Criminal Restauranteurs of San Francisco

The Golden Gate Restaurant Association (GGRA) is a anti-employee lobby group in the Bay Area. They're suing the City of San Francisco, attempting to overturn a rule which would allow workers to have a minuscule slice of health care coverage. So, fuck the GGRA. And fuck every restaurant who supports them.

From the GGRA website, I grabbed a list of all the restaurants in San Francisco whose names begin with the letter 'A'. There are about 800 member restaurants, total, and about 500 in San Francisco proper - the rest are in Marin, Oakland, etc. In theory, we should be able to lean on these restaurants and tell them to fuck off or else we'll fuck off from their shitty restaurants. There might be a lobby group working on this in SF already - a universal/single-payer group or similar, but it's an idea.

Ideally we could get a list of restaurants and then call them all, send an email to them all, write a letter to them all, then drop by all the restaurants in our neighborhoods (we'd just divide up the list by neighborhood), and then make sure they knew what the community wanted them to do. If they were compelled to go out of business, there's nothing we could do to stop them - but we should let our demands be known, at the very minimum. We could go as far as picketing, etc. Nice.  :)

21st Amendment
563 Second Street
San Francisco
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415-369-0900
Cuisine: American

A16 A16
2355 Chestnut Street
San Francisco
Marina
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(415) 771-2216
Cuisine: Italian

Absinthe Brasserie & Bar Absinthe Brasserie & Bar
398 Hayes Street
San Francisco
Hayes Valley
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(415) 551-1590
Cuisine: French

Academy Grill (California Culinary Academy) Academy Grill (California Culinary Academy)
625 Polk Street
San Francisco
Civic Center
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(415) 354-9180
Cuisine: American

Acme Chophouse Acme Chophouse
24 Willie Mays Plaza
San Francisco
Mission Bay /SOMA
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(415) 644-0240
Cuisine: California Fresh
Testing


Alfred's Steakhouse
659 Merchant Street
San Francisco
Financial District
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(415) 781-7058
Cuisine: Steakhouse

Alioto's Outdoor Crab Market Alioto's Outdoor Crab Market
#7 Fisherman's Wharf
San Francisco
Fisherman's Wharf
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(415) 673-0183
Cuisine: Seafood

Alioto's Restaurant Alioto's Restaurant
8 Fisherman's Wharf
San Francisco
Fisherman's Wharf
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(415) 673-0183
Cuisine: Italian, Seafood

Alive Alive
1972 Lombard Street
San Francisco
Marina/Cow Hollow
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(415) 923-1052
Cuisine: Vegetarian

Americano Americano
8 Mission Street
San Francisco
SOMA
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(415) 278-3777
Cuisine: Californian, Italian


Amici's East Coast Pizzeria
2033 Union Street
San Francisco
Marina/Cow Hollow
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(415) 885-4500
Cuisine: Pizzeria

Amici's East Coast Pizzeria Amici's East Coast Pizzeria
216 King Street (at 3rd Street)
San Francisco
SBC Park
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(415) 546-6666
Cuisine: Pizzeria

Amici's East Coast Pizzeria Amici's East Coast Pizzeria
2200 Lombard Street
San Francisco
Marina
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(415) 885-4500
Cuisine: Pizzeria

Amphora Wine Merchant Amphora Wine Merchant
384A Hayes Street
San Francisco
Hayes Valley
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(415) 863-1104
Cuisine:

Ana Mandara Ana Mandara
891 Beach Street
San Francisco
Ghirardelli Square
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(415) 771-6800
Cuisine: Asian, Vietnamese

Ana Mandara
900 North Point
San Francisco
Ghiradelli Square
(415) 771-6800
Cuisine: Vietnamese

Andale Mexican Restaurant Andale Mexican Restaurant
2150 Chestnut Street
San Francisco
Marina
(415) 749-0506
Cuisine: Mexican

Andalu Andalu
3198 16th Street
San Francisco
Mission
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(415) 621-2211
Cuisine: International

Angelina's Deli-Café & Catering Angelina's Deli-Café & Catering
6000 California Street
San Francisco
Richmond
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(415) 221-7801
Cuisine: CafT, American, Delicatessen, Italian,

Annabelle's Bar & Bistro
68 Fourth Street
San Francisco
Union Square/Downtown
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(415) 284-9000
Cuisine: American

Ansonia Hotel
711 Post Street
San Francisco
Union Square
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(415) 673-2670
Cuisine: American
Renowned American Cuisine and an International Atmosphere inside the historic Ansonia Hotel.

