On Thursday morning, with dense fog blocking the view of Oakland from the San Francisco waterfront, maritime officials instituted new guidelines for large ships sailing under the Bay Bridge at times of reduced visibility.
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The cranes currently dotting San Francisco’s skyline are just the beginning of the building boom, and The City is working to clear hundreds of projects that are backlogged in the planning process.
There are 462 projects in varying stages of the planning and approval process, according to Joanna Linsangan, a spokeswoman for the Planning Department. About three-quarters of them are in the early stages and the rest have received approval.
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A maritime safety group could adopt new guidelines Thursday that would limit ships from sailing under the Bay Bridge in foggy conditions, among other safety precautions.
The move comes after the 752-foot tanker Overseas Reymar stuck the Bay Bridge on Jan. 7 as it was leaving an anchorage south of the span. The incident was the second time a large ship had struck a tower on the bridge; the Cosco Busan hit it in 2007, dumping more than 50,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay.
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An investigation into allegations that several San Francisco Public Utilities Commission employees used city computers for online gambling and distributing pornography should conclude shortly, agency officials said.
The SFPUC confirmed that it and the City Attorney’s Office are investigating allegations that a number of supervisors and employees in two divisions misused city resources.
“There is an active investigation into alleged misuse of city resources for online gambling and pornography,” agency spokesman Tyrone Jue said Friday.
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San Francisco Giants pitcher Sergio Romo stood in front of the langur exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo on Thursday watching the monkeys jump around.
“Surely energetic, like myself,” Romo said. “That is how I am in the dugout.”
Romo was at the zoo for a surprise meeting with the staff and to meet the baby langur that was born in October during the Giants’ playoff series against the Cincinnati Reds. It was named Romo after an online vote.
Click on the photo to the right to see more pictures of Sergio Romo at the San Francisco Zoo.
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San Francisco lawmakers on Tuesday approved a plan that will provide key funding for the major expansion of the Moscone Convention Center.
The Board of Supervisors approved the creation of the Moscone Expansion District along with other pieces of legislation that will eventually provide two-thirds of the funds needed for the approximately $500 million project, according to the San Francisco Travel Association.
Project plans call for an additional 200,000 square feet of underground and above-ground exhibition space, the association announced in September.
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The Gold Dust Lounge was a beehive of activity midday Thursday as workers screwed light bulbs into brass fixtures while putting the finishing touches on the new Fisherman’s Wharf location.
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Sixty-five percent of Californians favor a law that would ban the sales of assault weapons nationwide, according to a poll released Wednesday.
The poll, conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, comes at a time when local, state and federal lawmakers are contemplating new or strengthened firearm laws after mass shootings, including one at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 first-graders dead in December.
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A group that promotes the responsible consumption of alcohol is asking San Francisco not to demonize hard liquor by tying it to rowdiness after sporting events.
Last week, Mayor Ed Lee said that although San Francisco will not ban liquor sales, he is encouraging bars to limit sales or serve it in a responsible manner. The American Beverage Institute responded Monday in a statement that asked The City “to avoid demonizing a perfectly legal product.”
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The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office announced Friday that after a “thorough investigation” it is not pressing charges at this time against San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree.Crabtree, 25, was accused by a woman of sexually assaulting her in the W Hotel in downtown San Francisco on Jan. 13 after the team beat the Green Bay Packers at home in Candlestick Park.
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, called on lawmakers to take action on the assault-weapons ban instead of waiting for the legislation to emerge from the U.S. Senate.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Thursday introduced legislation to ban many assault weapons as well as high-capacity magazines.
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Giants fans flocked to Civic Center Plaza in 2010 and 2012 to watch the team win the World Series. But for the Super Bowl, as of now there are no plans to broadcast the
Feb. 3 game outside City Hall.
“I don’t think we are permitted to do one,” Mayor Ed Lee said of showing the 49ers game. “No Jumbotron for the Super Bowl.”
The NFL on Wednesday did not respond to questions about why San Francisco would not be able to show the game to a crowd of nonpaying viewers.
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Ten years ago, when the first building at the UC San Francisco Medical Center in Mission Bay opened, the area was largely undeveloped. Now the neighborhood has become a hub for biotech science.
State and local officials gathered at Genentech Hall in Mission Bay — the first building to open on the campus — to celebrate how far the medical center has come and the buildings, including a new children’s hospital, that are planned to open in the next few years.
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Future attempts to consider draining the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir such as the one that voters rejected in November could face a new hurdle: approval by water agencies representing millions of residents in Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
San Francisco owns the O’Shaughnessy Dam, which created the Hetchy Hetchy Reservoir on the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park. Since 1934, the Hetch Hetchy water system has been the primary source of drinking water for San Francisco. But The City also sells water to 26 agencies in three neighboring counties.
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The bar pilot in control of the tanker that struck the Bay Bridge on Jan. 7 has the highest incident rate over the three years for which such records are available, according to a San Francisco Examiner analysis of state documents.
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