John Upton

After solar academy bust, out-of-towners lose favor

Out-of-town solar panel installers could be banned from a San Francisco incentive program after a rogue installer broke a promise to build a training academy in an economically distressed neighborhood. Supervisors lambasted SolarCity during a committee hearing Thursday regarding the Foster City company’s failure to deliver on its commitment to build a green-collar training academy. SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive made the commitment last year while pressuring lawmakers to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposed GoSolarSF program. The academy would charge students a fee for classes and then provide guaranteed jobs as installers to graduates, Rive said at the time. He promised...

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Supervisors expected to grill SolarCity CEO

The state’s largest solar panel installer’s abandoned pledge to provide job training in the Bayview district after receiving taxpayer handouts is expected to come under fire at City Hall Thursday. Foster City-based SolarCity was among the companies that feverishly lobbied San Francisco supervisors last year to approve Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposed GoSolarSF pilot program. Newsom proposed the $3 million program in late 2007 to provide cash assistance so residents and businesses could meet solar panel installation costs. State and federal governments also provided assistance. To build community support for Newsom’s plan, SolarCity pledged to build a training...

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Old bridge bumper technology means future oil spills likely

Two years after a rigid bumper system on a Bay Bridge tower ripped open two fuel tanks of a wayward cargo ship, the dangerously outdated technology remains in use. After the Cosco Busan crashed into the Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of oil Nov. 7, 2007, the damaged bumper system — which is in place to protect the span’s towers from ships — was rebuilt with the same 1930s technology, despite newer designs being available. The section of bridge currently under construction will also incorporate the antiquated designs. The bar pilot steering the Cosco Busan two years ago mistakenly guided the container ship through heavy fog toward a tower of the Bay Bridge...

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Visitors face hotel tax hikes

Hotel visits will become slightly more expensive in some cities near San Francisco International Airport, after voters in six Peninsula municipalities approved hotel tax hikes Tuesday. Voters in all cities where measures were proposed — San Bruno, Brisbane, Burlingame, Millbrae, San Mateo and South San Francisco — approved the minor tax hikes, which will help those cities fill recession-era budget deficits. Taxes that a customer must pay to stay in a hotel room costing $150 per night in Millbrae, for example, will increase from $20 to $23. The measures were generally supported by the cities’ lawmakers, many of whom placed the initiatives on the ballot. The lawmakers...

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49ers stadium name may change again

The 49ers could play out their final years in San Francisco at a stadium named after a corporation, after voters on Tuesday authorized the franchise to sell naming rights for Candlestick Park. Voters approved Proposition C, which lifts a short-lived restriction on the sale of naming rights at the city-owned football stadium. The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department’s recession-hit coffers will receive a welcome boost if the team sells the naming rights. The proposition establishes a city policy that half of any revenues taken in by San Francisco be directed to fund directors at recreation centers. The department’s share of naming rights at the park was worth...

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Bridge repair seen as stopgap

The Bay Bridge could be closed again in the coming months to allow Caltrans to replace a trouble-plagued repair to a cracked support beam. The bridge reopened to traffic Monday morning after a historic near-weeklong closure. The span was closed Oct. 27 when steel components broke loose in strong wind gusts and fell onto traffic during the evening rush hour. The recent repairs replaced and reinforced a failed fix of a support beam, called an eyebar, which had been completed during the scheduled Labor Day weekend closure. The latest work was characterized by Caltrans officials Monday as a short-term repair that will require exhaustive ongoing monitoring and maintenance. On Sunday,...

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Bay Bridge breakdown caused by known flaw

Damage to the Bay Bridge that led to pieces of steel plummeting onto the roadway during rush hour Tuesday was known to officials, who neglected to make the repairs. The bridge is now being fixed with many of the same pieces of failed equipment as well as the structural designs that led to an unexpected shutdown of the span. Problems with the bridge began Labor Day weekend, when an inspection during a scheduled closure — for the building of a new self-anchored suspension bridge span — uncovered a rusted beam. Caltrans, the agency that oversees the bridge, strengthened the surrounding area of the rusted beam, called an eyebar, with improvised steel components. But the repair...

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Bridge repair to be monitored after emergency fix

Repairs on the Bay Bridge were expected to be complete by 10 p.m. Thursday and a bevy of independent inspectors were assembled to sign off on the work to avoid future blunders that closed the span and stranded hundreds of thousands commuters for days. After a cable snapped Tuesday that had been hastily fixed to support a cracked bar during the Labor Day weekend closure, bridge officials have been exceedingly careful about reopening the span. The Federal Highway Administration and the state Seismic Safety Peer Review Panel were each expected to do independent, overnight inspections of the repaired metal bar, called an eyebar. “It’s like kicking tires on a car. They want to...

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Candlestick name could generate city funds

The idea of selling the naming rights to Candlestick Park in order to raise money for The City will be decided by voters Nov. 3. Proposition C, if approved, would allow the 49ers, who are leasing the city-owned site at least through 2013, to sell the naming rights to the stadium. The Recreation and Park Department would be a beneficiary of the legislation. The proposition establishes a city policy that half of any revenues taken in by San Francisco be directed to fund directors at recreation centers. Selling the naming rights of the stadium has been done in the past. The Rec and Park Department’s share of naming rights at the park was worth $700,000 a year until voters in 2004...

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Bay Bridge closure leaves commuters hanging

The Bay Bridge will be closed at least through today’s early-evening commute after a piece of the bridge failed catastrophically and chunks of metal fell onto cars during Tuesday’s rush hour. At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, three cars were hit by falling pieces of metal that had been installed to support a cracked bar on the bridge. It was the same cracked bar that delayed the reopening of the bridge over Labor Day weekend while Caltrans made emergency repairs by placing a saddle, or brace, around the cracked bar to support it. Several lanes on the bridge were closed immediately on Tuesday, and by 7 p.m., the California Highway Patrol had stopped traffic. It is unknown when the...

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TI set up with free Wi-Fi

Free wireless Internet access was recently switched on for residents of Treasure Island. After a Mayor Gavin Newsom-led effort to blanket San Francisco with free wireless Internet access proved difficult, a South Bay-based software company donated wireless equipment to the Treasure Island Homeless Development Initiative. The equipment has been installed by volunteers and city officials throughout the island, mainly on light poles. Formerly homeless people are among the sparsely populated island’s 3,000 residents who are benefiting from the gift. “We are proud to bring free Wi-Fi and computers to another underserved community in San Francisco,” Newsom said in a press...

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Muadi Mukenge on empowering women in Sub-Saharan Africa

The manager of the Global Fund for Women’s Sub-Saharan Africa program will speak Wednesday morning during the PINK Empowerment Series’ women’s leadership conference at the Marriott Marquis at 55 Fourth St. The Global Fund for Women is an international network of women and men who advocate for and defend women’s human rights by developing grants to support women’s groups around the world. What does your work involve? I manage the Global Fund for Women’s grant-making portfolio for Sub-Saharan Africa, so I review proposals, work with grantees and raise awareness about the work of African activists. What will you talk about Wednesday? I’ll talk to...

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San Francisco using state funds to tackle auto insurance fraud

A statewide effort to crack down on auto insurance fraud will provide San Francisco with more funds than expected to employ investigators and trial attorneys to help The City prosecute fraudsters. District attorneys in California arrested 748 people on suspicion of defrauding auto insurance companies of more than $11 million during the 2007 – 2008 financial year. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris had expected to receive $145,200 from California’s Automobile Fraud Insurance Program to help pay the salaries and benefits of anti-auto fraud officials this year. But California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner on Sept. 15 told Harris in a letter that San Francisco...

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Former auto shop building in Mission to be expanded, modified

A quaint two-story building in the Mission neighborhood that used to house an auto shop will be rebuilt as a four-story retail business incubator with nine residential units. Renovation and expansion of the building at 3135 24th Street, between Shotwell and Folsom streets, was approved Thursday by the San Francisco Planning Commission. Commissioners and planning department staff praised project architects for reusing the vacant building instead of tearing it down, and for creatively incorporating multi-level housing units in a mix of sizes. The ground floor of the new 40-foot building will be used as a small-business incubator or collective for retail industry-focused designers,...

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Program seeks clean, cheap power

A scaled-back effort to cut electricity bills and provide greener power by wooing a new company into San Francisco to compete with Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. took a jolt forward Thursday. New laws were adopted seven years ago by California to foster competition in the power sector, by allowing municipalities to open up privately owned utility grids to new, would-be power providers. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to lock in the precise details of a proposed program, dubbed CleanPowerSF, which is significantly less ambitious than earlier proposals with regards to price competitiveness and environmental goals. The program specifics were included in a request for a...

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Recycling, composting proves popular with golf fans

Nearly 90 percent of waste that was collected during a recent international golf tournament in San Francisco is being turned into compost or shipped around the world to be recycled, a waste collection company announced Thursday. Over six days of President’s Cup practice and competition rounds at Harding Park Golf Course earlier this month, 51 tons of bottles, cans and paper was collected for recycling, according to Recology Inc. spokesman Robert Reed. Additionally, 42 tons of food scraps and other organic-based material was collected for composting, according to Reed. By comparison, 11 tons of trash from the tournament was sent to landfill, according to Reed. “The...

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New trash laws leading to bumper compost collections

New laws, education campaigns and green composting bins in San Francisco boosted the amount of waste collected for composting by 100 tons per day over the past year, according to San Francisco’s main waste hauling company. A new city law took effect Wednesday that could see residents and businesses fined if they throw recyclable or compostable material into a black trash bin. Trash collected in black bins is trucked to a dump at the Altamont Pass. Waste handling company Recology has been collecting 500 tons of organic-based material left in green composting bins every day this week – 25 percent more than the 400 tons collected that was being collected one year ago, according...

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Big waves arrive to the coast

The first big waves of the winter storm season arrived Thursday, prompting authorities to issue an advisory. Breaking waves up to 16 feet are expected to slam coastlines until this evening, according to the National Weather Service, which issued a high surf advisory expected to remain in effect until 11 p.m. “These are the first big waves of the season,” Weather Service Meteorologist Bob Benjamin said. Swells of 10 to 11 feet were being recorded by offshore buoys at 11 a.m., according to Benjamin. The waves are expected to erode beaches and create strong rip currents along the Central California...

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Grant funding artwork in new neighborhood

A cohort of artists will be given seven months and $1 million to churn out public artwork for a new southeast San Francisco neighborhood. The artistic sprint will begin in January, after participating artists have been selected from a pool of 283 applicants to help beautify Parcel A at the shuttered Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, which is being redeveloped. Master developer Lennar Corp. recently filed applications for building permits needed to construct the first 88 of up to 1,500 homes planned at the 75-acre parcel, where home-building is expected to begin by March, according to San Francisco Redevelopment Agency Project Manager Thor Kaslofsky. The agency is selecting artists to...

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Solar array causes conflict with neighbors

Douglas Kitt and his wife spent four years saving nearly $90,000 and planning to install solar panels on their house in the Upper Haight, but a neighbor is halting their dream of a green-powered home. After installation of the panels for the three-unit building, and before they were able to hook up wiring that would flow electricity back into the power grid, nearby homeowners filed an appeal with The City against the plans. The neighbors are arguing that the panels are dangerous and could harm the character of and property values in the neighborhood. Solar panels are on the verge of becoming a common sight in San Francisco, with a bevy of local, state and federal incentives available...

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Flash floods reported throughout city

Sewers overloaded and drains clogged in heavy rain Monday afternoon, causing flash flooding throughout The City. San Francisco Public Utilities Commission day crews were working overtime at 5:15 p.m. in an effort to unclog drains that were leading to flooded intersections, according to SFPUC spokesman Tyrone Jue. Flooding caused by overloaded sewers was subsiding without the assistance of SFPUC crews as water pressure in the drains returned to normal, according to Jue. Amateur video showed dilute sewage spraying out of the sewer system at the corner of Powell and Francisco streets, according to Jue. After flooding has subsided, SFPUC crews will inspect affected drains, according to...

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Muni reopens after downpour closes underground service

A passing storm wreaked traffic and transit havoc Monday shortly before evening peak hour, shutting down a portion of the subway system and a cable car line and closing freeway ramps. Muni stopped running the J-Church, K-Ingleside, L-Taraval, M-Ocean View, N-Judah and T-Third Street trains through its downtown underground subway system for safety reasons after the storm left Van Ness Station flooded, according to Muni spokeswoman Kristen Holland. Light rail service on those lines resumed at 4:40 p.m., but the Van Ness Station remained flooded and closed until about 7:50 p.m. Trains bypassed that stop while water was removed, according to Holland. Additionally, the Mason portion of the...

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Quake exposed buildings’ weaknesses

Little has been done since 1989 to protect thousands of vulnerable residential buildings that were built like those that fatally crashed and burned in the Marina district during the Loma Prieta earthquake.

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Millions of dollars provided for land cleanup efforts

Millions of dollars will be pumped into efforts to decontaminate swathes of San Francisco, state and federal officials announced Thursday. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced $5 million in grants and low-interest loans will be provided to turn contaminated property into land for apartments, retail shops, day care centers and a park. “Our state and local partners are turning problem properties along San Francisco's central waterfront into community assets,” said Laura Yoshii, EPA's acting Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest, in a statement. Funding will include: - A $1.675 million...

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Bay Area gets ready for the next disaster

Bay Area emergency officials have used more than $130 million in funds from the federal government to shore up issues laid bare by the deadly temblor that rocked the Bay Area on Oct. 17, 1989. Since the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake, leaders in cities around San Francisco Bay have made vast strides toward being ready for the next large-scale disaster by establishing communication between emergency responders, preparing centers for victims of a disaster and pushing for people to prepare their homes for a calamity.

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Quake cracked freeway-focused policy

The tectonic shift in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1989 led to a corresponding shift in San Francisco’s transportation landscape, prompting the replacement of freeways with boulevards and freeing up land for new buildings and homes. Cracks that emerged in freeways during the Oct. 17, 1989, Loma Prieta earthquake added fuel to anti-highway sentiments in San Francisco, leading to the demolition of roadways and a new downtown skyline taking...

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Crippling quake opened avenues

When Art and Sherry Agnos walk their chocolate Labrador from their Potrero Hill home to the Ferry Building farmers market on weekends, the former mayor and his wife take the waterfront route, passing AT&T Park and following the T-Third Street light-rail track to the Bay Bridge.

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Video simulation shows new Bay Bridge’s expected response to an earthquake

The expected effects of a major earthquake on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, which is under construction, have been explained by Caltrans in a new video simulation. Construction of the new eastern span between Oakland and Yerba Buena Island, which will consist partly of a self-anchored suspension span and partly of a flat skyway, is expected to be finished by 2014. The span is being rebuilt to better protect motorists from earthquakes. The western span was retrofitted to improve its performance in earthquakes. Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, which knocked out a section of the eastern span, leading to the death of one woman. The new...

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Big landlord’s lawsuits piling up

One of the largest landlords in The City, which is already facing a slew of lawsuits for allegedly withholding tenants’ deposits, is the subject of a new class-action lawsuit — this one related to labor laws. The housing empire of more than 7,000 apartments — controlled until last year by CitiApartments, the Lembi Group, Skyline Realty and associated companies — has been hit hard by the real estate slump and dour credit market. Lenders have foreclosed upon, or are in foreclosure proceedings for, more than one-quarter of the 307 buildings previously owned by the group. As CitiApartments and the related companies have run into financial problems, former tenants...

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Legislation would help protect soft-story buildings from quake

The owners of one-third of The City’s apartments and condos would receive limited city assistance to help protect their buildings from earthquakes, under revised legislation discussed Thursday. Many San Franciscans live in wood-framed buildings with unreinforced ground floors used for retail or parking, known as soft-story buildings, which were built before 1973 and are vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake. A 7.2 magnitude earthquake on the San Andreas Fault would cause thousands of soft-story buildings in San Francisco to collapse, likely leading to deaths and a housing affordability crisis, city documents show. Mayor Gavin Newsom introduced legislation in 2008 that would...

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Music venue defeats liquor license challenge

Under-21 year olds can continue rocking out at the Great American Music Hall, after the popular Tenderloin district venue defeated a year-old legal challenge by state liquor licensors. After an undercover California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agent was told to buy a concert ticket if he wanted to dine inside the music hall, the agency alleged the venue was violating conditions of its restaurant-style liquor license, which allows under-21s onto the premises. The venue was operating more like a nightclub than a restaurant, the ABC claimed. But an administrative law judge rejected ABC accusations that the venue illegally changed its operations in recent decades without...

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Nightspots near Transbay Terminal delay ouster request

Walls of a bar and art gallery that were once covered with paintings, sketches and sculptures are now empty as uncertainty about plans to rebuild a transit center takes its toll on local businesses. More than 30 businesses will be displaced by the multibillion-dollar rebuild of the Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission streets, and several nightspots on Natoma Street will be among the first to disappear. The JohnColins Lounge, Zebulon restaurant and bar and Varnish Fine Art gallery and wine bar were told last year they would need to vacate their buildings by the end of this month. But recently, the popular haunts were told by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority they could remain...

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Condo building slowdown reaches 2004 levels

In a blow to construction workers and developers, fewer condominiums are under construction in San Francisco today than at any time since 2004, a real estate firm said Tuesday. There are 546 condo units presently being built in The City, the lowest number in five years, according to The Mark Company’s latest quarterly report. Furthermore, there is little indication of an imminent rebound in construction activity, with just 39 proposed units receiving needed construction permits during the second quarter of 2009. “Nearly all residential builders have stopped seeking building permits in San Francisco due to the lack of demand for for-sale housing, a recent decrease in rental...

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City official turns to radical website to reassure public about compost

An online news service used by radicals and anarchists has welcomed an unlikely contributor – the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. SFPUC spokesman Tony Winnicker posted a piece Friday about San Francisco’s biosolids compost program to the environmental section of the indybay.org website. The website is frequently used by activists to organize protests, boycotts and other demonstrations against corporate greed, police brutality and government inaction. Winnicker’s piece was written in response to claims by the Washington D.C.- and San Francisco-based Center For Food Safety nonprofit group that the compost, which includes treated sewage and is given away free...

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Halls of art slated for transit terminal

Catching a bus or train in San Francisco several years from now could involve entering a cavernous work of art created through a collaborative effort between prominent architects and artists. Plans are under way to demolish, rebuild and reopen the Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission streets by 2015, and officials recently approved incorporating $3.5 million worth of work by five artists into the $1.6 billion project. The money will pay for materials, labor, travel and other expenses. “This is art that will basically be integrated into the design of the station,” Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director Maria Ayerdi-Kaplan said during a recent hearing....

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Tegan Firth helps raise money for Fleet Week

Tegan Firth, a Hornblower Cruises & Events official, helped organize a gala Thursday to raise money for Fleet Week. A reception starts at 5:30 p.m. at Pier 3 with a Bay cruise scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Fleet Week kicks off Oct. 3 with a survey flight by the Blue Angels. Why does Fleet Week need to raise money? There’s a certain funding target that the Fleet Week committee wants to reach, but they just missed it this year because corporate sponsorships are down from what they’ve been in previous years. We hope to raise $100,000 on Thursday. That’s the goal. What does the $200 ticket price include? We’re going to have performers, including the cast of...

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City College-based biotechnology group secures federal funds

A San Francisco-based national biotechnology training organization has secured federal funding needed to continue operating until 2013. Congresswoman Jackie Speier at a press conference on Monday said the City College of San Francisco-based Bio-Link organization would receive $5 million in National Science Foundation funds over four years. The decision by the federal government to award the grant "speaks volumes" for the work the group has undertaken since it was founded in 1998, Speier said. The National Science Foundation provides most of Bio-Link's funding, according to executive director Elaine Johnson. Bio-Link provides support to biotechnology faculty working at...

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Bill would limit Polk Street smoke shops

Legislation authored by Board of Supervisors President David Chiu would crack down on the growth of stores on Polk Street that sell pipes, bongs and other devices used to smoke marijuana and tobacco. If it’s passed by city lawmakers, the legislation would require city approval of any new tobacco paraphernalia establishments that propose to open shop in the Polk Street Neighborhood Commercial District during a one-year trial period. The legislation is due to be considered today by the Board’s Land Use committee....

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Spray painting popular at Fisherman’s Wharf

Spray paint performers are proving popular at Fisherman’s Wharf. The Port of San Francisco began regulating street performers last year in the tourist-dominated area, and 30 people, including six spray paint artists, are currently licensed by the Port to perform there. The spray painting is proving so popular that the artists are set to have three dedicated performance spaces set aside for them by the Port. “The spray paint artists’ success and popularity have created scheduling and space challenges within the program,” wrote Port senior property manager Katharine Arrow in a memo to Port Commissioners. “By permitting their exclusive scheduling, the [spray...

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City prepares to buy back Muni substation

The City is on the verge of buying back an old Muni substation on Fillmore Street from the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, which failed in its plans to convert the vacant building into a jazz facility. The redevelopment agency bought the century-old building, which used to house large electricity-generating turbines for streetcars, from The City in 2003 for $900,000. The agency planned to convert the building into a new jazz center or other community resource. But the agency failed to find a developer interested in the project and it spent millions of dollars that had been set aside for the project to subsidize failing jazz-themed restaurants on Fillmore Street. Legislation due to...

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Berth of new era in Alcatraz tours

Visitors bound for Alcatraz Island will head off from a spiffed-up departure point under plans that could improve San Francisco’s waterfront and help Alcatraz Cruises expand its services. The company holds an exclusive contract with the federal government to ferry a maximum of 1.5 million visitors per year to and from the national park, which is steeped in a rich history. To board a ferry to the island, visitors pass through a ticket sales and queuing area at Bay Street in an otherwise unremarkable stretch of The Embarcadero south of Fishermen’s Wharf. The cruise company, which is a subsidiary of Hornblower Cruises & Events, has proposed expanding the amount of indoor...

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Feds close to approving Transbay Transit Center loan

The Transbay Transit Center rebuilding project is on the verge of securing a $171 million federal government loan. The U.S. Department of Transportation lends money for infrastructure projects under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. A credit council that advises the department recently recommended approving a proposed $171 million loan to the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, according to joint powers spokesman Adam Alberti. The funds will be used to help rebuild the Transbay Transit Center at First and Mission streets. “This important step will help us move the project forward and bring to fruition the largest, fully approved transportation project in...

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North Beach Branch Library vote postponed

Votes that could have kicked off hearings into whether the North Beach Branch Library and eight other branch buildings should be protected as historic landmarks were postponed by the Historic Preservation Commission on Wednesday. Dozens of library officials, users and neighbors waited hours while commissioners waded through their agenda before delaying votes until Oct. 7 on the only items that had drawn significant public interest. One of the continued items related to the proposed demolition of the North Beach branch building, which is scheduled to close in 2012 after a replacement is built nearby on a parking lot. Commissioners had been scheduled to vote on whether The City should...

