I don't like to vote if I can't string together a rationale that I'm willing to post on my blog, so here are my recommendations for the San Francisco November 2020 ballot measures. It's been a tough year for the city. My neighbors are moving somewhere cheaper and less smoky, I see more houses on the market then usual as I walk around. It's hard to know what the next year will bring and to what extent tech jobs will end up shifting out of the bay area as the giants are forced to match work from home policies and smaller companies follow suit. What's clear to me is that we need to stimulate recovery and stop the city from becoming a worse place to live. And beyond that my ultimate dream of just throwing the politicians out if they're doing a lousy job rather than slogging through ballot measures for them. Until that day, here we go:
A: Health and Homelessness, Parks, and Streets Bond
Yes. The problem with homelessness is only getting worse and the construction will create jobs.
B: Department of Sanitation and Streets, Sanitation and Streets Commission, and Public Works Commission
Yes. The streets are a mess, so anything that shakes up the current system seems like it's worth a try.
C: Removing Citizenship Requirements for Members of City Bodies
Yes. Given the huge number of non-citizens paying taxes and otherwise contributing to the city it makes sense to allow them to participate in civic life. I don't support allowing non-citizens to vote but have no objection to them serving on a commission or other city body.
D: Sheriff Oversight
Yes. I really struggle with American policing. We have SF park rangers, community college police, university police, SFPD, sheriffs, highway patrol and other state police. That's without even starting to think about the various federal TLAs and transportation related agencies. Maybe before defunding the police we should first just spend a few years merging most of them and saving on administrative and uniform design costs? Having said all that I find it very hard to vote against more oversight for a department mainly concerned with running jails that organizes fight clubs at those jails. FFS.
E: Police Staffing
Yes. Doesn't seem to make sense to have a specific number of police officers as a requirement.
F: Business Tax Overhaul
Yes. I've never been in love with the payroll tax and moving to gross receipts with a higher exemption helps small business and startups. Seems like a good trade off.
G: Youth Voting in Local Elections
No. 18 is somewhat arbitrary but it's the point at which you take on adult rights and responsibilities.
H: Neighborhood Commercial Districts and City Permitting
Yes. Makes it faster and easier to permit new businesses and sadly we're going to need a lot of that as we recover.
I: Real Estate Transfer Tax
Yes. We need the revenue even if it is uncertain.
J: Parcel Tax for San Francisco Unified School District
Yes. More funding for SFUSD. I voted for this before and it's on the ballot again as only a 50% requirement in 2018 instead of a 2/3rds majority.
K: Affordable Housing Authorization
Yes. A step towards creating more affordable housing.
L: Business Tax Based on Comparison of Top Executive's Pay to Employees' Pay
No. I think this is up to each company. Regulate the floor not the ceiling.
RR: Caltrain Sales Tax
Yes. I don't ride Caltrain often but I love it. My dream is coming back from a meeting on the peninsula in a comfortable top deck seat with a couple of cheap canned Gin and Tonics. We need more public transportation and we need it more than ever.
(Published to the Fediverse as: San Francisco November 2020 Ballot Measures #politics #sanfrancisco #propositions #election Official ITHCWY voter guide to the San Francisco November 2020 Ballot Measures )
A four mile loop in the Marin Headlands including the beach detour. It starts at the roundabout and goes up to Hawk Hill and Nike missile control site. Then it plunges down the coastal road to the Black Sands Beach parking lot. If you go down to the beach (which you should) you then have a steep climb back up and take Upper Fisherman's Trial back down into Rodeo Valley before heading uphill again on Julian trail to the roundabout. Great views back over Rodeo Valley in addition to the dramatic descent down the coast mean this is worth doing once. Around a third of the hike is pretty close to the road which is the only real downside of this loop.
Hike starts at: 37.833262, -122.494321. View in Google Earth.
(Hike Map)
(Published to the Fediverse as: Coastal and Julian loop plus Black Sands Beach #hike #marinheadlands #blacksandsbeach #map A Marin headlands hike taking in a couple of trails with awesome views and a detour to Black Sands Beach. )
You have to make allowances for the fact that many people are working from home (where maybe it's harder to test code and you certainly can't do hallway usability testing). Things also improved somewhat with the October patch. But Android 11 was a Windows ME level disaster. Google says that they dropped the desserts to make Android 'more accessible to a global audience' but I think it's probably because they know that new updates are no longer sweet.
