If your tutu fix seems too, too pricey these days, take heart: the San Francisco Ballet offers numerous ways to save. With a little advance planning, you can enjoy a truly decadent cultural experience on a burger-and-movie budget.

Take the high seats
While orchestra and box seats can run from $150 to a whopping $275 each, tickets in the balcony run $45 and have a great overall view of the performance. If you can find seats near the center rail, grab them.

Partial view—partial price!
There are about 44 obstructed view seats in the side orchestra (main level) for every performance. These tend to sell out well in advance, although a phone call to the Box Office today revealed that there are still some left for Programs 6 and 7 in the repertoire. The full-length story ballets are snapped up fast. How obstructed is the view? That depends on the seat and the ballet, so be sure to ask when you call.

Same-day rush
Full-time students can often purchase tickets for that day’s performance for $10 or $20 with current I.D. Military personnel and seniors 65 and older are eligible for $30 tickets for same day performance. Rush tickets must be purchased and picked up at least one hour before the performance starts.

Student/educator specials
A special three-ballet package (Swan Lake, Balanchine Masterworks and Mixed Bill) is available to students and educators for deep discounts: as little as $17 per performance. Again, valid I.D. is required.

Gather a group
Group rates, available on select performances, are 20% off regular ticket pricing. A group is 20 or more people. It may be worth a sign-up sheet at the office.

Questions.  The ballet Box Office is always helpful.  451.865.2000.

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Today, Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director of SPUR, talks about the disconnect in the condition and uses of the San Francisco waterfront along the Embarcadero, from the home run of the Giants ballpark to the fenced off piers that are rotting into the Bay. What gives?

Well, it appears that there are a number of state and local laws that prohibit a number of uses of waterfront property—no residential housing, hotels, and restrictions on office uses—which leaves us with restaurants and museums as the prime candidates to take over these abandoned sites. But how many restaurants and museums can the waterfront support? And who has the energy—and the money—to convert the old piers to new uses?

Gabriel also takes on the issue of local governments making decisions that have huge impacts on the region, but says that only through networking of business, non-profit and government groups do regional issues get raised. He gives high praise to some of SPUR’s partners in the ongoing discussion of long-term regional issues, like the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Bay Conservation and Development Council, BART, Caltrain, the cities of San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, the Bay Area Council and the Greenbelt Alliance.

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When so many people live in proximity to one another in the density of a city, the city’s public spaces—whether formal or informal—provide a much-needed respite for nature watching, people watching, strolling and sitting. The need to contribute new spaces to the public realm—and to reinvest in existing areas—results in access to more open space, art installations, parks, animal-friendly areas and pathways for visitors and residents alike. Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director of SPUR, the San Francisco Planning and Urban research Association, talks to The Real Story today about some of the public spaces on the drawing boards for the near future.

Development often goes hand-in-hand with the creation of public spaces, and Gabriel gives credit to the vision of the Mission Bay plan, which allowed a whole neighborhood to be thought through and planned for more interaction with the water’s edge. Soon to come: rooftop gardens at the Transbay redevelopment area, a series of parks at the Shipyard at Hunters Point, and even local agriculture, accessible to the public, on Treasure Island.

If your household includes a dog or a cat, moving into a new home requires some extra planning and coordination. Just like humans, pets find the process of moving stressful and disorienting. Unlike humans, however, they don’t really understand why their familiar territory is being torn apart and packed in boxes. All those strangers in and out of the house, all the unfamiliar sounds and smells, can be downright terrifying for the canine and feline members of your family.

Here are some tips from the San Francisco SPCA and other sources that will help minimize stress and keep your pets safe throughout the moving process.

Getting ready
Pets like routine. Keep to your pet’s regular eating and exercise schedule as much as possible. Lots of reassuring pats and calm conversation is in order during the packing process.

Schedule a check-up with your veterinarian 7 to 10 days before the move. Your vet will have lots of good advice on the moving process, so be sure to ask. If you’ll be changing vets, request a copy of your pet’s medical records.

Be sure your dog or cat is wearing an ID tag—or consider having your pet micro-chipped. This will help in the event that your pet becomes lost or runs away during the move.

Moving day
Let your pet stay in their familiar surroundings as long as possible. For short-distance moves, let your pet stay in your old place during the move. Isolate him from the chaos of the move in a familiar room or yard—and make sure his favorite dishes, bed and toys are there, too.