Aperto Restaurant Aperto Restaurant
1434 18th Street
San Francisco
Potrero Hill
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(415) 252-1625
Cuisine: Italian, Mediterranean

Aqua Development Corporation
244 California Street
San Francisco
415-781-2001
Cuisine:

Aramark dba The Carnelian Room
555 Calfornia Street, 52nd Floor
San Francisco
415-433-7500
Cuisine:

Ararat Mediterranean Tapas Ararat Mediterranean Tapas
4072 18th Street
San Francisco
Castro
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(415) 252-9325
Cuisine: Mediterranean

Arlequin Food To Go
384B Hayes Street
San Francisco
Hayes Valley
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(415) 626-1211
Cuisine: American, Bakery, CafT, French, Mediterranean

AsiaSF AsiaSF
201 Ninth Street
San Francisco
SOMA
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(415) 255-2742
Cuisine: Cal-Asian

Asqew Grill Asqew Grill
1607 Haight Street
San Francisco
Haight/Ashbury
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(415) 701-9301
Cuisine: Eclectic & International

Asqew Grill Asqew Grill
3348 Steiner Street
San Francisco
Marina/Cow Hollow
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(415) 931-9200
Cuisine: Eclectic & International

Asqew Grill Asqew Grill
3415 California Street
San Francisco
Laurel Village
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(415) 386-5606
Cuisine: Eclectic & International


Asqew Grill
3583 16th Street
San Francisco
Castro
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(415) 626-3040
Cuisine: Eclectic & International

Atrium (San Francisco Marriott) Atrium (San Francisco Marriott)
55 Fourth Street
San Francisco
SOMA
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(415) 896-1600
Cuisine: Continental

Aziza Aziza
5800 Geary Boulevard
San Francisco
Richmond
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(415) 752-2222
Cuisine: Moroccan, Californian

Azul Bar and Lounge Azul Bar and Lounge
1 Tillman Place
San Francisco
Financial District
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(415) 362-9750
Cuisine:

Democracy Now Video Embed

Been wanting this functionality forever. You have to click around for it, but eventually you end up at archive.org and an HTML snippet which can supposedly be embedded. We'll find out right now.



Uh, well it works! Needs a bit (a lot) of work, but it essentially works. That's a good start.

...there are two sets of height/width parameters that you can change. and you have to change the 'autoplay' setting from 'true' to 'false' in 4 locations. Hey, Democracy Now! - community-supported radio, that's how we do. :)

Israel: Weapon Tester For U.S. Military

DIME weapons. Nice.

Israeli functions as a military outpost for the U.S. One of their jobs is to test new weapons on Palestinians and Gazans.

Israel Nearing 1,000 Murder Mark

I guess that's what they mean when they talk about being 'near their goal' or whatever. 1,000 is a pretty solid number to bring into the upcoming Israeli elections.

I think the racism must be so strong in Israel - like here in the U.S. - that killing Gazan civilians and resistance fighters is one and the same -- there's just not distinction at all for Israel.

This guy Olmert better not try to show up in my town. I'll arrest his ass.

Least Modern Bookstore In The Country

That would be Stacey's on Market. In all the time I've spent in San Francisco, not once did I go in there -- except, that is, until the other day, when I went it to see why it was failing.

