A few days ago, someone broke into the SF Bay Guardian’s parking lot at 135 Mississippi and stole their iconic van. SFBG posted on their own blog about its disappearance and asked readers to send in any tips on the thievery.

“…it’s ten years old, it’s all beat up — and it has the Guardian logo all over it and a Best of the Bay mural on the side. Hard to hide. It’s value is probably more sentimental than economic at this point, but we miss it — after all, we used the van as the cover of our Best of the Bay issue back in 1999, when it was brand new. We commissioned the van-mural, designed by Tim Racer at Racer-Reynolds Illustration and painted by Rich Ayer at Signmakers, and we’d hate to see the artwork chopped up or painted over.”

The good news is that the van was found Wednesday morning by the SFPD on the 100 block of 25th Ave. According to SFGate, a teacher from Corte Madera found the van.

“Kevin Mahoney, 35, says he was heading to San Francisco to meet a friend for lunch. Around 10:30 a.m., less than an hour after reading about the pilfered vehicle on SFGate, he reportedly spotted the vehicle parked in its full artistic glory on 25th Avenue near El Camino Del Mar in the tony neighborhood of Sea Cliff.

“It stood out like a sore thumb,” said Mahoney.

He alerted police soon after. “I was happy to be able to put closure to the whole thing,” he said.

Sarah B.

Great savings this Independence weekend at everyone’s favorite independent bookstore…

This weekend only, Green Apple will be offering 25% off on all their bin books. Plus their sale on new DVDs continues: all new DVDs are at least 10%, and many are 25% or 50% off, even box sets.

On top of those great savings, Green Apple is offering another 10% off to help support their Creepshow Camp program.

Summer sessions at the creepy, crawly kids’ camp is starting soon and Green Apple wants to sponsor as many kids as possible to attend. So this weekend, print out the coupon below and use it towards any purchase from July 3 – 5. You’ll get 10% off your purchase, and they’ll also donate 10% towards scholarships for Creepshow Campers.

Want to get Green Apple news and discounts right in your inbox? Sign up for their newsletter.

Sarah B.

I’ve always kept this fascinating site in my Favorites… For the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, the Bancroft Library launched a website that brings together historic photos and documents from the event. You can spend hours looking at the fascinating photos.

While there weren’t many residents in the Richmond District in 1906, the site contains many high-resolution photos of the damage that was sustained by the buildings in the “Outside Lands” at the time. A slanted house on 11th Avenue, a crumbling orphanage at 7th and Lake, a sagging building near the old chutes on Fulton Street, the refugee camp that spanned the length of Park Presidio Boulevard – all of them stunning reminders of the destruction that the city had to come back from.

I’ve included a few photos here in the post, but I recommend visiting the site’s interactive map to start your exploration. Click here to see more photos from the Richmond District. The site’s search also works very well, making it easy to look up photos by street, landmark or neighborhood. Be sure to check out their panoramic view of the city post-earthquake which they stitched together with a series of photos taken from the roof of the Fairmont Hotel.

The Western Neighborhoods Project also has a great history of the 1906 earthquake refugee shacks that were used to house earthquake refugees. Hundreds were erected in Camp 25 that was located on what is now Park Presidio Boulevard. After the camps begain closing in 1907, “refugees hauled cottages to private lots, and often cobbled together two or more to form larger residences.”

Sarah B.