J. Tony Serra's lawsuit demanding that prison inmates be paid minimum wage for their prison labors was entirely without merit. It was even a 3-0 decision, believe it or not. This was not entirely a defendant/advocate lawsuit. Serra himself was serving time in the federal prison at Lompoc for tax-evasion. He calculated that the time he spent watering the prison's flowers was compensated at the unconscionable rate of 19 cents an hour, while the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. Serra alleged that the payment violated UN standards (sound familiar?). Since UN standards can only be applied to Americans if there is an existing treaty (which there isn't in this case), the court denied Serra his back wages.

Serra is best-known for his successful appeal on behalf of Huey P. Newton in a notorious Black Panther murder case. He was also loosely portrayed in the 1989 movie True Believer in which James Woods played the slightly-crazed defense attorney who managed to convince a jury that his Korean murder client was innocent because the jurors couldn't distinguish a Chinese drug dealer implicated in local crime from his Korean client. Serra had, shall we say, a personal interest in keeping cocaine dealers in business.

The court also held that a long line of cases distinguishes convicted prisoners from the general populace, and added that it is within the discretion of the imprisoning authority to decide if prisoners should be paid for their labor at all. The court reiterated that incarceration has nothing to do with "involuntary servitude." The Thirteenth Amendment banning slavery specifically carved out an exception for convicted prisoners. Serra had been convicted previously for tax-evasion, but allowed as how it was easier to pay the taxes than to keep losing court battles over his non-payment. But getting back wages was worth a shot, I guess. At least he would have paid the taxes on his income this time.

NOTE: The California bullet train that is supposed to rush passengers between San Francisco and Los Angeles (and eventually, San Diego) will not be leaving the station any time soon. California voters approved a $9 billion bond (yes, you read that right) to help pay for the high speed rail transit. Californians seem to have no idea how far the state is in debt, let alone how they got there. As jobs and money flee the state, why not further indebt ourselves for a high speed train to hustle us from one welfare office to another? Now, a state senate committee is looking into what could become the biggest transportation boondoggle in California history.

The original $33.6 billion price tag appears to be closer to $42.6 billion. It seems that the geniuses who put the plan together forgot to adjust for inflation. But what's an additional $9 billion to us rich Californians? It also appears that the fare, originally intended to be very competitive with airline fares, would have to be raised to $106 from SF to LA just to keep pace with current inflation. And even better news. That fare is based on ridership projections which totally unrealistically include stops along the way. One senator found the estimate of 24,100 daily San Francisco to Los Angeles commuters to be grossly over-confident. And he asked further about the projections about 4,700 riders from Gilroy, Redwood City at 3,900, or Merced at 5,300. Merced riders would have to travel 113 miles just to get to the bullet train station in San Francisco. It's only 250 miles from Merced to Los Angeles. Why not just drive to the station in LA and eliminate the middle-man?

State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) isn't buying any of the authority's excuses. Spokesman for the transit project, Richard Katz, told the senators not to worry, "You have to understand that for years the Authority had only a skeletal staff working for voter approval. But if the project doesn't go forward, the money will be used to upgrade and repair current rail infrastructure." Well, that's encouraging. Californians voted $9 billion dollars for a project which may never come to fruition to repair railways that are already underused and deep in debt.

Simitian countered with "Private sector investors are going to want a guarantee that they will get what they invested in, not some project they know nothing about and weren't sold on by the planners. It's hard to imagine how that guarantee will be provided." As a Democrat, Simitian should know the answer to that one. Another gigantic pie-in-the-sky state bond. But at least he is looking out for his constituents. Says Simitian, "Voters were told that we would be building a statewide system." In other words, not repairing existing systems.

Major community organizations in his district and much of the San Francisco Peninsula are also distressed by the haphazard plans for tearing up homes and businesses, dividing neighborhoods, and destroying the landscape by building the system at ground-level. Safety concerns were also raised, since the trains will be moving at 120 mph, and there are already regular fatal accidents on Cal-Train which travels at less than half that speed on very similar routes. In other words, the Authority was more involved in selling the concept of high speed rail than with the nuts and bolts of building it.

NOTE: And now, for another exciting update on the activities of the SF Board of Stupidvisors. Supervisor Chris Daly, made a New Year's resolution that he would make sure to drop an f-bomb at every meeting. He's been disappointing the public lately, but he's now back on target. He found something to get f-ing irate about. At a public meeting held in a Nation of Islam mosque (read "Black Muslims") in the Hunters Point District (read "murder central") to discuss blocking a local development, an attendee was forcefully dragged out of the meeting, handcuffed to a light post, and threatened with being shot.

That's enough to make any Supervisor f-ing angry, right? Well, this is San Francisco, and you've got it wrong. Daly is irate because the person dragged out of the meeting and roughed up while handcuffed to the light post was plainclothes security for the company the locals were protesting. Said Daly, as he was presenting his resolution to the Supes demanding an apology from the company and the guard: "In the Nation of Islam mosque on Third Street? This is a middle-aged white man, who is a former police officer, packing heat in the mosque. Are you f-ing kidding me?"

Lennar Corporation, the developer who wants to build a new shipyard project to replace the broken down slum dwellings and create new jobs for the area, wrote a letter of apology to the mosque, regretting that the incident occurred and promising that such an incident would not be allowed to occur again. The company explained that they sent the guard because in prior meetings in the neighborhood, supporters of the project had been pushed around and threatened. But that's not enough for the f-ing supervisor. He wants a resolution from the Board condemning the company. After all, the locals have a right to claim some nonsensical argument about the company producing dangerous dust during the demolition and construction process.

The complaints about the project originated with, and have been stirred up almost solely by the local thug bosses who fear that a new development and actual jobs might weaken their stranglehold on the neighborhood. The meeting was attended largely by locals who try to sleep with with one eye open and their ears plugged to dampen the nightly sound of gunfire. Some came to hear about the mystery dust, but many came just to hear more about the project.

As for the f-ing white security guard--he was in plainclothes, and the mosque officials said he was being very discreet, quietly slipping into the back row of the meeting hall. They all said that nobody representing the mosque ever saw his gun, for which he has a concealed weapons permit. Several of the persons attending the meeting said that they weren't even aware the guard was there. The guard said that after the group (which did not officially represent the mosque) dragged him outside and handcuffed him, they threatened to break his arm and shoot him. But who in his right mind is going to believe a f-ing white guy, particularly an ex-cop?

I can't wait to see how the Board finally votes on the resolution. Daly, who is white, is notorious not only for his constant dropping of the f-bomb at Board meetings, but for his race-baiting style that mimics that of Father Pfleger in Chicago. I wonder if the resolution will be called "The Chris Daly Resolution to Ban F-ing White Men from Attending Open Public Meetings in Black Neighborhoods." Fortunately, Daly is termed out this coming January. Of course, the mayor's job will be open at that time.