To make sure your pet doesn’t get in the way, you may want to arrange for pet care on moving day—preferably at a facility or friend’s home your pet has stayed at before.

If longer distances or air travel is involved, ask your vet about how best to transport your pet.

Settling in
Unpack your pet’s familiar food, water bowl, bed and toys right away. Lots of attention and reassuring comments will help ease anxiety.

Let your dog sniff around and get acquainted with its new territory. Cats may hide; be sure it knows where to find the litter box and food.

Always keep to your pet’s schedule for feeding, play and walks. A routine is comforting (for you, too!).

Have fun exploring your new neighborhood. Most cities in the Bay Area have dog parks and other outdoor spaces for the canine crowd, so get out and enjoy.

Sources

www.realtytimes.com/rtpages/20100315_movingpets.htm

www.ehow.com/way_5261628_pet-moving-tips.html

www.sfspca.org/moving-pet

www.healthypet.com

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Gabriel Metcalf, Executive Director of SPUR, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, is someone who is comfortable taking the long view on San Francisco. SPUR, which started as the Housing Association in 1910, has been a part of the City’s character, trying to promote good planning and good government by “bringing together interesting people to figure out how to make things better”.

The kinds of projects SPUR looks at include developments that change the face of the urban area—like Mission Bay, which took decades of planning and approvals before all of the right elements—including financing—came together at the same time. Today, San Franciscans point to Mission Bay as an example of what the City can do, with a total memory loss about how close that transformational project came to never breaking ground at all.

Gabriel sees the high cost of housing in the City as being its single biggest problem for the future. The vitality that the City enjoys, he says, is a product of the diversity of groups who make San Francisco home. . . but how much longer will San Francisco offer housing alternatives to the many? And how open is the City to a discussion of bringing developers in to increase the number of homes through more density and taller buildings? Without significantly more supply, housing prices will continue to rise, making San Francisco more economically homogeneous.

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In this first year of The Real Story, we were invited to share some of the big picture thinking that goes along with creating change. Looking back over some of the interviews filed under the subhead “Innovation”, we were struck by the common chords of these conversations about change.

Sometimes our interview subjects surprised us by changing their direction. A case in point is Stewart Brand, grandfather of the environmental movement and author of the Whole Earth Catalogue, published in the 1970’s. Now in his seventies, and easily as radical in his thinking today, Stewart talked to The Real Story about the need for the environmental movement to get broader, and more focused on science instead of feel good politics. He made an adamant  stand forty years ago against nuclear power—and now has come around to the belief that nuclear power is clean, safe and critical to our ability to meet our energy needs.

Sometimes our interview subjects help connect a lot of independent ideas. We met Michelle Kaufmann, architect and housing visionary at the West Coast Green Conference last year. Michelle not only designs green custom homes, but writes about the lifestyle aspects of green living. Blu Home acquired the floorplans for several of her green, modular home designs, and is planning to offer them as prefab homes throughout the country.

Chris Meany, partner at Wilson, Meany, Sullivan and Cathy Simon, partner at Perkins + Will architects both talked about the transformation of the San Francisco Embarcadero, and how the Ferry Building provides a very public gathering place by offering a thriving commercial venture.

So—If there’s any take away from My Year of Living Dangerously—talking about real estate with the experts—it’s that this conversation matters. Real estate makes a difference in the economy—home starts and shortfalls have a huge impact on job creation or jobless numbers. Foreclosures and shadow inventory will affect the recovery for years to come. Watching what happens on Capitol Hill and at home as the government pulls out of the mortgage business is going to be worthy of comment and commentary. Local and state actions are going to change the way we live, work, and drive and to what extent we grow. Will we be greener in a year, and will going green help the economy?

In this first year, we have interviewed six architects, five innovative developers, a housing non-profit, six mortgage experts, two bank CEOs, three economic analysts and four market researchers, three green designers, five green products providers and two green consultants. We have talked with five creative thinkers, two journalists, three experts on the financial markets, three real estate sales experts, an attorney, three real estate trade group representatives and three policy makers. If you have any ideas about real estate topics you’d like to see us cover, email us at our website:  therealstoryblog.com and click the Ask Colleen button.