Eye on Blogs

That these facilities, and especially the Coliseum, are now counted among sports' ugliest is a testament to the unruly growth of the NFL. I refer specifically to Mount Davis, a chunk of third deck seating added in 1995 at the behest of Al Davis, whose Raiders were arriving once again in Oakland in much the same manner as the Clantons in Tombstone. The seats had been dropped on top of two new rows of luxury boxes, and the hideous additions replaced a wonderful view of the Oakland hills to the east. The stadium was now enclosed; it was a football stadium where baseball trespassed during the summer months. And now, when people think of dual-use stadiums, they don't think about their simple practicality; they think of a dyspeptic old rich guy and his silly mountain.

Deadspin dogs on the Oakland Coliseum, and hard. But it is difficult to argue with the contents.

Read the post in full.

Loud explosions. Drunk people. And more drunk people. But mostly because of the explosions.

Leave your dogs (and cats and mice and snakes) at home this weekend, pretty please. The fireworks scare even the most well trained of dogs, and skittish pets can run off, never to be seen again. It happens every 4th of July.

SF Appeal has official suggestion from those in the know: Leave the fur kids at the condo.

The newest bar with all the buzz is Rickhouse, a whisky bar put together by the same people who brought you the legendary Bourbon and Branch. Well, Holden of San Francisco Love Story attended the opening last night, and she came back with a little review. In her opinion the bar was a little too Theme Park-y:

2. Cocktail napkins are, I do not lie, made of burlap. Burlap. Because really, what is more absorbent?

3. Ice. This was actually rather impressive. Apparently, the owners tracked down some kind of real ice-cube making machine that makes these perfect 2 x 2 enormous cubes. Great when whiskey’s poured over, but ridiculous looking in a cocktail glass. It’s hard to explain, but the ice looked fake. Like plastic. It scared me.

Read the whole thing at San Francisco Love Story.

Mission Mission: Attempted Strangling on Capp
"In spite of all the onlookers, no one seemed very willing to jump in (myself included)."

I Don't You: Adventures on BART
"I daydreamed that if I got off before her, I'd turn to her and pointing real Roger-Rabbit like and shout, "This is where I'm going!""

Alapan: Chinatown, 2009
Close up.

Marin County Free Library Blog: Re-Tooling Your Career at the Novato Library
"...it's not just for the unemployed: retirees, recent graduates, or anyone just ready for a change is welcome to attend, free of charge."

Streetsblog: CA Transit Operators Win in Court, But Face Challenge by Governor
"Christine Dunn, who speaks for SamTrans and Caltrain, was equally pessimistic that the ruling would net operating money any time soon."

Nation of Thizzlam: Some Muh-futtin Rap Songs
"If you haven't listened to the Bay Area's best-named mixtape this year, Prices on My Head, Thug Money on Ya Family Vol 1 yet, you should reconsider"

Screenwork: Yelp Adds Sharing on Facebook and Twitter
"How far we’ve come since Facebook’s Beacon caused such an uproar for doing essentially the same thing."

Just Blog Baby: The Oakland Raiders are not very fan friendly
" Perhaps if Al Davis were to put a pirate ship in the Black Hole or had a mountain with cascading waterfalls in the parking lot - as the top ranked Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim do - then he would see happier fans in the stands."

SF Appeal: "Who Is Stereotyping Who?" Wendy Ho's Controversial Cinch Show
"Did Wendy Ho, perhaps, poke a hole in San Francisco's self-satisfied bubble? Or was she just talking offensive trash wrapped in some art school fancy talk?"

Menu Pages SF: Pho Truck a Street-Food Fakeout?
"For one thing, the photo on What The Pho's twitter stream doesn't seem to be taken anywhere in the area, as Wong and others point out, and the truck in the photo is a Thai taxi, not a Pho vendor."

This bag is called the Dolores Bag. It's made, obviously, by Timbuk2. It holds a 12 pack of PBR cans and some ice, and is insulated.

See one soon at a park near you.

At 5a5 Steak Lounge, this very evening: vodka cocktails for less than a nickel.

Streetsblog delves into the tricky issue of bus stop consolidation, and how myopic thinking has put what would be a great advance in public transit service on the back burner:

Does the 14-Mission really need to stop at every block on Mission Street? [Ed. note: Hell no.] Does the 21-Hayes? Consolidating bus stops could speed transit vehicles and reduce dwell time, saving service hours that could be used to increase frequencies and add hours of operation. Yet the MTA has avoided the topic for years, not even mentioning stop consolidation as a cost savings measure to mitigate the service cuts and fare increases just approved to bridge part of the agency's $129 million deficit.

The reason for this reluctance, according to several people within the agency who I spoke with, is that the planners were afraid that the controversy around stop consolidation would jeopardize other equally or more important reforms they were promoting.

Read the whole thing.

What would you think of stop consolidations on your primary line?

Cabbie meets tree at Broadway and Battery, just outside of Eye on Blogs' HQ.



This is the third wreck involving a cab I've seen since the end of April. And I am just a person with two eyes, surely there have been many more.

So, how safe do you feel when you ride in a taxi? Fast driving and horn honking and driving in the bus lane is one thing, but actually crashing? This seems to happen far too often. Do you think the cabbies in your city are competent, by and large?