Outraged over a 5 percent transaction fee that would help pay for backseat credit card terminals, hundreds of cabbies crowded into City Hall on Tuesday and threatened to strike if the fee is not rescinded.
“If they keep screwing with us, you wait till next month,” said Luxor cabbie Doug Woods. “There will be a strike.”
The 5 percent credit card fee was imposed upon drivers last month by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Spokesman Paul Rose said 3 percent covers credit-card processing fees, while the remaining 2 percent goes to terminal vendor Verifone.
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It’s a memory Kathryn Hill vividly recalls — all the way back to the third grade.
“The first space shuttle went up in 1981,” the San Francisco resident said. “I remember my teacher brought a television in the classroom and we all watched it together. I’ve wanted to see a shuttle launch in person since then.”
Now, it seems the wait of seeing her first ever space shuttle launch is over.
Maybe.
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Residents at a mobile home park in Daly City fighting a recent rent hike are seeking assistance from city officials.
But with the city running on a bare-bones budget, city officials say there is little they can do to help.
Rent at Franciscan Park increased 4 percent April 1, the first increase since July 2009, management officials said.
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When Bob Senz was growing up on an Oregon farm, there was one main rule for him and his brothers.
“If it had wheels on it,” he said, “you raced it.”
Those races in Beaverton sparked Senz’s passion for everything with motors — a fervor that has followed him nearly 700 miles down the Pacific Coast and driven him to create one of the most unique events in the West.
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A local legislator is working to draw California into a growing interstate compact that, if successful, would rework the elctoral college and elect the president based solely on the popular vote.
Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, introduced AB 459 with the backing of Assemblyman Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert. The legislation, if signed into state law, would alter how California administers its 55 Electoral College votes.
The assembly bill officially thrusts California into the debate over the growing National Popular Vote movement, which began in early 2006.
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Mary Bier’s memories of her nephew, Jonny, are painful ones. The once-vibrant 19-year-old changed, she said, when he was allowed to start drinking at his family home in Pacifica.
“I watched it change my nephew,” she said. “The light disappeared from his eyes when he started drinking and using drugs … I loved that kid.”
Ultimately, the drinking killed Jonny Bier. He and his girlfriend, 16-year-old Stephanie Echeverri, were killed in a drunk driving accident as they returned from a house party in February 2005.
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Kathryn Hill, the 38-year-old Web art director and San Francisco resident, was one of 150 @NASA Twitter followers randomly invited to witness the final launch of space shuttle Endeavor today and Friday. The launch is scheduled for 12:47 p.m. Friday.
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San Carlos City Council members unanimously voted to negotiate a contract for fire services with Redwood City, but they left open the option of going with a private company if the deal falls through.
Councilors, facing an “anxious and apprehensive” crowd opposing a contract with the private company Wackenhut Services, decided in favor of the Redwood City deal by a 5-0 vote at Monday’s meeting, city officials said.
Under the proposed contract, Redwood City would provide administrative duties, fire prevention, and battalion-chief coverage and supervision to San Carlos, R
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Two San Mateo County school districts are preparing to open new schools to keep pace with a rising number of elementary students.
Both the Burlingame and San Mateo-Foster City school districts are moving forward with opening new elementary schools to alleviate crowded classrooms.
Burlingame’s K-5 population throughout its five elementary schools increased nearly 26 percent from 2001 to 2009, from 1,466 to 1,846, according to California Department of Education data.
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In the parking battleground that is San Francisco, there is now an iPhone application designed to relay real-time info about the availability and rates of parking spaces in congested areas.
But the officials who debuted this solution Thursday as part of the new SFpark program were forced to concede that their app will encourage people to use a phone while driving.
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A proposed 59,000-square-foot Safeway remains on hold in Millbrae while city officials work to resolve traffic congestion and labor concerns.
Already delayed once after Councilor Gina Papan filed an appeal last month calling for greater efforts by Safeway to hire union labor, the project hit another roadblock last week when the City Council voted 4-1 to continue a hearing on the appeal.
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In an urban setting in which the term "produce" is synonymous with supermarkets, city farmers can now return to their earliest agricultural roots to cash in on homegrown crops.
About 70 farmers, politicians, reporters and ordinary folk gathered at the Little City Garden urban farm in the Excelsior district Wednesday to witness Mayor Ed Lee sign an ordinance to allow city farmers to legally sell their produce.
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With the swift motion of his pen, Mayor Ed Lee did more than turn a new leaf regarding San Francisco’s new law that allows urban farmers to sell produce they grow – a practice that was previously illegal.
In signing the Urban Agricultural Ordinance into law, Lee paused for a moment trying to recall the info needed to proceed with the final step.
“What’s today’s date?” he asked, perhaps encouraging the obvious response from various chuckling onlookers.
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Updated on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at 10 p.m. - A man who apparently suffered some sort of medical emergency at the Powell Street Station Tuesday afternoon fell down and caught his hair and jacket in the escalator. Police said he later died due to unknown causes.Horrified witnesses called for help around 1 p.m. after the man got caught in the escalator at the northwestern end of the station. The man was found at the base of the stairway.
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Despite an ongoing investigation into the death of a 20-year-old San Bruno woman, it appears to be a suicide at this point, San Bruno police said Monday.
After San Bruno resident Leonie Scott was reported missing Saturday morning, an officer located her body in the area of Skyline Boulevard and College Drive around 8:25 a.m. Sunday, San Bruno police Cmdr. Noreen Hanlon said.
“We understand that she was upset for some reason,” Hanlon said. “At this point in time, we don’t suspect foul play. It’s a tragic situation.”
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