For California state ballot measures, see this page. For greater detail on these propositions, see the guides from the League of Pissed off Voters, Sasha Magee’s CA/SF Slate, and the SF Bay Guardian. A — Yes — School Bonds — funds safety, classrooms, two new schools in the SE, move…

For local San Francisco ballot measures, see this page. For greater detail on these propositions, see the guides from the League of Pissed off Voters, Sasha Magee’s CA/SF Slate, and the SF Bay Guardian. Prop 51 — Nope — There are no provisions to fund low-income schools and this mostly…

Sports teams name themselves for fearsome beings, animals that charge and leap and buck, humans that dominate landscapes with the violence of war or of commerce. The NBA harbors its share of animal assassins, as well as Magic, Wizards, Heat and Jazz. …

On discovering that Labor Day is a celebration of uniformed servicepeople — Labor Day (First Monday in September) It took me a minute, but the Governor is right: Labor Day is about our men and women in uniform, the maids and fry cooks, the mechanics and nurses, the clowns and mimes who band together to institute workplace safety and tolerable limits to…

A buyout is a type of eviction. You’re losing your home; don’t settle for less than you can afford. — In this essay, I first explain why hiring a startup to negotiate a buyout is a terrible idea. After that, you’ll find a comprehensive guide to everything I’ve learned about buyouts and how they pertain to tenants’ rights in San Francisco. Newsweek posted an article Friday about a San Francisco…

My best work is short — I don’t know why Medium suggested a keyword of “Surrender,” but I’m keeping it. I wrote a whole series of tweets about the Mission when I was losing my apartment at the same time as there was a call for auditions for a show called “94110.” …

Not everything has to do with writing or not writing, but most things do. — Fuck Up Some Commas: New Year’s Resolutions It’s true, January 1 is an arbitrary date to take stock, but it’s as fine a marker as any. The odometer rolls over on the last year, and it’s a good time to tinker under your hood or even take yourself into the…

The year I lost my home and found my voice — 2015 was notable for me in two ways: My knock-down, drag-out fight with my landlord ended, finally, in me losing my apartment after more than a year of fighting to save it. And, in many ways because of this, I started writing again. Good things happened this year, although moving…

How San Francisco Witches Celebrate Yule — The first time I plunged naked into the ocean on Winter Solstice, I was one of about a hundred people shedding their clothes for that part of the biggest outdoor ritual of the year. If you go in the ocean, you need to take a buddy, because people have died…