Mission Turnout on Low End, Sunset Votes Most

Originally published on the Mission Loc@l

 

Darker areas represent higher turnout. Click here for a larger map.

Like the rest of the city, Missionites turned out in below-average numbers to vote for mayor.

District residents who did vote overwhelmingly supported District 11 Supervisor John Avalos.

Election officials said this year’s race had the lowest turnout of the last 10 mayoral contests. Only 39 percent of all registered voters — 182,317 residents — cast a ballot. The Mission ranked sixth lowest in turnout (30.4 percent), beating only the Western Addition, Visitacion Valley, Civic Center, SoMa and Bayview.

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Ed Lee Wins Mayor, Avalos Dominates Mission

Originally published on the Mission Loc@l

In a rather quick turn of events, interim Mayor Ed Lee is looking like the winner in the San Francisco mayoral race after 11 rounds of ranked-choice vote distributions.
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How Much Did Each Vote Cost Yesterday?

Originally published on the Mission Loc@l

If the San Francisco mayoral race was a business investment, where the return for money spent was votes earned, then a number of candidates clearly would be heading into bankruptcy.
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Avalos Leading in Mission Money Raised

Originally published on the View the full map here.

Tomorrow, tens of thousands of San Francisco voters will cast their votes for the city’s mayor, sheriff and district attorney. After months of fundraising by mayoral candidates in the city, it’s clear that there are power blocs, both geographic and demographic, that are throwing their financial weight behind their person of choice.

The map above shows how much money each candidate raised from different parts of the city. Play around with it and see where the money, and power, is coming from for each candidate. The data is current to October 25.

And if you want to compare the current numbers to last month’s, check out our previous map.

Occupy Californa: A Look at the Golden State Occupation Movement


View Occupy California, By John C. Osborn in a larger map
This map shows occupy actions found or planned across California. If there is an occupy that is not listed here, please let me know and I’ll add it.

LEGEND:
Tent = Encampment;
Cop = Protests Only;

Updated on Thursday, November 10

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Cell Plans Fought Antenna By Antenna

THe Royan Hotel on the corner of 15th and Valencia streets. Photos by John C. Osborn

Originally published on Mission Loc@l

The Royan Hotel on the corner of 15th and Valencia streets offers formidable views, but the tenants with the best view are 11 wireless antennas hidden away in the penthouse – a solution to placate the aesthetic objections that can make city approval far more unlikely.

Three more panel antennas could join them on the penthouse roof if the Planning Commission approves a T-Mobile proposal. It’s unclear what will happen, but the debate at the Planning Commission on Thursday is one that will be repeated hundreds of times over the next five years in San Francisco and thousands of times across the country as wireless carriers vie to expand. Each antenna represents another victory in a market worth $160 billion as of  Dec. 2010, according to the CTIA Wireless Association.

Read the Rest Here.


Click here for the full map

Debt Ceiling: War of Approaches

As the clock continues to tick toward U.S. default, it appears that our country is no closer to a solution on how to find a compromise to raise the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline. A dangerous standoff is all we’re left with now, a standoff where partisan politics have left House Speaker John Boehner, President Barrack Obama, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a who-blinks-first situation.

barrack-obama-debt-ceiling

President Obama made another appeal to Americans last night during his weekly address, where he talked about not a unwillingness to raise the debt ceiling, but an unwillingness over approach. Approach was, in fact, the most frequently used word in his speech next to Americans. In a previous speech on the debt ceiling, “right now” was the phrase used most by the president, a play on the immediacy of the issue at hand.

Another way to look at the speech is to see the connections between phrases. Using Many Eyes, you can see how the word “approach” is used throughout his speech. In this context, President Obama is talking about his approach to addressing the debt crisis, an approach that calls for $3 trillion in spending cuts to entitlement programs, such as Medicare, as well as defense and other areas of the government, while also increasing revenue by about $1 trillion through closing corporate tax loopholes.

 

It’s hard not to impress the seriousness of the situation, and the consequences of default, something that has never occurred here for the U.S. I invite you to check these infographics about the debt ceiling debate here and here.

Americans showing support for raising debt ceiling

polls-showing-support-raising-debt-ceiling

In three polls conducted between July 15-18, Americans overall are showing support for either raising the debt ceiling, or for a compromise plan to raise the ceiling even if they don’t necessarily agree with it. The polls, conducted by Gallup, Zogby International, and the Pew Research Center, each show that generally Republicans have the most resistance toward raising the debt ceiling, while Independents have mixed views.

I published an infographic exploring the the issue of public debt both now and historically yesterday. Check it out for more information about this interesting and important debate.

Creative Commons License
Survey of Polls about Debt Ceiling by By John C. Osborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Plotting Public Debt in America

All eyes are focused on the intense debate in Washington now, where President Barrack Obama, Congressional leaders such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and the fate of the economy are butting heads into what has become an ugly battle over raising the debt ceiling. Although debt battles are nothing new to America, the possibility of default, a nasty consequence should the debt ceiling not be raised, is becoming a surprising reality given the standoff over negotiations mainly focusing on how much spending to cut, and whether or not to raise revenue.

So what’s the big deal anyway? What are the competing interests in the debate? How did we get here today, and by here I mean almost $14 trillion in debt?

The infographic below seeks to answer those questions by laying out the players, the disputed issues, a brief history of how we got to this point in our debt, and what the future holds should common ground not be found between the parties involved.

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Word Analysis of President Obama's Remarks on June Jobs Report

After the U.S. Department of Labor announced its sad jobs report for the month of June, President Barrack Obama address media, giving his reaction to a second straight month of poor job growth and increasing unemployment.

Right now — those are the two words used with greatest frequency in Obama’s speech, a powerful indicator when placed together to show the immediacy of the continuing economic crisis facing the country. Also showing frequency is “people,” “economy, “and “make.” The above graph, made with Many Eyes, shows the word frequency breakdown of Obama’s speech.

Two years after the recession, job growth struggles, consumer spending is still shaky, wages are showing decline, and the housing market remains relatively stagnant. Meanwhile, corporations are reporting increased profits, this despite the economic malaise in America. Economists predicted that at least 100,000 jobs would appear in June, but only 18,000 non-farm jobs materialized. Meanwhile, unemployment crept up to 9.2 percent, showing an increasing trend.