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High Speed Rail Authority ignoring the Transbay Terminal in planning

San Francisco-backed plans for a train stop beneath a planned new Transbay Transit Center are being ignored by California, city officials say. The existing transit center at First and Mission streets is scheduled to be torn down and replaced by 2015. A train station is planned beneath the building in anticipation of a potential future rail extension from the Caltrain stop at Fourth and King streets near Mission Bay. California High Speed Rail Authority staff directed their environmental consultants to investigate two potential sites for a train station in San Francisco, neither of which is the planned Transbay Transit Center location, according to Andrew Schwartz, outside counsel for...

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Potrero power plant to continue operating next year

Hopes from San Francisco officials and residents that a power plant on San Francisco's waterfront might be shut down by next year received a setback Friday. Mayor Gavin Newsom is scheduled to meet privately with the head of the California Independent Systems Operator, or Cal-ISO, Monday, in response to a ruling from the agency Friday that the Mirant Corp. power plant on Potrero Hill must continue operating throughout 2010. The mayor and other city officials have worked over the last several years to close the power plant. Last month, Mirant had agreed to shut down the plant once Cal-ISO ruled that it was no longer needed, as well as pay The City $1.1 million, in a settlement announced...

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Tenderloin store barred from selling alcohol

A liquor store owner was barred Thursday from using his California liquor license to sell alcohol in a new grocery store that he opened on the same block in the Tenderloin neighborhood. The proprietor of Grand Liquor at 67 Turk Street built a grocery store at 90 Turk Street and secured permission from California to transfer his liquor license to the new establishment. But after hearing testimony from police, city officials and residents about problems caused in the Tenderloin neighborhood by liquor sales,www.sfexaminer.com/local/Cops-clean-up-Tenderloin-56795097.html the San Francisco Planning Commission ruled Thursday that alcohol will not be allowed to be sold at the new store. Other...

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Tenants are moving up in a down market

It may be a good time to move. Tenants are taking advantage of a dramatic recessionary collapse in the housing market by moving into luxurious new digs at discounted rates, or by locking in attractive rents in older, rent-controlled properties. After nearly a year of increasing vacancy rates and falling prices — driven largely by layoffs and by the burst of a nationwide housing bubble — the rental market appears to be stabilizing. Between September 2008 and May 2009, more than 43,000 jobs were lost in The City, which has a population of roughly 800,000, city and U.S. Census statistics show. Forbes magazine recently rated pricey San Francisco as the fourth-worst city in the...

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Parallelogram blocks plotted for Treasure Island

Future side-streets of Treasure Island have been designed to minimize the amount of wind and maximize the amount of sun that they receive. The island’s existing north-south thoroughfares will remain in place under long-term redevelopment plans, but side-streets will be laid in an angular pattern, at 68 degree angles to the main streets, creating parallelogram blocks. The angle will prevent the streets from acting as wind-tunnels and maximize solar exposure, according to Kheay Loke, Project Manager at master developer Wilson Meany Sullivan. “You want less wind but more sun,” Loke said . “So we played around with that and did studies and determined that the best...

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Flawed bridge repair plans led to delay, confusion

Traffic and transit havoc wrought Tuesday morning by flawed warnings that the Bay Bridge could be closed all day was caused by flawed bridge-repair plans. The bridge closure was scheduled from Thursday evening until 5 a.m. Tuesday while Caltrans, which is rebuilding a portion of the 1930s-era bridge, replaced a chunk of the eastern span. But after discovering a dangerous crack in a steel column — called an eyebar — in the eastern span during an inspection Saturday, the agency warned bridge users on Monday to make alternative transportation arrangements the next morning because the scheduled reopening could be delayed an additional 24 hours. The revised delay opening was...

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Bay Bridge reopening could be delayed by damage

Material needed to fix a crack in the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was rushed Sunday to Treasure Island, but Caltrans officials said they weren’t sure whether the repairs could be completed in time to allow the span to reopen as scheduled Tuesday. The bridge was closed to traffic at 8 p.m. Thursday for a four-day seismic retrofit project. It is the third closure of the span in four years. A large crack in one of eight metal bars, called eyebars, that hold up the bridge’s eastern span was discovered during an inspection Saturday. The crack is believed to have appeared in the last two years, when the bridge was last thoroughly inspected, officials said. “The crack...

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Ocean task force to meet in San Francisco

A White House-led taskforce charged by President Barack Obama with developing an ecosystem-based framework to protect the oceans will hold a public meeting in San Francisco this month. The Ocean Policy Task Force is scheduled to meet Sept. 17 from 2:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco at Embarcadero Center, Ballroom A. The task force of senior Obama administration officials was formed in June to develop a national policy to help protect, maintain and restore the health of ocean, coastline and Great Lakes ecosystems. “The oceans, coasts, and Great Lakes are subject to substantial pressures and face significant environmental challenges,” Obama wrote in a...

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Old North Beach library may withstand razing

North Beach could soon be home to two library buildings, although only one would likely be filled with books. The San Francisco Public Library is forging ahead with plans to begin building a two-story branch next year on a triangular parking lot between Mason and Lombard streets and Columbus Avenue. The City plans to demolish the old branch and create public parkland on the site, and also on the short stretch of Mason Street that divides the new and old branch sites. But the recently formed San Francisco Historic Preservation Commission agreed Wednesday to hold a hearing later this month to begin the process of determining whether the existing branch should be designated a historic...

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Art-draped hotel focus of suit

The building is furnished, but the beds and sofas hang off its walls. That’s not good enough for frustrated government officials who want the fire-damaged Hugo Hotel at Howard and Sixth streets demolished and replaced with a new building. San Francisco’s most quaintly decorated blight had furniture hung off its exterior walls by an artist in the late 1990s and has been vacant for more than 20 years. The 144-room hotel is slated to be demolished and replaced with low-cost housing if its owners lose an eminent domain court battle scheduled to begin today. SoMa contains residential hotels that housed mostly male, transient workers during the first half of the 20th...

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Height and shadow issues cast over condo project

The future of a proposed 425-foot condo project downtown hinges on its height and the shadow it would cast across parks. The external form of the proposed building would resemble the Transamerica Pyramid at its base, before transitioning vertically into that of a partial corkscrew that twists into the sky. City officials are scheduled today to consider some of the administrative changes needed before the project can be approved. At roughly half the height of the Transamerica, the proposed 248-unit building would not compete with its high-profile neighbor’s domination of the skyline, according to project architect Jeffrey Heller. “Because it’s so slender, it allows...

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Lowe’s sets sight on site Home Depot abandoned

Opponents of big-box stores who celebrated one year ago when Home Depot axed plans to open a large hardware store on Bayshore Boulevard are bristling again at plans by Lowe’s to build a similar project at the same site. Following protracted negotiations and battles with local residents, small-business owners and lawmakers, Home Depot’s plan was narrowly approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2005, four years after it was proposed. In March 2007, however, Home Depot announced it was abandoning its plan to build the 107,000-square-foot store at Bayshore Boulevard and Cortland Avenue, near the border of Bayview and Bernal Heights. The site is in a corridor filled with...

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Station closures fueled by costs

Gas stations are disappearing from The City as high operating costs and pricey renovations force closures. There were 151 filling stations in San Francisco in the early 1990s when concerned lawmakers created rules governing demolitions, in an effort to control their systematic closures. Today, there are about 110 stations left in The City, according to Planning Department data. On top of the nearly 30 percent drop, The City has received five permit applications since 2007 to demolish stations, department records show. Running a gas station in San Francisco — where land costs are high, space is limited, labor is expensive and oil companies charge the highest prices — is...

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Apartments to sprout near Rincon Hill towers

What was once slated for parkland will instead be developed into a seven-story residential building. The tetrahedron apartment building will be wedged between the Bay Bridge and several residential towers, including the towering One Rincon Hill project. The 308-unit building is planned for a 1.7-acre site between Harrison Street and the Bay Bridge that had been slated to be used as a public park once Bay Bridge construction was finished, but Caltrans instead sold the land to development firm Emerald Fund Inc. Under Emerald Fund’s plans, approved Thursday by the San Francisco Planning Commission, the Bay Bridge-abutting half of the irregularly-shaped lot will become home to a...

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Plan for solar power plant placed on hold

A plan to lease land at the Sunset Reservoir for $1 a year to a private company, which would build a solar power plant at the city-owned site, was questioned and delayed Wednesday by lawmakers. Under the plan touted by Mayor Gavin Newsom, Recurrent Energy would sell all of the power from a four-city-block, 5-megawatt plant to The City for upwards of $2 million a year for 25 years. Three supervisors, who have supported increasing San Francisco’s energy-utility ownership and use of renewable energy sources, questioned the deal’s price tag and conditions during a committee hearing. They directed staff to investigate several issues, including potential city ownership of the...

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Demolition plan turns into rehab effort for art studios

Officials are scrambling to quickly spend a $2.1 million grant on a former Navy fallout shelter at Hunters Point Shipyard, after artists who lease studios in the dilapidated building objected to its demolition. Roughly 300 artists lease low-cost studios in aging buildings on otherwise-barren land at the edge of the abandoned San Francisco shipyard, which is slated to be redeveloped in coming years. The 106,000-square-foot, two-story wood-framed Building 101, home to 141 studios, was among artists’ buildings previously slated for demolition. Master developer Lennar Corp. has released plans showing how demolished studios would be replaced in a new arts district. But artists told...

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Program could cut solar costs

Nonprofits and low-income San Franciscans would have additional financial incentives to install solar panels, under a proposal due to be considered today by the Board of Supervisors. The city, state and federal governments all have programs to defray solar panel installation costs. San Francisco’s program, Go Solar SF, provides subsidies up to $4,000 for some residents, if local installers are hired. Tony Winnicker, spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, said the program has been a “rousing success” in helping increase rooftop solar power generation in San Francisco. Under proposed changes, $7,000 subsidies would be offered to two-person...

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Common Muni collision injures seven

Seven Muni passengers were sent to the hospital Monday after a T-Third light-rail vehicle crashed into a semi-trailer making an illegal left turn. The truck and light-rail vehicle were both traveling southbound on Third Street at slow speeds about 3:30 p.m. when the 18-wheel semi turned left onto 22nd Street, according to Fire Department spokesman Lt. Ken Smith. The light-rail vehicle crashed into the side of the semi’s cabin, causing minor damage to both vehicles. Both drivers did not require hospital treatment, but seven passengers were taken to a hospital with minor to moderate injuries, according to Smith. The incident underscored a larger problem with left turns the T-Third...

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Oil-spill pilot’s DUI letter scrutinized

The San Francisco Bar Pilots Association recently told federal authorities that Capt. John Cota — who caused an oil spill of more than 50,000 gallons in 2007 when he crashed the Cosco Busan ship into the Bay Bridge — may have forged a 1999 letter to the Coast Guard regarding a DUI. The disputed Nov. 4, 1999, letter that contained the signature of bar pilots association President Capt. Russell Nyborg surfaced during accident investigations. “I have been made aware of the vehicular incident involving Captain Cota and find this to be entirely uncharacteristic,” the letter stated. “It is incomprehensible that he would willfully or recklessly endanger the safety...

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Shot fired during Upper Castro robbery

Two people were robbed at gunpoint in the Upper Castro neighborhood early Thursday evening by a suspect who fired a single shot into the air, according to police. The robbery occurred shortly after 7 p.m. on Corbett Avenue near Hopkins Avenue, an area where police said such crimes are rare. The bullet casing indicated that the shot was fired from a handgun, police said. No one was injured and no arrests were made, according to...

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Coast Guard clears itself of wrongdoing in oil spill

A Coast Guard investigation into the 2007 Cosco Busan accident has cleared its Vessel Traffic Service of wrongdoing, contradicting findings by an independent agency that also investigated the crash. On Nov. 7, 2007, the container ship hit the wood-and-plastic fender system that surrounded a Bay Bridge tower, rupturing two fuel tanks on the vessel and causing an oil spill that polluted shorelines and killed wildlife. Local pilot Capt. John Cota pleaded guilty last week to negligently causing the spill, which occurred in heavy fog after he directed the ship to a location in the Bay that was marked on an electronic chart by a pair of red triangles. The triangles marked both sides of the...

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Weather expected to warm up soon

Chilly nights are expected to give way to more seasonable temperatures as the week progresses. The National Weather Service issued a nighttime freeze warning for parts of the North Bay on Monday, and while San Francisco’s temperature wasn’t expected to fall below freezing, The City was affected by the mass of cold air that slid into the Bay Area, according to meteorologist Brian Tentinger. Tentinger said temperatures in San Francisco are expected to dip to 40 degrees early Tuesday morning. Overnight minimums are expected to rise throughout the week, reaching more seasonably normal temperatures in the high 40s before the weekend, according to Tentinger. A cold air mass over...

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Bars, pubs going strong in down economy

In these economically sorrowful times, sorrow-drowning is serving as an economic salve. Bars, pubs and other purveyors of intoxicating elixirs saw more job growth in the past year than any other business sector — even as most other businesses in San Francisco and San Mateo counties lost jobs. New California Employment Development Department annual data reveals that the number of jobs in alcohol “drinking places” grew from 3,000 to 3,400 in the two counties from January 2008 to January 2009. That’s a bigger job growth than any of the other 94 business sectors tracked. Most of those jobs were added in the first nine months of 2008, before the economy tanked,...

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Cosco Busan pilot to spend up to 10 months in prison

Capt. John Cota accepted a plea deal Friday for environmental crimes related to the November 2007 Cosco Busan crash. The bar pilot, who under the deal would be able to reapply for his bar pilot’s license, will spend between two and 10 months in prison and pay a fine of $3,000 to $30,000, after pleading guilty. The Nov. 7, 2007 accident in heavy fog sliced open two of the South Korea-bound ship’s fuel tanks and caused approximately 53,000 gallons of fuel to spew into San Francisco Bay, where it polluted shorelines and killed seals, fish eggs and thousands of birds. The Petaluma pilot pleaded guilty in federal court to negligently causing the oil spill and violating the Clean...

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Inquiry uncaps a multitude of pills

John Cota had filled prescriptions for more than 1,000 tablets of powerful drugs, such as Vicodin and Valium, in the two months before he piloted the Cosco Busan into a Bay Bridge tower, an investigation report shows. The pills were obtained from a number of different sources — a local pharmacist, a grocery story pharmacist and through the mail — in the 60 days leading up to the crash, according to a National Transportation Safety Board review of the accident, due to be published in the coming weeks. After the Nov. 7, 2007 accident, which spilled 53,500 gallons of fuel into San Francisco Bay in the largest spill in decades, the U.S. Coast Guard reviewed medical forms that...

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The City’s jobless rate escalated in January

San Francisco’s unemployment rate jumped to 8 percent in January — up from 6.5 percent in December — as 8,400 workers lost their jobs in a single month. On Thursday, the California Employment Development Department released bleak county-by-county unemployment rates for January, a week after it released statewide results that showed California’s unemployment hit 10.1 percent in the same month. December’s rate was 8.7 percent. In January, 36,100 San Franciscans were unemployed — up from 29,800 a month before, the department’s figures show. The number of employed San Franciscans fell from 425,700 in December to 417,300. These latest figures put...

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Thousands rally against Proposition 8

Thousands of gay-marriage supporters marched peacefully from the Castro to City Hall on Wednesday, the evening before the California Supreme Court is to hear arguments about the legality of Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban passed in November. Holding candles, signs and flags, the group chanted in opposition to Prop. 8, which stripped same-sex couples of the right to wed granted by the court in May 2008. "We got a setback in November, but look at how far we’ve come,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera said to the group at City Hall. The City and other groups filed a lawsuit after the election arguing the measure’s sweeping constitutional change required the...

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Suspicious package closes Van Ness Avenue

Two bottles caused a bomb scare near City Hall on Wednesday, less than an hour before a gay-rights rally took place, according to police spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams. The bottles were reported to police because they appeared to be Molotov cocktails, but they were rendered safe by the bomb unit, according to Williams. “They’ve taken all the evidence and they’re investigating,” Williams said. The bomb scare closed Grove Street near City Hall from 6:15 p.m. to 7:40 p.m. The 47-Van Ness and the 49-Van Ness-Mission buses were temporarily re-routed around the intersection at Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street because of the street closure, according to Muni...

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Presidio on the path to self sufficiency

More than a decade of persistent development in the Presidio — largely the conversion of former military buildings into housing and offices for businesses and nonprofits — has put the national park on track to meet a federally mandated goal of financial self-sufficiency by 2013. Congress turned the 1,491-acre federally owned northernmost tip of The City — a former military post — into a public park in 1994, and placed it under the authority of the then-newly formed Presidio Trust. The park’s preservation came with a controversial catch, however: If park administrators failed to pay their own bills by 2012, the park’s buildings would be sold to...

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Revamped Metreon slated to be restaurant-centric

The cavernous electronics-dominated Metreon complex could be reborn as a vibrant restaurant- and retail-focused destination under a planned overhaul approved Tuesday. Sony recently sold the four-story mall and announced it would close the flagship PlayStation and Sony stores inside. San Francisco Redevelopment Agency commissioners on Tuesday evening unanimously approved plans by new owners Westfield Group and Forest City Enterprises to rearrange the building to better integrate it with the booming museum district neighborhood in SoMa. Under the approved plans, shops and restaurants will line the outer perimeter of the ground floor; popular New York restaurant Tavern on the Green will...

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Dates set for Outside Lands concert

A three-day concert in Golden Gate Park that is expected to bring in more than $1 million for The City has been scheduled for the end of August. The Outside Lands festival will be held Aug. 28, 29 and 30, according to the concert promoter. Last year’s event — which brought some traffic and parking woes along with first-class musical acts, including Radiohead, Jack Johnson and Beck — garnered $815,000 for the Recreation and Park Department. After last year’s concert sold 150,000 tickets, the Recreation and Park Department sought bids from entertainment companies interested in purchasing rights to hold a multiday concert in the park, before agreeing to allow a...

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Bullets fly in Tenderloin

A man was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries after he was shot in the Tenderloin neighborhood a little before 8 p.m. Monday, according to police. The victim was found at the corner of Ellis and Jones streets suffering multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, a police dispatcher said. A 27 Bryant bus was taken out of service after it was struck by what appeared to be a bullet at the same time and location as the shooting, according to Muni spokesman Judson True. No arrests were made, according to the...

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NFL players fit for surviving Gulf ordeal

The fit, well-built NFL players missing in tropical waters of the Gulf of Mexico off Florida stand a better chance of surviving their ordeal than a nonathlete would have in the chilly waters off San Francisco, Bay Area-based Coast Guard officials said Monday. Factors that affect a person’s ability to survive in open waters while rescuers search for them include their size and fitness level, the temperature of the water and whether they are equipped with life vests and other safety equipment. Those factors help the Coast Guard calculate a person’s survivability, which is a measure that helps a sector commander decide when to give up hope and abandon a rescue effort, San...

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Exploratorium reaches to Fort Mason

The Exploratorium has broken the shackles of its cluttered home in the Palace of Fine Arts by installing a new series of its popular hands-on science exhibits outdoors at Fort Mason. The science museum has built more than 700 interactive exhibits in its 40-year history, and more than 400 are on display at its cramped Marina location. The Exploratorium is in negotiations with the Port of San Francisco to stretch out into a bigger home on a pair of Embarcadero piers, which would be surrounded by outdoor exhibits that explore and celebrate its new marine environment. A new, free exhibition that sprawls throughout Fort Mason is the museum’s first major foray into the open air, and...

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Museum fight becoming costly

Bickering about the location, design and size of a donated art museum proposed for the Presidio stands to push the National Park Service’s share of planning costs above $1 million. The amount the Presidio Trust — a National Park Service agency that financially oversees the Presidio — plans to spend on museum-planning costs has increased by one-third in the past six months. In 2007, Gap Inc. founder Don Fisher proposed building an art museum in the heart of the Presidio to house he and his wife’s extraordinary modern-art collection, which is hidden from public view at Gap’s Embarcadero headquarters. The proposal, however, became mired in public opposition...

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Recycling venture could pump $500K a year into Port

More than $500,000 could soon start flowing to the Port of San Francisco annually — and a towering pile of trash would be cleared — under a plan to lease southern waterfront space to a rubble-recycling operation. The cash-strapped Port found itself in possession of a 120,000-pound pile of construction waste in late 2005, when it reacquired land at Pier 94 that had been leased to a failed company that recycled construction materials. Recycling and selling the useful concrete, rock and asphalt from the colossal pile may cover the cost of its removal, according to Maurice Quillen, general manager of Norcal Waste Systems, one of two companies in the joint venture that’s...

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Drastic cuts ordered for Chronicle

The owner of the San Francisco Chronicle announced Tuesday it will close or sell the 144-year-old newspaper unless it achieves “significant” cost savings within weeks through layoffs. Hearst Corp., which owns the Chronicle and 15 other newspapers, will work with the paper’s managers and unions to cut jobs and make other cost-saving changes at the daily publication after losing $50 million last year, the company announced in a statement. The loss was the paper’s worst since 2001. “Without the specific changes we are seeking,” company executives wrote, “we will have no choice but to quickly seek a buyer for the Chronicle or, should a buyer not be...

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Gelobter to discuss state climate laws' effects on urban design

Self-described climate strategist and Bay Area resident Michel Gelobter will discuss the link between urban design and global warming at Compostmodern, held Saturday at the Herbst Theatre in The City. What will you talk about at Compostmodern? My main background is in helping design California’s climate laws, so I’ll be speaking a lot about how the laws impact designers, architects and other people focused on the built environment. How is the built environment linked to climate change? One way to think about the future of Californian efforts to fix climate change is that we’re engaged in a battle between a 90-minute commute to a tract home in a suburb that’s...

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Blame for Bay spill spreads

The Chinese captain of the Cosco Busan failed to properly operate the ship as it was being piloted by a local man — who was “most likely” affected by prescription drugs — before the ship crashed, federal officials said Wednesday. The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday released results of its investigation into the ship’s Nov. 7, 2007, crash into a Bay Bridge tower, which led to the spill of more than 53,000 gallons of fuel. NTSB placed much of the blame on three parties: John Cota, hired to pilot the ship through the Golden Gate; shipping company Fleet Management Inc. and the captain of the ship, Mao Cai Sun; and the Coast Guard. Cota was...

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Port officials hope high-speed rail money can help with tunnel needs

Trains and automobiles can transport you from Point A to Point B, but the Port of San Francisco is hoping high-speed rail will help it move to the car business. A plan to import and possibly export cars through the Port of San Francisco to deliver sorely-needed revenue for the cash-strapped agency could be boosted by plans for a high-speed rail line. Since 2001, the Port has earned $2.6 million through the import of bulk commodities, such as construction materials, through Pier 80, city documents show, and city officials are working to increase the amount of cargo that passes through the southern waterfront. The Port last year restored a rail connection between Pier 80 and the Caltrain...

