Tired of spinning the same ol’ Bing Crosby and Chimpmunks tunes every holiday season? Add some new songs to your collection this year from the Richmond District’s own indie rocker, David Greco.

He’s released a new EP entitled “The Christmas Record” featuring his versions of five holiday classics. Have a listen:

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1. Do You Hear What I Hear
2. Go Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
3. Christ: The King
4. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
5. Silent Night

“The Christmas Record” is available on iTunes for $4.95 and will soon be available from Amazon MP3. A physical CD can also be ordered from David’s website beginning December 3.

So this year when your guests ask, “Hey, who’s this singing?” you can say “It’s my neighbor!”.

Sarah B.

This Sunday, the Richmond District Neighborhood Center will host Urban Cottage SF, a holiday designer boutique shopping event. Fifteen local designers are coming together to display their products and help raise money for San Francisco’s public schools.

From 11am until 3pm, shop for kids clothing, jewelry, skincare, toys, home decor, textiles, gourmet foods, and more right here in the neighborhood. All the wares at Urban Cottage SF are made by San Francisco designers like Bunny and Bee, Lauren Smash Toys, Dolce Mia and Giddy Giddy, who will donate 20% of their proceeds from the day’s sales to the city’s public schools.

On top of kicking off your holiday shopping, you also have a chance to win prizes provided by the particpating designers when you purchase raffle tickets for $5 each.

The shopping fun takes place this Sunday, December 5 from 11am until 3pm at the Richmond District Neighborhood Center, 741 30th Ave.

Admission is free so even if you’re not ready to start buying, window shopping is welcome and the designers will be on site to answer questions about their products. See the full list of designers below.

Happy shopping!

Sarah B.

Urban Cottage SF participating retailers:

The National Park Service and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy will host the next public meeting about the new Lands End visitor center on December 7, 6pm at the Cliff House.

At the meeting, they’ll present designs for the new 2,500 square foot center, known as the Lands End Lookout, which will also include 500 square feet of food service. A separate, 1,000 square foot building will house restrooms.

The center and restrooms will be built on a triangular patch of land on the south end of the Lands End parking lot along Point Lobos Avenue (just up the block from Louis’ Diner).

If you plan to attend the meeting on December 7, please RSVP to trailsforever@parksconservancy.org or call 561-3054.

Sarah B.

The Lands End Lookout will be located on this patch of land adjacent to the parking lot and Point Lobos Avenue.

Several readers have written in today with the news that Delano’s Market, home of the double coupon, is closing in the next couple of weeks.

I stopped by the store this afternoon and saw signs posted, announcing their reduced hours. Normally the market is open 24 hours but starting tomorrow, they will only operate from 8am until 8pm daily.

Other than the store hours announcements, the only other sign there was something amiss were the empty shelves in many of the aisles. As I took photos, one woman asked me “Are they in trouble?” and when I replied they were closing, her mouth fell open in disbelief.

I spoke to a couple of store staff while I was there, James and Daniel. Both men have 20 plus years working at the Geary location which has changed hands several times since it first opened as a CALA Foods many years ago.

They told me that the market would be closing soon but they didn’t know exactly when. “When the food is all sold, we guess!” joked one of them.

Not every staff member was as lighthearted about the closure – one reader reported that staff at the store were in tears about the closure when he shopped there today.

Despite their looming unemployment, James and Daniel said that they’ve always loved working at the market. James was born and raised in the city. When I asked what was next for them they laughingly replied, almost in unison, “We’re going to live off our wives!”

Other employees guessed the store would officially close in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, no fresh food is being stocked in the store – there are already large, gaping holes in the milk, bread and egg aisle.

So why is Delano’s Market closing? James and Daniel said the market chain is in financial distress and would be declaring bankruptcy soon. James emphasized that the Geary location does fine, but that the other six Delano’s locations in the greater Bay Area have been struggling. Curiously when I tried to visit their website tonight at delanomarkets.com, it came up empty.

I was not able to confirm with Delano’s if bankruptcy issues are the reason for the closure. Some readers asked if the planned opening of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market at 32nd and Clement next year contributed to Delano’s demise, but that does not seem to be the case.

