Pressure is mounting on at least three supervisors to switch their votes in favor of allowing a 50-foot height increase for the 8 Washington St. luxury condo development.
Armed with a new voter poll, opponents of the contentious 134-unit development said supervisors who favored the development during its June approval are out of step with their constituents.
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A battle over the long-awaited proposal for The City to let residents power their homes with 100 percent renewable energy awaits the Board of Supervisors in September when it returns from its legislative recess. But the findings of a new report by the City Controller’s Office may make the program a hard sell.
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Maybe it’s just the reading material, but the number of people observed sleeping in San Francisco’s Main Library increased by more than
80 percent in the past year.
The library’s main branch attracts not only bibliophiles, but famously also draws thieves, drug abusers and homeless people, all of whom are there for more than just a love of books.
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Candidates running for a seat on the Board of Supervisors this November are testing the new rules of The City’s public financing program.
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The players are finalized and all that remains now is the drama over who will emerge in November to serve on the Board of Supervisors for the next four years.
There are six open seats on the 11-member board, and after Friday’s 5 p.m. filing deadline there was little in the way of surprises. Perhaps the biggest suspense was whether a serious challenger would emerge to take on board President David Chiu, who represents District 3, which includes Chinatown and North Beach.
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Opponents of the proposed 8 Washington luxury condo development are calling on a state commission to postpone a vote on a crucial land exchange agreement that the project hinges upon.
The State Lands Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on an exchange that would allow developer Simon Snellgrove to develop his 134-unit project on Seawall Lot 351 and the adjacent privately held land. The agreement would swap the state’s public trust oversight of the public property for oversight of other Port lands.
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The battle over the November ballot measure aimed at restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley to its natural state is so charged that a spirited fight has erupted over wording selected by the Department of Elections to describe it to voters.
The war of words occurred at The City’s Ballot Simplification Committee, which is charged with summarizing ballot measures in voter information pamphlets.
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The legal battle over whether stores selling cellphones in San Francisco must disclose devices’ possible health risks comes to a decisive moment Thursday when The City faces off against the wireless
industry in an appeals court.
The Board of Supervisors and then-Mayor Gavin Newsom approved legislation in July 2010 that would have mandated warnings for people buying cellphones about possible health risks such as cancer and how to use devices more safely, such as by wearing a headset.
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As tense negotiations with The City delay approval of a planned $2.5 billion hospital complex, California Pacific Medical Center officials announced Monday that they dismissed 120 consultants on a project once expected to break ground in October.
Spokesman Sam Singer said hospital officials let go of 120 architects, engineers and planners until there is more certainty about the project’s future. Singer said the consultants were costing $3 million a month. Consultants working on planning issues will remain on the payroll.
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While San Francisco is the epicenter of a new high-tech boom, the notoriously dysfunctional technology resources of local government remain a source of municipal embarrassment, according to a new report.
The tech challenges facing city government are nothing new, and pressure has intensified in recent years to bring about change. But a civil grand jury report released Thursday, “Déjà vu all over again: San Francisco’s city technology needs a culture shock” suggests that improvement is moving at dial-up speed — if at all.
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With fewer than 100 days before the November election, well-financed battles have emerged for three seats on the Board of Supervisors.
Although six seats are up for grabs, it appears the big-money fights will be in three districts: the Richmond; the Fillmore, Haight and Western Addition neighborhoods; and the more conservative neighborhoods west of Twin Peaks.
All declared candidates were required to file campaign fundraising reports Tuesday declaring how much they raised in donations of up to $500 per person between January and June.
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Replacing San Francisco’s payroll tax with a gross receipts tax is now up to voters.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted 11-0 to send a business tax measure that took about seven months to craft to the November ballot and secure support to improve its chance of passing.
The 1.5 percent tax on payrolls in excess of $250,000 has been maligned as a job killer. In recent years, as the technology industry has grown in San Francisco, tech leaders have pushed for a tax change since their business models are more labor-intensive.
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A mediator is being brought in to revive an ailing development deal with California Pacific Medical Center for its planned $2.5 billion rebuild of St. Luke’s Hospital and the construction of a new hospital on Cathedral Hill.
The need for a neutral third party to help smooth out a compromise stands in sharp contrast to the optimism that surrounded the project back in March, when Mayor Ed Lee announced a deal with CPMC.
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Planning Commissioner Michael Antonini survived a divided Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and will serve another four-year term after facing near-rejection two weeks ago.
Antonini, a dentist and registered Republican who lives in the west side of San Francisco, was re-appointed to the commission by Mayor Ed Lee, but was at risk of being rejected by the board.
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A little-known section of the San Francisco police code has the owners of some secondhand stores feeling like criminals.
Supervisor Scott Wiener is leading the charge to eliminate rules requiring the owners of such businesses to provide fingerprints and mug shots, pay a licensing fee of as much as $1,500, and supply daily transaction records and descriptions of people purchasing and selling at their stores.
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