April 12th, 2025 was the day of celebration for San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio who spearheaded the campaign which made Sunset Dunes Park, “California’s largest pedestrianization project” a reality.
Supervisor Joel Engardio the leader of the campaign which made Sunset Dunes Parka reality celebrates the moment as a beaming Recreation and Parks Director Phil Ginsburg looks on.
It was a historic day in San Francisco on a sunny April Saturday as thousands turned out for the formal opening of Sunset Dunes Park.The culmination of the victorious Proposition K in the November 2024 election as 55 percent of San Francisco voters approved creation of the two mile park alongside the Pacific Ocean.
Liz Heidhues flashes the “V” for Victory sign as the Snowy Plover waves approvingly
A parade of dignitaries spoke at the event including, but not limited to, Recreation and Parks Director Phil Ginsburg, representatives from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA), the California Coastal Commission, the California Academy of Arts and Science and a representative from Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office.
Sunset Dunes Park. A happy place for people of all ages.
The beautiful Pacific Ocean adjacent to Sunset Dunes Park
The mural celebrating Sunset Dunes Park near Judah Street.
Bikes, bikes and more bikes on Sunset Dunes Park
Park Rangers have a quiet day at the Sunset Dunes Park inaugural festival
A group of Sunset Dunes Park celebrants
San Francisco Chronicle – 4.14.2025
Sunset Dunes Park emcee Unique Derique juggled many responsibilities during the inaugural party.
A jazz rock fusion band ‘Children of Lucy’ provided musical entertainment at Sunset Dunes Park.
Sunset Dunes Park is a “PARK IN PROGRESS.”
One celebrant steps up to get a better view.Sunset Dunes Park is welcoming to everyone.
An enterprising citizen offered lemonade to the attendees.
Back home after the celebration blogger Lee proudly displays his “OFFICIAL SOUVENIR” ribbon
The old San Francisco along the Pacific Coast shorelineBanned forever from Sunset Dunes Park in San Francisco
The losers trying to Recall the leader of Sunset Dunes Park
A small group of obnoxious motorists gunned their engines and tried to disrupt the joyful event. Their rotten entitled motorist behavior fell flat when the City blocked the nearby streets to all vehicular traffic. “One family in the protest parade screamed in unison out of their open car windows, mother and children lending their voices to the cacophony. Another protestor, revving his motorcycle, declined questions, and revved only louder when a park supporter asked him to quiet down.“I hate them,” said the supporter, Dee, who withheld her last name for privacy. The Great Highway neighbor and SFUSD paraeducator said she had been on the fence about the issue, but the protestors helped make up her mind. ‘They have convinced me. They’re just a bunch of screaming, tan-truming 3-year-olds,’ “she said. Reported in SF Standard. SF Chronicle photo – Stephen Lam
These guys intentionally blocked traffic on the Lower Great Highway and blew their horns repeatedly. But it was barely audible in the park. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick
Liz Heidhues stands at the bus stop en route to the Sunset Dunes Park celebration. Blogger Lee and Liz have never owned a car. We have made our way through life in San Francisco raising two children utilizing bicycles, public transit and our feet. Using our bodies, our good health, our wits. Never succumbing to the typical American false need for a climate destroying car.
Top photo – Sunset Dunes Park ribbon cutting – Liz Heidhues
California criminal justice grinds slowly and not necessarily fairly.Particularly when the death penalty is at issue.
Why has it taken 16 years for the California Supreme Court to over turn a jury’s verdict now 16 years old?
Why did the trial Judge not declare a mistrial in 2009 when a holdout juror refused to convict?
Instead this Judge ousted the recalcitrant juror, empaneled an alternate juror who voted to convict. Kicking off a 16 year appeal process while the accused has languished behind bars since 2009.
What’s next? Another trial no doubt with witnesses whose memories have faded over time.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle – Bob Egelko – 4.3.2025
A California Supreme Court unanimously overturned Timothy Joseph McGhee’s convictions and death sentence for three gang-related killings in Los Angeles between 1997 and 2001. Prosecution witnesses said he had fatally shot members of rival gangs, while the defense said the witnesses had admitted being under the influence of alcohol and drugs and had been coached by prosecutors.
After three days of deliberations on his guilt, the court said, several jurors told the trial judge that another juror appeared to be incapable of making a fair decision, had expressed distrust of the police and had told them, “I am not changing my mind.”
After speaking with other jurors, Superior Court Judge Robert Perry questioned the holdout juror, then removed him, saying he was biased and had refused to deliberate. He was replaced by an alternate juror who then joined unanimous verdicts for convictions and a death sentence.