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Terminal project ousts tenants

Rose-sharing romantics, art aficionados and late-night loungers will see cherished boutique businesses disappear from their SoMa locations under government plans to raze land for a new transit terminal. Three chic hotspots on Natoma Street are among the dozens of businesses that will be evicted this year by the $1.2 billion project to rebuild the Transbay Transit Terminal at First and Mission streets — and surround it with homes, stores and office towers. Zebulon restaurant and bar, John Colins Lounge and Varnish Fine Art gallery, bar and event space are among 33 SoMa businesses and nonprofits that the Transbay Joint Powers Authority will evict from properties it purchased for the...

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Blaze that injured six firefighters was arson

As a San Francisco firefighter continued to battle for his life Thursday, department investigators announced that the blaze that injured him and five colleagues two weeks ago was set intentionally. The Feb. 5 fire that gutted a vacant Portola district home was arson, said fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White. The blaze, at 327 Felton St., was reported about 12:30 a.m., and injured six firefighters. Citing an ongoing criminal investigation, Hayes-White declined to say what evidence had been gathered, but said a specially trained dog had been led through the charred two-story house to sniff for accelerants. She appealed for public help finding the fire-starting culprit. “We’re...

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Videotape shows Muni driver roughing up passenger

A Muni bus driver has been placed on nondriving status as a result of an incident caught on video tape that shows the driver roughing up a man on the sidewalk. An amateur videotape shown Wednesday by KGO (Ch. 7) shows a man, clutching a paper shopping bag, lying on his back on the pavement while a Muni driver stands over him and repeatedly forces him back to the ground. Witnesses told the television station the victim was an elderly passenger — possibly homeless — who had cursed at the driver of the 33-Stanyan bus. The incident occurred at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday at the corner of Ashbury and Frederick streets, according to Muni spokesman Judson True, who said the driver was...

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Details of accidental police shootings revealed

At Mayor Gavin Newsom’s January 2004 inauguration, a police officer inadvertently shot a colleague in the hand with a sniper rifle, according to a list of officer-involved shootings outlined for The City’s police commission Wednesday evening. The officers were changing positions and exchanging a sniper rifle when the weapon was accidentally fired, according to a report presented by police Sgt. Michael Nevin. Most of the shootings in the report were deemed by police investigators to have followed department policy. But following two incidents late last year, officers who accidentally fired weapons were admonished and retrained, according to the report. On Oct. 28, an...

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Business leaders offer pessimistic prognostications

Anxiety among those still working despite the economic downturn is unlikely to subside, with one-third of San Mateo County employers surveyed saying that they expect to shed staff in the next six months. New data released by the Bay Area Council, a business-advocacy organization, shows business confidence in the Bay Area has reached its lowest ebb since the group started tracking chief executives’ economic prognoses in 2001. Nearly two-fifths of the executives surveyed in San Mateo County told the council they expect economic conditions in their industries to worsen over the next six months, according to the organization’s poll. In the county, 14 percent of employers said...

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Roberts is steering toward a greener future

Carter Roberts, the president and chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund will join in a lunchtime discussion — “Letter to President Obama: A Path to a Greener Future” — today at the Commonwealth Club. What is your “green-print” for President Barack Obama? There are a number of things the president can do. The first is to pass cap-and-trade legislation that commits the U.S. to reducing its emissions. Do you expect the president to pass such legislation? The great thing about President Obama is that he gets the short-term and long-term views. A significant part of the stimulus project is focused on creating green jobs, and in the long-term he sees...

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Annie Gardiner emphasises importance of sustainability

With Valentine’s Day approaching, those purchasing flowers can look for the VeriFlora seal — which means the grower is certified in sustainability — on bouquets sold at Safeway, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, among other stores. Annie Gardiner will explain the program during a talk at the Commonwealth Club on Feb. 10. What is VeriFlora? VeriFlora is a certification program for cut flowers and potted plants that looks at environmental, social and product-quality practices. What are the criteria? It looks at a whole range of sustainability criteria that have to do with everything from waste management to soil fertility ... to labor practices. What environmental...

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Construction might impact marine life

If the Exploratorium moves to a proposed new waterfront home along The Embarcadero, new exhibits will explain the natural and cultural heritage of the marine environment. The construction process, however, could impact San Francisco Bay’s fish and marine mammals, as well as the nesting of Western gulls. The popular hands-on science museum said it’s running out of space and aims to move in December 2011 to piers 15 and 17, where Green Street meets The Embarcadero, from its home of 38 years at the Palace of Fine Arts. If it moves, the Exploratorium anticipates a jump in annual visitorship from 544,000 at its current site to to 800,000 at the new one, according to a draft...

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“Bad Wig Bandit” pleads guilty to bank robberies

A man police dubbed the “Bad Wig Bandit” because of the outfit he wore when he robbed banks, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a string of Bay Area robberies that netted him $27,000. A client of the man’s drug-dealing roommate, who drove him to two of his crimes in exchange for small amounts of heroin, also pleaded guilty to robbery and attempted robbery. San Jose resident Matthew Charles Dehn wore a baseball cap over a coarse brown wig tied in a ponytail when he robbed banks last year in San Mateo, Redwood City, Danville, Los Altos, Dublin, Burlingame, Newark and San Bruno, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The 47-year-old, who was indicted by a federal grand...

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Passengers file claim against BART

A $1.5 million claim was filed Wednesday against BART by five passengers who were on the same train as the man fatally shot by a former BART police officer New Year’s Day. In a separate letter, the same attorney suggested a “nonprofessional relationship” between BART officers who were present during the event could have contributed to the slaying. The claim — the first step toward filing a lawsuit — is the second stemming from the incident that took the life of Oscar Grant III. He was shot by ex-Officer Johannes Mehserle, who is facing murder charges. Attorney John Burris, who also filed a $25 million claim on behalf of Grant’s family, filed the...

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Feds say Bonds tested positive

A 2003 urine sample from Barry Bonds tested positive for performance-enhancing substances, The New York Times reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Federal prosecutors have alleged that Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader lied to a grand jury when he denied ever taking or receiving anabolic steroids, human growth hormone and testosterone during the course of several seasons. Bonds has not tested positive for banned drugs in any tests previously made public, although samples seized by authorities from BALCO marked “BB” and “Barry B” tested positive for such substances. Four people tied to the Burlingame-based lab,...

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Coast Guard adds machine guns to helicopters

The four Coast Guard helicopters that patrol San Francisco’s shoreline have been replaced with stealthier and better-armored choppers that, for the first time, can be armed with machine guns. The Coast Guard is replacing its national fleet of orange-and-white helicopters under one of the post-9/11 programs started by the Bush administration to better militarize the agency. The four new MH-65C Dolphin helicopters, which are stationed near San Francisco International Airport, are upgraded versions of the aircraft they replaced. The new helicopters will not be armed all the time, but they will provide armed escorts to arriving and departing cruise ships, according to Adm. Paul...

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Accused officer before shooting: 'I’m going to taze him.'

A former BART police officer, accused of murder, said “I’m going to taze him” before he fatally shot a restrained man in the back with a handgun early this month, according to witness statements included in a court document filed by his attorney Friday. The witness statements were included in a motion to set bail, filed as part of an effort to secure the freedom of 27-year old Johannes Mehserle, who has been charged with murder in connection with the Jan. 1 shooting of 22-year old Oscar Grant III at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland. Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Another witness heard somebody say “we’re going to taze you” before...

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Quick response to bay crash saves pilot

A San Francisco man is lucky to be alive after the rented single-engine plane he was piloting ditched into the chilly waters of Half Moon Bay on Thursday afternoon, leaving him with hypothermia and minor injuries, authorities say. The 49-year old man, whose name was not released, had been flying solo around the Bay Area for about two hours when he encountered engine problems at an altitude of 2,000 feet, according to Zdravko Podolski, owner of AeroDynamic Aviation, which rented the plane to the man. As the man piloted the 62-year-old single-engine Aeronca Champ into the sea about 10 miles offshore from Pillar Point, he sent out a distress signal that was picked up by the Coast Guard. A...

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Two found dead in possible murder-suicide

A man and a woman were killed in an apparent murder-suicide in an Outer Mission motel room on Wednesday, according to police. The motel manager let himself into the room early Wednesday afternoon after the pair failed to check out, and he called police after discovering a man motionless on the floor, according to police spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams. When police arrived at the motel, they discovered a 36-year old man and a 39-year old woman, both killed by gunshot wounds, according to Williams. According to Williams, the motel was located in the 5,000 block of Mission Street, which is between Ocean and Geneva avenues. Police believe that the man killed the woman before killing...

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One killed, another injured in crash

An 82-year old woman was killed Wednesday afternoon in The City’s west after a pickup truck crashed into the side of her 4-door Saturn, according to police. The woman, identified as San Francisco resident Mary Toki by the Medical Examiner, was driving north on 23rd Avenue at 6:10 p.m. when she stopped at a stop sign at Sloat Boulevard, according to police spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams. As Toki proceeded through the intersection, she was struck by an eastbound pickup truck that was not required to stop at the intersection, according to Williams. Toki was pronounced dead at the scene and her 88-year old passenger was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according...

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Mining for Gold: 49ers stuck in The City

San Francisco 49ers officials don’t expect to meet their goal of building a Silicon Valley football stadium by 2012, due to delays that could see the team legally bound to remain in San Francisco until 2017 or later. More than two years ago, the NFL franchise announced interest in relocating to Santa Clara, citing concerns over the aging facility at Candlestick Point, parking and transportation concerns and a growing fan base in the South Bay. A year ago January, the Silicon Valley city and the team began formal negotiations on construction of a stadium next to the Great America theme park in time for the 2013 season. In June, the City Council voted to extend negotiations to Feb....

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Feds raid home of Bonds' trainer's mother-in-law

With guns drawn, 20 federal agents raided the home of the mother-in-law of Barry Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson on Wednesday, according to Anderson’s attorney. A search warrant was executed at the Redwood City home of Madeleine Gestas on Wednesday morning as part of a fraud investigation, according to FBI spokesman Special Agent Joseph Schadler. “It’s not related to Barry Bonds’ trial,” Schadler said. “We’re not really at liberty to talk about exactly what’s going on because it’s an ongoing investigation.” However, Mark Geragos, Anderson’s attorney, said the investigations are part of what he says is an...

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Hundreds tally city’s homeless

City officials say the most thorough count of homeless people ever conducted in San Francisco was held Tuesday evening, but critics say the estimation inevitably missed some encampments and didn’t count homeless people living with friends or family. Municipalities are required to count their homeless populations every two years to qualify for federal Department of Housing and Urban Development funding. The agency last year provided San Francisco with $18 million in homeless-program funds, accounting for 9.5 percent of The City’s homeless-program budget, according to figures provided by Dariush Kayhan, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s homeless-policy director. The results of...

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Disposable Film Festival pushes creative boundaries

Along with Eric Slatkin, Carlton Evans co-founded the second annual Disposable Film Festival, which will be at the Roxie Theater from Thursday to Sunday. What is the Disposable Film Festival? Films that qualify are films made on casual or disposable digital-video capture devices. That means cell phones, point-and-shoot cameras, cheap handy cams and webcams. What we’re finding is, because of the new devices there’s a new esthetic that’s emerging, and we’ve seen it filter through to Hollywood films, like "Cloverfield." But those devices aren’t disposable, are they? The name emerged because Eric Slatkin discovered a one-time-use digital-video camera....

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81-year old pedestrian killed by car in Sunset

An 81-year old woman was fatally struck by a car in the Sunset district early Monday evening, according to police. The woman was crossing Sunset Boulevard at Santiago Street when she was hit by a southbound Toyota Corolla at 6:20 p.m., according to Lt. Mike Caplan of Taraval Police Station. The woman was transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, Caplan said. The driver, who was visibly upset, was not believed to have been speeding or intoxicated at the time of the accident, according to...

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San Francisco seeks $1.1 billion of stimulus funds

More than $1.1 billion in public works projects have been identified by San Francisco officials as candidates for federal funding assistance under an economic stimulus proposal championed by President Barack Obama. Obama and other federal lawmakers are preparing plans to spend $825 billion to help stimulate the economy and provide 3 million to 4 million jobs for laid-off workers. The spending package might be ready by mid-February, Obama said Friday. Before the November election, cities, counties and other agencies throughout the nation began assembling lists of projects that would qualify for assistance in anticipation of the stimulus bill. To qualify, projects must create employment...

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Shooting in the Bayview injures one

A shooting near Adam Rogers Park in the Bayview left one person injured Thursday evening, according to police. One person is expected to survive after they were injured by gunfire on Garlington Court at 7:49 p.m., police said. Shots were also heard about three minutes later on nearby Palou Avenue, according to police. No one is believed to have been injured in that incident.. No arrests were made and police could not provide any information on suspects involved in the incidents, which are believed to be linked. The shooting might have been gang-related, according to...

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Tenant-harassment law postponed

Elements of a voter-mandated law that could impose fines and jail time on landlords who harass their tenants will not be enforced until the courts have ruled on a legal challenge to the measure, a judge ruled this week. San Francisco voters in November comfortably passed Measure M, which, if enforced, could see harsh penalties imposed on landlords who delayed repairs, tried to coerce a tenant to move, asked a tenant about their immigration status or threatened physical harm, among other acts, if the landlord was found to have acted “in bad faith,” “with ulterior motive” or “without honest intent.” In December, before enforcement of the law could...

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Condos meant for seniors sold to younger people

Condominiums in a San Francisco housing development approved for seniors and people with disabilities have been sold to able-bodied young people, miring city officials in an unprecedented code-enforcement quandary. In 2002, the San Francisco Planning Commission allowed a developer to build an extra story on a historic building at Polk Street and Frank Norris Place, and to double the number of units normally permitted under The City’s planning code, on the condition that the homes would be occupied only by tenants over 55 or with physical disabilities. In November 2007, acting on an anonymous tip, city planning officials found marketing Web sites and advertisements for 1326 Polk St....

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Bomb squad blows up suspicious bag

A loud explosion in front of the Park Police Station was caused Wednesday evening by San Francisco’s bomb squad, which was investigating a suspicious bag, according to police. A citizen reported seeing the black bag dropped in front of the station, leading police to clear the area and call in the bomb squad, according to Sgt. Steven Stocker of Park station. At about 7:40 p.m., the bomb squad detonated a device at the site of the bag, before opening the bag and finding it filled with harmless items, such as clothes, according to...

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Far East Café's Howard Wong plans bash

Howard Wong, the co-chair of A Better Chinatown Tomorrow neighborhood group, is helping organize a Chinese New Year's Eve Party Jan. 22 at the Far East Café. Chinese New Year is officially on Jan. 26 and 2009 is the Year of the Ox. What happens in China during the Chinese New Year celebration? It's a time of a great feast to bring in a year of plenty. It's the major holiday in Asia — all the people stop what they're doing, businesses close, things slow down and everybody goes back to their traditional hometowns or home cities. What happens in San Francisco's Chinatown for the Chinese New Year? Chinatown is a very commercially orientated area where everything stays open, and...

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Treasure Island to be protected from rising seas

Dirt and other fill may be piled onto parts of Treasure Island to protect planned buildings from sea level rise due to climate change and other factors. A multibillion-dollar plan for the 450-acre man-made island — including a ferry terminal, retail strip, three hotels and 6,000 new housing units, including a 60-story residential tower — was adopted in 2006 by The City. But the low-lying island is vulnerable to floods if seas rise due to climate change, according to Kheay Loke, a developer with Wilson Meany Sullivan, which is partnering with Lennar Corp. on the project. The flood risk will be greatest if rising seas coincide with a high tide and large storm, according to...

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New streetcar line could link to waterfront development

Under a new proposal submitted to the Port of San Francisco, a new bay-front streetcar line planned between The City’s Fisherman’s Wharf and the downtown Caltrain station would extend to go over the Fourth Street Bridge, hook left south of AT&T Park and stop at a 16-acre waterfront development. The 10-block project to redevelop Parking Lot A, next to the ballpark, comes from a consortium of developers, financiers and the Giants, according to Port project manager Phil Williamson. Some of the members of the four teams that originally proposed to redevelop the site have dropped out or merged, leaving a single proposal for the 10-block project, said Williams. The latest...

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Tax office chasing businesses for back taxes

Scores of service-based businesses in San Francisco could be forced by Californian tax officials to sort through three years of old paperwork to identify and then pay taxes they might never have known that they owed. As part of its effort to raise new funds for the cash-strapped state, the California Board of Equalization plans to send letters to 25,000 businesses this fiscal year to direct them to identify and pay unpaid use taxes, according to board spokeswoman Anita Gore. About 6,000 of the letters have already been mailed, she said. The use tax is like the sales tax, except it’s paid on purchases made outside of the state. In San Francisco, the sales and use taxes are set at 8....

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New association chief prods S.F. Realtors

The incoming president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors, who is taking the helm at a challenging time for the industry, warned Thursday that her members must be prepared to work harder for less money. Median home prices in San Francisco fell at least 11 percent between October 2007 and October 2008, according to a report published in December by the City Controller’s Office. Ilse Cordoni, a 32-year San Francisco real estate veteran, was installed as president at an association banquet Thursday evening at the InterContinental Hotel. "We get used to having a sellers’ market — we’re really spoiled," Cordoni told The Examiner. "Our agents...

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Bay Area looks to draw water straight from the Bay

A long-running plan to keep millions of Bay Area residents with drinkable water during a water crisis such as a drought or disaster by desalting sea and river water is coming up against funding obstacles due to California’s budget crisis. San Franciscans enjoy some of California’s cleanest water — fresh snowmelt that gushes through a labyrinth of pipes from the Sierra Mountains down to The City. But San Francisco’slong distance from its dams leaves its water supply vulnerable to earthquakes, and its reliance on snowmelt leaves its thirst at the mercy of the warming globe, which is reducing snowpacks. In October, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and...

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Violence breaks out after peaceful protest in Oakland

Violence broke out in downtown Oakland on Wednesday evening, following a peaceful protest and march in response to the New Year’s Day shooting death of an unarmed man by a BART police officer. Groups smashed windows at more than 15 businesses, including a Wells Fargo Bank, in a bus shelter and on numerous cars. Some people jumped on cars in scenes reminiscent of riots that occurred after a similar protest last week, in which more than 100 people were arrested and businesses were damaged. Small groups, remnants of a crowd that reached more than 2,000 Wednesday afternoon, locked arms and blocked streets several times, in response to police orders to disperse. Protest organizers,...

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BART officer arrested on homicide charge in shooting

Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer involved in the fatal New Year’s Day shooting of an unarmed 22-year-old, was arrested without incident Tuesday evening in Nevada, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. The Oakland Police Department informed the Nevada authorities Tuesday morning that an arrest warrant for homicide from Alameda County was pending against the 27-year-old Mehserle, and that he was believed to be in the Zephyr Cove area of Lake Tahoe, according to a statement by Douglas County Undersheriff Paul Howell. Widely circulated amateur videos of the incident at Oakland’s Fruitvale station, showing Mehserle shooting 22-year-old Oscar...

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Guns allowed in public housing units

Public housing tenants in San Francisco will be allowed to keep guns in their homes, after The City settled a lawsuit brought by the National Rifle Association and agreed to lift a four year-old weapons ban. In 2005, a provision was added to public housing lease agreements that allowed for the eviction of any resident found with guns or ammunition in their home. Since the lease provision was introduced, no public housing tenants have been evicted from their homes for possessing a weapon, as long as it was legally obtained and registered, according to housing authority General Counsel Tim Larsen. Larsen downplayed a settlement, filed in federal court this week, of a lawsuit that was...

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Swell could bring weekend Mavericks contest

A budding swell that’s expected to reach the Bay Area this weekend could bring waves worthy of the Mavericks Surf Contest, which this year will see a record-breaking $150,000 purse divvied up among some of the world’s most daring surfers. Organizers announced Tuesday that the purse for the contest will increase from $75,000 to $150,000. Organizers are watching a swell predicted to hit Friday or Saturday, but they plan to closely monitor surf models for another day before deciding whether to give the green light for a weekend competition. Competitors are given 24 hours notice before the contest is held. Mavericks is held off the coast of Half Moon Day each year after Jan. 1,...

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‘Creative class’ makes case for stimulus love

San Francisco is lobbying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to include arts funding in a federal stimulus package, saying the arts need as much help in the foundering economy as other sectors. “In this economic stimulus package, there has to be an opportunity for the creative class to contribute and be engaged in rebuilding this country,” Luis Cancel, San Francisco’s director of cultural affairs, said Monday at a forum exploring how the economic downturn has affected the arts. In 2005, arts buffs spent $1 billion visiting nonprofit cultural events and exhibitions in The City, supporting 17,600 jobs, according to a study by nonprofit Americans for the Arts. The guest speaker...

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Dozens peacefully protest BART shooting

A few dozen people assembled at the Civic Center BART station Monday evening to protest the shooting death of Oscar Grant by a BART police officer on New Year’s Day. The protesters, who were outnumbered by journalists and police officers, chanted, held signs and gave speeches. “No justice, no peace,” they chanted, before marching down Market Street. Some of the protestors who attended a rally against the shooting last week in Oakland, which followed Grant’s funeral, later...

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Parking impacts of bus lanes less than feared

Controversy that has raged regarding the expected loss of Geary Boulevard parking spots under a plan to slash transit times appears to be waning, and new figures show parking will decrease by no more than 40 spaces — or increase. Voters in 2003 passed Proposition K, approving a 30-year transit plan that includes the “creation of fast, frequent and reliable bus rapid-transit service, with exclusive transit lanes and dedicated stations” on three corridors, including Geary Boulevard, a major east-west thoroughfare. The project could cut express commute times from downtown to the Outer Richmond district from one hour to 45 minutes, according to Zabe Bent, San Francisco...

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Waning economy sinks hotel proposal

The weakened economy forced a group of hoteliers on Thursday to abandon dreams of building a luxury hotel on the northeastern waterfront, leaving city officials with a single development proposal for the small triangle of land. Port of San Francisco commissioners on Tuesday will discuss how to handle the latest blow to efforts to develop the parking lot between The Embarcadero and Golden Gateway Tennis & Swim Club, at Washington Street, said Port spokeswoman Renee Dunn. “I’m sure that if the economy were in a better state, we would have received more proposals,” she said. A consortium of hotel and restaurant operators previously proposed building a seven-story...

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Accused gang members allegedly fire shots at funeral

Suspected gang members allegedly fired shots Thursday at the funeral procession of a man who was slain in December. No one was injured, police said. The procession — which followed the funeral of 18-year-old Lazarus Pickett, who was fatally stabbed inside a car Dec. 30 in the Western Addition — was passing through the intersection of Golden Gate Avenue and Fillmore Street about 1:25 p.m. when the shots were fired, according to police spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams. Police had been monitoring the procession and quickly arrested three suspected gang members, all San Francisco men in their early 20s, on suspicion of the shooting, according to Williams. “I think that was...

