Jane Kim

Is CEQA Bad For Bike Projects?

I wade into the ongoing debate over CEQA, with much unease. For starters, the minute that I start to explain that CEQA stands for the California Environmental Quality Act and that San Francisco City Hall's administration of that particular law is the subject of a long-running and heated political d ... More >>

Lech Walesa's Name Isn't Coming Off San Francisco Street Anytime Soon

Earlier this week we reported that Supervisor Jane Kim was asking around about what it'd take to wipe Lech Walesa off the map. The former Polish president and democratic leader wasn't exactly espousing San Francisco values when he suggested homosexual politicians should sit "behind a wall" in Poland ... More >>

SFPD's Sixth Street Substation vs. Black Market Street Hustlers

Back in October, at least one Mid-Market drug dealer wasn't worried about the prospect of a new SFPD substation on Sixth Street, just around the corner from his workspace. "People are gonna adapt," said Bishop, the 27-year-old the hustler in our feature story Black Market Street. "Somehow, someway, ... More >>

Body Politic: Scott Wiener Strips Down City Bureaucracy

George Davis, Perennial Nudist Candidate, to Announce Bid to Unseat Scott Wiener

Tomorrow, it seems, is gonna be a big day. Not only have the city's indignant nudists promised to put the nascent nudity ban to the test, plaintiff and serial nudist candidate George Davis has pledged to announce his candidacy for District 8 Supervisor in the 2014 election. The current occupant of t ... More >>

Scott Wiener Will Be Next Land-Use Chair, Mark Farrell to Head Budget

SF Weekly has learned that Board President David Chiu will award both of the city's most influential committee chairmanships to his moderate colleagues. Supervisor Scott Wiener will be the chairman of the land-use committee. Supervisor Mark Farrell will be named the chair of the budget committee.&nb ... More >>

Board of Supervisors: Get Used to Muddle in the Middle

By this time next week, barring an event recalling a Strom Thurmond phone book-reading filibuster, San Francisco will have a newly minted Board of Supervisors president. Incumbent David Chiu is in a solid position, but others, including Scott Wiener, are making plays of their own. It'll be intriguin ... More >>

Facebook Page Created for Women Who Don't "Like" Ross Mirkarimi

Ross Mirkarimi is quickly settling back into his post as sheriff, registering inmates to vote, and generally trying to get everyone to forget about his nine-month political and family drama with his wife. But Erica Sedlander, a UC Berkeley graduate student, isn't letting the sheriff off so easy; she ... More >>

Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi Gets His Job Back

Ross Mirkarimi got his badge back last night after the Board of Supervisors reinstated him as San Francisco's sheriff. After several hours of public testimony, the board voted 4-7 to give Mirkarimi his job back, claiming the bruise he gave his wife did not amount to official misconduct. Supervisors ... More >>

Ross Mirkarimi: Supervisors Make Votes Work for Them

Last night, Sheriff-No-Longer-in-Limbo Ross Mirkarimi told the press that "the system worked in this case." In the end, Mirkarimi was reinstated to his elected position -- but it's hard to describe any "system" that involved nine months of lunacy, nine Ethics Commission hearings, several forests' wo ... More >>

Supervisor Christina Olague Explains Her Vote to Save Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi

The cheers from no-longer-suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi's supporters were still echoing in City Hall when the fallout started hitting Supervisor Christina Olague.Less than 12 hours after casting the crucial vote to give Mirkarimi his job back, she sat inside her City Hall office and read the foll ... More >>

8 Washington: Supervisor Olague Votes Herself out of Favor

Ouija Board: Let's Go To the Video on John Avalos' "Joke"

Yesterday, John Avalos became the poster boy du jour for everyone who feels San Francisco is, actually "the Land of Oz" (his words). Websites hither and yon reported the San Francisco supervisor consulted an Ouija board in determining whether it'd be proper to name a Navy ship after Harvey Milk. Thi ... More >>

Sixty Ways to Celebrate Mayor Ed Lee's 60th Birthday

Tomorrow is Mayor Ed Lee's 60th birthday. And, in lieu of a politician's traditional birthday celebration -- a cake, served discreetly in an envelope left beneath the table -- Lee's staff has come up with a novel concept. They have created a website listing 60 things you and I can do to help Lee hel ... More >>

Labor Unions Protest City Fat Cats' Raises, Democracy

At a time when thieves are tearing apart the infrastructure of our city for a few dollars worth of copper, it warrants mentioning that the glistening dome of San Francisco's City Hall is, literally, slathered in gold. Perhaps those who'd like to even the score should aim a little higher. That's the ... More >>

Chris Daly Goes to Work for SEIU

​Critics and supporters alike of Chris Daly can smile and state the former supe now works for Big Labor -- officially. An article in the Guardian feted Daly's recent appointment as the SEIU Local 1021 interim political director as a modern-day return from Elba. Not surprisingly Daly's new gig was ... More >>

