Sounds like Belvis, Emo, and their friend Toby are in the pocket of BIG GRASS. That plan looks like it would work just fine, but also like it's super labor intensive and expensive.
If you are interested in something easier and/or want to go organic, the guy from the radio show You Bet Your Garden has a million lawn-related links.
This article seems to address your specific issue:
http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=544This page has a bunch of other articles:
http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=492#G Just CTRL+F for "lawn" or "grass" and you'll see a million different topics, though a lot of the advice is the same.
His advice basically boils down to a few things:
1) Finding the right type of grass for your climate is important.
2) Getting a mulching mower, it will feed your lawn throughout the year.
3) Keeping your grass at 3" or higher helps to avoid weeds and lets you mow less, since the grass will grow much slower. (I know BIG GRASS and BIG MOWER says this is too high, but it works.)
4) Apply corn gluten meal in the Spring and compost whenever it's appropriate for your specific type of grass.
=MODS?=, feel free to move this to the San Francisco Things thread.