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Continuing the cleanup of Hunters Point Shipyard

The Navy’s environmental legacy at the former Hunters Point Shipyard continues to be unwound, clearing the path for construction of homes, shops and possibly a new 49ers stadium. The 500-acre shipyard is located in The City’s southeast corner, along San Francisco Bay in the Bayview-Hunters Point district. The Navy shut the shipyard down in 1974, but as the land was designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a toxic superfund site in 1989 — the result of its former military use — the Navy is cleaning up the land in parcels, then turning each over to The City for development. More than $500 million has already been allocated to the cleanup...

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Rioters clash with police, loot stores in Oakland

Hundreds rioted Wednesday night in the wake of a downtown Oakland protest following a funeral held for Oscar Grant III, who was shot to death Jan. 1 by a BART police officer at the Fruitvale station. Rioters mobbed police, looted stores, smashed cars, set vehicles, trash cans and at least one Dumpster on fire, and hurled bottles and a stolen police megaphone at riot officers, according to witnesses at the scene. The acrid smell of smoke from the fires hung thick in the air in the blocks surrounding the intersection of 14th and Franklin streets, where hundreds of protesters, some wearing masks, clashed with up to 100 police wearing full riot gear. An 18-year-old Oakland resident who was...

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BART officer's resignation ties investigator's hands

A BART police officer accused of fatally shooting an unarmed passenger in the back New Year’s Day resigned Wednesday, dodging a meeting with investigators to provide his account of the deadly incident. The attorney and union representative for BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle attended the meeting with BART investigators and submitted his letter of resignation, according to BART officials. Mehserle, 27, a BART officer for two years, has yet to give his account of the incident. His resignation is effective immediately. BART officials have continuously tried to meet with Mehserle following the 2 a.m. Jan. 1 killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III at the Fruitvale station in...

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State files second oil-spill suit

California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a lawsuit Tuesday that seeks to recover costs connected to the environmental damage and response efforts resulting from a toxic oil spill in San Francisco Bay from the Cosco Busan container ship. More than 53,000 gallons of fuel gushed from the vessel’s hull after it struck a Bay Bridge pillar in heavy fog the morning of Nov. 7, 2007. The Coast Guard has said all other ships obeyed harbor rules that morning and waited for the fog to lift before setting sail. Cleanup costs from the spill were expected to exceed $60 million, a Coast Guard official told Congress in December 2007. That figure did not include repairing damage caused to the...

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California files lawsuit in Cosco Busan spill

A lawsuit filed Tuesday seeks to recover damages caused to California’s environment, beaches and agencies by the spill of toxic shipping oil in San Francisco Bay from the Cosco Busan container ship in 2007. More than 50,000 gallons of fuel spilled from the vessel's hull after it struck the Bay Bridge in heavy fog on the morning of Nov. 7. The lawsuit filed by Attorney General Jerry Brown alleges that the spill affected 118 miles of coastline, several hundred acres of eelgrass beds and wildlife that included thousands of birds, causing the destruction of natural resources and preventing Californians from enjoying beaches and other public places. The lawsuit seeks unspecified...

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Julia Butterfly Hill still making a difference

Julia Butterfly Hill, a 34-year-old known for having once spent two years living in a California redwood to save it from logging, will be a key speaker at the Yoga Journal Conference, held Jan. 16 to 19 in San Francisco. What is the meaning of the title of the discussion that you are leading, “Taking Our Yoga Practice Off the Mat and Into the World”? There are such profound and wonderful lessons that one has to get in order to have a strong yoga practice. Lessons of unity, of grace, of forgiveness. All of those lessons are profound tools in this world that is suffering so deeply, if we have the privilege to have a yoga practice, then we have the joyful responsibility to take...

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Demonstration disrupts evening traffic

Peak hour traffic was being disrupted early Friday evening for the third time this week by protests against Israel’s recent attacks against Palestinians in Gaza. More than 100 chanting pro-Palestinian protestors began a march shortly after 5 p.m. Friday outside the Israeli Consulate on Montgomery Street. An organizer told the group over a loudspeaker that they would march to Union Square. Similar protests clogged Market Street traffic and transit on Monday and Tuesday. About 1,500 people participated in Tuesday’s...

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Power surges lead to outage in Outer Sunset

Power was cut to 80 Outer Sunset homes for more than an hour Friday afternoon, after a PG&E equipment-failure sent electricity supplies haywire. A piece of equipment that regulated voltage for the homes failed, and the homes were deliberately blacked out as a precaution against power surges after homeowners began complaining at about 3:10 p.m., according to PG&E spokesman Joe Molica. Affected homes were west of 21st Avenue, between Noriega and Quintara streets, according to Molica. “This is a good reminder that we always recommend people have their appliances plugged into a good quality surge protector,” Molica said. Power was restored at 4:40 p.m., according to...

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Shooting in Sunnydale housing project leaves man clinging to life

A man was fighting for his life in an intensive care unit Wednesday evening after he was shot in broad daylight within blocks of the Cow Palace. The victim was shot outside in a housing project on Sunnydale Avenue at about 4 p.m. near the intersection of Santos Street in the Sunnydale neighborhood, according to police. At 6 p.m., the man was in an intensive care unit at San Francisco General Hospital, police said. The man was shot in the head, according to Shawn Richard, Executive Director of the anti-violence organization Brothers Against Guns, who said he had spoken with people who knew the victim. They declined a request to speak to The Examiner about the shooting, he...

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Free Muni services, traffic snarls during fireworks show

Nurses and other city workers who were recently laid off due to budget cuts might be among the revelers whose New Year’s Eve celebrations are brightened tonight by a $100,000 city-funded, fog-shrouded fireworks show and free Muni rides. The 15-minute fireworks display, which is slated for launch at midnight from a barge in the Bay south of the Ferry Building, is expected to snarl traffic, leading to 15-minute delays for motorists along The Embarcadero, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. “When you have a large event like that, the surrounding streets become congested as people are trying to park,” tranist agency spokeswoman Kristen Holland...

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Newsom wager illegal, threatened agricultural industry

A winning Emerald Bowl wager made by Mayor Gavin Newsom risked infecting California with crop-wrecking bacterial diseases and was amended, post-victory, to comply with state law. In December, Newsom waged some Napa Valley wine and San Francisco sourdough that the California Golden Bears would defeat the Miami Hurricanes. His bet was against Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who plunked a pledge of juicy Florida oranges on the table in support of his home team. Newsom won the bet Dec. 27 when California prevailed, 24-17, and the friendly gamble also secured a flourish of national media attention. But a joint press release issued by both mayors on Jan. 2 said the bet had been amended after the game...

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Leno moves to increase auto-registration fees

A renewed effort to hike car-registration fees is Mark Leno’s first legislative act as a state senator — a hike the former assemblyman says could raise $70 million a year for The City. Leno introduced a bill that, if passed by state lawmakers and signed by the governor, would allow counties in California to levy an additional $10 annual registration fee on most vehicles. If the bill becomes law, the introduction of such a tax within a county would require the support of a two-thirds vote of its supervisors and subsequent approval by its voters. Vehicle fees that for decades and in various forms raised hundreds of billions of dollars for California counties were slashed in...

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Coast Guard finds buoy on sea-floor

A misplaced 26-ton buoy, which Coast Guard officials had feared to be bobbing dangerously in the path of ships and boats in thick fog near San Francisco, was discovered on the sea-floor this afternoon. The agency’s red-and-white sea buoy, which transmits radio frequencies to passing boats to indicate that they are in a safe shipping lane, was reported missing by a bar pilot Tuesday evening, according to Coast Guard spokeswoman Lt. Simone Mausz. The 9-foot-wide, 32-foot-high buoy was detected on the sea-floor, anchored in its normal position 12 nautical miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, by a replacement buoy’s sonar system, according to Mausz. The agency will investigate...

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Protesters march on Market Street

Scuffles broke out between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters Tuesday evening in front of the Israeli Consulate, before Palestinian supporters broke down police barricades and marched through downtown, clogging traffic and transit. The peak-hour protest was organized by opponents of Israel’s recent air attacks in Gaza Strip, but it was also attended by vocal supporters of the state. Israel has been heavily attacking Gaza since Saturday, killing almost 400 as of Tuesday in an attempt to cripple Hamas, an organization they say is responsible for rocket attacks originating in the Palestinian territory. Protesters were confined by police barricades in two tightly packed groups...

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Anti-Israel protest blocks peak-hour traffic

A street-blocking protest against Israel’s recent attacks on Palestinians in Gaza Strip clogged downtown San Francisco traffic and choked Muni service for more than an hour Monday evening. The noisy demonstration, staged by a group that swelled at one point to nearly 500 people, began blocking traffic about 6 p.m. outside U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office at the intersection of Market and New Montgomery streets. “In Gaza, nothing is moving — nobody is going in, nobody is going out and traffic can’t move,” said protester Judy Siff, a member of Women in Black, one of several groups that helped organize the demonstration. “This symbolizes...

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Two hospitalized after sailing boat tips in surf

Two people were hospitalized after their 36-foot sailing boat tipped over early Monday evening in surf at Ocean Beach, according to the Coast Guard. As the 36-foot boat tipped over near the end of Rivera Street about 5 p.m., one of three people onboard was tossed into the water, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer John Eastman. The other two jumped in and the group swam to shore together, he said. The wayward boaters were treated on Ocean Beach by San Francisco Fire Department paramedics. Two were transported to San Francisco General Hospital and one did not require hospitalization, according to...

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Three-car collision snarls Bay Bridge traffic

Eastbound peak-hour traffic was snarled Monday afternoon by a three-car pile-up on the East Bay side of the Bay Bridge. Three eastbound lanes on the bridge were closed for about 50 minutes following the 4:35 p.m. collision; by 5:25 p.m., the lanes had been reopened but traffic remained backed up, according to California Highway Patrol dispatcher Aaron Quistad. Motorists reported minor injuries following the collision, which involved three cars, according to CHP spokesman Officer Herman...

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Ads to feature recycling aficionados

Environmental sermons from some of The City’s most earnest recyclers are soon to be plastered on the sides of buses and bus stops. Officials at the San Francisco Department of the Environment and Norcal Waste Systems are sorting through the names of about 150 residents who are eager to tell their recycling stories in an advertising campaign that’s scheduled to begin in January, according to Paul Giusti, Norcal’s local public affairs manager. The first advertisements might appear on Muni in January, potentially followed by newspaper and television advertisements, according to Giusti. The advertisements would be paid for with money raised through garbage rates, he...

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Tourism may become a souvenir

Armies of snap-happy tourists and ID-badge-wearing conventioneers that fan out through neighborhoods from Fisherman’s Wharf to Union Square to SoMa might set another spending record in San Francisco this year, but projections for 2009 are gloomy. The tourism and visitor industry is San Francisco’s biggest source of jobs and revenue. Visitors spent a record $8.2 billion on hotels, food, clothes and other goods and services in The City in 2007, helping to keep more than 70,000 cooks, clerks, cashiers and others employed, according to Convention and Visitors Bureau figures. The picture for most of this year was similarly rosy, but the hue is dimming quickly, and city and...

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The 3-minute interview: Ron Lucker

If you catch a Hornblower cruise across the Bay, there’s a good chance this 63-year-old Pacifica resident will be there to greet you. What does your job involve? I’m the assistant beverage director and I work as the maitre d’ or the event manager on the boats. How long have you worked for Hornblower? I started 12 years ago doing the same thing, but just on one boat. Now, I’m involved in about seven boats. What do you like about the work? I like the guests and the interaction with the guests and the crew. Plus, it’s a beautiful cruise on the Bay and it’s great to see how people enjoy it. Who are the guests? We have Bay Area guests, and we do charters...

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Electrifying drama on Highway 101

In an odd sequence of events, a wildfire Tuesday evening led to a life-threatening situation for two people and a long traffic backup for commuters on Highway 101, according to authorities. The fire in a tree directly underneath a power line next to the highway near Mountain View caused it to fall on top of an older-model Toyota station wagon; the line wrapped around the southbound vehicle’s bicycle or luggage rack and trapped two occupants inside, according to Mountain View Fire Department spokeswoman Jaimie Garrett. “They were doing really well, they were remaining calm and they were very patient with us during this whole process,” she said. The trapped motorists...

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Huge surf, wild winds expected

Wet and wild wintery winds are forecast to sweep into The City early Wednesday morning, bringing huge waves for surfers — 40-foot swells on the open ocean and choppy conditions inside the Bay — before diminishing in the afternoon. The winds are being carried south on a marauding low-pressure system and are expected to reach San Francisco around 4 a.m., according to National Weather Service meteorologist Diana Henderson. “In time for the morning commute, we’re expecting 20 to 30 mile per hour winds, with gusts up to 40 miles per hour,” Henderson said. “We’re expecting a pretty good amount of rain, roughly an inch or so by Friday.” The...

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Transit thrown into disarray by Civic Center power outage

A power outage Tuesday afternoon at The City’s Civic Center station knocked out the entire downtown underground Muni system and affected BART service for nearly an hour. Buses were hastily dispatched after the 2:15 p.m. incident to ferry Muni passengers between the Embarcadero and West Portal stations, according to transit agency spokesman Judson True. Power was restored about 3 p.m., and normal transit services resumed less than 10 minutes later. A Fast Pass holder who identified himself only as Clive said he was in the Civic Center Muni station when the lights went out. “Everything went black, the whole upper area, I mean there was not one pilot light anywhere, nothing,...

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Popular high school teacher dies in motorcycle crash

Burton High School students gathered Monday for an impromptu vigil in honor of one of their favorite teachers, who was killed in a motorcycle crash Friday night. Bonnie Hansen, 45, died after her red Suzuki motorcycle collided with a concrete pillar at the intersection of Cesar Chavez Street and Potrero Avenue, according to the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office. Hansen had taught science at Philip and Sala Burton High School in Visitacion Valley for 11 years, and was popular among students for her wacky sense of humor, said Burton High School Principal William Kappenhagen. “Over the years, she taught biology, physics and health, and had all these fun toys, probably...

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Tiger victim's family files lawsuit over wall height

Nearly one year after a tiger bounded over the fence of its San Francisco Zoo enclosure on a quiet Christmas evening and attacked three people, the parents of a slain teenager plan to file a lawsuit today alleging negligence by The City and the nonprofit it pays to manage the zoo. Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, died of blunt-force trauma to the head and neck inflicted by the teeth of Tatiana, the escaped Siberian tiger, after he distracted it to help save his friend Paul Dhaliwal from the 243-pound beast Dec. 25, 2007. Investigations after the attack found the wall around the big-cat exhibit was lower than is recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. “The Siberian tiger...

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Landlord groups sue to block new city law

Landlords could be fined, sued and possibly sent to jail if they commit offenses considered harassment under a voter-mandated law that took effect Friday – the same day landlords filed a lawsuit to prevent its enforcement. Proposition M, which passed with 59 percent of the vote in November, prohibits landlords from delaying repairs, threatening or attemption to coerce a tenant to move, interfering with their privacy or asking a resident’s immigration status, among other acts, "in bad faith or with ulterior motive or without honest intent.” Measure M took effect Dec. 19, according to Clifford Fried, an attorney representing groups that include the San Francisco...

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Police test ShotSpotter in the Mission

The all-too-familiar sound of gunfire that erupted in the Mission district Thursday night rang in the launch of the newest crime-fighting tool for the violence-plagued neighborhood. The shots were fired from handguns by police officers — at a stack of bulletproof vests — to test, calibrate and fine-tune roughly 20 sound sensors that will allow police to monitor gunfire in a square mile of the Mission. The area is part of Mission Police Station’s jurisdiction, which has accounted for 45 homicides since 2006. Residents were warned just prior to the tests through megaphone-blasted alerts from squad cars and by street closures. At 9:28 p.m., the first test proved...

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Holiday travel down, but deals are hard to find

Fancy downing some rum in the Caribbean during the holiday season? Perhaps you’d prefer to visit your elderly aunt in Miami, where she’s soaking up the sun in temperatures approaching the 80s. Or, maybe the beaches of similarly warm Cancun are more your thing. Unless you’ve already booked your trip or have cash to burn, forget about it. Despite the recession, cheap holiday flights and travel deals to most balmy destinations are difficult to find, San Francisco travel agents say, although some value can be found in trips to a handful of warm international destinations, such as Peru and Australia. Don’t despair, agents say, there are still flights and vacation...

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Officers chase down, arrest vandalism suspects

A pair of police officers chased down and arrested two 18-year olds suspected of tagging an Embarcadero pier with spray-paint on Wednesday evening, according to police. The two men were among a group of six that were allegedly tagging “SFP” on the informational signs and freshly painted rails of Pier 7, according to Sgt. Nick Rainsford of Central Police Station. Police were alerted to the mischief by a caller who later positively identified the arrested men, he said. The 5-minute foot pursuit snaked along a series of streets including the Embarcadero, Broadway and Sansome Street, he said. The men were finally arrested, out-of-breath, at Pacific and Battery. “The...

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Empty offices build up in city

Companies in San Francisco are searching for subtenants to lease 800,000 square feet of office space that has been abandoned and left empty, a barren manifestation of job losses across The City. According to city statistics, 8,200 workers have lost their jobs this year in San Francisco. About 10 percent of jobs in The City are in the financial sector, which is experiencing job losses in the wake of defaults and foreclosures caused by overlending. The recent collapse of two big law firms has dumped a substantial amount of office space onto the market, according to tenant broker Frank Fudem. “If you’re a landlord, it’s getting a lot worse,” Fudem said. Gift...

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Cable car, SUV collide, injuring two

Two people were hospitalized and blood was left pooled on Hyde Street following a peak-hour collision Wednesday evening between a moving cable car and a sport utility vehicle. The 4:55 p.m. accident, near the intersection of Hyde and North Point streets in Russian Hill, closed a quiet block to traffic near The City’s Ghirardelli Square and Russian Hill Park, and disrupted service on the Powell-Hyde line for almost two hours. A woman in her mid-30s, who had been riding in the green, three-door Honda SUV, was left hospitalized at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital with injuries not considered life threatening. The SUV sustained cracked front windows and substantial damage to its rear,...

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$25M gift aids UCSF stem cell research

A multimillion dollar donation has helped push plans for a new stem cell research building at UC San Francisco closer to becoming a reality. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation recently agreed to donate $25 million toward the $119 million building, according to UCSF stem cell research director Arnold Kriegstein. Another $35 million is being provided by voter-approved state stem cell funding and $16 million was received from another private donation; the final $43 million still needs to be raised, he said. Preliminary work for the building is already underway at the university’s Parnassus campus; building could be completed within two years, Kriegstein said. The building is...

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Outages affect thousands

About 12,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers lost power in 18 separate outages on Tuesday, and, by 11 p.m., 600 homes and business were still without power. Equipment failures caused two of the outages, but causes hadn’t been determined for the other outages, which struck in cold weather, spokeswoman Brandi Ehlers said at 11 p.m. “The crews are spread out pretty thin and they’re working to restore power before they investigate (the cause),” Ehlers said. The outages were scattered throughout The City, and heavily affected areas included the Fillmore, Western Addition, Pacific Heights and Mission districts, she said. About 100 of the 600 customers that...

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Apple to ditch Macworld Conference after 2009

In a blow to tech geeks and The City’s economy, Apple announced it is walking away from the annual Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco, and at the company’s final convention next month chief executive Steve Jobs will not give his traditional keynote address. Apple’s announcement could prove to be the death-knell for the annual Mac fan fest, just as similar events in New York and Boston withered after they lost Apple’s participation, industry experts said. In 1985 the first Macworld Expo took place in San Francisco at the Moscone Center, where the annual event is still held. This year’s conference and exposition is scheduled for Jan....

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Company seeks community support for new utility boxes

AT&T is pitching the promise of “next generation” Internet and television services for San Franciscans in an effort to win support for unpopular plans to bolt hundreds of 4-foot high utility boxes onto sidewalks and other rights-of-way throughout The City. Specific locations have not been identified for most of the 850 planned metal boxes, but they would be built close to existing AT&T utility boxes, planning department documents show. Additionally, some of AT&T’s existing boxes would be expanded, and some would be moved from utility poles to footpaths. The new equipment would house technology to support the company’s U-verse service, which already...

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Winter is on its way

Snow-capped peaks in the coming weeks could surround a perpetually frigid San Francisco, after the first of a series of storms slides south into the Bay Area on Saturday. Bursts of wet, cold air catapulted south, one after the other, along the West Coast from a ridge of high pressure in the Gulf of Alaska are expected to fell temperatures and bring rain to The City for at least a week, beginning Saturday, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Tentinger. The service doesn’t forecast more than 10 days in advance, but California Office of Emergency Services spokeswoman Lori Newquist warned that cold weather could chill the state for several weeks. The succession...

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CCSF settles Chinatown campus clash

Construction of a long-planned 42-classroom City College campus may begin next year in Chinatown, after settlements with project opponents were approved by college trustees Wednesday evening. The Board of Trustees of the City College of San Francisco voted 6-0 to settle a pair of lawsuits filed by neighbors concerned about the campus’s towering design and its expected impact on the neighborhood, according to board member Milton Marks. Plans for the campus were first adopted by the college in 1997. Following Wednesday’s vote, construction of a 14-story building planned on the northeast corner of Washington and Kearny streets, and a four-story building planned at Washington...

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Odwalla founder talks about his latest venture, a natural coffee beverage

Greg Steltenpohl, the co-founder of Odwalla, started San Francisco-based Adina Co., which just released a drink called Natural Highs, made from organic, fair-trade coffee. When did you become involved with beverages? My goal was to try to put a healthy beverage on every street corner. When we started Odwalla in 1980, it was hard to find anything other than water or heavily processed orange juice; those were your best choices at corner stores. Is San Francisco a good place to start a business? The tax rate is a little more difficult and there are some extra hoops to jump through, but for a company whose product is like ours, to be close to the action and be part of the community is...

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DNA hit revives cold case killing

The mystery that for 17 years has surrounded the vicious rape and slaying of a San Francisco writer and activist who was in the editing stages of a documentary about her turned-around life may have been solved through DNA evidence. Police arrested 56-year-old Otis Hughes in his East Bay home Tuesday evening on suspicion of the 1991 rape and stabbing death of 39-year-old Karen Wong, who he allegedly tied up in the Richmond district flat where she lived alone. Hughes faces life behind bars without the possibility of parole if convicted on charges of one count of murder and one count of rape, according to district attorney spokeswoman Erica Derryck. Police and friends of Wong said they...

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Rents decline for first time since 2004

Rental prices for apartments in The City, which had been skyrocketing for nearly two years, fell in October, as an avalanche of pink slips across San Francisco weighed on average household incomes and led freshly unemployed workers to abandon city living, new figures show. The average rent for a one-bedroom unit advertised on craigslist.org fell 2.4 percent in one month to $2,293, according to the city controller’s October economic barometer report, released this week. That price, however, was still 3.7 percent higher than at the same time last year. San Francisco rents started falling in October and continued to fall in November, according to Victor Calanog, senior economist at...

