Seventy-five years ago, Gunter Ullmann and his family left the only home they knew in Germany to flee the Nazis before World War II and the Holocaust. Now, six weeks before his 90th birthday, the San Francisco resident joyfully recalled a recent reunion with an old friend on only his second visit back to his homeland.With the help of the Red Cross, Ullmann made the 5,800-mile journey to see Elfriede Hubner, now Elfriede Haas, a neighbor and friend he had not seen since leaving the country in 1938.Ullmann said the journey was well worth it, even if it was emotional.
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The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency wants to boost revenue through better parking enforcement, but it has hit a bump in the road because the agency is not equipped with enough officers to adequately cover The City, according to a report released this week by the Controller’s Office.
The report highlights other issues, such as the agency’s inability to be reimbursed for officers’ time during festivals and sporting events, low hiring levels and a lack of ongoing training. It also offered 39 recommendations to improve parking enforcement.
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The University of California system regents voted Wednesday to freeze tuition and student fees as long as a tax measure on the November ballot passes.
Otherwise, all bets are off for how to make up a massive funding deficit.
The decision, however, was not made lightly. Regents’ opinions varied, students protested the potential consequences while wearing zombie costumes and Gov. Jerry Brown even stopped by the San Francisco meeting to urge support of his tax measure.
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The only gun club in San Francisco has less than 30 days to pack up and find a new home.
The Pacific Rod and Gun Club was notified last week by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission that it’s 78-year-old month-to-month lease will end Aug. 15, after months of negotiations to create a new lease went stale.
An eviction notice sent to the gun club from the SFPUC says the desired lease would be month-to-month but require the club to provide liability insurance, abide by anti-discrimination laws and share profits with the SFPUC for any nonlease agreement uses.
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There’s a lot at stake for California State Universities on the November ballot.
Attending one of the university systems’ 23 campuses could be more expensive, tougher to get in to or tuition could even be reduced, depending on what voters decide for the pending tax measure.
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A local congregation rejoined the Lutheran Church on Sunday after 17 years of separation brought on by its inclusion of a gay pastor.
Members of the First United Lutheran Church in Cathedral Hill unanimously voted for the reunion. The move now gives the local church a vote and a voice in the larger church.
“It’s a hard decision to make,” the Rev. Susan Strouse said, “but it gives us a voice and it’s a huge opportunity to look at the denomination and say, ‘You made the right decision and that’s good, but there’s more to do.’”
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Amid an ongoing budget crisis, a proposal to increase the salaries of three California State University campus presidents, including San Francisco’s, by 10 percent more than what their predecessors were paid is being questioned.
The 23-campus CSU system stands to lose $250 million in funding if Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax measures are not approved by voters in November. The public universities already cut $750 million from their budgets last year.
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It’s been two months since the Rockit Room’s self-imposed 30-day entertainment suspension, and Richmond district police say things couldn’t be better at the club.
According to Permit Officer Tobius Moore, incidents and calls for service are virtually down to zero since the club took a month off to revamp its operations and take a long look at the way it ran the 21-and-over venue.
“There are no permit violations,” Moore said. “The communication between myself and management is night and day. There are no complaints from neighbors and no major incidents.”
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The City College of San Francisco board of trustees is vowing to keep the institution open despite a recent scathing report from the Accreditation Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.
At a special meeting Tuesday, the seven-member board said it will do whatever it can to prevent CCSF from losing accreditation or closing.
“We will not let that happen” said board President John Rizzo. “Everyone in this room, everyone in this community, will not let that happen.”
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Decades ago, Dr. Diane Havlir thought she would never say “cure” and “HIV” in the same sentence.
Havlir was doing a residency at San Francisco General Hospital in 1985 amid a global crisis in which the number of new HIV/AIDS cases was rising, but there was no known origin or treatment regimen. Those infected were simply given a death sentence.
Now the chief of UC San Francisco’s HIV/AIDS Division at San Francisco General, Havlir smiled as she said these words:
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Last year, when Luke Bartels and three other independent businessmen were looking for a commercial space that would allow them to build their own homemade goods, they turned to the Outer Sunset.
Bartels said the area is quiet and affordable, and it gave each of them the large work spaces their ventures demanded, as well as storefronts to attract customers. Bartels said he’s noticed growth in the neighborhood in the past few months, and even people peering through his shop’s windows at Noriega Street and 45th Avenue.
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They came, they partied and they left behind a massive mess.
Thousands of people celebrating the Fourth of July descended upon Fort Mason on Wednesday and brought with then thousands of pounds of trash. An estimated 30 cubic yards of garbage — 1 cubic yard holds about 200 gallons — decorated Fort Mason’s meadow Thursday morning, forcing federal park officials to spend the day cleaning up following the midweek Independence Day festivities rather than catch up on work or move federal projects forward.
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A bill that would require party buses to verify the age of passengers or face fines was approved Tuesday by the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee.
The legislation, introduced by Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, will be heard by the full Senate in August.
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Legislation that would require party bus operators to check identification of those on board or face hefty fines is before the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee today.
The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, is aimed at curbing underage drinking by closing a loophole in a law adopted in the 1980s that required similar actions by limousine drivers.
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Update: Transbay BART service has resumed after being suspended for nearly an hour.About 1 p.m., police detained the person who reportedly went onto the tracks in Oakland. BART officials said service was stopped around noon. Trains were halted at San Francisco’s Embarcadero station and at the West Oakland station. Because of the activity, electricity to the trackway had to be turned off. There were systemwide delays of up to 30 minutes after the issues was resolved.
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