After more than 10 months of negotiations, The City has reached an agreement with two Internet giants that would make San Francisco the first city of its size to have a free wireless Internet network.Once implemented, the system would make the entire city an Internet "hot spot," allowing access to the Web everywhere within city limits to anyone with a laptop computer without having to plug in. Mayor Gavin Newsom signed off on the contract Friday, and it will next come before the Board of Supervisors for a vote, which could take place as early as February.
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Silence prevailed among the more than 30 uniformed officers lingering outside the packed courtroom Thursday afternoon after they learned the jury did not hand down a first-degree murder sentence for the man accused of gunning down an undercover cop."What? Oh, you’re kidding," an officer was overheard saying as some 30 officers walked away in silence, before learning that David Hill, 23, could spend the rest of his life behind bars for gunning down Officer Isaac Espinoza with an AK-47 assault rifle.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom has acknowledged that offering $100,000 rewards to help solve homicide cases has failed and represents an unsuccessful attempt in trying to reduce San Francisco’s high homicide rate. As San Francisco was experiencing its third consecutive year of a historic number of killings and community members were calling on city officials for relief, Newsom announced in September 2006 that he had put up $100,000 rewards in 15 unsolved homicide cases, 10 times the usual reward amount offered.
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San Francisco’s most influential figures are expected to storm the U.S. Capitol this week trumpeting The City’s core liberal values as they celebrate the swearing in of Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House.The 66-year-old San Francisco Democrat will become the first female speaker of the House today, and will provide San Francisco and the rest of the state with considerable influence over federal affairs.
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A slew of traffic-calming measures including speed humps, medians and improved crosswalks are expected to make San Francisco streets, where nearly 700 pedestrians were injured by cars and 14 were killed in 2005, a whole lot safer.Nine neighborhoods or locations were selected as part of the first traffic-calming projects to be funded by Proposition K, which voters approved in 2003. Prop. K reinstated a half-cent sales tax and dedicated $68 million over the next 30 years to traffic-calming projects.
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The deal that will blanket San Francisco’s 49 square miles with free wireless Internet service is "seconds way" from completion, Mayor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday.Contract negotiations between The City and two high-tech giants, Earthlink and Google, have been ongoing for more than 10 months.While Newsom said last month that a deal could be reached before the end of 2006, he was no less optimistic on Tuesday about the negotiations.
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After three major movies were filmed in San Francisco in 2005, Mayor Gavin Newsom declared that "film in San Francisco is back." But he may have spoken too soon because, despite new incentives to filmmakers, it was "quiet on the set" in The City in 2006.A booming industry in the 1990s — with a production costs high of $461 million in 1996 — the industry began to decline in 1999, reaching an all-time low in 2003 and the first half of 2004, when no major picture was shot in San Francisco.
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San Francisco was thrashed by strong winds during the last two days as a winter storm made its way down the coast, causing road closures, power outages, transit delays and knocking down a number of trees, according to officials.By Wednesday afternoon the storm was heading to the Southern California coast, leaving the Bay Area with sunny skies, although the strong winds persisted. Today’s forecast calls for sunny skies and much lighter winds at 15 to 25 miles per hour.
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San Francisco moviegoers have embraced the idea of seeing films in local parks and may soon be able to soak in the magic of the silver screen at The City’s most beloved one, Golden Gate Park.Summer Entertainment Inc., an Australian-based entertainment company, has proposed showing films during an eight-week run beginning in August. The films would be shown in Peacock Meadow, which is located near the Conservatory of Flowers. If all goes well, it could become an annual affair.
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A move to empower some city workers to issue on-the-spot citations for violations such as failing to maintain a landscaped front yard could be a new weapon in getting property owners to adhere to city planning codes.The Planning Department has no "effective means" to compel owners to correct violations, according to a legislative analyst report for the Board of Supervisors. Giving an enforcement team the power to issue citations, akin to how Muni inspectors issue tickets to fare evaders, could change all that.
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As the year draws to a close, San Francisco’s local economy has shown improvement for the second consecutive year, suggesting that The City is on an economic upswing after years of sluggishness, according to data compiled by the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development.In 2005, San Francisco’s local economy showed improvement with its first net gain of jobs, a boost in the number of visitors and a decline in the office vacancy rate.The latest economic statistics for 2006 indicate San Francisco is moving further toward a healthier local economy.
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The City’s taxicabs are not as safe as they used to be, the head safety inspector of San Francisco cabs says, because of a new law that lets older taxi models stay on the streets longer.Dan Borg, the head mechanic of the San Francisco International Airport ground transportation unit, which annually inspects all cabs in service, delivered a powerful testimony to the Taxicab Commission last week, calling into question a newly adopted rule that allows taxis to remain in service for eight model years, whereas in the past cabs could only remain in service for four years.
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With no shortage of drum circles, frequent poetry readings and a wide array of artists’ jobs, San Francisco is one of the most cultural cities in the country, more cultural than even New York City, according to a new report.San Francisco bested New York City in all of the seven measures the Urban Institute used to rank 50 metro cities in a report titled "Cultural Vitality in Communities."
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The Board of Supervisors has abandoned the idea of holding a special off-site meeting at Mayor Gavin Newsom’s January town hall meeting, but the controversy over the board’s — and the voters’ — desire to have the mayor engage with supervisors in a question-and-answer forum is by no means over.
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Plans to ramp up enforcement of sidewalk maintenance, championed by Mayor Gavin Newsom during his State of The City address in October, continue to move forward despite lingering concerns.Property owners are responsible for the sidewalks adjacent to their property, according to state and city laws, and of the 5,298 city blocks of sidewalk, only 106 are The City’s responsibility, with the rest falling to property owners to pay out of pocket to maintain.
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