In 2003, San Francisco street artists paid $374 a year for a license to sell their handiwork on approved city streets. That fee — which helps fund the Street Artist Program's $260,000 annual budget — is now $664, and the artists themselves are never exactly sure where the money goes. A grand jury report released earlier this month claims to have found the primary cause of this sharp price hike: Howard Lazar, Street Artist Program's director, bills the artists for the time he and his staff spend getting legal advice on how to avoid giving the artists the details of the SAP's budget. The jury called this "violations of the Sunshine Ordinances" and warned that SAP's practices were "unfair" and could possibly have "a chilling effect on complaints... More >>>