April 18, 2019
Good Thursday to you!
It took three attempted senatorial bills and some 15 years of local gun control activism to put an end to Cow Palace gun show. On Tuesday, the venue's board of directors voted to discontinue the event beginning January 2020.
Some advocates have long held that the show puts communities at risk of more gun crime, while others have protested that state-owned venues should not “facilitate or profit from the proliferation of firearms.”
Cow Palace CEO Lori Marshall said the vote does not indicate that gun show promoters previously engaged in improper conduct. The shows net about $125,000 annually for the venue.
This iconic 12-minute moving picture of Market Street days before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire has been digitally transferred to enhance its sharpness and display more of the image, including the sprocket holes in time to commemorate today’s 113th anniversary of the catastrophe.
San Francisco Superior Court lifted 88,000 suspensions on driver’s license belonging to those who’ve failed to appear in traffic court, Mayor London Breed announced Tuesday. Although the court ended that suspension practice in 2017, it did not clear the backlog of revoked licenses, creating a major financial setback for low-income drivers reliant on their vehicles for employment.
Chevron, Netflix and Salesforce paid no federal taxes in 2018, according to a report by a left-leaning think tank. The Bay Area-based companies were three of 60 profitable Fortune 500 companies nationwide that paid nothing in federal taxes or received a rebate. Chevron netted $4.5 billion, Netflix $856 million and Salesforce $800 million in 2018 domestic income.
“There’s no indication that any of these companies are doing anything illegal,” said Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the think tank. “By all accounts, they’re simply using tax breaks that Congress and various presidents have chosen to make available.”
“The heart means love. That’s my message. That’s it.”
For the past six years, he’s worn his heart on his hand. Atop a narrow 18th Street walkway above Highway 101, JaVonne Hatfield, 26, is commonly found flourishing a big red cardboard heart as he dances, headphones in ear, for an audience of 14,000 motorists per hour.
It wasn’t the first time police arrested this DJ from Australia for suspicious behavior around children. However, it is apparently the first instance of Roscoe Bradley Holyoake allegedly snatching a toddler from his mother and taking off before he was detained by bystanders and arrested by police.
Police sent Holyoake to a hospital for an evaluation in late February, after he allegedly asked a stranger in a Sydney apartment complex if he could enter and play with their child.
The cost of shopping bags at the checkout may rise to 25 cents next year following a proposal that would enforce the increase beginning July 1, 2020. It would also require pre-checkout bags, commonly used for produce, to be compostable or recyclable.
After San Francisco imposed its current 10-cent fee, 60% of customers brought their bags to the stores. In Santa Cruz, which has already implemented the 25-cent charge, 90% of customers take their bags to the shop. Some 100 billion plastic bags are used nationwide each year.
The doors of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s new fleet of Siemens streetcars have trouble detecting when passengers are obstructing closure, documents obtained by the San Francisco Examiner reveal.
“We brought this up to management, but as you can see nothing has been done about the [door’s] sensitive edges,” Roger Marenco, president of the Transportation Workers Union Local 250-A, said of the new streetcar doors. “This is a serious health and safety issue for the general public, and for operators in disciplinary actions." San Francisco Examiner
New rules will require that tech-enabled bike rental companies Uber and Lyft notify the SFMTA of any engineering modifications made to their bikes after defective brake systems were discovered. San Francisco Examiner
Affordable housing nonprofits will now get the first shot at snatching up residential property with at least three units and matching other offers, thanks to legislation passed by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Sellers may still decline any offer from nonprofits, which cannot offer an average rent exceeding 80% of area median income or rent to those who earn more than 120% of the AMI.
The proposal offers affected sellers of property worth at least $5 million a modest exemption to their property transfer tax when they sell to qualifying nonprofits.
Inner Sunset
On Wednesday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the renovation of the 125-year-old Golden Gate Park Tennis Center. The $27 million project includes the modernization of 21 tennis courts and the clubhouse. It will be funded via a public-private partnership among the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the Tennis Coalition of San Francisco and the San Francisco Parks Alliance.
Embarcadero
On Monday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and District Six Supervisor Matt Haney presented changes to the controversial plan for a Homeless Navigation Center on Seawall Lot 330. The officials proposed fewer beds and more police patrols for the area to ameliorate the concerns of neighbors.
Tenderloin
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency announced its proposal to eliminate nine stops and alter the route for the 27-Bryant to reduce delays as part of the 27-Bryant Transit Reliability Project. The changes put a special focus on safety because the bus travels along Vision Zero corridors, the streets most dangerous to bicyclists and pedestrians.
Mission Bay
The San Francisco Giants are taking a drubbing in paid attendance of games. About 6,500 fewer fans went to Oracle Park for the past 10 games compared to the 10 games played last year during the same period. The crowds are expected to pick up once school is out for summer.
Haight-Ashbury
San Francisco police are investigating 13 swastikas found in Buena Vista Park on the morning of April 15. Recreation and Parks Department employees painted over the swastikas while the paint was still wet.
Mission Bay
Mayor London Breed is working with San Francisco Bay Ferry, Golden Gate Ferry and the Port of San Francisco to quickly establish a temporary ferry landing between Piers 48 and 50 in time for the grand opening of the Chase Center in September. Plans to build a permanent ferry landing on 16th Street have been delayed until 2021.
North Beach
Since 1974, Beach Blanket Babylon has been a San Francisco staple for entertainment-seekers, tourists and residents alike. But the fun will end on Dec. 31, when the world’s longest-running musical revue holds its last show. “It’s just time. We wanted the show to go out on top, and we have the best cast and crew right now. They deserve the best,” Jo Schuman Silver, wife of the show’s late creator Steve Silver, said.
Mission
“My question is: What are these people going to do that city agencies aren’t already doing?”
Homeowners who would be subject to assessments to pay for services provided by a proposed Green Benefit District around Dolores Park are questioning why it's necessary. Proponents claim the funds will support city services taking on chronic problems such as cleanliness, crime, and maintenance.
Robyn Purchia, Green Space: Don’t Go Overboard on Unneeded Marijuana Packaging Rules
Jaya Padmanabhan, In Brown Type: Tiger Woods, Stephen Curry, Erik Kratz and the Demography of Sports
Heather Knight, On San Francisco: San Francisco General Sees Light After Public Pressure, Revises System that Produced Big Bills
Please help This San Francisco grow. Send a friend to our signup page at www.thissanfrancisco.com. Thanks!
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.
Add us to your address book. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
This San Francisco
1728 Ocean Avenue PMB 204
San Francisco, CA 94112
Click here to unsubscribe from this list.
© 2019 Stakeholder Media LLC