San Francisco officials showed great restraint in dealing with the local Occupy movement, something you might expect when about half of its elected leaders spent quality time squatting in the Embarcadero camp. Yet now that the mayor and police have finally acted on their threat to remove the tent city for a host of legal, health and safety violations, the general reaction isn’t outrage, but one of widespread relief.
Read More
Leave it to a group of nurses to start a healthy Thanksgiving tradition in San Francisco, one that’s lasted 50 years and traces its origin to New York and Ireland.
There’s also a mansion at the heart of the tale, though the gathering was never fancy. As the size of the group grew each year, its attendees were required to bring their own metal folding chairs — no small feat when you consider that there are 82 stairs leading to the front door.
Read More
One of the biggest winners in last week’s election wasn’t even a topic of discussion for most of the campaign.
And that’s not that easy to do when you’re talking about the largest nonprofit medical center in San Francisco’s history.
That would be the plan to build a new $2 billion California Pacific Medical Center hospital in the heart of San Francisco that has trudged along for years, but somehow managed to bypass the usual rhetoric generated in heated mayoral campaigns.
Read More
Widespread voter confusion, wasted millions in campaign financing, claims of election fraud — just a typical November in San Francisco.
City voters proved once again that they can rise above the clamor, and while they had to wait patiently for their ballots to be counted under our spin-the-big-wheel system of elections, they at least reiterated that San Francisco has no plans to become Oakland.
Read More
With the surprising success of the 49ers this season, there’s been a lot of talk about the Harbaugh brothers, the roughneck Ryan twins and other siblings that roam the sidelines.
Yet San Francisco has its own prized coaching families, part of a brood so small and tight that they share the same lineage and background, a tree with roots that date back to the glory days of city sports.
Read More
San Francisco can be magical, but it’s rarely majestic. The City’s landscape has been impacted less by architectural design than neighborhood activism.
So in a place where small changes are fought with searing intensity, it’s hardly news that a big idea would generate instant reaction. And that would certainly describe the response to a plan to erect the tallest building in San Francisco’s history as the focal point of its proposed transit hub.
Read More
As a general rule in the history of marches and movements, you’re not in a good place when people are talking more about sanitation than social justice.
And it doesn’t help that when you need a charge, your “organizers” send out a plea for a 16-volt battery.
Read More
One of San Francisco’s most conflicting traits is that it is so resistant to change. Though The City politically calls for revolution, in reality, it resists transition.
Read More
When you get news that San Francisco is bucking a national trend, it’s generally a good idea to find a safe hiding place.
And that avoidance tendency, at least for the time being, is sticking with a grand experiment known as ranked-choice voting, which cities across the country are dumping or outright rejecting for the simple reason that it has failed to live up to any of its promises.
Read More
San Franciscans can be a cranky brood. That’s why it’s been fairly well-documented that about one-third of The City’s populace will be against anything.
That includes sun, fog, rain, workforce housing, new stadium bonds and even the Giants (but only during years they don’t win the World Series).
I rarely side with their ranks, but this year, folks, you can save me a seat in the bleachers.
Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/taxonomy/term/3224
