Welcome to This San Francisco! I’m Alex Mullaney and I'll be your guide. Our twice-weekly email gets you up to speed on what’s new in The City. David Mamaril Horowitz edited today’s edition.
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After the sudden resignation of Pacific Gas & Electric’s CEO and the announcement that the company would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, San Francisco Mayor London Breed assured residents on Monday that power services in The City will not be impacted.
“San Francisco’s public power program CleanPowerSF will continue to operate, and San Francisco will continue to invest in our ability to deliver clean power for our residents,” Breed stated in a news release.
Breed directed the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to study the near- and long-term impacts of the bankruptcy, as well as options for ensuring that people in The City have access to clean, safe and reliable power.
“PG&E has said it will ensure that the power stays on during the company’s financial turmoil. We will hold them to that,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera stated in a news release.
PG&E faces roughly $30 billion in exposure to liability for damages over the last two years from the Northern California wildfires.
Today, Mayor London Breed will introduce two pieces of legislation that could speed up the opening of new homeless shelters by nine months.
One bill would eliminate building permits and appeals for new shelters, and the other would loosen contracting requirements. Both would help Breed meet her promise to create 1,000 new shelter beds by 2020.
On Monday, Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium, the nonprofit legal arm of the affordable housing group TODCO, filed a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court challenging the rezoning of Central South of Market.
The suit, which could delay the development of millions of square feet of housing and offices, claims the Planning Department’s environmental study was inadequate because it didn’t account for public services.
On Saturday, thousands of San Franciscans went to the Women’s Building in the Mission to vote for the 14 delegates who will represent California’s 17th Assembly District, which will then vote on the direction of California's Democratic Party. The moderate slate United for Resistance beat out the progressive slate Reform Democrats.
This Thursday, the San Francisco Public Library Commission will consider a proposal to eliminate fines and fees for overdue materials borrowed by patrons. The Office of Treasurer & Tax Collector’s Financial Justice Project released a study on Monday of how fines impact patrons and the practices of other libraries.
The study’s report found that “Overdue fines disproportionately affect low-income communities, African American communities, and communities without college degrees.”
On Monday, State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced legislation that would require the California Department of Transportation to improve pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure on state-owned highways that serve as surface streets, such as 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard.
If passed, Senate Bill 127 would require all major road projects to be “complete streets” designed to accommodate all types of transportation. A similar bill failed last year.
Air traffic controllers at San Francisco International Airport are short one paycheck due to the federal government’s partial shutdown. Like Transportation Security Administration employees and air marshals, air traffic controllers are deemed essential in the event of a government shutdown. They work with the guarantee of an IOU.
But if the shutdown continues, some of the controllers — whose jobs entail making sure airplanes depart and land safely and do not crash into each other — may be forced to take second jobs with Lyft or Uber.
Days after the private bus company Chariot announced it would shutter, Mayor London Breed offered jobs as Muni operators to the nearly 300 shuttle drivers who will be laid off. Muni is short 411 of its required 2,305 operators.
Breed convened leaders from Office of Economic and Workforce Development, San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency and Teamsters, the union that represents Chariot drivers, to discuss how training could be expedited.
Richmond
Suspended San Francisco police officer Rain Daugherty was charged with a second bank robbery. Daugherty allegedly stole about $9,050 from Cathay Bank on Dec. 13 on Clement Street, barely two weeks after robbing East West Bank in the Sunset District.
Both robberies occurred as Daugherty was facing charges for allegedly stealing $24,000 from an elderly woman with dementia in his care. Daugherty is currently being held without bail in Oakland’s Glenn Dyer Jail.
Mission
After nearly 50 years in operation and a year after its owner Joe Anmuth died, the hardware store Workingman’s Headquarters closed for good. The multigenerational business had its start in 1928 as a shoe repair store in South of Market run by Anmuth’s grandparents. Redevelopment pushed the business into the Mission. Now, the family plans to sell the building.
Bayview
Merchants group Economic Development on Third and the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association are asking City Hall to find a real solution to the growing number of RV bans that shuffle homeless individuals who live in vehicles across the neighborhood. They want The City to develop a Navigation Center that accepts individuals and their vehicles. New District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton plans to gauge constituent interest before supporting the idea.
South of Market
With a $300,000 grant from City Hall, the nonprofit Humanmade is preparing to open a training, manufacturing and prototyping studio and education center at 1 De Haro St., where 45 disadvantaged residents will be trained for well-paying jobs in manufacturing this year.
Hunters Point
U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors filed three new lawsuits in federal court to replace three sealed whistleblower lawsuits from 2013 to 2016. The lawsuits accuse engineering firm Tetra Tech of submitting false billing claims to the U.S. Navy based on false testing reports from the cleanup of radiation at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
The lawsuits allege that higher-level managers, including Tetra Tech President Andrew Bolt, are responsible for the fraud.
Mission
Bartenderless beer bar the Brew Coop opened on Valencia Street. Customers don’t have to wait for a bartender. Instead they can serve themselves at a back wall with 26 taps.
Heather Knight, On San Francisco: Love Bloomed at City Hall in 2004 — and San Franciscans Return a Favor 15 Years Later
Sally Stephens: Stepping Up to Keep The City’s National Parks Open During the Government Shutdown
Joe Eskenazi: Frank Altamirano Spent 32 Years in a Cell for Killing a Man. Now He Works in an Elevator — and Saved a Man
Willie Brown, Willie’s World: How Trump Can Win the Wall: Stop Calling It ‘The Wall’
Carl Nolte, Native Son: On the San Francisco Waterfront — Where Old Meets New
San Francisco Native, Broadway Legend Carol Channing Dies NBC | CBS Bay Area
This edition was curated and written by Alex Mullaney and edited by David Mamaril Horowitz.The newsletter is designed by Marquee and published on Proof.
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