Another gas station has shutdown in my neighborhood. It’s all for the better, I say. The toxic eyesore has polluted our neighborhood for decades.
The now shuttered and soon to be completely demolished gas station at 38th Avenue and Geary
It gives me joy to know that it’s gone. Particularly when I see the three empty gas containers which have been embedded underground for who knows how long. Who knows what toxins have seeped into the soil.
Our first house was less than half block away from this disaster waiting to happen. I cringe when I think what would have happened had a disaster occurred and the fuel containers exploded. The conflagration would have come down the block and incinerated the homes.
During the fuel crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_oil_crisis of 1979 and 1980 cars were lined up down the street past our home every morning as the gas guzzling motorists fed their fuel driven appetite.
Decades ago there was an abundance of gas stations in the outer Richmond District of San Francisco. Now, fortunately, there are only three remaining west of Park Presidio Boulevard.
Perhaps, one day, the three remaining climate killing relics will be gone, too.
People need to escape their cars and ride public transit.
Top Photo: The empty fuel tanks which have polluted the neighborhood for decades.
The adaptation of John Le Carre’s 2008 novel brought into sharp focus the post 9/11 political internecine warfare between the American and German intelligence agencies.
A mosque scene in “A Most Wanted Man”
It was very frustrating that only 21 viewers came to watch this important piece of political film making. It depressed us when we walked by the Balboa Cinema three days earlier when the line was backed up into the street to see the film “Godzilla.” That speaks volumes about the American mindset when it comes to the salient political issues of the day.
Liz stands by the Balboa Cinema marquee featuring the Philip Seymour Hoffman retrospective – July 21st, 2025
“Hamburg is one of the great ports of the world. For centuries it opened its arms to every foreigner who washed up on its shores.“
The story takes place in Hamburg, Germany. A city we have traveled to. Early in the film Philip Seymour Hoffman who portrays a German anti-terror specialist Gunther Bachmann aptly describes present day Hamburg.Sadly, it was Hoffman’s last film. He died at the age of 46 in February 2014 shortly after the film was completed. It is dedicated to his memory.
Issa Karpov (a Russian/Chechen asylum seeker portrayed by Grigorly Dobrygin)
“Hamburg is one of the great ports of the world. For centuries it opened its arms to every foreigner who washed up on its shores. Now, since 9.11, the eyes of every dark skinned man – we see someone who wants to kill us. The problem is, some of them do. The question is whether Issa Karpov (a Russian/Chechen asylum seeker portrayed by Grigorly Dobrygin) is one of them.”
Dieter Mohr, the German intelligence operative, portrayed by Rainer Bock, and nemesis of Gunther Bachmann
Gunther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman) with his ‘insider’ Jamal Abdullah portrayed by Mehdi Dehbi
Gunther Bachmann tells the banker Tommy Brue, “You’re gonna help me, Tommy.”
“Lawyer. Social worker for terrorists.” Human rights lawyer Annabel Richter has a face to face meeting with Gunther Bachmann in the Hamburg interrogation centerRachel McAdams portrays the human rights attorney Annabel Richter. She gets around Hamburg, Germany utilizing the common form of transportation
Gunther Bachmann and his crew try futilely to capture Issa Karpov and human rights lawyer Annabel Richter in a tense pursuit on the SBahn, the crowded streets and a music blasting techno nightclub in Hamburg.
A story of treachery, betrayal and double dealing amongst the German and American surveillance States during the so called War on Terror which began in the aftermath of the 9.11 attacks on the the United States.
Willem Dafoe portraying banker Tommy Brue and Rachel McAdams portraying a human rights attorney are two of the pivotal characters
The most telling dialogue in the film takes place between Gunther Bachmann, a German anti-terror expert (Philip Seymour Hoffman), and Martha Sullivan, a CIA operative stationed in Berlin (Robin Wright).
Robin Wright, attired totally in black, portrays the murky CIA operative Martha Sullivan. She parleys with Gunther Bachmann at 20 Up on the 20th floor of the Empire Riverside Hotel with a panoramic view of Hamburg’s harbor and the Elbe River.
Gunther Bachmann. “And all that damage we leave behind. All those lies. All those empty rooms. What were they in vain for? You have asked yourself that question? Why do what we do?”
Martha Sullivan. “Mmm hmm. Sometimes. But I always come up with the same answer.”