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BART between S.F., East Bay delayed by debris

An aluminum object wreaked havoc Monday with evening BART commuters. One rail line was taken out of service between the Balboa Park and Glen Park stations after aluminum foil, perhaps from a balloon, landed on the tracks about 8 p.m., according to BART spokesman Linton Johnson. "When aluminum touches the trackway, it causes a bit of a spark from the electrical currents," he said. The loss of service caused delays of up to 30 minutes, according to Johnson. Passengers across the BART network were continuing to be affected by residual delays at 9:15 p.m., a BART official...

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Sunny skies with some pollution forecasted for this weekend

A still, fogless sky forecast this weekend will bathe San Francisco with sunlight, but it could also negatively impact The City’s air quality, officials have warned. Temperatures this weekend are expected to reach into the 60s, and breezes are forecast to be very light, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Diana Henderson. Fog and low-altitude clouds are not expected, although some clouds might hang high in the sky, according to Henderson. “There will be some cirrus clouds, about 18,000 feet up, right up there with the high-flying jets,” Henderson said. “They’re [made of] tiny little icy crystals, and if the sun hits them just right,...

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Economy delays ballpark hotel plans

A warehouse that has been slated to be demolished for three years to make way for a bar, restaurant and hotel in The City’s fast-growing AT&T Park neighborhood could, due to the sour economy, remain a warehouse for up to three more years. The proposed 130-room hotel is among a handful of hotel construction projects across The City currently on hiatus due to the credit shortage and languishing economy. The San Francisco Planning Commission on Thursday approved a request from the developer, who wants to build the complex at 144 King St., for a three-year delay. Plans for the 11-story, brick-veneered hotel, bar and restaurant, designed to complement neighboring historic masonry...

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Six left homeless by outer Richmond fire

A dog was killed and six people lost their homes when a kitchen fire spread and engulfed an outer Richmond district home Wednesday evening. The two-alarm fire was first reported about 6 p.m. and was extinguished by 7:30 p.m. with the efforts of more than 50 firefighters and seven fire engines, according to San Francisco Fire Department Division Chief Al Lee. The blaze began in a downstairs kitchen, Lee said. “The tenant who discovered the fire delayed calling 911 because he tried to put the fire out himself — and that allowed the fire to spread,” he said. Damage to the single-family home near 41st Avenue and Cabrillo street, which had been subdivided into two units,...

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City hopes to cash in on clean-tech

Buried among the hoopla, superlatives and expletives that filled the streets and airwaves following President-elect Barack Obama’s Nov. 4 victory was a 10-word statement that could foreshadow an economic bonanza for an industry that’s beginning to emerge in The City. Eight minutes into Obama’s victory speech, he unwound his momentarily clasped hands: “There’s new energy to harness,” he said, shaking his fingers up and down. “New jobs to be created.” Local officials have a unique chance to position San Francisco — long a pastureland of grass-roots environmental entrepreneurialism and activism — to cash in on a green economy, if...

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Giants plan to play with pricing

For years, Giants fans have lived with the uncertainty of whether tickets would be available for games at AT&T Park. Next season, that anxiety could include how much the tickets will cost. In an experiment the team says may forever change the way its fans buy their tickets, some ticket prices will be jacked up next season on the day of a blockbuster game, and dropped in the lead-up to a lackluster game. The franchise plans to introduce “dynamic pricing” next season, which would have ticket prices on 500 bleacher seats and 1,500 view-reserve seats fluctuate between $8 and $40, depending on a game’s expected popularity, according to Giants Ticket Services Vice...

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Body found in downtown elevator shaft

A body was found rotting in a SoMa office building’s elevator shaft, after a man mysteriously plunged at least six floors to his death nearly a week ago. The man, in his late 30s, was discovered Monday morning at the historic multitenant Sharon Building at 55 New Montgomery St., San Francisco Police Department Inspector Matt Krimsky said. Property manager Brad Bernheim said the death was believed to have occurred much earlier than the discovery. “We believe it happened last Tuesday evening,” Bernheim said Monday. “We saw him coming through the property and on the [security] camera.” The man, who likely did not work in the building, appeared to have...

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Local Hindus pray after tragedy in Mumbai

Bay Area Hindus are scheduled to gather in a Fremont temple in the coming days to pray for victims of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which have reportedly killed more than 150 people, including at least 22 foreigners. Two Americans were confirmed killed and two were injured in the attacks, U.S. State Department spokesman Noel Clay said Friday afternoon. India’s consulate general in San Francisco had not received any information that would suggest any Bay Area residents had been injured or killed by the violence, consulate spokesman Ashok Sinha said Friday afternoon, more than two days after the attacks began. The consulate set up an emergency hot line to provide information about...

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Transbay Terminal targets stimulus cash

A bus terminal in San Francisco might be flattened by the federal government. Demolition of the Transbay Transit Terminal is one of the public-works projects identified as a candidate for assistance under a stimulus bill before Congress. The Job Creation and Unemployment Relief Act — one of the spending-heavy bills written by federal lawmakers to help save jobs and companies amid an economic collapse sparked by overlending in the finance sector — passed the House in September and is waiting for a Senate vote. If it becomes law, the bill would pump tens of billions of dollars into municipal infrastructure projects in an effort to create jobs and invigorate the...

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Lunchtime power outage hits city

A mechanical malfunction on a circuit line in the northeast section of San Francisco that left about 8,900 Pacific Gas and Electric customers without power on Monday morning was still affecting 381 customers at 10 p.m. The outage occurred at 11:30 a.m. and affected residents in North Beach, Russian Hill, Chinatown and portions of Fisherman’s Wharf. By 10:15 p.m., 381 customers — all based near Leavenworth Street and Broadway — were still without power, utility spokesman J.D. Guidi said. Those customers were expected to have power back on before midnight, Guidi said. The outage occurred due to a problem with a “riser” — a heavy duty electrical cable...

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Cyclist in critical condition after Muni collision

A cyclist suffered critical head injuries Thursday evening after colliding with a Muni bus on the Great Highway in The City. The man, who was in his mid- to late 40s, was crossing the highway from a bicycle path at 6:40 p.m., when he clipped the front of a Noriega Express turning south onto the highway from Noriega Street, according to San Francisco police Lt. Michael Caplin. The cyclist, who was not wearing a helmet, struck his head on the pavement when he fell, according to Caplin. He was taken to San Francisco General Hospital in critical condition. The bus had offloaded passengers at the end of the line and was beginning an inbound trip when the accident occurred, according to...

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Six hurt in three-car Redwood City crash

Six people were injured in a three-car pileup thats snarled traffic Thursday evening on Interstate 280. A gray Toyota sport utility vehicle heading north collided with a green compact car about 9 p.m. north of Page Mill Road, and a blue jeep plowed into the idle vehicles one minute later, according to California Highway Patrol dispatch Officer Nicole Pacheco. Although ambulances responded to the accident, none of the injuries were considered serious, according to Pacheco. The collision blocked three of four northbound lanes and created traffic havoc, according to Pacheco. By 9:30 p.m., two lanes were still blocked and traffic was crawling through the two open lanes, Pacheco...

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Student stabbed outside mayor’s bar

A Southern California college student who was stabbed last weekend while trying to break up a brawl in front of a Cow Hollow bar, which is in part owned by Mayor Gavin Newsom, remained hospitalized Thursday. Kellen Spani, a student at the University of Southern California, was stabbed multiple times in the chest early Saturday morning outside the Balboa Café, according to police spokeswoman Sgt. Lyn Tomioka. The business administration major was attempting to quell a fight between a group of his friends and a group of students from another school when he was stabbed, according to Tomioka. “He was acting as the mediator,” she said. Two suspects were arrested...

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Global downturn hits Bay Area businesses

Businesses in San Francisco have been hit hard by the global economic malaise, with new figures showing Bay Area business optimism has sunk to new lows and more than one-third of companies in The City expect to shed staff before June. The Bay Area Council, a big-business-funded public policy organization, released quarterly figures this week that suggest a Bay Area-wide slump in business confidence will affect job security most severely in San Francisco and San Mateo County. Across the Bay Area, 47 percent of companies expect conditions in their industries to worsen during the next six months, according to figures in the 13-page report. “A lot of people have been hoping that the...

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Bunsen burner at Amgen lab triggers emergency response

A Bunsen burner that was left aflame after biotech workers finished their day in a South San Francisco laboratory triggered a massive response by fire officials Tuesday. Two battalion chiefs, three fire engines, one fire truck, a hazardous response team and other emergency officials were dispatched around 8:30 p.m. to the lab at Building 1 at 1120 Veterans Blvd., following reports of smoke and strange smells, according to San Mateo County fire officials. The building is occupied by Amgen Laboratories, fire officials said. When crews arrived, they found a single, lit Bunsen burner emitting smoke in the building by burning through an unknown chemical, officials...

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Underground power plant might be built in SoMa

As controversy rages about if a power plant should be built or rebuilt in southeast San Francisco, city officials have quietly been developing plans for a separate underground plant to service planned high-rise buildings in SoMa. Massive amounts of power will be needed for the planned 1,000-foot Transbay office tower and rebuilt Transbay Transit Center at Mission and First streets, and for the thousands of new homes and millions of square feet of office space expected to be built in the coming decades in the South of Market neighborhood. The privately owned and operated plant would be designed so it could eventually run on hydrogen fuel cells instead of fossil fuels, Environment...

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Gay marriage rally planned for Saturday morning

Supporters of same-sex marriage and gay rights will take to the streets Saturday in rallies across the nation, including a gathering in front of San Francisco City Hall starting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. The rallies are a response to ballot measures in three states — California, Arizona and Florida — that passed Nov. 4 and denied same-sex couples the right to marry. “This is a part of a nationwide day of action,” said Stuart Gaffney, who married John Lewis at San Francisco City Hall earlier this year, and who plans to address Saturday’s rally. “A grass-roots movement has been born since the passage of Proposition 8.” Last Friday in San...

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Crabbers wary of middling haul

Crabbers at Fisherman’s Wharf have spent recent weeks prepping pots for the opening of the Dungeness crab season, scheduled for Saturday, but this year’s haul might be small, according to ecologists and traders. Bumper hauls in recent years could mean less from this year’s harvest, California Department of Fish and Game marine biologist Peter Kalvass said. “It goes through a natural cycle,” Kalvass said. “Based on the trend over the last couple of seasons, it looks like we’re probably in more of an average or perhaps slightly below-average catch year.” The slim pickings caught by recreational fishers since their season began at the start...

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Swastikas scrawled into Holocaust memorial

Swastikas have been drawn and etched onto a Holocaust memorial in San Francisco, officials reported Wednesday. The anti-Semitic symbols were found outside the Legion of Honor on “The Holocaust,” a sculpture carved by George Segal and donated to The City by fundraisers in the early 1980s, according to Jill Manton, director of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s public art program. Some of the ink was removed Wednesday, but a professional conservator will be hired to remove the rest of the graffiti and complete repairs, according to Manton. Preliminary estimates of repair costs are $5,000 to $6,000, which is roughly one-third of the commission’s annual repair...

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S.F. inspector sues after being Tasered

A San Francisco police inspector is suing the city of Antioch and its Police Department in federal court, claiming she was arrested without cause and Tasered in her home. Attorneys for San Francisco police Inspector Marvetia Lynn Richardson, who is black, said in court documents that Antioch police have “engaged in a concerted effort to harass African American residents and to drive them out of certain neighborhoods.” The 41-year-old is suing Antioch and its Police Department and some of its members for medical expenses, emotional distress, attorney fees and wages she lost for being placed on unpaid leave after the June 7 arrest for allegedly resisting arrest. In court...

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Rents continue to climb

Residential rents continue to rise in San Francisco, with new figures showing the greatest spikes over the past two years have struck neighborhoods that traditionally have been the most affordable for renters. The average monthly price for a rental home in the San Francisco area, which includes San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin, leapt $251 over the past two years, from $1,579 in the third quarter of 2006 to $1,830 in the same quarter in 2008, according to data released Friday by national research firm Reis Inc. Average rents increased more than 20 percent in San Francisco’s Civic Center and downtown areas and in the Haight Ashbury and Western Addition areas — the survey...

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Ballots languish at City Hall

An unexpected number of San Francisco voters that came to City Hall in the days before Tuesday’s election overwhelmed staff and delayed the counting of ballots, leaving one-third of votes still untallied as of Thursday afternoon. An estimated 383,000 ballots were cast in this election — about 80 percent of The City’s registered voters, according to information provided to The Examiner by San Francisco’s election chief, John Arntz. With 253,486 ballots counted, about 130,000 ballots cast before the election or provisionally are still left to be tallied. “We started to get jammed with cards as we got closer to the election. ... Then, at Election Day, you had...

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Woman trapped on cliff trying to save dog

A woman who clambered down steep cliffs at Fort Funston on Thursday to help her misguided husky became stranded, requiring a rescue by specially trained firefighters. The woman, in her mid-30s, was stuck halfway down the 80-foot cliff when firefighters arrived about 1 p.m., according to San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Lt. Ken Smith. “The dog went over the cliff, so then the lady went over the cliff to get the dog, and she also got herself trapped,” Smith said. A fire engine raced to the scene, south of Ocean Beach, after the department received a call from Park Police. During an hourlong operation by a cliff-rescue team, a firefighter rapelled down to the woman,...

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Bay remains vulnerable one year after Cosco Busan spill

One year after a container ship clipped a Bay Bridge support tower, flooding the Bay with oil, environmental and clean-water advocates say some of the problems that hampered emergency cleanup efforts remain unfixed. In the wake of the Cosco Busan spill on Nov. 7, 2007, state and federal lawmakers clamored to draft legislation to address the delayed and inadequate response by government and private industry that exacerbated the damage caused by the more than 50,000 gallons of oil that gushed from the ship’s hull. The Cosco Busan struck the Bay Bridge support tower while trying to navigate through heavy morning fog; by sundown, the tides had spread the oil slick throughout the Bay....

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Rate Payer Advocate rejected

San Francisco voters rejected Proposition I, which would have created an Office of the Independent Rate Payer Advocate. The office — projected to cost The City $125,000 a year — would have been charged with evaluating and making recommendations on utility rates proposed by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which provides electricity for city departments and supplies water in San Francisco and disposes of wastewater. The agency also provides electricity for city...

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Voters side with tenants

With the passage of Proposition M, landlords could be fined and possibly sent to jail, among other penalties, if found to be in violation of The City's expanded law to prevent tenant harassment. Tenants could also see their rent reduced under the measure, which prohibits such actions as inquiring about a tenant's citizenship, failing to provide such required housing services as repairs, and threats of physical harm to the...

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Power problems strike PG&E customers

Thousands of Pacific Gas & Electric customers were blacked out or lost some of their power in San Francisco and Daly City on Monday. More than 500 customers were still without power at 11 p.m. following a power outage that struck 6,227 customers in the Western Addition and Laurel Heights a little before 9 p.m., according to PG&E spokeswoman Brandi Ehlers. It’s not known when power will be restored for the San Francisco customers, according to Ehlers. In Daly City, a sagging overhead wire caused electrical problems for some Daly City residents Monday afternoon and evening, according to Pacific Gas & Electric. The “low-voltage situation” started affecting...

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New downtown neighborhood in the works

A decade-long search for developers, builders and architects who will craft a 3,400-home neighborhood in the heart of The City has begun. The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency recently invited bids from teams interested in developing the first two housing projects on South of Market land previously used for the Embarcadero Freeway, which was felled due to damage sustained in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The clusters of townhouses and dozens of low- to high-rise residential buildings planned on nine blocks of agency-owned land, stretching southwest of Rincon Park from Spear to Second streets, will flank a landmark office building called the Transbay Tower. A draft zoning proposal...

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City-backed Halloween party in Mission Bay didn’t draw big crowds

Low attendance, a light drizzle, and long queues for food dampened the party spirit at a free Halloween event Friday that was backed by The City in a less-than-successful effort to draw crowds away from The Castro. Set in a parking lot adjacent to AT&T Park in Mission Bay, the festival drew a sparse crowd of teens and young adults scattered between its three stages at 10 p.m., but the crowd displayed little enthusiasm for the musical acts and DJs who filled the open-air event with music. “I expected to see more people here,” said Don McChesney, a young man who appeared in his 20s dressed as Captain Hero from the animated TV comedy “Drawn Together.” Just...

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Castro revelers and police find a peaceful balance

The Castro was filled with celebratory revelers on Halloween, watched closely by a heavy police presence meant to prevent the violence and drunk-and-disorderly behavior that has marred the gathering in recent years. Unlike last year, when city officials urged Castro businesses to close their doors at night to discourage people from flooding the neighborhood on Halloween, a number of bars, restaurants, cafes and stores maintained regular store hours and turned a swift trade. “It’s a lot better than last year,” said 18-year Castro resident Ken Hauser, who was decked out in leather garb. Hundreds of riot-ready police officers and barricades kept revelers on sidewalks...

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Critical Mass costumes make monthly ride more festive

Hundreds of bicyclists, most dressed in garish costumes unlikely to be seen on the backs of Tour de France competitors, cheered in jubilant celebration before embarking on the monthly Critical Mass rally — this ride with a Halloween theme — from Justin Herman Plaza Friday evening. The parade of local bicyclists, regularly scheduled for the last Friday night of each month, took off down Market Street at 6:25 p.m. Bunny rabbits, robots, skeletons, clowns and numerous Sarah Palins were all part of the evening show, which brought together a sizeable number of participants, despite early predictions of rain and wind. Every year there is usually a Halloween-themed Critical Mass...

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Revelers come to Castro for Halloween, but in smaller numbers

Scores of police officers manning barricades in the Castro kept revelers off the streets early Friday night, but despite warnings from the police and city officials that there would be no official event this year, costumed revelers came ready to celebrate Halloween. Efforts to shut down the large gathering began last year, in response to violence and problems with rowdy, drunken behavior. In 2006, gunfire erupted in the Castro on Halloween, injuring nine people. Unlike last year, however, when city officials urged Castro businesses to close their doors at night to discourage people from coming to the neighborhood on Halloween, a number of local businesses, including bars, restaurants,...

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Halloween festival in Mission Bay attracts families

Streams of parents with costume-clad children trickled into the parking lot adjacent to AT&T Park early Friday evening for a city-backed Halloween party that appeared under-attended. An estimated 1,500 festival-goers were in attendance at the event by 6 p.m., although vender stands remained empty and various musical acts played to audiences of a few scattered individuals. The festival, funded privately and organized by a local group, Latin Zone Productions, was backed by city leaders as a family-oriented, safe alternative to an annual gathering that has taken place in the Castro but was cancelled this year and last due to increasing violence and disorderly behavior. At the Mission...

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Residents start protecting themselves against flooding

The onset of autumnal rain led to the wet season’s first trickle of calls to The City on Friday from residents asking for free sandbags to help protect their homes from flooding. The Department of Public Works provides up to ten free sand-filled canvas sacks per San Francisco resident at its operations yard on Cesar Chavez Street, according to department spokeswoman Christine Falvey. “In lower lying areas of The City, some areas have been really prone to flooding,” Falvey said. “Residents use sandbags around their garage doors, and if they live on the ground floor, around their front doors.” Monthly rainfall in the Mission rises from an average of...

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Rain may let up for Halloween, but not wind

Dark forces may be at work with tonight’s weather: luring trick-or-treaters and revelers outside with a break in rain, but wreaking windblown havoc on their costumes. Rain and thunderstorms are expected to continue in today in The City, and throughout the weekend, but they might pause for a spell this evening, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Tentinger. “There could be a break in the evening — there’s a chance of some rain showers through the evening, but they probably won’t be extremely widespread,” Tentinger said. But strong winds — expected to reach 25 mph this afternoon and 30 mph Saturday and Sunday afternoons...

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Nation’s fiscal crisis puts city developments at risk

One Rincon, a residential tower that stretches 550-feet high near the foot of the Bay Bridge, could remain a lonely giant in the SoMa area for the foreseeable future — a conspicuous sign of the economy’s impact on promised development projects in The City. A planned second tower of the Rincon Hill development, which was to have broken ground in January, has been delayed, with the developer blaming the poor economy. “Like others, our team is watching the economy for the proper time to recommence construction,” Mike Kriozere of Urban West Associates said in a statement released Wednesday. In the two years since 1 Rincon Hill went on the market, less than half its...

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South San Francisco suffers second slaying in a month

A man was shot to death in South San Francisco on Wednesday evening, the city’s second slaying in a month after more than three years without a homicide. Police began receiving calls around 8:50 p.m. from residents who said a man was lying motionless in the middle of the street on the 600 block of First Lane, according to South San Francisco Police Department spokeswoman Joni Lee. “He was dead right in the middle of the street,” Lee said. The man, in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene, most likely from a single bullet wound, according to Lee. Police are investigating the case as a homicide. The last homicide in South San Francisco occurred on Sept. 30, when...

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Taking root: Stem cell therapies making progress

On a single floor in a San Francisco office building, 32 state employees are guiding a multibillion-dollar medical revolution that could see new therapies for vexing, debilitating inflictions such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes and spinal cord injuries within the next decade. It has been four years since California voters approved a ballot measure that provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research, and state officials say the funding has accelerated research that could one day offer therapies and cures for more than 70 incurable diseases and injuries. “The field is moving much more quickly than most of us had thought,” said Arnold Kriegstein, who oversees stem cell...

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Building up a beachfront neighborhood

A sleepy block near Ocean Beach is set for a face-lift that has some neighbors questioning what the size of the project will mean for them. Aging buildings that house a surf shop, cafe, motel and an abandoned restaurant across Sloat Boulevard from the San Francisco Zoo are slated to be demolished to make way for a five-story retail and housing project that would change the face — and pace — of the neighborhood. The proposed project, which is on a block bordered by Sloat Boulevard, Wawona Street, and 46th and 47th avenues, would include 56 condomniums, as well as retail and restaurant space in three connected buildings. It would replace three commercial one- and two-story...

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Busy weekend should be pleasant

Temperatures are expected to drop slightly this weekend, but not enough to cool the excitement of the extreme descents scheduled at separate sporting events Saturday. Temperatures today are expected to be in the low 70s, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Tentinger. The wind is forecast to begin blowing in from the Pacific Ocean this evening, bringing with it light morning cloud-and-fog cover, along with temperatures in the high 60s on Saturday and Sunday, Tentinger said. The dry conditions will be warmly welcomed by the 30 teams of racers scheduled to plunge down Dolores Street in homemade soapbox cars in the Mission district Saturday. Saturday is also the...

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16-year-old girl dies of gunshot wounds

A 16-year old girl who was rushed to hospital after being shot in the Bayview on Tuesday evening has died. The homicide victim was identified on Thursday evening as San Francisco resident Jonisha Tucker by the Medical Examiner. Police said she was shot by a Samoan male during a gang-related fight on Hollister Street at 7:40 p.m. Friday. Three shots were fired, according to police. Tucker’s death takes the number of homicides in The City this year to...

