Tag: san francisco

  • Wait, which California city is the “adult Disneyland”?

    SFGate recently ran an article that compared the small town of Solvang in Santa Barbara County to Disneyland. Although the comparison was seemingly intended to be positive they took a lot of heat for this clearly questionable take. Go ahead and read the article… and then think about it for a second. If the criteria…

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  • The many resurrections of Valencia Street’s restaurants

    As documented on this very blog many businesses in San Francisco were boarded up during the beginning of the pandemic, with many if not most gradually returning. But what’s more surprising are the places that officially went out of business only to reopen — some of which closed long before the pandemic. Here are the…

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  • The Apple Maps screw up at WWDC 2021

    When the initial release of Apple Maps was so botched it led to widespread mockery (and a hilarious video from The Onion) Apple opted to play the long game, slowly improving the Maps app with better data and numerous new features. Today at Apple’s virtual 2021 Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) they announced among many other…

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  • Recent movie review round-up (second half of 2020)

    In the last installment of my movie review roundups I expressed some concern about new movies in 2020 due to the pandemic. Thankfully I was wrong: while many big budget movies were delayed, 2020 turned out to be a great year for new indie and medium budget movies debuting on streaming services. Surprisingly three movies…

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  • Signs of the COVID-19 times part 5

    The summer is long over since my last post in this series, and tomorrow marks a whole new year. A lot changed since that last post we’ve had a presidential election and the first vaccines are (slowly) rolling out to hopefully put an end to this pandemic before next summer. Though in the more immediate…

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  • Why I have reservations about the Measure RR Caltrain tax (but I’m voting for it anyway)

    Recently the three main counties that serve CalTrain were asked to add an additional sales tax to fund CalTrain service. This was initially rejected by San Francisco leading to some finger wagging, before ultimately landing on the ballot. Many transit advocates decried San Francisco’s decision, but let me point something out: of all the counties…

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  • The forgotten monument that was once on top of San Francisco’s Mount Olympus

    While poking around Atlas Obscura the other day I came across a truly odd monument that I immediately knew I had to check out. Eccentric businessman and former mayor Adolph Sutro had a statue named “Triumph of Light” built to mark the center of San Francisco. The problem is if you consider the landmass on…

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  • Signs of the COVID-19 times part 4

    It’s been a couple months since my last entry in how this global pandemic has transformed daily life in San Francisco. There’s still no vaccine on the horizon despite Russia’s premature announcement, and likewise the United States has utterly failed to combat the pandemic under Trump’s leadership. In other words, the important things haven’t changed…

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  • Recent movie review round-up (first half of 2020)

    It certainly hasn’t been a great year for movies with the global pandemic so a handful of these are from last year. What can I say, it’s been a good year for streaming and catching up on good movies we missed in theaters. The order here is disjointed just like last time. Whatever, roll with…

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  • Signs of the COVID-19 times part 3

    Since last month’s entry in this ongoing series, a number of local, national, and world events have occurred. It’s been a strange, though hopeful time for the most part. Here’ some more changes I’ve seen around San Francisco. In the most literal sense of the title of this post, the city’s Department of Public Health…

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