Composting Gone Amok

June 30, 2010-Today is my neighborhood weekly garbage pickup day. At 8:00 AM the first garbage truck came to take the black (landfill) cart and the blue (recycle) cart. Then at 9:00 AM another truck came to pickup only the green (compost) cart.

The city of San Francisco has a mandatory compost law---requiring all residences & businesses to compost their organic waste. I was waiting for the Republican Party and the newly formed Tea Baggers Party to start demonstration of more government regulation on personal liberties, since “compost police” would be going through the black (landfill) cart to ensure compliance or fines would be assessed on non-compliance.

I stood outside chatting with one of my neighbor, as the brand new garbage truck came by with the new company logo of “Recology” on its side. I watched as the lone driver stopped and rolled the green cart to the rear of the truck and pull a lever to shake the cart twice into the holding compartment. The driver finished the block and it was time to retrieve the green cart. My neighbor left to retrieve his and called me over…his neighbor compost:

A pile of food scraps right in the middle of the street. We watched the driver dumped each of the green carts and didn’t notice him missing the rear compartment nor any other sight of compost left on the street either. My neighbor inquiry why didn’t the driver notice the mess he left. I replied most likely he didn’t see it or if he did in his job description---roll cart and push lever to dump compost no mention of pickup compost off floor. The only thing we can surmised was the truck had a design flaw, which every 10-12 pickups a secret opening emerged to slew the waste back onto the street!

The neighbor and I got out the broom and water hose to clean up the mess, since calling “Recology” or the City for clean up would only benefit the swamp of flies.

Shuck Corn Update

June 20, 2010-The other day my neighbor and I was glancing at the latest “Safeway” ads for the week of June 16-22; she noticed the ‘RED HOT WEEKEND!’ specials for Saturday & Sunday on “Sweet Corn 4 for $1” and her grandkids are coming over Sunday for Father’s Day and they loved roasted corns. I informed her that the nearby “Safeway” store add a surcharge of $1.19 if she shucked the corns. She asked me when they started that policy and I told her since the last few big corn sales. She usually shucks the corns to check if they are not rotten inside. I told her to blame it on discriminating and lazy produce workers.

I got early Saturday morning and visited the 350 Bay Street store to see if indeed the “surcharged” signs were posted on the corn. The time was 6:30 AM and no sign was posted on the front main corn bin, maybe it was too early for the lazy produce workers. At the normal produce corn section, the old handmade “Please do not shuck the corn” is still attached to the mirror from last month, this sign made no mention about the surcharge if someone shucked the corn.

I visited the store on Sunday morning at 6:15 AM and the “surcharged of $1.19” was only posted in the front main corn bin. They added a new sign with a stern warning: “You will be charged $1.19 for any shucked Corn”

My neighbor claimed that she would speak to the store manager of the policy and I told her good luck. I asked a produce worker and his reply was he had no clue who placed the sign…must be the work of the Anti-Corn Shuck Fairy! My neighbor might be more persuasive since she just got a brand new copper-colored Titanium walking stick.

Busted By The Noise Cops!

June 17, 2010-This morning I read an article on the San Francisco Examiner “Complaints tune out merry music makers” and I just had to caulk this up as another fine example of the powers of the San Francisco Police Department.

 “A large Chinese philharmonic ensemble that serenades the public in the afternoon at a major intersection connecting Chinatown and North Beach is vulnerable to a police crackdown.

 A group of up to 20 musicians who sit at a new public plaza at Broadway and Columbus Avenue and play their wind instruments, usually on Friday afternoons, have been cited for the noise. Neighbors have made several complaints to the local police station, and officers have no choice but to break it up, police Lt. Franklin Lee said.

 “I’m not sure how many or where they’re from, I just know they’ve been getting a lot of them. The dispatchers tell us where to go,” Lee said.

 The mysterious complainers could cost the classical orchestra its permit for playing in the public space while police consider the impact of their tunes. The orchestra already canceled last week’s concert for fear of another ticket.

 Organizer Howard Wong co-chair of the coalition A Better Chinatown Tomorrow---helps book the events that have gone on since May 2009.

 “They’re not making money off this,” Wong said. “They’re just there to enhance cultural ambience.”

 He said he has welcomed a conversation with whoever is irked by the sound, and at the same time tried to quiet the orchestra down by restricting amplifiers…”

The whole incident seems very odd to me, since the intersection of Broadway and Columbus is a very busy and noisy area. Four way of heavy traffic flows which includes the occasion car horns and the shrieking tires; MUNI buses, tour buses, delivery trucks, fire trucks; this is the entrance to the nightclubs area---bright neon lights, gunshots several months ago, car chasing incidents, rowdy partygoers. What about the several months last year when at the very same intersection both Broadway and Columbus had underground street repairs, which included the development of the new public plaza in question…why the neighbors did not complaint about the constant jack-hammering? Maybe the truth is someone just doesn’t like Chinese music!

I can recall one weekend I encountered the orchestra setting up at the plaza, and the musicians were mainly string type instruments, not the brass trumpet or drums. They had microphones to amplify the string sound, sure not as loud as those drummers along Market Street or the full band playing by Fisherman’s Wharf begging for tourist’s charities. These were older musicians and I doubt they would play pass nightfall to the ensuing cold San Francisco night and the young rowdy partygoers crowd.

I loved what Lt. Franklin Lee quoted that he had no choice because lots of complaints and therefore he had to cite them for noise and made them move out of the plaza. I thought they had a permit and how was the noise level judged? I didn’t know that all patrol cars are equipped with a “noise measuring device,” since the Police Code listed “ambient” noise level for inside a residency cannot be over thirty-five dBA and outside cannot be over forty-five dBA. Or it could be the police officer doesn’t like Chinese music too!

The police officer has several choice; one-check out the situation and reports it as a flimsy incident. Second-have the dispatchers get the name and address of the complainer or complainers. Then have the police officers visited the residency and check to see if indeed the noise level is unbearable or not. Third-take the simple route---bust the orchestra, since Chinese musicians would not form a protest march to City Hall that the totalitarian police force is discriminating on Chinese music!

This incident reflect on what ‘C.W. Nevius’ wrote in the San Francisco Examiner June 10^th entitled “Fight brews with bogeymen of North Beach” about the problems at Washington Square Park with homeless drunks and aggressive dog owners; how the local police responded. I remember the following quote very well:

 “We cannot do selective enforcement,” said Lt. Nicole Greely of Central Station, “and that’s what the residents want. I can say we are out there…every day.”

 I wholeheartedly think citing a cultural event is “selective enforcement.” The orchestra organizer claims next concert is scheduled at 6:30 PM Friday. That is the same weekend of the annual North Beach Festival to be held at Washington Square Park. I live over three blocks away from the park but I can hear the stage music and master of ceremonies intro very clearly at the house. Maybe I should call the police department to complaint about the noise level, since I know that is sure more that forty-five dBA, but I forgot police choice number four-no police response, because the noise offender(s) have political clout!

I forgot to mention several years ago a tenant living behind the St. Peter & Paul Church located across from the Washington Square Park, complained and even gone to court on the case of the hourly church bell chiming too loud! Maybe that person decided to start a new campaign against loud Chinese music!

What memo?

June 11, 2010-San Francisco civil workers have concurred several black eye incidents this year...”San Francisco Examiner” newspaper had written several articles on the accountability of city gardeners---some are not at the assigned park location cutting grass. The precious MUNI drivers voted down the latest labor concessions, which other city trade unions had accepted to help the troubled City financial crisis. The City Charter guarantee annual salary increase to ensure the drivers to be the Nation 2nd highest paid, while ridership suffer service cutbacks---longer waiting time between buses, pack buses if they do arrive or the worst...buses that pass stop!

Finally last month in May the city parking control officers made into “You Tube.” One video had two parking control “Interceptor” vehicles each parked in front of red zone/fire hydrant on adjacent corners during a personal timeout. The second video was widely broadcasted by the local TV stations of another parking control vehicle parked in a yellow zone, while the officer was shopping at a Thrift Store.

“San Francisco Chronicle” newspaper asked the Municipal Transportation Agency for comment. John Haley, the MTA’s director of transit operations responded:
“...it is against agency policy for employees to park illegally...he plans to reissue the policy to remind employees of the rule...We wouldn’t tolerate a double standard and we wouldn’t want the public to think we do.”

Today at 8:55AM on the corner of Stockton & Pacific I noticed a parking control vehicle parked at the red zone/fire hydrant. By the time I came back around at 9:03AM to take the picture someone placed black floor mats on the left of the vehicle to cover the fire hydrant. The parking officer was nowhere in sight tagging vehicles around the area (the ticket issuing scanner on vehicle front dashboard), therefore the Wizard surmised that the officer is either shopping or eating breakfast. He/She just didn’t get John Haley memo---it is against agency policy for employees to park illegally!