Project Open Hand's Blog

F-Line Street Car Dedicated to Harvey Milk, former San Francisco City Supervisor

blogwriter — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:04:46 +0000

Last week, Tom Nolan, POH Executive Director, in his role as SFMTA Vice-Chair, was at the dedication ceremony for the naming of an F-line street car dedicated to the late San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk. Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the United States. The dedication ceremony coincided with that evening’s MILK movie premiere in the Castro.

“The streetcar will be a rolling classroom where passengers can learn about the life of Harvey Milk,” San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority executive director Nathaniel Ford said.

Among those attending the ceremony, in addition to our very own Tom Nolan, were San Francisco Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Bevan Dufty, and Ross Mirkarimi, Assemblyman Mark Leno, San Francisco City Treasurer Jose Cisneros, Harvey Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk, president of the Market Street Railway Board of Directors Rich Laubscher, and Milk’s former campaign manager Anne Kronenberg.

Kronenberg recalled that Milk, who was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, used to board Muni trains to give campaign speeches to captive audiences.

“Harvey not only rode Muni, he used it as a campaign office,” Kronenberg said.

Aging with AIDS

blogwriter — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:40:21 +0000

The New York Times has an article up today discussing what it means when HIV/AIDS changes from a critical to a chronic disease:

Today, because of antiretroviral therapy and an array of drugs to treat both symptoms and side effects, AIDS has become a chronic condition to be managed, at least in the developed world. No longer is the face of AIDS emaciated and covered with lesions; Americans with the disease are stronger and healthier, their concerns fading from public view.

You can read the whole article, here.

Eat Quinoa (and Go Vote)!

blogwriter — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:50:47 +0000

So, um, there’s some sort of big election going on and you might want to go excercise one of your most powerful rights and vote.

Voted, yet? Good, now check out this short article on one of our favorite little wonder grains, quinoa.

Dear Mr. President…

blogwriter — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:46:23 +0000

Our favorite food write, Michael Pollan, has written an open letter to the next President regarding the state of the nation’s food supply and what is to be done to save it, here’s a sample:

But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

The article appeared in the 10/12 edition of the Sunday New York Times Magazine and you can read it, here.

Keeping tabs on Solar

blogwriter — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:50:38 +0000

In June of 2007, Project Open Hand went live with our dual (electric/hot water) solar power array. Since that time, we have generated many megawatts of power and avoided the emission of many thousands of tons greenhouse gasses and now, you can monitor our solar progress right through your web browser. Click here to see current and historical data on Open Hand’s Solar array and feel free to bookmark the page.

We Are All Antaeus

blogwriter — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:04:48 +0000

Somewhere around the 7th grade or so, there was a moment of learnin’ that we actually enjoyed, when we learned about greek mythology, Hercules and a certain wrestler named Antaeus. It seems Antaeus was the most fearsome wrestler in all the land but he was powerless when his feet left the ground; it was the earth from which Antaeus drew his strength. It’s a parable and there are many lessons to be drawn from the story of Hercules and Antaeus but we think it’s fair to say that our own connection to the earth is no less imperative than Antaeus’. Which is our roundabout way of pointing you toward this story about a local market putting consumers back in touch with local food.

And if you want to learn a little bit more about Antaeus, this is a good place to start.

Sugar by any other name…

blogwriter — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:39:43 +0000

is still sugar. And high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is sugar, two sugars in fact, glucose and fructose. Our favorite food columnist, Marion Nestle,has a great Q&A post on HFCS up at SFGate, today. You can read it, here. And for once, we can safely recommend you cruise the reader comments section. Count us among the, “jury is still out” crowd when it comes to HFCS; honey comes from bees and HFCS is synthesized from corn, ’nuff said.

How to eat?

blogwriter — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:10:02 +0000

You’d think that one woulnd’t need to ask but we are bombarded with different messages about what to eat and it can be confusing and even contradictory. And what to make of vitamin enriched water and anti-oxidant drinks? Marion Nestle has a new column up today and she has some sage advice for us:

Michael Pollan summarizes all this in seven words: “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” I need a few more words to make some additional nutritional points: “Eat less. Move more. Eat lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Don’t eat too much junk food.” The great thing about this advice is that it is easy to follow and leaves plenty of room to eat what you like and enjoy your dinner.

You can read the rest of the article, here.

What is Slow Food?

blogwriter — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:14:30 +0000

The short answer is: the opposite of fast food but there’s a lot wrapped up in that snappy response. Steven Winn does a nice job of unpacking the Slow Food agenda in this article from today’s Chronicle.

Slow Food Comes to SF

blogwriter — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:18:33 +0000

The Slow Food movement was formed as a direct response to the growth of fast food and the subsequent crowding out of traditional foods and food cultures. The movement was founded in Italy in 1986 by Carlo Petrini. Slow Food USA is coming to SF this weekend and we will be linking to stories covering the event all week. Today’s SF Gate has a nice overview of the movement and the weekend’s events, you can read it here.