Tim Redmond

PG&E can't survive solar energy

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Years ago, in the middle of the boom in nuclear power plants, we used to say, only half in jest, the private utilities would never accept solar energy because you can't put a meter on the sun. Turns out that's pretty close to true.Read more »

Senate goes after tax-cheating Apple

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Glad I'm not the only one who thinks its an outrage that the world's most valuable company, with vast revenues and huge cash surpluses, is looking for ways to avoid paying federal taxes. Read more »

Young, creative people who work hard

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I almost don't know what to say, except: Finally, someone admits it.

Rebecca Pederson, writing in The Bold Italic, explains why she actually likes the idea that San Francisco is becoming so expensive that thousands of longtime residents are being forced out; see, if it's more expensive to live here, then young, creative people will work harder:Read more »

Housing for the rootless superrich

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When San Francisco looks at building ultra-luxury housing -- places like 8 Washington -- and some city officials and "experts" say it's going to help meet the housing needs of the city, we ought to look at what's happening in Manhattan. There, high-end housing is being flooded with people who don't live in Manhattan, won't live in Manhattan, Read more »

Can't a guy even smoke crack in peace any more?

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Okay: Yes, it's really funny that the mayor of Toronto, who is an odd guy at best, was apparently caught on a cell-phone video sucking on a crack pipe. Insert jokes here. Go ahead.Read more »

The Ro Khanna party

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When Ro Khanna, a young, energetic intellectual property lawyer, ran for Congress against Tom Lantos, he was the candidate of the progressives. I liked Khanna, and appreciated his willingness to take on the almost unheard-of task of challenging a longtime incumbent in a Democratic primary. At that point, in 2004, the big issues were the war and the PATRIOT Act, and Khanna was against both. Read more »

Why is the SF housing market "positive?"

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It's been a long, long time since anyone said that traffic is terrific. When there are too many cars on the road, it's considered bad, not healthy -- even if the boom in single-occupant auto travel is a sign of a recovering economy and lots of job creation.Read more »

Small Business Awards 2013: Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

An ecological philosophy and innovative tactics earned these community-builders our Small Business Advocate Award

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The folks at the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies were locavores before the fancy foodies ever created that word. They were talking about a new economy more than a decade ago — and their vision involves networks that are human, not just electronic.

BALLE is the heart of the movement for localism, for building economies based on communities.

Founded in 2001 by Judy Wicks, who owned a restaurant in Philadelphia, and Laury Hammel, who owned a group of sports clubs in Boston, the group has expanded to a national operation with one of its two main offices in Oakland.Read more »

Small Business Awards 2013: Universal Martial Arts

The winners of our Community Service Award teach cops how to serve and protect, safely
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Police officers and security guards get trained in the use of firearms and batons; they know how to hurt and sometimes kill people. But most of them don't get the sort of basic unarmed self-defense training that would allow them to subdue an assailant without dangerous or lethal force.

That's where Universal Martial Arts Academy comes in. The only martial arts school with a full-time facility in the Bayview, Universal specializes in self-defense classes for security professionals and also offers classes for the general public.Read more »

Editor's notes

Is tech abiding by the country's social contract? And why should we care?

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tredmond@sfbg.com

EDITORS NOTES Jaron Lanier is not a Luddite. He's one of the most brilliant technologists in the world, the virtual inventor of virtual reality and one of the first people calling for information (and music) to be free. He was a tech giant when most of today's tech titans were in their disposable diapers. So when he starts talking about how the Internet is destroying the middle class, everybody ought to listen.

And that's exactly what he saying in his new book, Who Owns the Future?Read more »