In a unanimous ruling overturning the convictions and sentence, Justice Goodwin Liu said the juror’s stated refusal to change his mind about McGhee’s guilt did not amount to a refusal to deliberate, and he should have been allowed to remain on the jury.
The juror “was rejecting, not disregarding, the prosecution’s evidence, and the record as a whole indicates that his rejection was based on the evidence,” Liu said.
“There was an evidentiary basis for (the juror’s) concerns regarding the credibility of the witnesses who were central to the prosecution’s case,” Liu wrote. He said many of the prosecutions’ witnesses were current or former gang members, and some admitted having lied to the police.
McGhee, was initially convicted and sentenced in 2009 and who could still face death penalty charges from Los Angeles County’s newly elected district attorney, Nathan Hochman.
McGhee’s lawyer, Patrick Ford, said the ruling “sent the important message that our system won’t tolerate the removal of a dissenting juror,” especially one who was troubled by what Ford described as “massive police misconduct.”
Hochman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Talk about being nervy and shameless. The current San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins is the same person who called herself a “volunteer” when in reality she was being paid over 150K as she joined the Recall against her one time boss Chesa Boudin.
This is the current DA who has been referred to the body which investigates prosecutorial misconduct for actions she took as an an assistant DA in San Francisco.
This is the current DA unhappy that a 15 year public defender and now Judge, was assigned to hear cases in criminal court. The Mission Local reported that the current DA has taken the virtually unheard of step challenging every criminal case to which this Judge is assigned.
This is the current DA who labeled legitimate protesters Hamas sympathizers when thousands marched on Market Street in October 2023.
“As San Francisco District Attorney it is my responsibility, and right, to share with the public the facts around what happens in criminal cases. Although some judges on the bench may not like transparency around their decisions, San Franciscans have asked for, expect and deserve to know what is happening at the courthouse.” SF DA Brooke Jenkins
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.24.2025
LaDoris Cordell, retired Santa Clara County Superior Court judge and a prominent voice on criminal justice issues in the Bay Area, resigned from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Innocence Commission Monday.Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle 2021
Former Judge LaDoris Cordell, a prominent voice on criminal justice issues in the Bay Area, resigned from the San Francisco District Attorney’s Innocence Commission on Monday, blasting DA Brooke Jenkins’ criticism of local judges.
“The place for a prosecutor to disagree with a judge’s ruling is in the courtroom, not on social media and not in the streets, pandering to voters. …I cannot continue to associate myself with the office of a District Attorney who so flagrantly disrespects our judiciary.”
“I cannot continue to associate myself with the office of a District Attorney who so flagrantly disrespects our judiciary,” Cordell said in a letter to the commission’s chairwoman, Lara Bazelon.
She referred to Jenkins’ recent assertion that a majority of San Francisco judges “do not treat drug dealing as a serious crime.” When a judge sentenced a convicted auto burglar to four months in jail, Jenkins said local judges were allowing criminals “to use this courthouse as a revolving door.”
DA Brooke Jenkins. Catapulted into office by former Mayor London Breed.
In another case, Jenkins’ office recommended a felony prison sentence for a minor theft by a man who had a previous felony conviction, but Judge Gerardo Sandoval imposed a misdemeanor sentence punishable by no more than a year in jail. Jenkins accused the judge of ignoring not only her office but also “the clear will of the voters” who had passed Proposition 36 last November, allowing — though not requiring — prison terms in such cases.
Last year, Jenkins joined a protest by Asian Americans outside the courthouse of Superior Court Judge Kay Tsenin, who had suspended a sentence for a man who had stabbed a 94-year-old Asian woman on the street. Tsenin found that the defendant was mentally disturbed and ordered him to undergo five years of treatment after releasing him from jail, where he had spent 2 ½ years.
After the protest, Cordell said, Tsenin received death threats and was forced to hear cases remotely rather than in her courtroom.
“Judicial independence is the hallmark of a democracy. Anyone who has graduated from law school knows this, which is why District Attorney Jenkins’ recent and scathing public attacks on judges are shameful and unethical,” she said in her resignation letter.
Flying the Hamas flag may be reprehensible to many. Before becoming too outraged don’t forget that the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan right to brandish the abhorrent swastika is protected speech in America.
Nazi flag waving Americans on the march. Protected free speech.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 3.18.2025
“There’s nothing illegal about it,” said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.
The First Amendment protects even speech that advocates for unlawful action, said First Amendment Coalition Legal Director David Loy. Speech turns into a crime only when it involves a threat to commit harm, he said.
“Speech alone cannot be a crime,” David Loy said.
A San Carlos resident’s decision to fly a Hamas flag outside their home in recent days has stirred outrage among some residents of the Peninsula city, who said they viewed the flag’s display as an endorsement of terrorism.
Some residents said they reported the flag to federal law enforcement officials and their counterparts in San Mateo County. The flag displays the Islamic oath and creed in white calligraphy on a green background.
Flying the flag is protected under free speech laws, legal experts said. It’s unclear whether the flag, flown atop a pole in front of a house on Crestview Drive on and off in the past two weeks, has triggered any kind of government investigation.
Despite the uproar, experts said the display of the flag amounts to symbolic speech protected under the First Amendment.
This is the Nazi felon Donald Trump Amerika in 2025. And it’s only going to get worse.
Excerpted from The Daily Mail UK 3.5.2025
A German tattoo artist says she was locked up in solitary confinement after she was detained 46 days while trying to walk through a checkpoint on the southern border.
‘After nine days, she said she went so insane that she started punching the walls and then she’s got blood on her knuckles.’
Brösche insisted the alleged solitary confinement was ‘like a horror movie.’
Jessica Brösche, 26, was arrested by US Customs and Border Protection as she tried to enter the country through San Diego, from Tijuana, on January 25th, ABC10 reported.
‘I just want to get home, you know? I’m really desperate,’ she told ABC 10.
Her detainment included a ‘horrible’ eight days in solitary confinement, she added.
However, the company that owns the detention center – CoreCivic – told the outlet Brösche ‘was not in any kind of restrictive housing for eight days.’
But Brösche insisted the alleged solitary confinement was ‘like a horror movie.’
‘They were screaming in all different rooms,’ Lofving said.
German tattoo artist Jessica Brösche, 26, says she was left in solitary confinement with over a week after being arrested while trying to legally cross the US-Mexico border
Lofving said she did not know where her friend was taken until she pleaded for help online and used the the federal Detainee Locator website.
She also claimed that a psychologist tried to prescribe Brösche anti-psychotic medicine, which she has refused to take.
Brösche was traveling with her American friend Nikita Lofving as a tourist under the ESTA visa waiver program. The two had met in Tijuana and were carrying tattooing equipment.
Brösche was traveling with her American friend Nikita Lofving
Immigration officials reportedly accused Brösche of working in the US the last time she entered the country with the ESTA program, an electronic system that determines whether someone is eligible to enter the US without a visa.
ESTAs are only intended for tourists and people are not allowed to work in the US while visiting on one.
Lofving told the outlet she asked officials if Brösche could be sent back to Mexico, but they said she would be deported to Germany in three to five days because she could not offer proof of residence in the Latin American country.
But Brösche says she spent days in a cell at the San Diego border before she was taken into ICE custody and brought to the the Otay Mesa Detention Center, where she was held for more than a month.
Chained, detained for weeks and eventually deported, two German tourists trying to enter the United States were recently tangled in a system responding to President Trump’s push to sharply restrict entry and deport people en masse.
The cases of Jessica Brösche, held for 46 days, and Lucas Sielaff, held for 16, and accounts of their rough handling by immigration officers, have grabbed headlines in Germany as a sign of what being caught on the wrong side of the White House’s immigration policy could mean for European travelers. New York Times 3.13.2025
Top photo: German tattoo artist Jessica Brosche incarcerated 46 days.
On Thursday, Antonina Favorskaya, Artyom Kriger, Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin were set to deliver their closing arguments. The verdict must be handed down within five days.
Now, this deadline has been pushed back by a week, with the defendants now scheduled to make their final statements on March 20. The circumstances for the delay were unknown at the time of publishing.
The trial has taken place behind closed doors. Few details are known, but the imprisoned journalists (outlined below) have been writing letters to stay in touch with the outside world.
3.12.2025
The convicted felon Donald Trump must be salivating as four Russian journalists stand trial and face six year prison terms for alleged “extremist” ties. The entire assault on the press is nothing more than a show trial so Vladimir Putin can show the Russian people who’s boss.
Two thugs agree the Press is an “Enemy of the State.”
Trump’s thug buddy Vladimir Putin treats journalists in a manner the criminal American president wishes he could introduce to America. Harassment, kangaroo court and imprisonment.
Fortunately there is the First Amendment in America which protects all journalists, including bloggers. Even the wannabe dictator Trump will be trumped in his rhetorical assault on the free press.
Americans can never forget that thug Putin detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich for over 16 months as an intimidation tactic against the press. He was freed. Unfortunately, Russian reporters can’t expect the same verdict.
