Fourth grader bilingual teacher Laurie Murdock and fifth grade bilingual teacher Esmeralda Gomez created an environmental fair for John Muir Elementary students students. Students in grades third through fifth instructed students in kindergarten through second grade on birds’ beak, solar, water cycle, energy and natural resources. CPUC and San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Department’s naturalists also helped present information to the students.

A kindergartener learn about leaves from Nora, a gardener paid by the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Parks Association. She got to smell the leaf and found out that verbana have a wonderful lemon scent.

I was at the coffee shop at 7:30 to help lead a crew of newbies downtown.

District 9 Supervisor candidates Eric Quezada

and Mark Sanchez were there

we rode to 17th & Valencia, and it was quite pleasant

When we got there, the Energizer Station was mobbed.

Chris Daly was there to welcome us to District 6

This woman was riding to work for the first time. She had tried riding before, but got scared, and she figured that having other people to ride with would make her safer.

Here, her new bike buddy gives her a card, so she can get some commuting help.

I just got a press release from the Bicycle Coalition stating that there were twice as many bikes as cars this morning heading east at Market and Van Ness. That’s huge.

TWICE AS MANY BIKES AS CARS ON MARKET STREET
Bay Area’s First Spare the Air Day and Rising Gas Prices Boost Biking Numbers

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) —There were twice as many bicycles as cars headed downtown on San Francisco’s Market Street on the 14th annual Bike to Work Day. Bicyclists made up 64% of the eastbound traffic at Market St. & Van Ness Ave., while motorists comprised 32% between 8am and 9am today. (The remainder was transit vehicles and taxis). This is a nearly 31% increase over the number of people biking last year on Bike to Work Day. The counts were taken by the Municipal Transportation Agency.

Same-sex marriange ban overturned!

The California Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage, paving the way for California to become the second state where gay and lesbian residents can marry.

The case involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

With the ruling, California could become the second state after Massachusetts where gay and lesbian residents can marry.

Start the countdown before someone starts complaining about how this is going to galvanize the right wing.

Tomorrow at 10 am the California Supreme Court will announce their decision on the cases before them challenging the constitutionality of the laws forbidding same-sex marriage. According to Calitics, it looks bad.

I’m hearing that the Court is prepared to take a step that stands in stark contrast to their bold and courageous position in Perez v. Sharp. Specifically, it looks like we might get a decision that dramatically rules against granting individuals the freedom to marry whomever they choose. The total voting correctly could be limited to one justice (if even that) by dissenting from a decision that would be looked back upon as a cop-out at best.

Stay tuned to Left in SF or Calitics for more news as it happens.

Part 1 and Part 2 of a two-parter about gender identity:

Carol resolved to do her best. Still, these were huge changes. By the time Bradley started therapy he was almost 6 years old, and Carol had a house full of Barbie dolls and Polly Pockets. She now had to remove them. To cushion the blow, she didn’t take the toys away all at once; she told Bradley that he could choose one or two toys a day.

“In the beginning, he didn’t really care, because he’d picked stuff he didn’t play with,” Carol says. “But then it really got down to the last few.”

Tomorrow is Bike to Work Day in San Francisco. I’ll be riding with the Bike Bus from Nervous Dog Coffee on Mission at 30th, at around 7:30am.

Last year more cyclists than cars passed the intersection of Market and Valencia. This year the tremendous weather, in addition to the increased interest in cycling will likely mean a significant rise in the number of people riding to work in SF, and the Bay Area in general.

I don’t say this very often, but Matt Smith wrote a good article in the Weekly last week. Refraining from labeling something a sacred cow simply for the sheer pleasure of goring it, he writes something that, I think, resonates with cyclists:

But there’s a significant difference in the ways cyclists inconvenience motorists by disobeying traffic laws, and the ways motorists routinely threaten cyclists’ lives by doing the same. I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles, and never once felt personally endangered by the behavior of a cyclist. While I’m sure there are people out there who experience the roads differently, I think this is significant. Meanwhile, I’ve ridden my bike tens of thousands of miles, and find my life threatened by a law-breaking motorist nearly every day.

Now I know there are those who complain about cyclists on the sidewalk (and often with cause), but I am pretty confident cars are more of a risk to pedestrians than cyclists, and the numbers bear this out.

The SF Board of Education’s Budget and Business Services Committee will be meeting at 555 Franklin at 6 p.m. tonight. All seven members of the Board will be invited to hear how the state revised budget which has been released today will impact SFUSD’s 2008-09 budget.

The agenda has the following items:
1. Budget Development for Fiscal Year 2008-09
2. Rainy Day Fund
3. Transportation – Potential Fee for Service
4. Budget Development Calendar

“A hundred years ago I would not have been able to go to Spring Valley…Jennie Hurley, the school principal, stood at the door to bar Mamie Tape from entering. Today, I, a Chinese American, am the principal, and it is my role to stand at the gate and welcome all children.”
Lonnie Chin, long-time principal of Spring Valley Science School and Library Commissioner

San Francisco Board of Education President Mark Sanchez called to order the 6 p.m. meeting of the San Francisco Board of Education at 6:15 p.m.

The SF Board of Education proceeded with the following actions: