There was a strange full-page spread on Memorial Day in the SF Chronicle, but it was as if the person assigned to cover the Presidio ceremony hadn't shown up in time or had something they had to get on to and left before it began. https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/memorial-day-ceremony-22275809.php

 A reader got the impression that none of those running for US Congress had shown up and wrote a letter to the editor saying he wouldn't vote for them.  I got up from the recliner the morning I read there to set the record straight (even though I assumed someone else would have already done so). Here's what I wrote:

I was startled to see Frank Sullivan's letter to the editor saying that Connie Chan, Saikat Chakrabarti, and Scott Wiener had lost his vote because they weren't at the Memorial Day service at the Presidio.  I'm not sure that's the greatest criterion for who will best represent us or who cares about military deaths, but I was there and saw both Connie Chan and Scott Wiener. 

 

Transit Riders had a social aboard a vintage (Milan, Italy) streetcar on Saturday, April 18, from 6 to 8 pm.  we rode  north and then south along the Embarcadero and then west on Market Street before turning on Noe and 17th and getting back to go east on Market Street.  Wine was served, and so was a cup of cheese and charcuterie.  I gave no sermons, but am now dressed in my Eat for the Planet dress for Earth Day. In an hour I'll be on Union Square for Earth Day with the SF Veg Society Members, and after hearing 3 talks, we'll head for the Rad Radish, where we'll get plant-based dishes to eat at a picnic site.  I'm glad it decided not to rain today!
 

 

There's never a dull moment!  At our March 3rd kick off for the petition to get a parcel tax for Muni on the ballot, I noticed the very tall formidable body guard for the mayor.  (Guy in foreground)  A few days later it looked as if that body guard had been attacked by someone in the streets of the Tenderloin, but when you see this video, it's clear that the body guard ( Frederick Mello) used incredible force first!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgLoh1VGkzY

The guy Tony Shervaughn Phillips got up and fought back extremeley effectively.  In fact, I think the mayor might want to hire this guy as a body guard.  

 

I think the Mostly British Film Festival is better than ever this year, and I'm grateful to Maxine Einhorn!  This weekend the stand-out films for me were "Tina," which I chose both because a friend drew it to my attention and because I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tonga, and Tongans and Samoans are very similar in many ways including in their a cappella singing, sometimes featured in this film.  Edna O'Brien was as much "her own person" as the self-sacrificing son in "Four Mothers" was not.  I loved the film in spite of not believing that a son could be that self-sacrificing or a mother that selfish and clueless --unless she was demented, which apparently she was not supposed to be.  It shows a lot about the demands of caregiving.  May we all managed to be grateful for whoever helps us when we can't help ourselves--and may that time not come until after death!

 

Reading Peter Hartlaub’s beautiful and heart-felt defense of SF (Boston radio hosts branding SF as “a zombie apocalypse”), I was grateful both for Peter Hartlaub and a Boston friend now staying in SF who has not failed the empathy test.  In fact,  at the end of his article, Peter Hartlaub says “Start at the Ferry Building….then take a public ferry (anywhere!)”  That’s exactly what my Boston friend suggested when the ferry we had planned to take to Treasure Island February 3^rd had mechanical problems and couldn’t take us there.   It was a toss up at Gate B:  Tiburon or Sausalito.  The ferry to Sausalito came first, and we were aboard it, both happy to explore a bit of Marin and return to the lovely skyline of SF.

 

After Beethoven! presented by Calvary Music & Art,

Patty signed the petition

I see that Chris Larsen is listed first as OFFICIAL TOP FUNDERS on the petition to get Connect Bay Area Transit on the ballot. How much did he give?

Chris Larsen is listed as a major early funder for the 

Connect Bay Area Transit initiative, which has raised approximately $3 million to support signature-gathering efforts for the November 2026 ballot. 

While specific individual donation amounts for this exact transit measure are often not broken down in initial news summaries, Larsen's status as the lead "Official Top Funder" on petition disclosures typically indicates he has provided a significant portion of that $3 million total. 

His recent high-profile contributions to other Bay Area and state initiatives include:

• $5 million to Grow California, a political initiative he co-launched in late 2025 to reshape state politics.
• $5 million for the revitalization of the Larkin Street corridor in San Francisco’s Tenderloin.
• $9.4 million in combined gifts (including free office space) to create a new technology hub for the San Francisco Police Department.
• $2 million previously donated to support San Francisco shopping districts like Union Square. 

Larsen's support for the transit measure is part of a broader push by regional business leaders and labor groups (including Genentech and SEIU 1021) to secure a long-term sales tax to prevent service cuts for BART, Muni, and Caltrain. 

 

Today was the kickoff for Connect Bay Area, and that was quite an event too!  I planned to get there early, but I couldn't find them on Embarcadero Plaza, where they said we'd meet.  Finally, I noticed a group of people right by the Railway Museum.  It was just about to start, and I hurried into the area, accidentally standing in the lineup of public officials--Mayor Lurie, Scott Wiener, Jesse Arreguin, Myrna Melgar, Barbara Lee,  etc.   (I say "etc.", but I'm not sure all the mayors were there.  Are there some who don't favor this?!  We filled out a form online, checking boxes on what we understood was kosher in soliciting signatures, and then we got a set of petitions to get Connect Bay Area on the ballot.  I took BART back instead of the L-Car deliberately to get signatures, but I was going in the wrong direction--towards the airport!  People from Alabama and other places aren't registered to vote in the Bay Area!