We have to choose hope and we have to work together to make hope a reality. Ted Shaw, Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

On its last day of its judical calendar, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Jefferson County Public School District in Louisville, KY and Seattle Public School District #1 on using race for school assignment.

Both school districts had used race as a criteria for school assignment in order to ensure that their schools were diverse and resources were equally divided among all students. The cases were Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 (05-908) and Meredith v. Jefferson County School Board (05-915).

It’s come to my attention that San Francisco impressario Chicken John Rinaldi is throwing his hat into the ring for Mayor.

Chicken is a true San Francisco character. He once set out to create the most punk-rock traveling circus anybody had ever seen (and succeeded, by all accounts). He drives a compost-burning pickup truck. He is also the former owner of the Odeon bar, once San Francisco’s premiere venue for bizarre performance and dinosaur claymation. He says,

So. There is a lot of stuff to talk about. But lets get something out of the way: running for Mayor of San Francisco isn’t something you do as a prank. As a joke. It would be an insult to the people who supported you and I think that making a mockery of the political system would be tameritous. Elections and other bodies of governmental working should be sacred, taken very seriously

(more…)

Carbon Offsets–the notion that you can make up for your energy use by paying to sponsor environmentally beneficial projects–has been described as the modern equivalent of the indulgences rich people could buy from the church in medieval times. It looks like you can now get your sin and indulgence one one convenient bill:

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is holding an event today to launch a program that lets customers offset their household energy use by voluntarily paying extra for environmentally beneficial projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The SF Labor Council sponsored a Labor School and the graduation was tonight. Josue Arguelles, organizer for Pride At Work, graduated tonight. Congrats Josue!!!

Pictured: Michael Theriault, Secretary-Treasurer, SF Building Trades, Conny Ford, Vice-President, SF Labor Council, and Josue Arguelles

Pictured: SF Labor Council Graduates

The following article appeared in the June edition of the New Bernal Journal. Because the publication is not online, we’re reprinting the article here. A shorter version of this editorial appeared yesterday in the Bay Guardian.

by Joseph Smooke, Executive Director, Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center

On April 19th the Planning Department approved a market-rate condo development with a 24 hours Walgreens store at the northwest corner of Cesar Chavez and Mission where the Kelly Moore paint store used to be. The approved project by Seven Hills Properties is 50-feet and 4-stories high with 60 ownership units and 67 residential parking spaces. The developer is providing 9 “affordable” units to comply with the current inclusionary housing law that requires 15% of the units to be “below market rate”. To support the Walgreens, the developer is also including 24 customer parking spaces, 12 spaces for employees and 1 car share space.

On Friday, the state appeals court ruled that the housing element of San Francisco’s general plan does, in fact, need an environmental review.

The decision Friday by the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco was a victory for neighborhood organizations, mostly in the western part of the city, that formed San Franciscans for Livable Neighborhoods to challenge the housing element of the city’s general plan. They argued that the proposal would concentrate development in their areas and cause overcrowding.

It’s only gradually becoming clear to people who do housing in San Francisco what this means. It’s arguable, for instance, that until this is sorted out, there can’t be any housing built in San Francisco. It’s also possible that all decisions need to be made under the 1990 plan, which would have very different (and probably disasterous) standards. What’s certain is that all major projects, especially things like Octavia Boulevard and the community-based planning work that’s resulted in the Eastern Neighborhoods Plan and in SoMa, will come under serious procedural question.

The BOE’s last FY 07-08 regular meeting began at 5:20 p.m. and ended at 11:30 p.m.

So I will just give some highlights with a longer story to follow:

1. The San Francisco Board of Education passed with 7-0 vote the FY 07-08 budget with two changes:
a. The funding for the counselor at Hilltop was found with Prop H and Violence Prevention funds.
c. The Building and Grounds Department found funds for a bungalow for Guadalupe, beginning in October. Terri Fontera’s appearance with Austin and Alexa (her children) in every meeting and every venue was not only impressive-but it worked to convince the Board of Education to allow Guadalupe to have a computer room. (Terri for Mayor!)

According to indiewire.com, Colma: The Muscial was the number three independent film this weekend, measured in money per screen.

It also got a pretty bitchin’ review in the Chronicle.

Unlike studio productions such as “Chicago” and “Dreamgirls,” however, “Colma” isn’t concerned about whether audiences will buy actors suddenly bursting into song. First-time director Richard Wong, who, on the strength of this effort ought to have a future in Hollywood, signals this in a vibrant opening scene of Billy, Rodel and Maribel crooning the praises of their hometown in the amusing “Colma Stays.” Wong makes use of a split screen here and numerous other times. Although long out of fashion, the technique works effectively in a wide-screen format.

Pictures by Kim Knox

Upon learning that I had been chosen to be a Grand Marshal for the LGBT Pride Parade, Calvin Gipson, a former Grand Marshal, told me it is the experience that never ends. Being thrust into the limelight like that, believe it or not, brought up self-esteem issues I didn’t even know I had. Sure I was thrilled to be a Grand Marshal, who wouldn’t be? But there are so many wonderful, fabulous people, who are just as deserving…

The San Francisco Board of Education will be approving their 07-08 budget tonight (Tuesday, June 26) at 5 p.m. at SFUSD’s offices at 555 Franklin.

The overall 07-08 SFUSD budget will be $361,323,857, which is approximately $5.6 million more than its 06-07 budget.

Unfortunately, even though there is an increase of $5.6 million, fifteen of SFUSD schools received budget cuts. Nine of those schools are STAR (struggling) schools serving primarily low-income students of color.