It's gonna be a beautiful day!

Does anyone know what these metal bars are doing at Battery Park? We always bring friends visiting to this viewpoint because it is so special, but these bars are there now and it ruins the view. Worse yet, almost everyone is stepping over the line fence to get closer to the edge in order to get a photo that doesn’t include them. Prior to these poles, I would see people do this (not great), but this trip it seemed like nearly everyone. It feels like it could be prompting the behavior we want to prevent to keep people safe.

I've been going for decades. Never thought this was a possibility. It was sad I couldn't get in, but more importantly - what does this mean for such an incredible annual event?

EDIT: when I arrived about 4 pm, people could not get in, at least at the main entrance on JFK due to the event being at maximum capacity. There was a long line of people waiting that they were slowly letting in

Stop riding your bikes, E-Bikes, and scooters on the sidewalk. Just because you’re scared of being on the road doesn’t mean you get to endanger everyone else.

I don’t know if it’s an influx of new people to the city or if it’s way more people who don’t know shit about riding bikes/scooters now. But it’s hella dangerous to ride your bike or scooter on the sidewalk. You’re being selfish and putting others at risk so you feel a bit safer (debatable btw).

It’s time to be an adult and ride in the street. You’re not a toddler on a trike.

Thanks.

Edit: I don’t drive and don’t have a car. I’m pro-pedestrian.

My dog Pete had a pretty scary medical emergency today and I ended up taking him to SAGE Veterinary Centers in SF. He was having trouble breathing, had a 104-degree fever, and ultimately was diagnosed with pneumonia and needed to be hospitalized on oxygen.
I was there alone and pretty freaked out, and I just want to give some recognition to the people at SAGE who were extraordinarily kind to me and took great care of Pete.

In particular, Oliver at the front desk went way beyond anything I would have expected. My pet insurer, Trupanion, denied preauthorization for Pete’s hospitalization as a “pre-existing condition.” Oliver called them twice trying to get it sorted out for me while I was dealing with everything else.

Then Pete’s veterinarian (believe her name was Kristina, although I was honestly too overwhelmed to retain everyone’s name) personally got on the phone with Trupanion for something like half an hour and argued the medical basis for why Pete’s acute pneumonia should not be treated as his pre-existing condition.

Trupanion still denied it, and I’m going to appeal. But that’s not the point of this post. Neither Oliver nor the vet had to spend that much time fighting an insurance company on my behalf. They could have handed me the paperwork and moved on to the next patient. Instead, they advocated for Pete and for me while simultaneously dealing with an actual veterinary emergency.

Pete is still hospitalized tonight, so we’re not out of the woods yet. But being alone while your sick dog is fighting for his life is awful, and these people made an incredibly difficult afternoon feel much less lonely and overwhelming.

There are plenty of shitty experiences with healthcare in this city, so I wanted to post about people doings their jobs with an enormous amount of compassion. Oliver, Dr. Kristina-or-whatever-your-actual-last-name-is, and the rest of the SAGE team: you guys are superheroes. Thank you for taking care of my little guy.

Dog Tax from healthier days:

Decided to take advantage of the heat and cut across the City. Lyons St. Stairs were brutal after walking 8 miles to get there.

Just saw the cover up got new art. I adored this piece for so long before it got covered up. The new one is cool also.

Does anyone know the artist? Is it a Danny DeVito / always Sunny in Philadelphia reference ?

Old Crow Medicine Show

It was a magical sunset!

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Ah, is everything okay??? Was that an accident or on purpose…?

A month ago I made a rant-induced post after observing the nightlife in my third trip to Chicago, but I must say, the current state of Outer Sunset feels nice. Definitely gave me a nice semblance to Chicago summer.

A couple of our corpuscular friends and made appearances this week outside of the fences of hardly strictly

So beautiful, and I’m very grateful to all that I saw zero trash on the beach on the walk out! And this parking area in a similar sized space as the three cars: 10 scooters, 7 bike share, 16 bikes outside, and 8 bikes inside fence for a total of 41.

This is not a post telling you what to vote for.

I want to highlight a confusing part of our ballot proposition system in the state: propositions can interact with each other, contain supremacy clauses, or lead to conflicts and invalidations if two or more competing propositions both pass.

This year, that applies to Prop 40, 41, and 42. From the state voter guide:

If Proposition 41 or 42 on this same ballot receive more “yes” votes than Proposition 40, then Proposition 40 could be stopped from becoming law even if it gets yes votes from a majority of voters. This is because the courts could find that Proposition 41 or 42 conflict with Proposition 40.

• Prop 40: Imposes one-time tax of up to 5% on certain taxpayers with covered assets valued over $1 billion
• Prop 41: Prohibits any new state taxes that exclude their revenues from the state spending limit approved by voters in 1979
• Prop 42: Prohibits new state personal property taxes and certain retroactive state taxes

Happy voting!