nVerse

Some SF Bike Habits

Lo, i am tempted to start this post off by commenting on hipster-cyclist smugness, or extremists cycling culture, or people who rely on physical activities to define their identity…but that’s not in the cards for this post.  It would take me too off topic.  Nor is this a post about the idiocy of riding a brake-less fixed gear bike around in one of the most hill-y cities in the world. (this article here, tops it off anyways).

No, no, this post is about trends that i have seen amongst the SF biking ilk that are dangerous, stupid or annoying and falls in the “WTF are they doing?  they are going to get themselves killed!” category.  (note, i bike myself, occasionally)

1.  Riding a bike down a sidewalk and across the crosswalk way faster than people walk.  (cars making a right hand turn won’t see your dumb-speeding a55)

2. Riding your bike on the rightside of  car and blowing through a stop sign when that car’s blinker shows it is about to make a right hand turn

3. Riding a bike, without brakes, in san francisco

4. Riding a bike, without brakes, in san francisco, and blowing stop signs, thinking that the appearance of trying to slow down by dragging a toe of a shoe makes it ok

5. Riding a bike, without brakes, in san francisco, blowing stop signs, thinking that the appearance of trying to slow down by dragging a toe of a shoe makes it ok,  while wearing headphones and listening to music.

6. Riding a bike, without brakes, in san francisco, blowing stop signs, thinking that the appearance of trying to slow down by dragging a toe of a shoe makes it ok,  while wearing headphones and listening to music, and NOT wearing a helmet.  idiot.

7. heckling drivers during a critical mass ‘outing’ and/or throwing beer/water/your fist on their car.  Being part of a large mob like crowd won’t stop the wrong guy that you do this to from getting out of his car and hitting you in the face.

8. twittering or text-ing or whatever the F it is you are doing with your cell phone, while cycling

9. participating in the ‘tweed day’ rides in the mission - you are a joke and part of a growing annoying wanna-be-hipster crowd that is ruining the mission - go back to the marina district you terds. Im-A-gonna-throw-a-bannana-peel-in-front-a-you.

ok, ok, i lied, i had to get in a hipster jab there.  somewhere.

you know what seeing a bunch of tweed-jacketed wawnnabe-hipsters riding down mission street on their rickety bikes is like?  It’s like this one time i was at a Halloween party and there were 4 dudes dressed as the characters from Will Ferrell’s Anchorman movie singing “afternoon delight” (badly, but trying very hard to harmonize) to people with polite smiles (which hid their gritted teeth)…you know the characters i’m talking about? Ron Burgandy.  Though the movie was funny, seeing 4 dudes dressed up and acting out scenes and songs from the movie, was not funny.  I like that movie - i didn’t appreciate their homage.  I like the mission, I like tweed jackets, and I like bikes…

10. Heckling and banging on a car’s hood …even if you were rightly wronged - see point 7 - likely you will have the same result.

<note - SF cops. you suck. write tickets to the offending cyclists…it’ll save lives - i know a TON of riders and i don’t think a single one has ever been stopped by a cop>

Who Says Martinez Isn’t Fun?

Ok, so in case you aren’t sure where Martinez, California is (odds are that most San Franciscans have heard of it but can’t tell you exactly in which direction it lies), it is located about an hour north-east of San Francisco

View Larger Map

Anyhoo - here’s a nifty little account of a recent goings-on in that fair city to the east…doesn’t it sound awesome?  …er, at least exciting?  frog hunting? meth?  yikes!

"(05-28) 14:07 PDT MARTINEZ --
A Tracy man was convicted of voluntary manslaughter Wednesday for
fatally shooting his friend after a frog-hunting trip in Brentwood
during which both men were high on methamphetamine."

And what the heck is in the water in Tracy?  seems like a lot of wack-job news articles are coming out of that city…

read the fully story on SFGate

Oh Qrap! San Francisco Public Officials’ Salaries

…from 2007!

Wait, wait, wait.  Our fair city’s budget is deep in the red …to the point where they are putting parking meters all along Golden Gate Park.

I don’t know who you blame for the city’s budget crisis….maybe you blame the Board of Supervisors for being inept, or maybe you blame mayor Gavin Newsom for not being in town, and not paying attention to the city, while he spends so much time cavorting around the state country campaigning for Governorship and twittering or maybe you blame Muni for not, uh, well for being Muni.

hey, speaking of Muni, did you know that the head of Muni, in 2007 earned $325,452???

ARE_YOU_KIDDING_ME???

<puke>

check it out: from the Business Insider, a partial list of what some of our budget-challenged city’s public officials made TWO years ago:

And by the way, what exactly is a “special nurse” and how do i become one of them?  for $350k a year, that must be a very special nurse.

The only one that sorta seems ok is Johnny Lo, who makes made $250k … but only because he has a sweet sounding title of BATTALION CHIEF of the the Fire Department.