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If You Build It

Supervisor Jane Kim Pushes Legislation to Help Cure the City's Bedbug Problem

San Francisco renters are gathering outside City Hall right now to talk about, of all things, bugs. Specifically, they are out there (incidentally, enjoying the warm weather) to show city supervisors how disgusted they are with bedbugs in San Francisco. Those renters have garnered much sympathy from ... More >>

Flower Power

Bloomsday

Border Control Cracks Down on Immigration of Red Roses

CBP​Red roses will be getting the pat-down by border control this Valentine's Day to ensure those flowers you give your honey come Tuesday are free of nasty bugs.The U.S. Customs and Border Control will continue stopping every red rose over the weekend, scanning to see if any of those flowers are ... More >>

Urban Gardens Are Hot, but What About Urban Pollution?

Oakland, like San Francisco before it, is rushing to accommodate urban gardeners by revising its regulations to allow people to sell produce they grow in the city. There's one catch, says East Bay Express's Nate Seltenrich: Much of the soil in West Oakland is contaminated with dangerous levels of le ... More >>

Tonight: Urban Kitchen Wants to Hang Out

These Pickles Don't Know They're Tonight's Appetizers.​Urban Kitchen SF Happy Hour Where: Hog and Rocks, 3431 19th St. (at San Carlos), 550-8627 When: Tues., May 24, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Cost: Free appetizers; drink prices vary The rundown: Urban Kitchen SF is a go-to for classes on beekeeping, ... More >>

Bedbugs: What San Francisco Can Learn From New York City

What to do, what to do? ​San Francisco has spent a great deal of time trying to figure how best to resolve the growing bedbug problem -- particularly in SROs. But here is an idea. How about the Public Health Department take a look at how New York City is dealing with bedbugs. NYC's Health and Ment ... More >>

S.F. Bedbugs: So Many Cases, So Few Inspectors

cohabitation ​Like Supervisor Jane Kim, we want to know why there are only two health inspectors dedicated to dealing with the city's 560 SROs, home to most of the bedbug cases. To put that into context: that's one inspector for every 10,000 SRO units.But more than that, we want to know why the De ... More >>

Digging the Dirt Dinner at eVe

Jesse HirschBags of soil from Kenney Cottage Garden were passed among the diners.​Californians love their dirt. Like poets of yore writing ballads to the sea, near-mythological reverence is given to the earthy roots of our local produce. At last night's Dirt Dinner event, local gardeners gave ... More >>

eVe Goes Back to the Garden

350.org/FlickrKenney Cottage Garden.​Down and Dirty Dinner Where: eVe, 1960 University (at Bonita), Berkeley, 510-868-0735 When: Sun., Mar. 20, 6 p.m. Cost: $40 ($10 goes to Kenney Cottage Garden) The rundown: Picture the farmer, gazing out on acres of ripe vegetables as a handful of moist ... More >>

Cool Food Gifts from La Cocina's Holiday Fair

Sean TimberlakeSuprise: Sweets Collections' decorative gelatin creations are completely edible.​I know, I know, I'm supposed to be mister DIY, eschewing packaged goods so I can toil away in the kitchen milling my own flour, harvesting local sugar cane, and carefully tending orchards of orchids ... More >>

Suckers! The media want us to think there's a bedbug invasion.

Throw Your Own Shade

S.F. Bedbug Website Spawns Bogus Trend Stories Nationwide

Louis De Vos, Université Libre de BruxellesNow you see me...​The website Bedbugregistry.com, run by San Franciscan Maciej Ceglowski, takes pains to note that its anonymous reports of insect sitings should not be taken as hard evidence of a plague. But that hasn't stopped newspaper and television ... More >>

How to Win Friends

Food Fight

New City Program Helps Homeowners Slash PG&E Bill

Look! Green! Green!​But Some Consumers May Be Better Off Looking Elsewhere To Fund Green Home Improvements, Program's Architect AcknowledgesMayor Gavin Newsom this evening will hold an "Internet town hall" to tout a new program helping property owners pay for energy-saving improvements. Dubbed Gre ... More >>

What to Stock Your Bar with for That Holiday Cocktail Mixer

gibneb/FlickrSee? Easy.​When you get right down to it, the holiday season is all about lighting a candle in lieu of cursing the darkness during the gloomiest, coldest time of the year. From the Druids' burning yule log and Hanukkah's glowing menorah to the bulb-bedecked pine tree and the flami ... More >>

Motel Hell

It took years for the city to move against an SRO that was full of pests. So one resident took her case to court.

The Clean House

Street Food Fest Auction Could Get You Face Time with Local Chefs

Elaine Baker/FlickrNopa's Laurence Jossel: This could be your kitchen, 'cept with a cheaper fridge.​Two weeks ago we reported on the coalescing list of silent auction items for the San Francisco Street Food Festival happening this Saturday. Since then there've been glittery additions, includin ... More >>

A Horse's Gift

City rules draw a fine line between manure and crap.

Saplings of the City

City Gardeners: Grass Is Always Greener Than SF Examiner Says

The Gardeners Fire BackSan Francisco's maligned park gardeners have launched a defensive salvo against their most persistent foe. That wouldn't be bugs and weeds, but rather recurring news reports that they're corrupt. In 2004, workers for a city-funded nonprofit organization called the San Francis ... More >>

S.F. Parks Director: Examiner's Absentee Gardener Story Bogus

How about "The 86-Percent Gardener"? That's good too, right? Today's San Francisco Examiner story alleging that the city's park gardeners are AWOL half the time is bogus, and stemmed from a misreading of a controller's report that was actually complimentary of those workers' performance, according t ... More >>

Emily Post Post

Best Buy

Get Fancy with Some Easy-to-Make Aps

Absolutely Kosher, Misra, Kork Agency Holiday Party This Friday

Insect Book Looks Under Your Covers: Abarbanel and Swimmer's 'Field Guide' Says Lice Prefers Whites

Soiled

Proof That Hipsters Will Eat Anything

(Don't) Bite Me

Picking Your Friends

Toothpicks at the table, registries for housewarming parties, and other faux pas

Syrup Upset

Is it rude to bring your own syrup into a restaurant and pour it on your order of French toast?

House-warming Trends

Choosing gifts for new homeowners, wines for dinner, and whether to leave a newspaper on Muni

Party Favors

Is it polite to invite some guests for dinner and others for drinks afterward?

Best People to Call When You're Locked Out

The Lock & Safe Doctor

Language Arts for a New Millennium

Learning Spanish (for your gardener), Thai (your hooker), Bureaucrat (your scientist friends), and Digital (your enemies)

Social Grace

It's My Party

Social Grace

Sometimes a Co-worker Is Just a Co-worker

Social Grace

Old Friends, New Friends, Cheap Friends, True Friends

Best Bookstore for Used Gardening Books

Black Oak Books

Open Your Mouth and Say "AH"

Night+Day

Slap Shots

A Tree Grows in L.A.

SLUGging It Out

Under the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners, community gardeners get down and dirty