Gunther Bachmann. “And what is it?”
Martha Sullivan. “To make the world a safer place. Isn’t that enough?”
Nina Hoss, an accomplished German actress, is Gunther Bachmann’s fellow operative Nina Frey.
Dr. Faisal Abdullah, portrayed by Homayoun Ershadi, meets with Tommy Brue, the banker, portrayed by WIllem Dafoe.
The brutal betrayal scene engineered by the CIA at the end of A Most Wanted Man
The incredible meltdown by Gunther Bachmann following the betrayal by the CIA
Top photo: Philip Seymour Hoffman lets go with one of the all time screams in cinema.
It was long ago when we were living in the quiet beautiful German countryside. Nearby were the German woods and the American militaryat the Miesau Army Depot.
The first Black Sabbath album came out in those days and with our old record player we listened to this classic LP frequently. It set the perfect mood for the dark and beautiful German countryside.
It has stayed with me forever.
The turret at the Landstuhl castle
Ozzy Osbourne undoubtedly went on to great commercial success at many levels.
Overlooking the German countryside from the Landstuhl castle
It was the first album, listened to in the incongruous setting of the German countryside and the American military which has stayed with me for over 50 years.
Liz and I returned to Miesau in 2017. We weren’t listening to Black Sabbath but the memories were definitely on my mind.
A quick glance at the San Francisco Chronicle provides a depressing and sorry snapshot of the world in 2025.
A beloved 29 year old teacher from Riordan High School in San Francisco is brutally assaulted while on vacation in Italy.
A public defender is assaulted by a former client in front of the Sonoma County Courthouse.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 7.19.2025
Popular S.F. teacher and coach brutally attacked and robbed while visiting Italy
The thought kept flashing through Nicholas Pellegrino’s mind as he sat on a train station outside of Milan, blood pouring from his throat.
If the 29-year-old San Francisco high school teacher and track coach didn’t get help soon, he was going to die.
“I had no doubt about that in my mind,” he said. “It’s a feeling of helplessness that I don’t wish on my worst enemy.”
Moments before, several passengers had attacked him, slashing his throat with a knife and robbing him.
Pellegrino, who teaches religion at San Francisco’s Archbishop Riordan High School, had traveled to Italy this month for vacation. He was looking forward to seeing relatives and friends in northern Italy.
On July 15, he’d caught a train just before noon from Melegnano, a Milanese suburb, bound for Florence. But the moment he stepped on the train, something felt off.
A few seats down, several passengers kept staring at him — then quickly looking away whenever they saw him looking back. As the train rolled into the next stop, one of them rushed him, swinging a knife.
With blood pouring from his neck, the thieves ripped the crucifix he was wearing and grabbed his backpack and luggage.
Bay Area public defender beaten and robbed by former client, police say
A former client has been arrested in an attack on a Sonoma County public defender, according to the Santa Rosa Police Department.
Leon Simms, 44, was booked into Sonoma County Jail on suspicion of robbery, attempted kidnapping, criminal threats and battery causing serious injury in the attack, police said.
Sonoma County Courthouse
Officers responded to a report of an assault outside the Sonoma County Courthouse at 12:37 p.m. Thursday, police said. Simms, who had fled the scene, struck the victim several times in the face, stole personal property, and threatened further violence and kidnapping, police said.
If nothing else the billionaire Mayor Levi Strauss & Co. scion Daniel Lurie is hip with the technology.
Based on his corporate pedigree it’s no surprise that he’s bringing the power of Artificial Intelligence to San Francisco City Hall. LS &Co. has always been at the forefront of technology in the workplace.
How City employees will make use of AI remains to be seen. It’s a real game changerand will hurtle San Francisco government into the 21st century.
An OpenAI-powered chatbot is a conversational AI that leverages OpenAI’s large language models (LLMs) to generate human-like text responses and engage in natural language interactions. These chatbots are built using OpenAI’s API and can be customized for various applications, including customer service, information retrieval, and more.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 7.14.2025
San Francisco city workers are being told to follow guidelines including keeping data secure, fact checking and disclosing AI use. The city is partnering with nonprofit InnovateUS to train staff.
Microsoft 365 Copilot, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4o chatbot product, will be available starting Monday to nearly 30,000 city employees. Lurie said the city is the largest local government to use generative AI for tasks including writing reports, data analysis and document summaries.
