Although Cala and Alberstons food stores have closed down recently in San Francisco, there is a new crop of grocers moving in.As five neighborhood stores shut their doors in the past year, residents in the communities of these stores and their city representatives were nervous that they would lose a vital resource. While one of the sites was transformed into an auto dealership and two others remain dormant, Whole Foods is possibly moving into a former Alberstons on Clement Street and has plans for the former Cala Foods site in the Upper Haight neighborhood. Read More

San Francisco could become one of the first cities to require an electronic voting company to disclose the details of its software in an effort to ensure all votes are counted.Electronic voting machines have stirred controversy as voter-rights activists say the machines cannot be trusted, especially since the software used to tally votes is kept secret.More than 20 voter-rights advocates turned out at a Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee hearing Wednesday to oppose the proposed $12.6 million four-year contract with Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. Read More

Mayor Gavin Newsom’s agreement with two high-tech giants to blanket The City in a free wireless Internet network is coming under attack as city supervisors focus on another option — a city-owned network.The Board of Supervisors will ultimately have to decide whether to approve the agreement with Earthlink and Google to setup a wireless, or Wi-Fi, Internet network in San Francisco at no cost to The City, but there clearly is opposition mounting among city supervisors. Read More

Mayor Gavin Newsom’s high-profile agreement with Earthlink and Google to blanket San Francisco in a free wireless Internet network could be held up until a fully fleshed-out study on a city-owned network is completed.Supervisor Jake McGoldrick has emerged as a champion of a city-owned wireless, or Wi-Fi, network and authored a resolution that requests a detailed study of the prospect before the Board of Supervisors vote on the Wi-Fi agreement. If approved by the full board in two weeks, the resolution would hold up the vote on the Earthlink and Google agreement, McGoldrick said. Read More

As The City ponders allowing taller buildings in the South of Market area to generate cash for the new Transbay Terminal rebuild, developers are quickly coming up with proposals for taller high-rises. Read More

Employers may have more time to make sense of a new city law requiring paid sick leave for workers.The first of its kind in the nation, San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance goes into effect Monday as business owners and the agency charged with enforcing it scramble to figure out how to implement it. Read More

San Francisco is on pace to offer a free wireless Internet network in two years but a faster and superior technology may come on its heels that could better close the so-called digital divide.Supervisor Tom Ammiano has emerged as a strong proponent of a citywide "fiber network" that would allow people access to the Internet at speeds tens or even hundreds of times faster than existing digital subscriber line, or DSL, cable modem speeds and wireless, or Wi-Fi, Internet speeds. Read More