Having presumably returned from one of two trips to Hawaii he enjoyed during the holidays, Mayor Gavin Newsom will be locked up in meetings at City Hall today, according to the Mayor’s Office. The mayor has a plate full of issues to deal with, most importantly The City’s budget problems. City officials are awaiting results from state budget proposals expected this week, which could affect how much The City will receive for services, staffers said. Read More

Did you know about 14 percent of adult San Franciscans smoke? Did you also know that the smoking rate for lesbians is 70 percent higher than that for heterosexual women? These are a sampling of facts that were recently published by city officials as part of a new quit-smoking campaign. As one would figure, anti-smoking groups are making a concerted effort the first week of January – when resolutions are made – to encourage smokers to quit. Read More

Mayor Gavin Newsom has no public events or meetings at City Hall listed on his daily schedule for today, but don’t expect that all will remain quiet following the holiday break. Word around City Hall is that Newsom’s administration will be active during the first of the New Year with proposals for new legislation and continued meetings on The City’s $522 million budget problem. Stay tuned. Read More

Homeowners in San Francisco may have had to face grueling competition when buying their lot, but at least they know that demand and value of their investment will remain relatively stable during a down economy.That can’t be said for homeowners in Las Vegas, where home prices plummeted 26.6 percent between October last year and the same month this year, according to a recent Standard & Poor’s report.Phoenix suffered an 18.1 percent slide, while Detroit, Tampa and Miami saw negative results above 14 percent, the report said. Read More

Even though it’s been a rocky year for Muni, Mayor Gavin Newsom offered up some praise for the embattled agency — kind of.Speaking at a end-of-the-year address he recorded for YouTube, Newsom acknowledged Muni’s improvements with its on-time arrival performance, although the mayor was quick to put those compliments in context. Read More

Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to step up efforts to remove gum, glass and cigarette butts from The City’s streets in reaction to less-than-stellar results in a recent city litter audit. “We still have less litter out on the streets than we did two years ago, but the numbers started to creep up in this last audit,” Newsom said in a year-end address posted on YouTube. Some major problem areas include big commercial corridors, including Mission Street and Geary Boulevard areas, Newsom said. Read More