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Girl injured in Bayview shooting

A 16-year-old girl injured in a shooting in the Bayview district was rushed to San Francisco General Hospital Tuesday evening suffering life-threatening injuries, according to police. Witness reports indicated three shots were fired a little before 7:40 p.m. on residential Hollister Avenue, less than one block east of Third Street, police said. The shooting is being investigated by the Gang Task Force, according to police spokesman Neville Gittens "There might have been some kind of a fight that occurred and the 16-year old ended up getting shot," Gittens...

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Angel Island fire controlled after 43 hours

The wildfire that ravaged more than half of Angel Island was fully contained by 4 p.m. Tuesday – 43 hours after the spectacular inferno started to take hold of San Francisco Bay’s largest island. Some firefighters were scheduled to leave the island Tuesday evening after battling the blaze, which charred 380 acres of the 740-acre state park, but most of the 275-person contingent will begin leaving Wednesday, according to Mike Giannini, Battalion Chief of the Marin County Fire Department. “There’s virtually no chance that the fire will spread, but there are still hotspots,” Giannini said at 6 p.m. The hotspots, which included smoldering stumps, burning...

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Navy’s video equipment stolen from van just before Fleet Week

Audio-visual equipment belonging to the U.S. Navy was stolen last week, prior to Fleet Week, from a rental minivan that was left parked for several days in a neighborhood known to be plagued by auto break-ins. A Honda Odyssey rented by the Navy was parked by a valet company in the Anchorage Shopping Center parking garage near Fisherman’s Wharf Oct. 13, Central Police Station Sgt. Carl Tennenbaum said. Thieves had cleared out its electronic equipment by the time Fleet Week officials tried to retrieve the gear late Thursday morning, he said. The thieves made off with “quite a bit” of video equipment, including monitors, camera equipment and headsets, according to...

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When rainy weather arrives, it's harvest season

Rainwater-harvesting systems have long graced rooftops in far-flung, water-poor lands, but for some San Franciscans — such as Tara Hui of Visitacion Valley — the exotic practice is a modern-day reality. Hui is a trailblazer of rainwater harvesting in San Francisco, having started a small operation when it was still outlawed by The City. Now, the 38-year-old urban farmer has 25 barrels connected to the 1,000-square-foot roof of her home — and Hui is acting as an adviser and pinup girl for a city-run campaign to convince others to emulate her once-renegade ways. Hui picked up the empty ingredient drums for free from food manufacturers and paid about $200 for plumbing...

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15,000 blue-collar jobs may be axed

Efforts by city planners that could protect about 15,000 blue-collar jobs from being misplaced by The City’s eastern neighborhoods during the coming century would prevent developers from building office space for an estimated 116,000 new white-collar jobs, according to a report released Tuesday. Called the Eastern Neighborhoods plan, the sweeping rezoning proposal covers 2,200 acres of the East SoMa, Showplace Square, Potrero Hill, Mission district and Central Waterfront neighborhoods. In the works by the Planning Department since 2000, it will be debated at a Board of Supervisors committee meeting today and could be adopted by city legislators by the end of the...

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Alleged ATM bandits make off with $600

Police are studying surveillance tapes in an attempt to identify two men who they say robbed people using ATMs on Monday afternoon near the corner of Oak and Divisadero streets. The men, who were wearing white T-shirts and jeans with writing on them, approached victims at different ATMs around 4 p.m. In each case, the victims had taken about $300 out. The men implied they were carrying guns, according to a sergeant at the Richmond Police Station. No arrests have been...

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Mechanical problem affects cable car routes all evening

Service on two cable car routes was disrupted Monday because of a frayed underground cable. Regular service on the California Street line and Hyde Street portion of the Powell-Hyde cable car line was stopped by the mechanical problem at 3:25 p.m., according to Muni spokesman Judson True. Shuttle buses were expected to provide substitute service on both affected lines until the end of the day’s service, True said. One of the six strands of a below-ground metal cable used by the cable cars to grip onto the road separated from the rest of the cable, according to True. The affected portion of cable has been removed and will be repaired overnight, he...

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Solar power encouraged in San Francisco

Mayor Gavin Newsom shone the light on a solar-incentive program for businesses Wednesday and also added a new initiative he said could encourage more companies to install the environmentally friendly technology. Newsom last year announced he would use city funds previously earmarked for a city-owned solar array to subsidize private solar panel installations. After six months of political bickering, the Board of Supervisors approved a one-year, $3 million pilot program, which funds up to $6,000 per residential installation and $10,000 per business installation. Anyone who installed solar panels after Newsom announced the program in December is eligible for the incentive...

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Housing hot spot developing in Mission Bay

A small but robust residential neighborhood is taking shape on the north side of San Francisco’s burgeoning Mission Bay development while the southern portion of the 303-acre project site is being built out with office and life-science lab space construction. The $4 billion redevelopment project is bordered by the San Francisco Bay and stretches south of AT&T Park to Mariposa Street. Intended to be the hub of The City’s biotech industry, Mission Bay’s development plans include a 57-acre UC San Francisco biomedical campus and hospital; 4.4 million square feet of office and life-science lab space; and medium-rise residential buildings south of King Street and on...

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Visitacion Valley shooting victim dies

A man died after being shot in broad daylight Tuesday near the corner of Brussels and Wayland streets in Visitacion Valley, according to police. Police called to the scene shortly before 2 p.m. found the victim lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds, according to police spokesman Neville Gittens. The man was taken by ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital and he was pronounced dead at approximately 5 p.m., according to Gittens. No arrests have been made, Gittens said Tuesday. The man's identity is expected to be released Wednesday by the San Francisco Medical Examiner. The murder brings San Francisco’s homicide tally this year to 84, on pace to match the...

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Neighborhood may not lose hospital service

Without committing to spending any money, the company that owns St. Luke’s Hospital on Thursday conditionally agreed to open a smaller community-based hospital at the Outer Mission site before the aging facility is torn down. The existing hospital will not meet seismic safety laws in 2015 and, according to a resolution passed Thursday by the California Pacific Medical Center board of directors, the “national health care crisis” has “threatened the viability of St. Luke’s.” The board voted to accept a community panel’s recommendation that it open a smaller hospital before the existing one is toppled. The 130-year-old hospital on Cesar Chavez...

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A new Transbay Terminal, a new downtown

City planners expect a multibillion-dollar rebuild of the Transbay Terminal to catalyze a South of Market transformation, turning the area into a leafy downtown with tapered towers, ground-floor stores and orderly traffic lanes. At its center will be a new transit terminal at First and Mission streets that will be rebuilt with a 1,000-foot tower — a development city leaders say will make it the “Grand Central of the West.” Construction of a temporary facility — needed in order to demolish and rebuild the existing terminal — is due to begin by the end of the year. More than a new terminal, the Transbay project is part of an overall redevelopment plan for...

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Smaller medical center at St. Luke's site pondered

The fate of St. Luke’s Hospital in the Outer Mission neighborhood, a facility at risk of being shuttered for financial reasons, will be considered behind closed doors today by the company’s board of directors. Last year, California Pacific Medical Center, which runs St. Luke’s, said it planned to close the hospital’s acute-care facilities. Then, a blue-ribbon task force charged with looking for ways to save St. Luke’s came out with a recommendation in July to have CPMC build a smaller hospital in order to maintain emergency access to the residents in the low-income, ethnically diverse neighborhood. The 26-member CPMC board of directors is scheduled today to...

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Downed Cessna hadengine leak, investigators say

A small plane carrying a pilot and an aerial photographer that crash-landed into San Francisco Bay earlier this month lost power after engine oil leaked through a crack in the Cessna's engine, investigators have determined. The 19-year old single-engine plane crashed at about 1:50 p.m. into the water near the San Francisco end of the Bay Bridge on Sept. 10. The two, who were working for Air Flight Service, were 1,500 feet in the air for about 30 minutes after departing from Santa Clara airport when the plane's only engine lost power, according to preliminary findings by NTSB investigators. "There was a breach in the engine crank case," air safety investigator Patrick Jones...

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Police chase, fire at stolen car in the Sunset

A driver who allegedly tried to run over officers during a traffic stop led police on a high-speed chase through the Sunset District before crashing into a pole on Ocean Avenue, police say. Three members of the Taraval Neighborhood Team, which targets violent crime hotspots, pulled over a four-door gray Accura at the corner of Junipero Serra Boulevard and 19th Avenue at about 3:55 p.m. Monday after noticing that the car had been reported as stolen, according to Lt. Mike Caplan of Taraval Police Station. “As they approached the vehicle, the suspect – who’s a parolee – put the car in reverse and tried to reverse over the officers,” Caplan said. One officer...

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One killed, several hurt in truck accident

A person was crushed to death and three others were left fighting for their lives Monday after an out-of-control truck crashed into a busy grocery-store parking lot. The unloaded truck, a large debris hauler, appeared to have experienced a brake failure or mechanical problem as it drove east down a hill on 43rd Avenue, according to San Mateo police Capt. Kevin Raffaelli. It was coming from a nearby construction site. About 1:15 p.m., the truck, “unable to stop for the stop sign,” tore across Olympic Avenue at the end of 43rd Avenue and collided with a sport utility vehicle, according to Raffaelli. The truck — now dragging the SUV — then careened about 100 feet...

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Rec and Park proposes ticket to citywide fun

One $65 ticket could soon gain you and your entire family entrance to Coit Tower, the downtown wintertime ice skating rink and a handful of Golden Gate Park attractions under a new proposal from the Recreation and Park Department. The so-called Urban Green Passport, which was approved this week by the Recreation and Park Commission, would provide two adults and two children with unlimited visits to Coit Tower and the Japanese Tea Garden. It would also provide ice skating and skate rentals in winter at Justin Herman Plaza, spins on the Carousel in Golden Gate Park and boat rentals at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, department spokesman Elton Pon said. Membership at the Conservatory of...

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Man arrested in Christmas slaying

A Redwood City man who allegedly shot and killed one man and injured another last Christmas in East Palo Alto has been arrested. Valentino Gallegos, 37, died of multiple shotgun wounds and Gerardo Hernandez, 20, was injured after being shot by 23-year old Francisco Javier Mendoza at a home in Cooley Avenue, according to East Palo Alto police. Mendoza was arrested Monday following a very brief struggle at the corner of University and Woodland avenues in East Palo Alto, according to Detective Jeff Liu. Margarita Ortega, mother of Mendoza's children, was also arrested for allegedly "harboring a fugitive," according to Liu. One of the shooting victims was "picking on"...

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$10,000 reward offered in gun shop burglary

Dozens of handguns stolen from a San Bruno gun shop earlier this month remain in the hands of criminals, according to federal law enforcement officials who announced a $10,000 reward Tuesday for information on the theft. The front door and windows of Tabor's Shooters Supply were busted open at 4:45 a.m. on Sept. 2, and 27 handguns were lifted before police arrived, according to a statement by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Officers were alerted to the burglary by the store's alarm system. The handguns are likely to be used in violent crimes unless they are recovered, according to agency spokeswoman Nina Delgadillo. "Once you have a firearm that...

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S.F. store owner promotes eco-fashion

Joslin Van Arsdale, the owner of Eco Citizen, an 18-month-old high-end fashion store in San Francisco that uses fair-trade labor and environmental standards, will join a panel discussion on “eco-fashion” today at the Commonwealth Club. What is eco-fashion? For me, it’s a practice of business and fashion that takes into account people and the planet. It includes sweatshop-free, fair-trade labor and the second part is the materials used. What materials are environmentally friendly? Anything from organic cotton to bamboo, lyocell, recycled cotton and hemp. What’s unfriendly about traditional cotton? Traditional cotton uses pesticides, which therefore poison both...

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Cosco Busan pilot wants Chinese crew members kept in U.S.

The local pilot who was at the helm of the Cosco Busan container ship when it struck the Bay Bridge in November asked the government Friday to keep six of the ship’s Chinese crew members in the country for his trial. Capt. John Cota, of Petaluma, is facing jail time if convicted on criminal charges that he negligently caused the crash that led to the spill of more than 50,000 gallons of oil into the Bay on Nov. 7. His trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 17. Onboard the Cosco Busan that day there were also six Chinese crew members. They made a series of blunders that contributed to the container ship’s crash, the U.S. Department of Justice has alleged in charges brought against...

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Some zoo animals ‘may be suffering’

An expert should be hired to inspect the living conditions and health of grizzly bears, a polar bear and African animals at the San Francisco Zoo because they “may be suffering,” according to recommendations in a new city report. The report was requested by the Board of Supervisors during a debate over animal-welfare and public-funding issues, which was reignited in the wake of a deadly tiger escape Dec. 25, 2007. Because it was still waiting for the report, the board at its last meeting postponed a vote on a proposal by Supervisor Chris Daly to convert the zoo into a facility that cares for rescued animals. That vote is scheduled for Tuesday. “Some of the...

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Suspect ID'd in killing of Hells Angels leader

Police are hunting for a rank-and-file member of a rival bike club in connection with the slaying of a Hells Angels Motorcycle Club leader in San Francisco. An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for Christopher Ablett, 35, of Modesto, a member of the Mongols Motorcycle club. Albert is sought in connection with the fatal Sept. 2 shooting in the Mission neighborhood of 46-year old Mark Guardado, president of the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angels, according to Homicide Inspector Karen Lynch. The U.S. Marshalls and other police agencies are searching for Ablett, who is considered dangerous but not believed to be a gang leader, according to Lynch. "We are looking for him...

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Suspected gang members arrested in assaults

Leaders of a nascent gang of teenagers that beat lone children in the Sunset and Taraval neighborhoods were arrested this week, according to police. The 50-person True Brothers gang used weapons, force and intimidation to recruit its members from three schools in the City's west, according to Gang Task Force member Lieutenant Ernie Ferrando. Duc Truong, 18, and seven kids aged 15 to 17 were arrested Wednesday, each at a different location in the City, between 6:00 and 10:00 a.m, according to police. The arrests were based on search warrants and evidence seized at each of the locations. The teenagers were charged with aggravated assault, using a deadly weapon and false imprisonment,...

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Landlords create vacancies to beat rent-control laws

Bay Area native Greg Wimmer owns 11 units spread across three buildings in upscale neighborhoods. But currently, just four of them are used to house renters. That’s because Wimmer decided to take a handsome but neglected seven-unit, 95-year-old building in Nob Hill off the rental market — by evicting the tenants — after he bought it in 2002. He’s sprucing the building up now, and by taking his time, can bump up all the units’ previously rent-controlled rates up to market rate if he waits five years. Wimmer said he was able to buy the building below its normal market value in 2002 because the rent-controlled units were held down to $500 a month, he...

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Hunters View shooting victim taken to hospital

A shooting victim was transported to San Francisco General Hospital after being wounded at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday in Northridge Road near the Hunters Point Shipyard, according to police. Police recovered a gun near the same home in the Hunters View housing project in the Bayview neighborhood where the victim was reportedly shot, police...

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Transit expansion hampered by new terminal

When a temporary transit terminal is opened for use while a new terminal for buses and possibly trains is built within a multibillion-dollar development project that includes a 1,200-foot tower, its limited size will prevent the main bus line using the terminal from expanding its services until 2014. Work on the temporary downtown terminal is scheduled to begin in less than two months, allowing for demolition of the existing terminal, city officials told several dozen people at a neighborhood meeting Wednesday to discuss the project. The temporary facility will be located one block south-east from the current terminal, between Main and Beale streets and Folsom and Howard streets. It...

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Plane crashes into San Francisco Bay

A pilot and a passenger of a small plane escaped without major injuries Wednesday after they crashed into the waters of the San Francisco Bay. Pilot Bruce Moody and passenger Matthew Barcelona had been taking aerial photographs of the Bay Area when their engine lost power and crashed into San Francisco Bay near the Bay Bridge toll plaza at 1:51 p.m., they told officials. A U.S. Coast Guard boat with five crewmembers aboard arrived at the plane, which crashed about 1,000 yards from search and rescue training operations, in about five minutes, according to Chief Ray Codd. The boat "nosed up" to the wing of the plane, where the two men were sitting, he said. The men were...

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Police pledge more Mission patrols

Police Chief Heather Fong and other law enforcement officials at a community meeting Tuesday night in the Mission district said they would continue to beef up patrols in an effort to combat the spike in gun violence and homicides, but some residents criticized the approach as heavy-handed, ineffectual and wasteful. Since August 22, seven people have been fatally shot in the Mission, which much of the violence being gang-related, according to police. In response, about 150 residents packed a meeting in the Mission Recreation Center Tuesday night, many in support of a stronger police presence. Mission Police Station Capt. Stephen Tacchini Police told the group that police have responded...

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Jay Winkenbach: A plea for blood donors

The 3 minute interview: Jay Winkenbach The chief executive officer of American Red Cross Northern California Blood Services makes an appeal for donors. At what level are current blood supplies? Right now, we have just a one-day supply of all blood types. Typically, we look to have a three- to five-day supply. Why are supplies low? Summer is just a difficult time for all blood centers. During the summer months, people are on vacation, everyone has busy lifestyles and we have an absence of high school and college blood drives. How can people donate? We have blood centers throughout the Bay Area. Call (800) GIVE LIFE or go to www.beadonor.com. How long does it take? The process takes...

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Mission shooting victim dies

A man who was shot in the head while sitting in a car at the corner of 18th and Bryant streets Thursday evening was pronounced dead Friday and was identified Monday by the San Francisco Medical Examiner as 28-year old San Francisco resident Giovanni Lechado. A woman in the car, described by friends as the man's wife, was also shot and sustained life-threatening injuries, according to police. A four-month-old infant that was in the car at the time of the attack was not injured. Lechado’s death took the number of confirmed homicides in The City this year to 73 — with seven of the homicides occurring in the Mission within the last 18 days. Less than four hours after the...

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Shipping company wants to plead no contest for oil spill

The shipping company that operated the Cosco Busan when the container ship slammed into the Bay Bridge told a judge it doesn’t want to contest federal criminal charges that it negligently caused an oil spill and then misled investigators. Fleet Management is facing more than $3 million in fines if convicted on the federal misdemeanor and felony charges and it is also being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice about the Nov. 7 oil spill in the Bay. “The purpose of the plea is to fairly resolve the criminal case,” Fleet Management attorney Marc Greenberg wrote in court documents filed this week. “Disallowing it will unquestionably impact Fleet’s ability to...

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Firefighters douse blaze on second try

A small fire in the crawl space of a Haight Street bar believed to be under control later erupted in the walls and the attic, needing 45 firefighters to extinguish it. At 2:30 p.m. Friday, four hours after the fire at Martin Macks Bar & Restaurant was reported and 3.5 hours after the single-alarm blaze was initially thought to have been controlled, firefighters were keeping a “fire watch” at the building, San Francisco Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said. One fire engine and one truck were initially sent to the fire at Haight and Clayton streets and officials cut through the floor using saws to reach the flames, Talmadge said. After the blaze flared up...

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Police chief orders reinforcements for violence-plagued Mission

Violence has exploded in the Mission district this week and a surge in police numbers in the neighborhood has failed to quell gang-related killings. Six people have died from gunshot wounds in the area in two weeks. San Francisco police Chief Heather Fong said Friday that the department would use overtime funds to put additional police in the area. During a press conference to announce the extra resources, Fong read from a prepared statement and refused to answer questions about the violence or about police investigations. The department will raise the number of foot patrol officers, squad cars and specialized units in the neighborhood, Fong said. The department is also working with...

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Fate of police horse in fatal incident in doubt

The police horse that bolted outside Candlestick Park before a 49ers exhibition game on Saturday, killing a 78-year old fan, has been removed from official duties until an equine expert can assessed whether it's fit to return to the force. The horse, named Seattle, was apparently startled after being blinded by a plastic bag that had been whipped up by the wind and caught in its bridle. As the horse tried to shake the bag loose, it fell backwards and lost its veteran rider before taking off across a charter bus parking lot off on Ingerson Avenue. It first knocked into a 47-year-old Millbrae man and then slammed into 78-year-old Roseville resident Eugene Caldwell, whose head hit the...

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Chicken parts cause traffic woes

A blanket of chicken parts strewn across Interstate 80 from a big rig crash caused traffic delays for inbound San Francisco drivers for about 90 minutes Thursday afternoon. A westbound truck crashed into sand barrels at the Ninth Street exit and spilled its load of chicken heads, chicken feet and other unsavory poultry bits a little before 2 p.m., according to California Highway Patrol spokesman Shawn Chase. Three westbound lanes and one off-ramp lane were closed for more than an hour, which caused major traffic problems, according to Chase. "All the chicken fat and chicken gizzards made the road really slippery,' Chase said. The truck driver "tried to hit the ramp and hit...

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New life for Lake Merced

Once upon a time, The City’s largest body of fresh water was a haven for boaters, anglers and city dwellers seeking myriad forms of recreation — until droughts and development drained the water, drove off revelers and killed the fish. Can a new wave of activists, officials and stakeholders turn the lake into a destination again? When considering water recreation and viewing options, most San Franciscans think of The City’s beaches and the Bay. Less attention is paid to its freshwater lake. Located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco, Lake Merced was once a boating, fishing and picnicking hot spot, but those pastimes virtually disappeared when droughts more than...

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Cosco Busan crew lied to investigators

New details of misleading statements made by Cosco Busan crewmembers to investigators in the wake of the container ship’s November crash into the Bay Bridge and subsequent oil spill were made public Wednesday. One senior crewmember forged documents given to officials investigating the spill; another senior officer was chomping down breakfast when the ship crashed into the bridge but initially hid that fact from investigators, the filings show. The U.S. Department of Justice in July charged shipping company Fleet Management with making misleading statements to investigators. The company faces over $3 million in fines if convicted. One officer, Shun Biao Zhao, failed to draft a...

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Police bracing for violence in wake of Hells Angel shooting

In response to the murder of the president of the San Francisco chapter of the Hells Angels by a motor-cycle riding gunman Tuesday night, police told residents of the Mission District neighborhood where the shooting took place that they were braced for follow-up violence. Mark Guardado Sr., the 45-year old president of the San Francisco branch of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, was slain by a motorcyclist using a handgun at the corner of Treat and 24th streets at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to Mission Police Station Capt. Stephen Tacchini. Tachini said police were "making good headway" into the case. "A couple gentlemen were talking, a third party came up on a...

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Motorcyclist shoots man in Mission

A motorcyclist shot a man in the Mission district a little before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, police said. The male shooting victim was found in the middle of the street near the corner of Treat and 24th streets, according to...

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Naked activist placed under citizen's arrest

Relentless nudist activist George Davis, who made an unsuccessful run for mayor last year, was placed under citizen's arrest Tuesday afternoon after hours spent naked in front of the Central Police Station, police said. Davis in a written statement emailed Monday said he planned to pass out "educational materials on the rights of nudists" on Tuesday while "au naturale" at the police station in the North Beach neighborhood. The San Francisco man planned the naked statement after he spent 20 minutes handcuffed in a police car on Sunday for practicing naked yoga in a park, he said. "Practicing naked yoga is a completely legal activity," Davis wrote. "The...