One has to hope that a free press in America survives Donald Trump.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 3.12.2025
Four Russian journalists are currently on trial in Moscow, charged with involvement in an “extremist” group.
Left to right: The journalists Konstantin Gabov, Antonina Favorskaya, Artyom Kriger and Sergey Karelin have been on trial for alleged “extremist” ties Image: Maxim Shemetov/REUTERS
The group in question is the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navanly, who died in early 2024 in an Arctic penal colony under unclear circumstances. In 2021, Russian authorities designated and banned the foundation as extremist.
All four defendants deny the charges and argue they did not work for the foundation but rather were reporting on it independently.
On Thursday, Antonina Favorskaya, Artyom Kriger, Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin will deliver their closing arguments. The verdict must be handed down within five days.
If found guilty, the defendants face up to six years in prison. The Russian human rights project Political Prisoners Memorial has classified them political prisoners.
The trial has taken place behind closed doors. Few details are known, but the imprisoned journalists (outlined below) have been writing letters to stay in touch with the outside world.
Top photo: Antonina Kravtsova in handcuffs being taken to court is more widely known under her pseudonym Antonina Favorskaya
The entitled motorists have an ally in Room 200 at City Hall.
In a brutal last ditch attempt to halt creation of an environmental oasis by the Pacific Ocean, Levi’s scion and billionaire Mayor Daniel Lurie has enlisted his legal fixer to destroy Great Highway Park
Proposition K was approved by 55 percent of San Francisco voters last November.
Daniel Lurie has been Mayor only nine weeks and his attempt to slash and burn the environmental legacy of his predecessor London Breed is evident for any who care to notice.
Rather than come out and publicly say he opposes Great Highway Park, approved by 55 percent of the voters last November, Mayor Lurie enlisted his campaign lawyer to slash and burn the voters will.The only conclusion one can draw from this turning his back on The People is that the Mayor has been bullied into submission by the entitled motorists.
It’s a crass political calculation that the environmentalists who have waged a successful battle can be safely politically ignored.
It’s a shame that even though the proponents of a more pedestrian and cyclist friendly San Francisco have emerged victorious in all the major battles; JFK Promenade, Slow Streets and Great Highway Park the spoiled rotten entitled motorists refuse to acknowledge reality.
Former Mayor London Breed was a champion for the environment and car free streets. She advocated for JFK Promenade and Great Highway Park. Those halcyon days of environmental progress are over.
Former Mayor London Breed, champion of both JFK Promenade and Great Highway Park, signs enabling legislation creating JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park – May 7, 2022 – photo Lee Heidhues
Excerpted from The San Francisco Standard 3.10.2025
Opponents of Proposition K, the ballot measure that authorized the closure, and created Great Highway Park last November were expected to file a lawsuit Tuesday arguing that San Francisco voters don’t have the right to close the street to cars.
The lawsuit, led by Jim Sutton, alleges that the city ignored the state’s authority and unlawfully placed a measure before San Francisco voters. Sutton was Mayor Daniel Lurie’s campaign attorney.
Advocates for Proposition K – Great Highway Park. Will Daniel Lurie destroy their success?
The lawsuit also questions how the measure was put on the ballot, saying it bypassed the California Environmental Quality Act review process.
“This lawsuit is about standing up for the people who are being left behind,” said Albert Chow, a Sunset small-business owner and plaintiff. “Seniors, kids, and families will be forced to navigate more dangerous streets just so City Hall can score political points.”
Prop. K passed with 54% of votes in November 2024 after being placed on the ballot by five supervisors, including Joel Engardio of the Sunset, where the stretch of road is located. Approximately 64% of Sunset residents opposed the measure. Some have launched a recall effort against Engardio.
Top photo: Daniel Lurie prays that his Hail Mary to destroy Great Highway Park succeeds.
American justice is disgraceful. The convicted felon Donald Trump is in the White Housewhile the ex Presidents of The Philippines and Brazil have been indicted for their criminal acts and face major jail time. In these countries a compliant judiciary will not save them.
Where Trump belongs.
In the Philippines former President has been indicted by the International Criminal Court.
Excerpted from The New York Times 3.10.2025
Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was arrested on Tuesday in Manila, after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity in his war on drugs in which, human rights groups say, tens of thousands of Filipinos were summarily executed.
He was taken into custody at the airport in Manila after returning from a trip to Hong Kong, according to the Philippine government. Mr. Duterte’s lawyer, Salvador Panelo, said the arrest was unlawful, partly because the Philippines withdrew from the court while Mr. Duterte was in office.
