Mayor Gavin Newsom says he needs to hold true to the promise he made some time ago to Wyclef Jean, the popular Haitian-American musician who supported the mayor’s failed gubernatorial campaign.
In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Newsom said he is considering putting together a delegation of experts from San Francisco to help in the rebuild effort.
“There are no building codes in Haiti,” Newsom said. “There is so much we can do and so much we can share with our expertise in this area in San Francisco.”
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After a press conference earlier today to announce plans to bring businesses and jobs into the downtrodden Mid-Market District, Mayor Gavin Newsom headed to Sacramento to chat with the governor’s people about the JobsNow program.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom pledged to slash the homeless population in half on city streets by the end of the year.
Newsom, who was elected to his first term in 2003 on a pledge to end chronic homelessness, made the bold proposal during the yearly State of The City address Wednesday evening at the Asian Art Museum.
During his speech, which ranged from jobs and the economy to education, the 42-year-old mayor promised a 50 percent reduction in street homelessness and 30 percent reduction in overall homelessness by the end of 2010.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom on Monday used his Twitter account to reveal the title of his State of the City address scheduled for the evening.
“Putting the finishing touches on my State of the City ‘Investing in People & Place,’” he Tweeted on Monday afternoon.
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The City is anticipating another flood of requests from homeowners requesting property value reviews.
In the 2007-08 tax year, the Office of the Assessor-Recorder said it received around 245 informal review requests. In 2009-10, there were approximately 4,400 requests.
“In response to this huge demand, we are accepting applications,” Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting said.
The office will accept informal review requests for single family dwellings, residential condominiums, townhouses, live-work units and residential cooperative units, the department said.
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The Inovio Biomedical products CEO — who has led pioneering efforts to develop groundbreaking vaccines to battle the flu, HIV and cancer — will present today at the OneMedForum investor conference in The City. Before joining Inovio Biomedical, Kim led efforts in manufacturing and process development of several FDA-approved products and developmental therapeutics at Merck & Co.
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A court battle has forced The City to alter how it will make developers pay for affordable rental units in new buildings.
Under legislation introduced Tuesday, developers would no longer have the option of providing affordable-housing units in San Francisco’s residential rental projects. Instead, it would require developers to pay a fee to The City.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom does not like to be one-upped by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The mayor chatted briefly Tuesday about Bloomberg’s new health initiative to encourage the nation’s restaurant chains and food manufacturers to use less salt.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom does not like to be one-upped by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The mayor chatted briefly Tuesday about Bloomberg’s new health initiative to encourage the nation’s restaurant chains and food manufacturers to use less salt.
Newsom said he applauds Bloomberg for having the courage to do something about salt, but admits he was a bit jealous of the idea.
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We can only suspect what Mayor Gavin Newsom’s schedule means when it says he will spend Tuesday conducting meetings in City Hall.
But the mayor will sometimes drop hints. Last week, he said he would spend Tuesday meeting with department heads or at least finding out what kind of cuts they’ve come up with to reduce The City’s budget deficit.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom’s latest plan to accelerate seismic retrofits for vulnerable buildings in San Francisco won’t work, analysts say.
City officials have been struggling to get the owners of so-called soft-story buildings in The City — which house about one-third of San Franciscans — to make seismic improvements before the next big earthquake.
A soft-story building is wood-framed with garages above ground level or shops that are structurally weaker than the upper stories and prone to crumbling during a major seismic episode.
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City Attorney Dennis Herrera has accused Pacific Gas & Electric Co. of targeting San Franciscans in a campaign to protect its monopoly.
Herrera today “petitioned the California Public Utilities for tougher regulations to prohibit electric utilities from engaging in marketing campaigns and other abuses of their monopoly position to undermine Community Choice Aggregation, a program intended to enable local governments to develop cleaner, renewable energy sources and ultimately stabilize consumers’ electricity costs.”
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In recent years, city officials have forced the closure of 36 massage parlors in San Francisco that are actually prostitution dens known to employ underage girls and boys, according to Mayor Gavin Newsom.
The mayor pointed out the figure Monday morning during a press conference announcing stepped up measures The City is taking to enforce against the nation’s human trafficking problem, a criminal activity known to contribute a workforce to the illegal sex shops.
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Mayor Gavin Newsom expressed disappointment Monday with the Supreme Court’s decision to block a broadcast of the trial on the state’s same-sex marriage ban.
The Supreme Court said it will not allow video of the trial to be posted on YouTube.com, even with a delay, until at least Wednesday as it needs more time to consider the issue. Monday’s order will be in place until at least Wednesday, court officials said.
“The courts could use a little sunshine,” Newsom said following an unrelated press conference Monday morning.
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The gay marriage battle typically ushers in throngs of supporters and opponents when major events on the subject come to San Francisco.
But Monday’s start to the landmark federal trial on the legality of the Proposition 8 ban on same-sex nuptials was far more subdued than when the state’s court ruled on the matter.
Some gay marriage supporters congregated in front of the San Francisco Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue 90 minutes prior to the 9 a.m. start of the trial, which is expected to last around two weeks.
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