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New partners sink funds into Treasure Island housing projects

Despite the economic woes engulfing builders and developers nationwide, new investors agreed over the weekend to invest millions into San Francisco redevelopment projects at Treasure Island and Bayview Hunters Point. Dallas-based developers Hillwood Development and California-based investment firm Scala Real Estate Partners will work in partnership with Lennar Corp, the lead developer on the projects, according to a press statement released by Lennar Tuesday. Sam Singer, a San Francisco-based spokesman for Lennar, confirmed that as part of the deal, $145 million was paid to LNR Property Corp., to replace a 50 percent stake that organization had in the deal, as well as half of Lennar's...

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Police praised for handgun arrests

Two loaded handguns were taken off The City's streets in two separate downtown incidents this past weekend, according to police. At 6:40 p.m. Sunday, officers approached a "suspicious male subject holding a shaving kit" at the corner of Market and 6th streets and chased him when he sprinted away, according to a police department statement. The 28-year old man, Eric Phillips of San Francisco, was chased down and arrested on various firearm- and drug-related charges after he allegedly tossed a loaded handgun and the narcotics-filled shaving kit as he fled, according to the statement. At 11:30 p.m. Monday, officers in a marked patrol car hit their sirens and ordered a cyclist on...

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Body pulled from Sutro shoreline

A woman’s body was discovered Monday afternoon at the ruins of the Sutro Baths near Sutro Heights Park in the Richmond district. The U.S. Coast Guard was called at 5:15 p.m. when a person was spotted on top of rocks, but agency officials turned their 47-foot boat away when they couldn’t get close to the woman, who turned out to be dead, according to Petty Officer Lara Mooney. San Francisco firefighters recovered the body, officials said. The woman’s identity is expected to be released today by the San Francisco medical examiner.

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Stadium delays could put S.F. back in 49ers’ playbook

Doubt lingers about whether the city of Santa Clara will be able to build a 68,500-seat football stadium to take the 49ers away from San Francisco by the team’s stated 2012 deadline, but the team officials don’t seem to be too concerned by the delays. The environmental review process, which is required by state law before construction of the $916 million stadium project can begin, is scheduled to be launched by Santa Clara officials Tuesday. The process usually takes 12 to 18 months, Santa Clara Planning Director Kevin Riley said. One opponent to the project, Byron Fleck, a former planning commissioner, said he plans to remind council members of the safety concerns related...

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Detained Cosco Busan crew member to leave U.S.

Although six Chinese crew members from the container ship that struck the Bay Bridge in November have been detained in the U.S. for the past 9½ months, one worker will be allowed to travel to China to visit his ailing grandmother, a judge ruled Thursday. Zong Bin Li was a seaman aboard the 900-foot Cosco Busan on Nov. 7 when it spilled more than 50,000 gallons of toxic shipping fuel into the Bay, killing thousands of birds. Along with five other crew members, he has been prevented from leaving Northern California since November, since he is a witness for legal proceedings involving Petaluma Capt. John Cota, who was piloting the Cosco Busan that day, and shipping company Fleet...

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Muni changes procedures after cable car crash

A Muni conductor erred and failed to stop the cable car he was guiding to a stop-point at the downtown end of the California line in time to avoid a collision with another cable car on Friday morning, an investigation by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency found. Two operators were sent to hospital and released later in the day following the 8:16 a.m. collision at the corner of California and Drumm streets, according to SFMTA spokeswoman Kristen Holland. The accident disrupted service on the California line for almost five hours, according to Holland. Cable cars are operated by two people — a conductor who collects fares and is responsible for safety and a gripman...

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3-Minute Interview: Staffan Terje

The owner and chef of the restaurant Perbacco is taking part in this weekend’s Slow Food Nation celebration in San Francisco. What is slow food? It’s the opposite of fast food — not only fast food as in eating, but fast-produced. It’s handcrafted food. It’s from food that’s grown with care and from animals that are raised with care. What’s wrong with fast food? It tears at the social fabric. Fast food makes it convenient so we can run out and do all these fun artificial things that companies have invented for us to do, rather than sit around the table and eat some good food, and drink some good wine and live life the way it should be. When did...

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Treasure Island fire extinguished, City traffic snarled

A one-alarm wildfire under the Bay Bridge that sent smoke billowing over Yerba Buena Island was extinguished around 5 p.m., but is still causing some traffic delays. Fire units at 6 p.m. still remained at the scene in case the fire reignited, according to Lara Mooney, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Coast Guard, which has a base on the island. One left lane of westbound traffic was still blocked as of 6:20 p.m., but all eastbound lanes out of San Francisco were open. The fire started at 1 p.m., according to Mooney. The traffic backup on the bridge contributed to citywide congestion misery as some drivers tried to get an early move on the Labor Day holiday weekend, creating extensive delays...

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Power restored for Peninsula customers

All of the 7,376 Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. power customers on the Peninsula that lost power at 4 p.m. Thursday had their lights switched back on within 6 ½ hours, company officials said. Service was gradually restored for the customers in Belmont and the City of San Mateo, from 41st Avenue to Ralston Avenue and from San Juan Boulevard to U.S. Highway 101, throughout the afternoon and evening. Full service was restored by 10:30 p.m. The outage was caused by a fire at the top of a utility pole, according to company spokesman Joe Molica. Two separate circuits were affected, he said. Fires were prevalent in the Bay Area on Thursday. The biggest fire burned on Yerba Buena...

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Recreation center shooting triggers fear

Safety concerns at a South of Market recreation center will be discussed Friday by an anti-gang group in the wake of the shooting of one of its youth workers last week, a 20-year-old man. At 11:30 a.m. Aug. 20, a man and a woman walked into the Gene Friend Recreation Center and got into a “confrontation” with the man before they shot him, said San Francisco Police Department spokesman Sgt. Wilfred Williams, who did not identify the victim. The victim was also robbed by the shooters and was taken to San Francisco General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The suspects fled in an SUV and were taken into custody later, said Capt. Daniel McDonagh of Southern Police...

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3-Minute Interview: David Talbot

The author of “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years,” Salon.com founder and San Francisco journalist will speak at Grace Cathedral on Sept. 14. How were you affected by the Kennedy years? My own two teenage sons, who are roughly the same age as I was when Bobby Kennedy ran for president in 1968, are very excited about Barack Obama’s candidacy. I was equally excited by Bobby Kennedy’s candidacy. I thought he was America’s last, best hope. What did the research for your book reveal? I think it definitely showed that Bobby Kennedy was the country’s first conspiracy theorist when it comes to the [JFK] assassination. He believed it involved...

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Cyclist injured on freeway ramp

A cyclist was taken by ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital Wednesday night after crashing into equipment on a closed San Bruno freeway on-ramp. California Highway Patrol officers searched for more than an hour for the cyclist after a caller reported that the cyclist had gashed open their head when they collided with equipment around 9 p.m. on the closed Sleath Lane on-ramp to Interstate-280, according to CHP dispatch Officer Tom Stewart. The cyclist eluded the officers by fleeing into bushes that lined a nearby golf driving range, according to...

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3-Minute Interview: Edward Domain

The former Army reservist recently left The City for Chicago to work full-time on TroopSpace — a Web site he founded at nights after clocking off as a six-figure San Francisco-based Internet advertising executive. What is TroopSpace? It helps members of our military connect with their families and friends, and it’s designed to raise money for different military causes such as the Wounded Warrior Foundation. Why did you found it? To provide services to people in the military that I wish would have been around when I was in the Army. When I was in Egypt doing joint military operations, we were living in a tent city and the only way of us communicating with home were phone...

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Killer of royalty heads back to jail

A young Bay Area woman whose speeding Mustang caused a 2006 wreck that killed three people — including a Tongan prince and princess — is expected to be ordered back to jail today after savoring freedom for a year. The Bayshore Freeway crash caused a Ford Explorer carrying the royalty members to flip over. The accident killed 55-yearold Prince Tu’ipelehake and 46-year-old Princess Kaimana Aleamotu’a Tuku’aho, as well as their driver, 36-year-old East Palo Alto woman Vinisia Hefa. Edith Delgado, now 20, was sentenced to two years in jail last year by a San Mateo County judge after she was found guilty of three misdemeanor counts of vehicular manslaughter for...

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Kaiser calls new mothers to warn about TB threat

Nearly 1,000 babies under six months old and their mothers could have contracted tuberculosis from a night-shift health-care worker at Kaiser Permanente's San Francisco Medical Center. Tuesday morning, Kaiser staff began calling the approximately 960 new mothers who gave birth at the center's maternal child health unit between March 10 and August 10 to offer free tuberculosis tests, according to company spokeswoman Gerry Ginsburg. "They will be contacted by their personal physician and they will be able to receive care where it's most convenient for them," Ginsburg said. Employees, hospital visitors and other patients who had "significant contact" with the infected...

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Fishermen rescue capsized boaters

Passing fishermen rescued four boaters who were tossed into the Bay late Monday morning when their motorboat capsized. The Coast Guard praised the work of the three fishermen, which officials described as good Samaritans. The fisherman, aboard a 25-foot boat called "Relentless," radioed the Coast Guard when they saw the 12- to 14-foot pleasure-craft flip over, and they hauled the two men and two life vest-clad children aboard, according to Petty Officer Amanda Knutsen. An 8-year old boy and his 11-year old brother were shivering when Knutsen and her colleagues collected them from the fishing boat but the group, which included the childrens' father and their father's friend,...

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Highway 101 Bandit pleads guilty

A man in his sixties pleaded guilty Monday to an unarmed six-month bank-robbing spree across California and into Utah that netted more than $46,000. Arthur Eli Cheney, 65, was dubbed the "Highway 101 Bandit" by federal investigators due to the number of heists he pulled off at federally insured banks along the Highway 101 corridor. He pled guilty in San Francisco Federal Court under a plea agreement, according to U.S. Department of Justice spokesman Josh Eaton. The Napa man's bank-robbing spree began June 18 in Fairfield and it ended on Dec. 12 after he was arrested following a robbery in Fairfield, the city where his spree had begun six months earlier. Cheney was arrested...

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Woman loses control of car, hits building

A motorist at the top of a steep hill lost control of her sedan and ricocheted off parked pickup trucks on opposite sides of Broadway Street this afternoon before slamming through the entrance of an apartment building. The woman, who police say was in her mid to late 40s, had reversed out of a parking space and straightened out to drive down a steep, dead-end section of the street around 3:20 p.m. when she lost power and the ability to brake, according to Sgt. Carl Tennenbaum of Central Police Station. The woman told police she was able to direct her silver Toyota Avalon into the apartment building at the southeast corner of Broadway and Taylor streets, according to Tennenbaum....

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Bay Bridge crash causes traffic delays

A 3-vehicle pile-up on Interstate-880 in Oakland at 9:15 p.m. Thursday was blocking motorists trying to drive across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. “It’s causing a mess,” California Highway Patrol Officer Ralph Kaggiano said. “It looks like a minor injury.” The accident occurred around 9:10 p.m. before the toll plaza, according to Kaggiano. “They have that transition blocked right now all traffic is stopped,” he said. jupton@sfexaminer.com...

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Missing Chinese senior might be in The City

A non-English-speaking 83-year-old grandmother who suffers from Alzheimer’s hasn’t returned to her Oakland home since she caught a bus to stroll around Oakland’s Chinatown on Sunday morning. The family of Yue Mai, a small woman who walks with a cane and a hunch and is missing her front teeth, has asked for the public's help in finding the missing senior. Mai is also a frequent visitor to San Francisco’s Chinatown. “There were times when she was late coming home, but definitely not days late,” grandson Rob Chan said. “She likes to shop and eat in the general area between Stockton and Kearny,” said Chan, adding that Mai left home with $20...

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Agency junks big trash contractor

Recycling and composting will become easier — and slightly more expensive — for scores of San Mateo County residents in coming years under a trash-hauling contract announced Wednesday. The South Bayside Waste Management Authority expects to dump the company that collects waste for its 100,000 customers, including 90,000 households, and hire a company with more advanced recycling services, according to executive director Kevin McCarthy. “It’s really a dramatic expansion of services,” McCarthy said. “Today, our local residents have a very outdated collection system. “For example, recycling collection is only every other week … andcustomers...

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This time, a warrant is issued in timely fashion

An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for a witness who allegedly saw a San Francisco man beat another man to death, after the witness failed to appear at a hearing Tuesday. A preliminary hearing scheduled on Tuesday for Richard Carelli and his girlfriend, Michele Pinkerton, both 38, was delayed because of the witness’s failure to appear in court. The witness was subpoenaed to testify in the case, according to District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Connie Chan. “The witness did not appear in court,” she said. “Therefore, we have issued an arrest warrant for the witness.” Assistant District Attorney David Merin told Judge Phillip Moscone that the...

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3-Minute Interview: Timothy Vogel

The volunteer docent for The Marine Mammal Center teaches visitors about the sea lions at Pier 39. The center is seeking new volunteers. What do you do as a docent? I set up a station with my telescope, a couple pairs of binoculars and some specimens, like a skull, some whiskers and some examples of their fur. Do many people come to you for advice? The telescope has a tendency to bring people in because they want to look at the animals closer. Before you know it, you’ve got a crowd of people standing around, listening and asking questions. What questions do they ask? What do they eat? How long do they live? Are they all family members? What are the answers to those questions? They...

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Ship operators: Pilot’s drug use caused spill

The company that operated the container ship that spilled more than 50,000 gallons of oil into the Bay in November will argue in court that the local pilot’s use of prescription drugs is to blame, an attorney for the shipping company said today. The environmental disaster began on the morning of Nov. 7 when the Cosco Busan struck a Bay Bridge support tower while moving through heavy fog. Recordings made by on-board equipment reveal that Petaluma pilot Capt. John Cota and the Chinese crew of the 900-foot container ship struggled to use navigation devices. Marine mammals and thousands of birds were killed by the spilled oil, which still sullies area shorelines. Cota is facing...

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S.F. golf courses in the hole, losing money, players

San Francisco’s money-losing 18-hole golf courses are significantly underutilized, with the courses lying unused about half of the time, according to a report released Thursday. The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, which operates the six golf courses as well as three nine-hole courses, has come under pressure from the Board of Supervisors to improve the condition of the six public courses. In 2007, the department needed a $1.4 million subsidy from The City’s operating budget to keep the courses afloat. Additionally, the Neighborhood Parks Council has criticized the use of the courses. Members have said the courses take up 485 acres of valuable real estate that...

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Drink shops in scandal get OK

The owners of a tapioca-drink shop, who were allegedly threatened by former supervisor Ed Jew with city-permit problems unless a bribe was provided, finally secured an operating permit on Thursday. Jew, the former District 4 supervisor, is under federal investigation for his alleged acceptance of as much as $20,000 from owners of the Quickly tapioca-drink store in the district. Under The City’s voter-approved chain store legislation, the owners of the small restaurant at Irving Street and 22nd Avenue in Jew’s former Sunset district were required to obtain a permit in 2006 when they converted their ice cream store into the Quickly shop. The Planning Department in July 2006...

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Green good for tourism

San Francisco is using environmental values as a key marketing theme for its $8 billion a year tourism industry. Groundbreaking environmental laws in The City, such as bans on plastic bags and Styrofoam takeout packaging, have drawn national attention and boosted San Francisco’s image as a destination that can reduce the environmental effects of vacations and conventions, said Dan Goldes of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s a focus right now, primarily in our cross-promotional efforts and in the public relations efforts,” Goldes said. “It doesn’t have an ad budget tied to it at the moment but it could in the...

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San Francisco's housing boom

As many as 60,000 new housing units could be built within San Francisco in the next 15 to 20 years — development that will have deep-rooted implications for The City’s appearance, culture and politics. The residential building boom will spread across San Francisco’s east side — from Treasure Island to Candlestick Point — increasing the number of housing units in The City by more than 16 percent, according to figures in redevelopment plans and rezoning documents. Assuming the number of residents per home remains unchanged at approximately 2.1, the housing growth would lift the number of people living in San Francisco from 765,000 to 890,000. Roughly...

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3-Minute Interview: Gary Gates

The demographer and senior research fellow at the Williams Institute, a think-tank at UCLA School of Law that focuses on sexual orientation, talks about the recent news that the U.S. Census will list same-sex marriages in California and Massachusetts — where they are legal — as “unmarried partners.” How will the U.S. Census count same-sex married couples in 2010? They’re doing the same thing in 2010 as they did in 2000. Where one person is indicated as the spouse of another person and they're the same sex, they will change that to an unmarried couple. Is this policy a problem? In Census 2000, when the bureau changed a same-sex spouse to an unmarried partner...

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Bay waters could soothe wintertime chills

The near-constant temperatures in San Francisco Bay and in its soil would be used to heat and cool new homes in planned mega-developments under separate energy-saving strategies being assessed. Pipes are expected to channel liquid between planned high-rise residential buildings near the proposed Ferry Quay at Treasure Island and the Bay, which averages from 55 degrees to 65 degrees, Wilson......

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Shipowners charged with lying

The operators of the Cosco Busan, the container ship that struck a Bay Bridge support beam last year, have been indicted for allegedly failing to properly train the ship’s crew and falsifying documents to deceive the spill’s investigators.The 900-foot container ship’s fuel tanks tore open when it struck the Bay Bridge on Nov. 7. Area shorelines remain contaminated from the spill of more than 50,000 gallons of toxic bunker fuel, which killed thousands of birds.Following a grand jury investigation, U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello charged Hong Kong-based Fleet Management Inc. with......

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Struggle between preservation and development continues on San Bruno Mountain

Development on San Bruno Mountain could help, as well as hurt, environmental goals for the 1,300-foot peak.Buildings remain rare on the rugged 3,400-acre open-space oasis flanked by the densely urbanized cities of San Francisco, Daly City and South San Francisco. Much of the mountain falls under the jurisdiction of Continued...

 

SFPUC plan for green building held up by cost

Lofty city plans to construct an ultra-green windmill-studded, solar-panel-embedded, water-recycling office building near City Hall have been thwarted by growing costs.Work on the 12-story San Francisco Public Utilities building was slated to begin this year but SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington announced Tuesday the project will be placed "on hold" because of rising costs.Moving forward with the project while the SFPUC is spending billions of dollars on seismic improvements might have been unpopular with the agency’s water and electricity customers, who would have borne the construction costs, Harrington said.The price......

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City prepares for life without utilities board

City staffers may temporarily make decisions about energy, water and wastewater projects — without the oversight of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — starting next month.The five-person commission is set to be dissolved Aug. 1 as a result of a ballot measure voters narrowly approved in June that calls for members of the oversight group to hold specific qualifications.The Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee, however, which vets commission nominations, is next scheduled to meet Aug. 7, according to acting committee clerk Gail Johnson. It’s "conceivable" the committee could meet......

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3-Minute Interview: Van Jones

The Green For All founder will join incoming California state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg on Thursday evening for a discussion about green-collar jobs at the Commonwealth Club.What is a green-collar job? A traditional blue-collar vocational job that's been upgraded to better respect the environment — it could be anything from installing solar panels to working in organic agriculture to manufacturing wind turbines.What is Green For All? It's a national organization that......

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Power plant casts shadow over pier’s revival

A plan for the dilapidated Pier 70 shipyard south of Mission Bay seems simple: Clean up the contaminated 65-acre site; rebuild dozens of historic buildings; continue a growing ship repair operation relied upon by The City’s growing cruise ship industry; create 20 acres of open space including two shoreline parks; and construct more than 3 million square feet of commercial building space.However, recent political flip-flopping about the closure of the neighboring Mirant Corp.-owned power plant threatens the billion-dollar redevelopment that is expected to revive a waterfront that once was home......

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Cosco Busan's impact still not entirely clear

Nine months after an oil slick spread across the Bay from the Cosco Busan, the ship’s tarnished name has been scrubbed off its hull, but exhaustive cleanup efforts have failed to remove all of the spilled toxic fuel from area shorelines.Evidence of the oily mess surfaced as recently as last month, with tar balls showing up on beaches north of Marin and in Alameda.The November spill, the worst the Bay has seen in......

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3-Minute Interview: Vanessa Robledo

The 31-year old founder of The Vineyard Worker’s Daughter will accept the Latina Style Magazine Business Series’ Latina Entrepreneur of the Year award Thursday.What does your business do? I have a wine marketing company, so I consult for small boutique wineries that are interested in growing their brand and getting brand recognition in the marketplace. I also consult for food and wine festivals internationally.When did you start your business? I started my business a year ago.When did you become involved in the wine industry? When I was eight years old.......

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Pollution sparks wintertime ban

Snuggling by a fireplace or fire pit will be banned on winter nights under a new rule approved Wednesday.The 1.2 million Bay Area wood-burning devices, which include fireplaces and wood-burning stoves, create one-third of wintertime particulate air pollution, according to a report by Jack Broadbent, executive officer of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Banning wood-burning on Spare the Air nights could prevent more than 700 tons of soot from being released into the air, according to the report.The disrtict......

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Dead sea lion had bullet-like holes

A rugged stretch of coast near John Daly Boulevard in Daly City became a marine mammal mortuary Tuesday, littered with a harbor porpoise corpse and what appeared to be the bullet-riddled body of a sea lion.The Marine Mammal Center collected the 150-pound porpoise less than one mile south of the beach ladder at Fort Funston for analysis, center spokesman Continued...

 

SFPUC suggests rebuilding old power plant

The agency that oversees electricity in San Francisco withdrew its support Tuesday for a plan to build city-owned fossil fuel-burning power plants. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously in favor of an alternative plan to protect The City against blackouts by partly closing and partly refurbishing a privately owned fossil fuel-burning plant at Potrero Hill. An environmental analysis......

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Project to slow cars is rolling into action

Motorists accustomed to putting the pedal to the metal on Cesar Chavez Street will be forced to start tapping their brakes under plans to rebuild the six-lane arterial to make room for pedestrians, cyclists, neighbors and trees.A handful of city departments have begun design efforts for an ambitious project expected to create a less car-dominant east-west corridor between Guerrero Street and U.S. Highway 101 by mid-2010. The project will follow design guidelines outlined in the draft Better Streets Plan launched by......

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Visitacion Valley residents could see influx of neighbors

The 390 residents who share a irregularly shaped 46-acre block of land in Visitacion Valley with empty storefronts and an abandoned factory can expect some new neighbors by 2025 — nearly 6,000 of them, along with new stores and office space.The San Francisco Planning Department recently released an environmental impact report reviewing redevelopment plans for the land that surrounds the former Schlage Lock factory between Bayshore Boulevard and Tunnel Avenue.The lock company deserted the factory in 1999, devastating the surrounding economy, putting thousands of employees out of work and leading......

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Panel advises replacing St. Luke’s

Before St. Luke’s Hospital in the Mission district is torn down, it must be replaced with a new community hospital offering acute care, geriatric care and a raft of other services, a 32-member panel has determined.California Pacific Medical Center officials have said the hospital is losing money and have offered no assurances they will heed the panel’s advice. Supervisor Michela......