For outer Richmond residents the closure of Delano’s further limits their choices for supermarket shopping. Neighbors will have to drive or bus out to the Safeway at Ocean Beach (48th Avenue) or head the other direction to the Safeway on 7th Avenue at Cabrillo. Either way, a long trek for shoppers that have relied on the Geary & 27th Avenue market for many years.

The closure also leaves a gaping vacancy on Geary Street – the market’s lot spans the entire length of the block between 27th and 28th Avenues. Let’s hope that the property owner has some other tenants lined up or at least a plan in place to keep the area clean and secure.

Are you a Delano’s shopper? How do you feel about the market closing?

Sarah B.

There’s been no shortage of awesome skies this fall. Photographer David Yu captured this beauty last night.

[via SFCitizen]

I hope everyone has a great holiday with their friends and family! – Sarah B.

The California Academy of Sciences is really getting in the holiday spirit this year.

This week, a pair of reindeer arrived at the museum. Yukon and Windy will be hanging out in the Academy’s east garden for watching, photographing, and even touching through the beginning of January.

SFGate has some very funny photos of the reindeer and Santa on the Academy’s living roof, where the animals were permitted to stop for a snack before continuing onto their next destination.

SPOILER ALERT: The reindeer rode the elevator up to the roof, just like the rest of us.

Other holiday treats at the Academy of Sciences include snow falling in the piazza a few times per hour, and an inflatable planetarium that looks like an igloo. They’ll show presentations on the North Pole and life in the Antarctic inside it.

On December 28, the Academy will also host another Penguins + Pajamas party where kids age 6 and up can overnight with a chaperone. How cool would it be to pull THAT from your stocking on Xmas morning?!

If you’re headed to the Academy this holiday season, there’s a couple of ways you can save on your admission ticket:

- If you’re got an iPhone, install the Academy’s free Golden Gate Park Field Guide app and show it at the door for $5 off; Nov. 29 through Dec. 24.
- Print out this newsletter from the Conservatory of Flowers and save $2 off your admission from Dec. 1-24.

Sarah B.

Around 9:25pm last Sunday night, November 21, police received a call from a woman on 46th Avenue near Point Lobos. She told police that her husband was intoxicated and being combative, and that he was out in front of their house with a rifle.

Police responded to the scene at 9:35pm and found the man on the 400 block of 46th Avenue. Despite telling his wife earlier that he “wanted the police to shoot him”, the man began running, turning onto 47th Avenue where he then jumped into some bushes to hide.

The man eventually emerged from hiding, with the rifle still in hand. The man refused to drop his weapon at the request of police, who then shot him with an extended range impact weapon, or ERIW.

The ERIW is a non-lethal weapon that shoots ammunition similar to bean bags according to Lt. Troy Dangerfield of the SFPD Public Affairs office. According to a SFPD memo from 2005, the ERIW is a firearm with munitions that are designed to deliver force similar to an impact weapon from an extended range.

According to policy, the SFPD can use an ERIW in crowd control situations or “to apprehend a suspect when other means of control or apprehension would be ineffective.”

The police report did not detail how many times the ERIW was used, but one eyewitness recalls hearing four or five shots. According to Lt. Dangerfield, shots from an ERIW are not as loud as a typical firearm and sound more like a “whooshing sound”.

Officers were then able to control and handcuff the man, who was arrested and booked on charges of brandishing a weapon, trespassing and resisting arrest.

Dangerfield said a photo of the man’s weapon was included with the police report and that it looked “like a machine gun, an assault rifle”, which matches a description given to us by an eyewitness on the scene.

Dangerfield said it was the type of weapon that would shoot BB’s, which would be unlikely to hurt officers. Eight to nine police cars responded to the incident on Sunday night, including two Supervisors.

An eyewitness and resident on 46th and Point Lobos sent me a short video clip taken after the arrest; the accompanying photo in this story was taken from it. The police cars in the foreground are pointing south on the 400 block of 46th Avenue, where police first responded to the call.

Surprisingly, no mention was made of the incident in Monday’s police blotter, which prompted the neighbor to contact us.

Do you live in the area of this incident? Did you witness it? Leave a comment here on the article to let us know.

Sarah B.