Five things jumped out at me:

1. Underutilized space - too much of the floor space was underutilized - being either sparse or just not being maximized to see stuff and things
2. No cafe
3. An incredible view of Market from the 2nd floor, where a cafe should be - ideally, with a very long bar running across the length of the Market St window.
4. The 'STACEYS books' sign outside on Market is basically invisible. If you are a brand name, you can get away with using your name -- otherwise, just put a big 'BOOKS' sign up there. The 'books' on the sign is tiny and can barely be seen. No tourists would be interested to stop in, that's for sure.
5. The technical books they had seemed like a relic. I understand that old traditions die hard, but if it's killing your business, maybe you should think about ditching them? I noticed a few tech books in the back that absolutely nobody would be interested in.

In short, if I wanted a bookstore to fail, I would do exactly what Stacey's has done -- nothing.

Frugal Foodies Dinner

Sounds cool.

U.S. Terror In Nicaragua

Very typical article - bashing the leader of a non-compliant country as 'totalitarian' for the entire first half, and then allowing us the know why it's all made up:

Leftwingers flocked from all over the world to help harvest coffee, build schools and be inspired by a government that promoted women's rights, literacy and social justice. Events turned when the Reagan administration, alarmed by Managua's tilt to Moscow, sponsored a bloody and ruinous insurrection by Contra rebels which ended in stalemate. For many it was an immoral and illegal intervention by an overweening superpower, a harbinger of today's Iraq. The Sandinistas' credibility was damaged by presiding over hyperinflation and a draft. Exhausted voters, fearing fresh US-backed mayhem, ousted them in a 1990 election, a shocking, unexpected result which reduced many to tears. The revolution was over.

So, the electorate was terrorized by U.S. sponsored Contras so much that they finally relented and voted for the U.S. candidate. They knew that if they voted for their own guy again - Ortega - they'd suffer years more of murder and terror on a massive scale. Reagan was a good guy.

Still, the article is completely absurd -- it talks in once sentence as if the U.S. backed nationwide terror, and in the next sentence as if there was no such thing. Bizarre, but that's the standard:

Three centre-right governments ruled from 1990 to 2006. The economy stabilised, combatants were demobilised and democracy took root. But corruption blossomed and the poor were forgotten. Jobs were scarce and most people scrabbled on less than $2 a day. Ortega lost consecutive presidential elections and was accused of raping his stepdaughter, Zoilamérica Narváez, since she was 11. He denied it and no trial took place because a court decided the statute of limitations applied. But his reputation was shredded, although Murillo stood by her husband.

Um, isn't that the whole point -- to appoint right-wing governments? The combatants - the terrorist Contras - we demobilised because the U.S. didn't need them to terrorize the population anymore. That the poor were forgotten was the predictable and necessary outcome of the election of a U.S. candidate - what would be the point of the invasion-by-terror otherwise?

The 'article,' of course, is unsigned, and it uses unnamed 'western officials' to bash the new lefty govenrment. We're allowed another sliver of truth in the parting sentence:

Kaufman will not turn his back on the flawed Second Coming of the Sandinistas. "Do we think [it] is better than another rightwing, neoliberal government beholden to US masters? Absolutely."

It's totally crazy. We need a people-fueled international newspaper with real resources. Indymedia is great, but it'd be better to have people getting paid so they can eat and take the time necessary to do the best work.

Mayoral, Governor Crimes An Institutional Problem

So the latest case of a corrupt mayor. What to do?

Doesn't it seem a bit weird that one person can steer a contract to a particular contractor based on nothing more than who they like? Isn't that just a disaster waiting to happen?

Of course it is. So why do mayors and governors have any say in the process at all? Really, there should be a board - say, a city council, that appoints an independent 'contracts board' that awards contracts based on various preset specifications.

Shit - I don't know the specifics, but it seems all too easy for governors and mayors to run roughshod over the system. What's the point of government if it doesn't have built-in checks and balances?

What End Of Times Means

If the Times goes away, we will no longer have a national newspaper that cheerleads us into war. After that, we might be able to start rightsizing some of the military-industrial complex.

Nice.

Time For 32-Hour Work Weeks, Or 6-Hour Days

Why not? The economy is shrinking anyways. At least this way, people can be employed. Or we could mandate a six-hour day.