“San Francisco is the global home of AI, and now, we’re putting that innovation to work with Microsoft Copilot Chat — allowing City Hall to better deliver for our residents,” said Lurie in a statement. “As our city and the world embrace AI technology, San Francisco is setting the standard for how local government can responsibly do the same.
The city is the biggest hub for leading AI companies in the world, with headquarters from OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks and Scale AI.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft also has multiple offices in San Francisco and is bringing its Ignite conference to Moscone Center in the fall for the first time. A win for the city as it continues to grapple with lost business travel since the pandemic.
The San Francisco event is booked for the week of Nov. 17, 2025.
Lurie previously worked with 26 business leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, to establish a new advocacy group called the Partnership for San Francisco.
Dozens have been killed in Gaza as Israel presses its offensive. Reports say many died while waiting for food near aid sites and others were killed in airstrikes at different locations. DW has the latest.
The Israeli genocide against the people of Gaza continues unabated.
Lee Heidhues 7.5.2025
The German government cracked down from the beginning on those speaking out against the Israeli terror campaign against Gaza.The crackdown began less than 10 days after the Hamas attack on Israel October 7, 2023.
It’s dangerous to speak up for the Palestinians and against the Israeli ongoing genocide in Gaza. Nearly 60,000 children, women and men have been slaughtered by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) since the Hamas attack on Israel October 7, 2023.
Germany, which was responsible for the Nazi holocaust (1933-1945) and the death of 6M Jews, gypsies, those thought to be degenerate and opponents of Hitler, has stood by Israel since its creation in 1948.
The Israeli genocide is unspeakable and the crackdown on those speaking up for the Palestinian people is political, police and judicial overkill.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 10.16.2023
German police and courts responded in different manners to a series of protests and demonstrations showing solidarity with Palestinians over the weekend, with some forbidden and others allowed to go ahead.
Berlin cops roust Palestinian demonstrators – 10.16.2023
In the German capital Berlin, police on Sunday evening appealed online to people not to come to a planned “vigil” for people in Gaza at Potsdamer Platz in the city center, saying it had been prohibited “because in this case it is a replacement-event for an already banned demonstration.”
In a later update, police explained more on their reasoning for the restrictions.
“More and more participants with flags and pro-Palestinian symbols were flocking to the gathering, originally planned as a vigil, which the organizer had said was neither desired nor planned when in prior collaborative talks,” Berlin police wrote on social media. “As a result of the considerable number of people with pro-Palestinian symbols arriving, the replacement event was forbidden even before it had formally begun.”
The issue of demonstrations in support of Palestinians has been highly visible in many European countries since Israel launched relaliatory airstrikes on Gaza after the militant Islamist group Hamas, which rules the strip, attacked Israel on October 7 killing some 1,300 Israelis as well as foreign nationals. In Germany, the issue has been particularly sensitive and met with a relatively hard line by politicians of all stripes.
Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck tried to describe these issues at some length in a speech released online late on Friday that gathered traction over the weekend.
Bendi the Tuxedo Cat rests on his pasha pillowon his 4th birthday.
Liz and Lee Heidhues 7.5.2025
Liz with her dear friend the Tuxedo Cat Bendi on his 4th birthday.
Bendi checks out the popcorn popped in our 42 year old West Bend popcorn maker purchased at Macy’s in 1983.
An agile Bendi peering into the microwave oven.
Bendi, the black tuxedo cat, has graced our home during the day for the past 15 months bringing joy, thrills, and constant companionship into our lives.
When Bendi is not enjoying the action in the kitchen and throughout the house, Bendi patrols our property both inside and out and climbs onto our roof, performs sentry duty along the fences and discourages vermin, such as rats, from trespassing onto our property.
Inspector Bendi patrols the fences.
His nickname is Inspector Bendi. Inspector Bendi’s curiosity is famous. He looks into every nook and cranny in our house to satisfy his insatiable appetite for adventure.
A pensive Tuxedo Cat Bendi under the admiring eye of Lee.
Several blocks away a flock of crows overlooking Ocean Beach Park which is now formally known as Sunset Dunes Park.
The destruction of rustic California continues to bulldoze its way through the state as developers and realtors cash in on the law requiring tens ofthousands of housing units be built.