Multi-tasking is completely broken. In pandemic mode I'm on video calls all day, and dodging the 2-3 video calls that are usually going on elsewhere in my house. Being able to have Teams and notes running at the same time is pretty important right now and with 11 it's not possible.
Other than conference calls and Kindle the other main use I have for my phone is podcasts. Android 11 improved the media controls by moving them to the quick settings area of the notification shade, providing easy switching between playback devices and allowing you to swipe through recent playback apps. All good, except that none of it works. The controls are there but do nothing so I have to run the app to pause. Also, there is a weird ghost of a previous media playback that shows up and then disappears when pulling down the notification shade. And as for dismissing previous sessions that seems to require a reboot.
Multi-tasking and media were fixed in the most recent patch, but there is also some new notification system to separate out conversations. In practice this seems to mean I get multiple groups of Gmail and Teams notifications instead of a single cluster per app. This isn't what I want, gives me more work to do and so far I haven't found a way to turn it off. Notifications have steadily improved over the last few major Android releases so it's upsetting to see them becoming worse.
This is all on a Pixel 4XL which you would assume would get some level of testing love. It used to be that the main advantage of a Pixel was getting new versions of Android quickly. With 11 I'm for the first time wishing I was waiting a few months while the kinks were worked out.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Android 11 Gripes #etc #google #android I'm not a fan of Android 11 notifications, media controls or multi-tasking. )
The Google Earth screenshot above is a composite of all of our Coronavirus hikes from March to October. We have thrashed the sidewalk around our neighborhood, discovered some new favorites and gone from hyper-local to a more normal regime. I'm not going to track these specifically any more and will return to blogging new hikes that you'd do even if not forced to by circumstances.
(Hike Map)
(Published to the Fediverse as: Coronavirus Hikes: Done #hike #coronavirus Final map of many coronavirus hikes in and around our neighborhood. Have discovered some pretty good out of the front door routes. )
Please vote for Biden. Do it as early as you can so Trump is crushed on election day and we don't have to suffer through weeks or months of uncertainty and possible election stealing.
I'm endorsing Biden because of these 923 reasons (and counting) and the 20,055 lies (and counting). Trump has likely killed tens of thousands of Americans, possibly hundreds of thousands before he leaves office. I wasn't a fan before the pandemic either.
Voting in the presidential election from California sucks. While the largest state burns, Climate Change is #32 on on Biden's list of policies. He's against the Green New Deal (the one that would pay for itself). Our broken electoral system means that the best possible outcome is a milquetoast centrist caretaker who probably won't do too much harm until it's someone else's turn. But make no mistake, it is the best possible outcome so I'll suck it up and vote.
Here's my list from January:
"I'd go Warren, Sanders, Kloubuchar, Biden, Yang, Buttigeg, Steyer, Bloomberg and (sorry again) Gabbard. Although, full disclosure, if it would get rid of Trump I'd vote for a McConnell/Graham ticket."
So at least it isn't McConnell.
We need a National Popular Vote, a representative Congress and more than two viable parties. But before that, we need Biden.
(Previously: I'm with Her)
(Published to the Fediverse as: I'm with Him #politics #election #biden #trump ##resist ITHCWY endorses Joe Biden for President in the 2020 election. )
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A timelapse combining the mid-August storm and the 'day without a sunrise' on September 9, 2020 in San Francisco (lightning from the storm contributed to the wildfires that blocked the sun).
(Published to the Fediverse as: Cause and Effect, or Strange Skies over San Francisco #timelapse #sanfrancisco #video #smoke #storm Time lapse of the day without a sunrise in San Francisco and the storm that caused the fires that blocked the sun. )
Autumn starts now (September 22, 13:31 UTC) north of the Equator, Spring to the south. Rendered in Catfood Earth.
(Previously: Autumnal Equinox 2019)
(Published to the Fediverse as: Autumnal Equinox 2020 #code #catfood #earth #equinox #autumnal The exact moment of Autumnal Equinox 2020 as rendered in Catfood Earth. )
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A red-tailed hawk catches a gopher at Crissy Field.
(Previously: Red-Tailed Hawk)
Updated 2020-10-20 17:40:
Another day, possibly the same hawk, for sure not the same gopher.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Red-Tailed Hawk vs Gopher #photo #hawk #crissyfield Red-Tailed Hawk catches and eats a gopher at Crissy Field in San Francisco, California. )
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Accessing Printer Press ESC to cancel
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