Mr. Duterte, 79, who left office in 2022, is a populist firebrand who remains one of the Philippines’ most influential politicians, and he has enjoyed relative immunity despite several accusations against him in connection with his antidrug campaign.
But Mr. Duterte’s arrest could be a major step toward accountability for thousands of Filipinos who have long sought justice for their loved ones, many of whom were gunned down by police officers, hit men and vigilantes. Activists say the vast majority of victims were poor, urban Filipinos, some of whom were minors and people who had nothing to do with the drug trade.
In Brazil Jair Bolsonaro has been indicted for attempting to overthrow an election he lost.
SAN FRANCISCO – SITE OF GENE HACKMAN CINEMATIC GEM “THE CONVERSATION”
Lee Heidhues 2.27.2025
I am truly saddened to read about the passing of Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa. The cause of their deaths is raising many questions which may eventually be answered.
One thing which will never be in doubt is Hackman’s greatness as a performer.Five years ago I published a blog post about this incredible film and am reprising it to commemorate Gene Hackman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Hackman
In my mind his most compelling role was that of private investigator Harry Caul. The Francis Ford Coppola psychological mind bender filmed in San Francisco and released in 1974.The Conversation won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, the highest honor at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also nominated for three Academy Awards for 1974,but lost to Francis Ford Coppola’s own The Godfather Part II. It won the National Board of Review Award for Best Film. – excerpted from Wikipedia.
Francis Ford Coppola and Gene Hackman during filming of The Conversation in San Francisco
Considered one of the best San Francisco movies of all time, “The Conversation” featured Hackman as Harry Caul, a surveillance expert and a loner who has been hired to record the conversation of a couple as they walk through Union Square. Retired San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle 2.27.2025
The opening scene in San Francisco’s old Union Square is unforgettable.
Hackman appeared in another film which portrayed the perils of surveillance. The 1998 Tony Scott directed “Enemy of the State.” In its Appreciation of Gene Hackman the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Mr. Hackman would essentially reprise his character for a flashier thriller, the 1998 Will Smith man-on-the-run tale “Enemy of the State,” which was prescient about the potential for technology to keep tabs on us all.”
Two-time Oscar winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday afternoon in their home northeast of the city.
Although investigators do not suspect foul play in the deaths of the longtime Santa Fe residents, who over more than 30 years here became known for their involvement in the local cultural and business scenes, the circumstances of their deaths were “suspicious enough” to warrant a thorough search and investigation, according to law enforcement.
A search warrant affidavit filed by Santa Fe County sheriff’s deputies offers scant answers to the question of what happened to the couple, who were both found dead along with one of their dogs inside their house just outside Santa Fe city limits Wednesday afternoon.
Betsy Arakawa and Gene Hackman at the Academy Awards – 2003
The bodies of Hackman, 95, and Arakawa, 65, were each found lying on the floor in separate rooms of their Hyde Park-area home, the affidavit says, and one of their three dogs was found dead in a kennel or crate in the closet, Sheriff Adan Mendoza told CBS. The door to the home was ajar.
It was five years ago that Ahmaud Arbery, a young black jogger, was shotgunned to death in cold blood by two white men, father and son as he jogged through a white neighborhood in Georgia as they tried to make a vicious and without justification Citizen’s Arrest.
The two men, father and son, were convicted of murder and sentenced to long prison terms.
This image from video posted on Twitter shows Ahmaud Arbery running on a street in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Ga., on Feb. 23, 2020, as a pickup truck is stopped in front of him. Two men in the truck, Travis McMichael and his father, Gregory McMichael, confronted Arbery and less than a minute later he was fatally shot. (Twitter via AP)
After this abhorrent and vicious abuse of Georgia’s Citizen’s Arrest statute the state changed its draconian Citizen’s Arrest statute.
Sadly, California which labels itself as enlightened still has its heavy handed Citizen’s Arrest statute on the books.
Excerpted from Atlanta News First 2.23.2025
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – Sunday marks the fifth anniversary of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder.
Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was chased down by three white men while he was jogging in southeast Georgia on Feb. 23, 2020.
According to investigators, father and son Greg and Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan grabbed their firearms and chased Arbery down in the street, shot and killed him, after confronting him about recent burglaries in the area.
The Georgia General Assembly declared Feb. 23 as “Ahmaud Arbery Day.” As part of the resolution, state representatives encourage people to walk or run 2.23 miles on that day and reflect on how Arbery’s life was cut short while jogging in 2020.
Lee's Perspective 