Sausalito, the small town north of San Francisco in which I spent my high school years is not immune from this scourge has been taken over by YIMBYism. The one time quaint town, famous for its bohemian and laid back lifestyle, is lurching into the urban sprawl of the 21st century.
The town’s planning commission has green lit a massive building project which will disrupt an entire neighborhood. 19 units will be constructed on four stories. What was for over a hundred years a sleepy section of Sausalito is going to be torn asunder to satisfy the rapaciousness of developers and realtors.
Excerpted from Marin Independent Journal 6.26.2025
The Sausalito Planning Commission has approved the city’s largest new housing project in two decades.
Bridgeway Avenue in Sausalito – undated photo
The site is an overgrown lot and hillside hollow with decaying garages, century-old structures and apparently abandoned cars.
The lot will be cleared and two-dozen trees removed.
Workers will excavate 5,200 cubic yards of soil, which planning commissioner David Marlatt said could be 700 truckloads. The site will be graded and retaining walls built to enclose the complex.
After the meeting, Brandon Phipps, the city community and economic development director, said it is on track to meet its state housing mandate in less than two years. The mandate is to allow 724 more residences by 2031.
Bridgeway Avenue in Sausalito – circa 1960’s
The panel voted Wednesday to permit the four-story townhouse-style complex at 1755 Bridgeway near Easterby Street. The plan calls for 19 condominiums in two buildings.
Four residences will be sold at a reduced price to moderate-income households to satisfy a state housing mandate. The rest will be market rate.
“This is the first major multi-family housing project in decades,” said Andrew Junius, vice chair of the Planning Commission. “These 19 units are going to fit right in. I’m very, very excited to see it move forward.”
The Ferry terminal in Sausalito which takes workers, tourists and local day trippers to San Francisco
The city’s last project of this scale was Rotary Village, an income-restricted 22-residence project built in 2004.
The developers filed their first application for the project in 2018. It has been scaled back in response to concerns voiced by neighbors and city officials, city planner Kristin Teiche told the commission and audience before recommending its approval.
Planning commissioners noted they could not reduce the project’s size under state laws. The commission unanimously approved the complex after amending some conditions where city staff would revisit guest parking issues and the exterior color and design.
“In the last 30 days, the city of Sausalito has approved 31 units of housing,” Phipps said.
Top photo: The property at 1755 Bridgeway in Sausalito on May 9, 2023. A developer plans to build 19 condominiums there, including four for moderate-income households. (Alan Dep/Marin Independent Journal)
My daughter got me up to speed on the Billy Joel old time (1989) political rock ‘n roll…
I found a video which best encapsulates Billy Joel’s musical stroll through the decades of the second half of the 20th century concluding as the Cold War ended in 1989.
Spreading racist bigoted anti-immigrant slurs. The incendiary appeal to the worst in people has served the Felon Trump well for 10 years.
The latest target of his obscene vitriol is the just officially declared Democrat nominee for the Mayoralty of the Felon Trump’s hometown.
NomineeZohran Mondami is having none of it.
Excerpted from The New York Times 7.1.2025
“The president of the United States just threatened to have me arrested,” Zohran Mamdani said in a response on social media, adding that Mr. Trump’s statements “don’t just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: If you speak up, they will come for you.”
He continued, “We will not accept this intimidation.”
President Trump on Tuesday floated an outlandish claim that Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York mayor, was an illegal immigrant and threatened to arrest him if he blocked immigration arrests in New York City.
Mr. Mamdani was born in Uganda and has lived in New York City since 1998, when he was 7 years old. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2018. If elected, Mr. Mamdani would also be the first Muslim to become mayor of New York City. There is no credible evidence to suggest Mr. Mamdani is not, or shouldn’t be, a U.S. citizen.
Mr. Trump’s attack on the mayoral candidate echoed language he has long used to lend credibility to falsehoods. “A lot of people are saying he’s here illegally,” he said of Mr. Mamdani. “We’re going to look at everything.”
When a journalist raised the possibility that Mr. Mamdani “will not allow” ICE to make immigration arrests, Mr. Trump replied, “Well then we’ll have to arrest him.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has so far declined to endorse Mr. Mamdani, rallied behind him after Mr. Trump’s attacks.
“I don’t care if you’re the President of the United States,” Ms. Hochul wrote on social media. “If you threaten to unlawfully go after one of our neighbors, you’re picking a fight with 20 million New Yorkers — starting with me.”
Lee's Perspective 