San Francisco is touted as a green city, but when it comes to caring for trees, what’s lacking is the green.
Funding for tree maintenance has long challenged The City even as it has pushed for aggressive tree planting. For years, the failure to adequately fund tree upkeep has haunted city officials, but there’s been little progress.
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The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is expected to decide the fate of San Francisco’s long-debated public-power program, but whether the program can overcome the mayor’s concerns and PG&E’s opposition is far from clear.
For the past eight years, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has worked on a program to compete with PG&E by offering customers 100 percent renewable energy for an extra fee.
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Concerns about radiological contamination at Treasure Island reverberated Tuesday at City Hall amid worries from residents and advocates over possible health concerns on the man-made island owned by the U.S. Navy.
That Navy’s Aug. 6 release of a study identifying nine new sites of possible contamination, and recent reports of tension between state regulatory agencies and the military, prompted the Board of Supervisors to hold a special hearing Tuesday.
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New life could be injected into the monthly snooze-fests at which the Board of Supervisors can ask the mayor questions.
In November 2010, voters approved Proposition C, which required The City to hold a monthly question time session but left the rules up to the board and the mayor. While most observers apparently viewed these monthly exercises as boring and scripted, it took until Tuesday to prompt serious calls for change.
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The quaint practice known as “question time,” in which the Board of Supervisors has a chance to grill the mayor, started with a whimper and never picked up speed.
And as of today, participation drops to an all-time low, with just one question submitted for Mayor Ed Lee to answer. Seen by some as a boring waste of time, the voter-mandated Q&A session between the legislative and executive branch will have the shortest run time in its history.
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In the latest skirmish involving The City’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, the Rules Committee of the Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to ask the full board to reappoint a member whose absence has kept the task force from meeting.
Bruce Wolfe was a member of the task force that attracted criticism for having long meetings and spotty attendance records, and changing its own voting rules last year in possible violation of the City Charter.
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Newly reported cases of potential radiation on Treasure Island have raised alarm and prompted the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday to call for a hearing next week to address the reports.
The City is preparing to take over ownership of the island from the U.S. Navy for a purchase price of $100 million to make way for 8,000 homes, a hotel and an upgraded marina. The deal requires the Navy to clean up the island’s contamination, work that must be approved by state regulatory health agencies.
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Voters will decide the fate of the 8 Washington St. luxury condominium development after the Board of Supervisors declined on Tuesday to reverse its decision approving the project.
Following the June approval, opponents gathered enough signatures to place a referendum on the ballot, which under state law triggers a re-vote by the board.
On Tuesday, the board re-voted in favor of the development 8-3, with supervisors David Campos, John Avalos and board President David Chiu voting against it.
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After putting The City under his artistic spell, famed director Woody Allen is reportedly back in New York City. But local Film Commission officials hope to capitalize upon his decision to shoot his upcoming film in San Francisco.
Allen wrapped up location shooting last week, having generated excitement for weeks with repeated “Woody sightings.” He filmed in San Francisco for 18 days, visiting sites as iconic as Chinatown and as idiosyncratic as Gaspare’s Pizza House on Geary Boulevard.
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San Francisco will stop treating secondhand stores like criminal enterprises after the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved legislation Tuesday doing away with several rules designed to discourage the fencing of stolen goods.
The legislation’s author, Supervisor Scott Wiener, said the requirements had treated all sellers of secondhand merchandise “as if they were the worst kind of pawn shops or, frankly, criminal enterprises.”
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Fresh off a seven-year stint on the Recreation and Park Commission, David Lee is attempting to pull off something that has never been done before: beating an incumbent in a Board of Supervisors district election.
To do so, Lee must convince the voters of the Richmond neighborhood there is a need for change. But Supervisor Eric Mar is perhaps more politically polished than ever, describing himself as an “independent voice” on the board and deflecting his rival’s criticism in a thoughtful, measured style.
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Pressure is mounting on at least three supervisors to switch their votes in favor of allowing a 50-foot height increase for the 8 Washington St. luxury condo development.
Armed with a new voter poll, opponents of the contentious 134-unit development said supervisors who favored the development during its June approval are out of step with their constituents.
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A battle over the long-awaited proposal for The City to let residents power their homes with 100 percent renewable energy awaits the Board of Supervisors in September when it returns from its legislative recess. But the findings of a new report by the City Controller’s Office may make the program a hard sell.
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Maybe it’s just the reading material, but the number of people observed sleeping in San Francisco’s Main Library increased by more than
80 percent in the past year.
The library’s main branch attracts not only bibliophiles, but famously also draws thieves, drug abusers and homeless people, all of whom are there for more than just a love of books.
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Candidates running for a seat on the Board of Supervisors this November are testing the new rules of The City’s public financing program.
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