Put aside your fruit fly aversion, start thinking inside the worm bin and be sure to request your free kitchen composting pail from Sunset Scavenger. Starting today, composting is mandatory in San Francisco, thanks to the Universal Recycling and Composting Ordinance. Those who don’t comply can face anywhere from $100 to $1,000 in fines, though the city will hold off for at least the first few months until everyone learns the ropes.
Mission Loc@l reporter Deia de Brito reported previously about what this means for the city’s existing trash problem, and Sade McDougal reported on how Mission High Schoolers are already getting their rot on. If you’re feeling ready to rot, the next urban outdoor composting class at the Garden for the Environment starts Nov. 7 for only $15.
There’s a new kind of green job in town, and it has nothing to do with solar panels. Obama’s new guidelines to respect state laws on medical marijuana are creating many unexpected job opportunities. The Chronicle picked up on a new trade school in Michigan training pot growers. And a Denver alternative paper is hiring a marijuana critic, reported the Guardian UK. And you thought the only boom would be in Chunky Monkey ice cream sales!
In other drug-related news, the increase in undercover drug stings in the Tenderloin ordered by Police Chief George Gascón has had an unexpected consequence: A boost in the sales of OxyContin and other pills, which do not carry the same Operation Safe Schools sentencing enhancements for selling near the neighborhood’s three schools as crack and heroin, says the Chronicle.
The San Francisco Police Department may be better able to track trends like these once COMPSTAT — a system for mapping and identifying crime problems — is fully implemented (Wire fans: you are already well familiar with this). Gascón will introduce COMPSTAT to the public for the first time at a press conference today.
The illegal alien Halloween costume I mentioned in yesterday’s Mission has created such a nationwide scandal that many stores — including Target and Walgreens — have pulled them from their shelves and online stores, reports the Chicago Tribune.
If you need a pick-me-up this hump day, consider checking out the Rara Tou Limen Haitian Folkloric Ensemble at the Mission Cultural Center tonight at 7 p.m. Read more about them and Haitian dance in the Bay Area in this Oakland North story from yesterday.
Don’t forget that the Academy of Sciences is free today (and every third Wednesday). And apparently Weezer is playing a not-so-secret secret show at the Regency tonight.
–Vanessa