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Rain forest creation close to the real deal

A rain forest is taking root in Golden Gate Park.In an ambitious effort to re-create tropical rainforests from three continents, the California Academy of Sciences is piecing together a newly flourishing four-story rain forest exhibit inside its new building, home to the Steinhart Aquarium, Kimball Natural History Museum......

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3-Minute Interview: Yiftach Mizrahi

The Israeli dancer stars in "Antarctica," his first feature film, which screens at the Victoria Theater tonight as part of the Frameline San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.What’s "Antarctica" about? Love, I guess. It’s a romantic comedy drama with lots of little interruptions from other genres, and it has a wacky side to it. It’s an ensemble movie, which means there are a lot of main characters, of which I’m one,......

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Power plant parts burning city money

As a City Hall debate on whether to build a new fuel-burning power plant in Potrero Hill has dragged on, San Francisco has spent more than $2.4 million storing and maintaining equipment for a plant that may not get built.In January 2003, San Francisco took possession of four natural gas-fueled power plant turbines in lieu of receiving $13.3 million as a result of a state-led energy-crisis settlement.Although The City planned to begin......

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Fourth Street’s future lined with tall stories

A wall of high-rise office towers will stretch southeast from San Francisco’s downtown along Fourth Street to the emerging Mission Bay business and biotechnology research hub under a new long-term plan by city officials.The Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development recently directed the Planning Department to scale back modest rezoning proposals for the low-rise Fourth Street corridor between Continued...

 

Capsized boat buoys in Bay

A 40-foot fishing boat had nearly reached land early Thursday afternoon following an open-water crabbing expedition when it slammed onto its left side in calm water, throwing pots filled with 90 crabs to the Bay floor, according to boat operator and owner Terry Groat. The four fishermen scrambled onto the side of the boat "Reward" and were quickly spotted and picked up by the crew of a nearby U.S. Coast Guard ship before their trawler rolled upside-down, according to Groat.......

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New College collapse has theater reeling

An alternative-film theater was left crippled with debts and a radical bookstore lost a slab of its business in the Mission neighborhood following New College of San Francisco’s recent collapse.The 36-year-old progressive university was shuttered after the Western Association of Schools and Colleges yanked its accreditation in February after a yearlong investigation into claims of financial and operational mismanagement. Some employees continue to fight to......

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Gary Danko alters palette for a casual palate

One of San Francisco’s most famous chefs will open a casual dining restaurant in Ghirardelli Square — a traditional tourists’ stronghold recently overhauled as a social hub for locals and other well-heeledCalifornians.A Gary Danko restaurant is emerging amid the rich chocolate scents that waft on Bay breezes through the wood and brick factory-turned-timeshare building and upscale retail center near Aquatic Park.The restaurateur owns a fine dining restaurant just hundreds of yards from......

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Styrofoam ban makes impact

The amount of Styrofoam that litters San Francisco has fallen by one-third from last year, according to city officials who credit the decrease to a successful ban of the damaging plastic in take-out packaging.In November 2006,The City barred restaurants from serving food or drinks out of the uncompostable and unrecyclable plastic. In audits of 2,200 of The City’s 4,500 restaurants since the ban began — with fast-food outlets among the first to be......

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City’s strategy fueling biotech boom

Companies that reinvent and retool the building blocks of life — including proteins, DNA and human tissue — are driving a bricks-and-mortar construction boom in Mission Bay."When we started four years ago, we had one biotech company," Mayor Gavin Newsom proudly announced at a press conference earlier this month about The City’s fiscalsituation. "Now there are 44."The convergence of 12 venture capitalists in San Francisco with biotech portfolios, including five in Mission Bay, has helped the sector grow, according to Jennifer Matz, deputy director in the Mayor’s Office of Economic......

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Bawdy event leaves Cow Palace after seven-year run

The beleaguered Cow Palace is about to be deserted by another annual event — the Exotic Erotic Ball, which plans to take its party to Treasure Island.The move is the latest blow to the venue. Earlier this year, Sen. Leland Yee announced legislation that would have allowed Daly City to purchase the Cow Palace and tear it down for development purposes.......

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Local transit agencies receive state transportation funds

Bay Area commuters, forced by spiking gas prices onto buses and trains in the coming years, will be treated to subtle pleasures such as floodlit train stations and new vehicles following the latest injection of bond funds divvied up by the state.Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced $136 million in statewide transit funding Tuesday, including more than $60 million for the Bay Area.The lion’s share of local funding will go to BART, with its $36 million infusion earmarked to create more comfortable and accessible train stations, according to spokesman Linton Johnson."It could......

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Plans paint new picture for art museum

Alternatives to a controversial proposal to build a modern-art museum in the historic heart of the Presidio’s Parade Ground would instead see an extensive private art collection by Gap founders Don and Doris Fisher housed near Crissy Field or in the national park’s western stretches.The Presidio is a former military base that was designated a national park in 1994. As a condition of its preservation, the federal government requires that the 1,168-acre park become financially self-sufficient by 2013. Fisher has proposed......

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Urban forest has potential to branch out

The hundreds of thousands of trees that grow in parks, yards, wild areas and through the concrete sheath that lines San Francisco’s streets may soon receive a boost of cash and care to help their canopies flourish. More than 660,000 trees covering 12 percent of The City make up its so-called "urban forest," according to a study published last year by the U.S. Forest Service. The City is on track to......

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Home is where the houses are

San Francisco must provide nearly 15 percent of the 215,000 new homes needed in the Bay Area in the coming six years, while San Mateo County must provide 7 percent, officials have determined.The Association of Bay Area Governments released new county-by-county housing figures Thursday, including the number of new homes built between 1999 and 2006 and the number of......

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Plans could bring life to Alcatraz

Time-weathered, long-abandoned buildings on Alcatraz Island would be refurbished and reborn as souvenir stands, hotels and special-event space in an effort to increase tourism to the popular island, in the latest plan to reshape the iconic landmark. The rocky outcrop has provided fodder for fanciful proposals since its infamous penitentiary was shuttered in 1963. Over the years, failed plans included a casino, a new prison, a bird sanctuary and a global peace center. The latest proposal is being championed by the federal......

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Proposition E: Utility prop in stalemate

Proposition E was a close contest, with the votes in favor at 52.75 percent with 515 out of 580 precincts reporting. If it passes, the body that oversees The City’s water, sewer and municipal power will be dumped from office this August. The mayor will continue to be charged with appointing new commissioners, but the Board of Supervisors will be able to reject a choice with six votes, instead of the current eight. Proposition E also stipulates that commissioners hold specific qualifications.......

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Report recommends radical street changes

A new vision for San Francisco’s streets proposes sweeping pedestrian-friendly changes at the expense of cars and motorists.The 249-page draft Better Streets Plan, released by the San Francisco Planning Department on Tuesday, includes a raft of recommendations to help meet street design policies adopted in early 2006 by the Board of Supervisors.Under the draft plan, crosswalks would become more prolific; parking lanes would be replaced with benches and gardens; traffic......

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Ground cleared for development

The massive redevelopment of more than 770 acres of abandoned land at Candlestick Point and the Hunters Point Shipyard will provide housing, open space, retail and a possible 49ers stadium after voters gave the ballot box nod to the plan by approving Proposition G.More significantly, however, voters rejected Proposition F, which would have required50 percent of the homes being built to be sold below market rate — a move the developer, Lennar Corp., said would kill the project.Proposition F was added to the ballot through a petition drive coordinated by......

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Plant retrofits could spark new life

San Francisco does not need to build planned new power plants, state regulators told Mayor Gavin Newsom on Monday.An aging and polluting power plant at Potrero Hill has long been targeted for closure by city officials who planned to replace it by building a cleaner, natural-gas-burning plant.A vote on the plan to build a new plant at Potrero is scheduled for today at......

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Booming SoMa area ‘lives ... in the alleys’

Tree-lined alleys tucked inconspicuously between thundering downtown thoroughfares have contributed to the rapid growth of the Western South of Market neighborhood.The number of housing units in the neighborhood grew 77 percent to 17,265 between 1990 and 2005 while the rest of the City averaged 8 percent growth, according to the first of five reports by a task force charged with studying the area, known as West SoMa.The disjointed neighborhood is roughly bordered by Mission and Bryant streets and Seventh and Thirteenth streets; and by Harrison and Continued...

 

Water cutbacks suggested

Water users in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties need to cut back on their water use, officials with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission said this week.The agency said the cutbacks are not mandatory.Earlier this month, the Continued...

 

Chain-store legislation takes bite out of Subway

A proposed Subway sandwich shop is being recommended for approval in San Francisco’s Marina district, although city planning officials rejected a plan to put a Subway in the Mission district earlier this month and are expected today to block another one of the sandwich franchises from the Tenderloin.On May 15, The City’s Planning Commission narrowly voted down the Subway proposed for Mission Street between 17th and 18th streets on the recommendation of department staff, who concluded that the chain store was "neither necessary nor desirable."The decision followed rules laid out......

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Plan would smooth water for cruise terminal

Office buildings on San Francisco’s southeast waterfront could help bankroll a cruise terminal north of the Ferry Building under a new financing strategy due to be considered today by the Port Commission.Elements of the project not involved with cruise ships would be shifted to a 13-acre site owned by the Port of San Francisco at Piers 30-32 at The Embarcadero and Bryant Street, currently used as a parking lot, under......

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3-Minute Interview: Ben Rosenfield

The 34-year-old city controller, who started the job in April after working for The City for 10 years, will discuss The City’s budget at a forum today at the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association.What does your new job involve? The City Controller’s Office is really the chief financial office in The City. We handle The City’s accounting rules and administration, and we’re charged with auditing city departments.Does that make you unpopular with other departments? I would hope city departments see our office as a vehicle to help them......

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Power plant plan is losing its steam

A power plant in The City’s southeast that has long been targeted for closure could remain open and be refurbished to reduce its air and water pollution.On Tuesday, a majority of the Board of Supervisors, for the second week in a row, agreed to postpone votes on a city plan to borrow $273 million to build less-polluting natural-gas-burning power plants intended to replace the older plant in Potrero Hill.Supervisor Sean Elsbernd made......

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PG&E pushes plan without new power plants

The controversial plan to build new power plants in The City could be shelved, according to a proposal by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. that was obtained byThe Examiner.The original proposal was for The City to construct natural-gas-burning plants planned for San Francisco’s southeast area and at the airport. Those two plants would be used only when the state’s energy grid needs power to avoid blackouts.If those plants are......

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Bay to Breakers cleanup an obstacle this year

Dancing in the streets to electronic beats at the 97th annual ING Bay to Breakers was quelled Sunday afternoon when police were called in to clear a path for street sweepers and trash collectors.San Francisco resident Jesse Hooper was one of the thousands of disappointed people who jeered as a line of 10 motorcycle-riding police officers shouted orders and sounded sirens over the din of bass-heavy boom-boxes to help clear Fell Street."It’s a Sunday afternoon and the stereos are playing and everyone’s having a good time," Hooper said. "Is it......

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City approves solar-power projects

The City will more than triple the solar energy it produces from municipal buildings under a plan approved Tuesday by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Solar power plants are expected to be switched on next year at Pier 96 and at the Sunset Reservoir, said SFPUC spokesman Tony Winnicker. A private company will own the plants and sell the electricity to The City, which can purchase them after seven years.The 5 megawatts generated will be used to help power public services and buildings, including streetlights, San Francisco General Hospital,......

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Decision on Potrero power plant delayed

Mayor Gavin Newsom asked city legislators to delay a vote on a controversial plan to build a new power plant in Potrero Hill that will replace an older, more polluting plant, saying he needs another week to work on an alternative strategy.The Board of Supervisors was scheduled to vote today on a proposal to borrow $273 million to build natural-gas-burning power plants in The City’s southeast and at the airport, but Continued...

 

Dead whale stuck under pier

Published: May 09, 2008

A dead whale wedged beneath a pier was spotted by swimmers Thursday, but no government agency raced to remove the foul-smelling mammal.The lifeless whale was seen bobbing beneath Pier 27, on the north side of the San Francisco’s waterfront."Protecting marine life is an important mission — but with dead whales it’s case by case," U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Dan Dewell said. "[Continued...

 

Fine of $50,000 for illegal billboard a sign of stepped-up enforcement

Published: May 08, 2008

A private homeowner was fined $50,000 after he refused to remove an illegal billboard from his freeway-fronting house, as a result of a legal ruling that’s expected to boost The City’s quest to cleanse San Francisco of hundreds of advertising signs that are up without permits.Late last year, the San Francisco Planning Department began enforcement of a 2002 voter-approved ballot initiative that banned new outdoor advertising signs. Additionally, signs installed before......

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3-Minute Interview: Kofi Bonner

Published: May 07, 2008

The Lennar Corp. regional vice president will accept an award Thursday night from City of Hope’s local real estate and construction committee for his "significant role in revitalizing Bayview-Hunters Point" and other areas. What is Lennar’s plan for the Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point? It’s a 10,000-home development. We will have apartments, condos and townhomes. The only product that will not be there will be single-family detached homes. There’s also......

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Public housing in Hunters Point to have soaring views

Published: May 07, 2008

Six residential towers will stretch up to 65 feet above the highest peaks of Hunters Point providing enviable views of The City and Bay, under newly released redevelopment plans to rebuild the public-housing site for low-income as well as market-rate residents.Currently, 154 of the 267 decrepit public-housing units at the hilly site within The City’s southeast area are rented from the San Francisco Housing Authority, according to city documents. The rest sit empty.Plans to demolish, redesign and rebuild the......

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Pitch reaches for sky to help build terminal

Published: May 01, 2008

As an effort starts to raise revenue for a new downtown transit terminal that would eventually link nine public-transportation systems under one roof, city officials say the trade-off would be to approve up to seven new high-rise towers in the neighborhood that would exceed the area’s current 550-foot limit.Taxes on the new properties could pump as much as $420 million into the transit terminal project, designed to link a raft of bus and train routes by 2019, including a tunnel to the Continued...

 

Opposition growing against proposed Potrero power plant

Published: Apr 30, 2008

A controversial plan to build a new natural gas-burning power plant at Potrero Hill to replace a more polluting plant in the same area is slated to go before a Board of Supervisors subcommittee on Monday.New opposition to the energy plan has surfaced in recent months.On Monday, the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association and the Continued...

 

3-Minute Interview: Ed Harrington

Published: Apr 29, 2008

The new general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission started work April 1. The CPA, who had been San Francisco’s controller since 1991, will share his thoughts on the PUC’s future at a breakfast this morning hosted by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association. When did you start working for The City? In the March......

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Cost of home-improvement permits to soar

Published: Apr 29, 2008

San Francisco is set to increase permit fees for commercial building and for homeowners who remodel or rebuild their residences — a plan that city officials say will improve customer service at the Department of Building Inspection and close the agency’s projected $14.8 million deficit for next fiscal year.The increased fees, approved Monday by the Building Inspection Commission, are expected to take effect by October if the proposal is approved by......

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Sewer backwash poses hefty bill

Published: Apr 28, 2008

The City is facing the prospect of millions of dollars in payouts to dozens of residents and businesses after a judge ruled that it’s liable for property damage caused by diluted sewage that brimmed out of its sewer system in 2004.More than 1,000 miles of brick sewers, many built well over a century ago, carry flushed waste below city streets to treatment plants.The sewers also fill with storm-water during rainstorms, which can overwhelm the system and cause it to overflow.Superior Court......

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3-Minute Interview: Roberto Vargas

Published: Apr 26, 2008

The Nicaraguan-born poet, who will perform Friday evening at the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, was an organizer who helped establish The City’s four cultural centers, including the Bayview Opera House, in the 1960s and ’70s. Today at 1 p.m., The City’s Neighborhood Arts Program will host performances and unveil renovations at the Opera House as part of two weeks of 40th anniversary celebrations.When did you learn to organize? Around 1961, I started working with the Teamsters and eventually I......

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Blighted street seeing the light

Published: Apr 25, 2008

A French bakery and restaurant set to replace a pawn shop and liquor store near Market and Sixth streets will become the latest in a barrage of boutique businesses to move into the world-wearied neighborhood when it fires up its ovens this summer. The City’s Redevelopment Agency has seen 22 new businesses move onto Sixth Street between Harrison and Market streets since 2003, slashing the strip’s retail vacancy rate from 43 percent......

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Green legislation sprouts for future city buildings

Published: Apr 24, 2008

Future high-rise buildings in San Francisco would come with three disposal chutes: one for recyclables, one for compost and one for trash, according to sweeping green building laws headed to the Board of Supervisors for approval.San Francisco officials would be following in the wake of Los Angeles lawmakers who made history this week by becoming the nation’s largest city to adopt environmentally focused building codes.Both cities have based their laws on LEED,......

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Dark skies for solar-training plan

Published: Apr 23, 2008

The CEO of California’s busiest solar energy installation company said he is ready to abandon plans to open a worker-training academy in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood, due to a delay in a city proposal to offer solar rebates to residents and private companies.In March, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that $3 million from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission would be used to provide subsidies for rooftop solar panel installations: up to $5,000 to residents and $10,000 for private companies.Although the program was expected to begin this month, Supervisor Jake McGoldrick......

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S.F.’s shooting range headed for extinction?

Published: Apr 22, 2008

A local wildlife-care group has launched a bid to take over public land occupied by San Francisco’s only public shooting range, where it hopes to build a nature center and wildlife hospital.The San Francisco Rescued Orphan Mammal Program has seized on a long-running San Francisco Public Utilities Commission plan to overhaul public recreational uses of the land around Lake Merced that could see the Pacific Rod & Gun Club......

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Historic recording studios sing last song

Published: Apr 21, 2008

An array of history-steeped music recording studios in the Tenderloin used since 1969 by influential bands and artists such as Santana and The Grateful Dead will be cleared out to make way for condominiums.The historic two-story Film Exchange Building at the corner of Hyde and Eddy streets was built in 1930 as a storage and distribution center for film studios including 20th Century Fox and MGM, according to......

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Performing arts museum may raise curtain on new location

Published: Apr 19, 2008

A library-turned-museum that celebrates the history of the performing arts may open a new gallery inside the arts-packed 12-block Yerba Buena neighborhood.The San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum marked its 60th anniversary last year by changing its name to the Museum of Performance and Design."We’ve changed our focus from being a library that does exhibits to being a museum that has galleries with an extended library," Continued...

 

Corridor ready to sprout

Published: Apr 18, 2008

Nearly 100 seniors, many struggling with debilitating ailments such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, will be likely trailblazers among the thousands of people expected to move into new, taller buildings allowed around Market Street under pending zoning rules.New rules in the Market and Octavia Neighborhood Plan, which would allow higher-density and taller buildings on the 89 blocks southwest of City Hall around the former path of the demolished Central Freeway, were recently agreed upon by the Board of Supervisors.The plan is still waiting for a final vote by the board,......

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Wave of development could sweep through four eastern neighborhoods

Published: Apr 17, 2008

A building boom in San Francisco’s east side could start within a year, with white-collar jobs and thousands of new homes expected to replace dwindling industrial jobs in a sweeping 2,200-acre rezoning proposal ready to be debated by city leaders after nine years of planning efforts.The 1,373-page draft Eastern Neighborhood plan — which will guide the future development of areas including the Central Waterfront, Potrero Hill, the Mission and some part of......

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Cost for projects, hospital repairs balloons by $4 billion

Published: Apr 15, 2008

A list of proposed capital projects for The City now comes with a price tag of nearly $20 billion because of escalating construction prices and new projects being added.When the 10-year plan — the first citywide spending outline in decades — was first submitted to city leaders in the spring of 2006, it projected a total cost of $15.7 billion, according to a city press release. The new cost estimate of $19.7 billion reflects a 25 percent increase.Brian Strong, The City’s......

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Toss your plastics into recycling bins

Published: Apr 14, 2008

San Franciscans looking for something to save this Earth Day can add some unexpected entries to the usual lists of threatened places and endangered species: disposable forks, frappuccino cups and take-out containers.Norcal Waste Systems, The City’s waste pickup company, will start accepting virtually all types of plastic — except bags, film wrap, bubble-wrap and Styrofoam — for recycling in blue curbside bins on Earth Day, scheduled for April 22."This......

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Historical building may anchor ferry terminal

Published: Apr 12, 2008

A cavernous crescent-shaped building on Treasure Island, designed more than 70 years ago to serve as an airport terminal, will soon be the backdrop for another type of landing.In late 2006, the Board of Supervisors adopted a multibillion-dollar Treasure Island development plan that included a ferry terminal and transit hub, hotels, 300 acres of parks and 6,000 new housing units, including a residential tower that could reach 60 stories.In updated plans, the ferry terminal has been moved to the......

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Potrero power-plant proposal sparks opposition legislation

Published: Apr 11, 2008

A new contract to build power plants in The City to replace a more-polluting plant in Potrero Hill is expected to be introduced to the Board of Supervisors next week — but one city legislator has drafted legislation that could nix or further delay the project, which has been debated for more than seven years.In October, a contract with another company set to build the power plant was approved 8-3 by the Board of Supervisors, after being told that Continued...

 

Hearings on oil spill launch this morning

Published: Apr 08, 2008

The navigation equipment on the Cosco Busan was found to be in good working order during an inspection by its manufacturer after the container ship swiped the Bay Bridge in November, an engineer for the manufacturer is expected to testify today.Petaluma pilot John Cota told National Transportation Safety......

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City may oppose apple moth spraying

Published: Apr 08, 2008

San Francisco may join a growing list of counties protesting a state plan to aerial spray the Bay Area to control the spread of the light brown apple moth. The non-native agricultural pest has been found in traps all across The City, according to state officials who attended a City Hall hearing Monday. They said the moths’ plant-eating caterpillars could cost California’s agricultural industry hundreds of millions of dollars if they......

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Pot clubs could get another extension for permits

Published: Apr 07, 2008

Medical pot vendors in San Francisco would be allowed to wait until the nation has a new president before obtaining city permits to sell marijuana under a proposed deadline extension.A resolution introduced by Supervisor Chris Daly would extend the deadline to secure city permits until Jan. 21 — one day after a new president is inaugurated. The proposed extension would be the second to be granted to vendors by city lawmakers since a permitting system was adopted in 2005. Since then, 31 dispensaries have applied for permits, but five of......

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Skies darken for solar rebate plan

Published: Apr 03, 2008

A city proposal to provide $3 million to help private companies and homeowners meet the costs of solar panel installations stalled at the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday on concerns that The City’s legislators should have originally approved the funding, which will be taken out of a solar power project on a municipal building.In January, Mayor Gavin Newsom submitted a ballot measure for the June 2008 election that would have created a solar power rebate program to help subsidize installation......

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Home Depot axes warehouse plans

Published: Apr 01, 2008

Home Depot executives have abandoned a seven-year quest to open a hardware store at the borders of the Bayview and Bernal Heights neighborhoods, blaming a slow approval process, falling nationwide sales and the poor economy.The