Supervisor David Chiu Scores High with SF Chamber of Commerce

​The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce has released its annual scorecard, ranking how it feels members of the Board of Supervisors have been doing when it comes to bolstering our economy. And, like every year, the results are as predictable as San Francisco fog: The moderates outscore the progress ... More >>

Progressively Worse: The Tumultuous Rise and Acrimonious Fall of the City's Left

Mayor Ed Lee Tries to Appease Occupy SF Protesters, Cops

Ellen Huet​After five people were arrested Sunday at Justin Herman Plaza, Occupy SF protesters gathered at City Hall Tuesday afternoon to tell Mayor Ed Lee and the Board of Supervisors to just leave them alone. Tuesday's affair was nothing quite like what Rome experienced over the weekend, rather ... More >>

Meet the Brains (and Checkbooks) Behind That Bizarre Ed Lee Hagiography

​The Kentucky Derby of political-action committees backing Ed Lee's run for mayor has a new horse in the race: The SF Neighbor Alliance for Ed Lee for Mayor 2011. Founded in mid-September, the committee has somehow already spent more than $100,000 - almost 20 percent of the amount spent by the act ... More >>

Grass Roots Is First S.F. Medical Cannabis Dispensary to Join Union

Look for the union label​San Francisco is known as a union town and a city rich with medical cannabis dispensaries. It was only a matter of time before the two intersected. A year after United Food and Commercial Workers began organizing medical cannabis operations in Oakland and Marin County, Gra ... More >>

It Ain't Easy Being Green -- Even in San Francisco

In 2003, Green Party candidate Matt Gonzalez came tantalizingly close to knocking off Gavin Newsom in the mayor's race. It was the political equivalent of Chuck Wepner taking Ali to the final round. The campaign was the crowning moment for the Green Party, nationwide. To restate Hunter S. Thompson's ... More >>

Unemployed Porn Photographer Now Films S.F. Trash Thieves

Rikki Ercoli was laid-off from his position as photo director at Falcon Studios gay porn company in SOMA three years ago. Now unemployed, unoccupied, and hunkered down in his apartment like James Stewart in Rear Window, he's become a one-man vigilante against ridding his neighborhood of the notoriou ... More >>

Guardian Loves it a Carpetbagger

Ready to take on Pelosi, sir? ​In serving as the self-anointed standard bearer for progressivism, The San Francisco Bay Guardian does well to never exactly explain what progressivism is. In this way, progressivism merely becomes whatever the Guardian deems it to be. If progressivism is whatever th ... More >>

Twitter Confirms It Will Stay in San Francisco

Done deal ​Much to nobody's surprise, Twitter officials signed a lease to keep the multibillion-dollar company in San Francisco -- tax break and all. And although progressives balked at the idea of cutting the microblogging giant a six-year tax break to keep its headquarters in San Francisco, they ... More >>

Mayor Ed Lee, Candidates Use Cesar Chavez Day as a Chance to Schmooze

We wish we were flies buzzing around them.​Politicos rolled out of bed early Thursday morning to make an appearance at the  8 a.m. Cesar Chavez Day breakfast in the Mission. They munched on $60 plates of eggs, frijoles, and tortillas to benefit the upcoming Cesar Chavez Parade & Festival ... More >>

S.F. Bedbugs: So Many Cases, So Few Inspectors

cohabitation ​Like Supervisor Jane Kim, we want to know why there are only two health inspectors dedicated to dealing with the city's 560 SROs, home to most of the bedbug cases. To put that into context: that's one inspector for every 10,000 SRO units.But more than that, we want to know why the De ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Twitter Tax Breaks Would Bring Millions to San Francisco, Controller Says

Follow Twitter ... to Market Street​The city's number-crunchers today released an analysis that spins the highly criticized Twitter deal as a win for San Francisco taxpayers. Businesses with an annual payroll expense of more than $250,000 now pay a 1.5 percent tax. Yet a break for Twitter would no ... More >>

Hisashi Sugaya's Tenderloin Walk of Shame

Put on your walking shoes​As promised, the shame-faced planning commissioner Hisashi Sugaya traversed the streets of the Tenderloin Friday afternoon to atone for an earlier remark suggesting a neighborhood grocery store peddle drugs.After making his comment publicly, Sugaya, who was reappointed to ... More >>

Hisashi Sugaya Apologizes for Suggestion Grocery Store Sell Crack

No joke in the Tenderloin​Last week, we reported about another instance in which Planning Commissioner Hisashi "Bill" Sugaya shoved his foot in his mouth in a desperate attempt to be funny. Instead of drawing chuckles, Sugaya was hissed after he made a remark, suggesting a Tenderloin market "shoul ... More >>

San Francisco's progressive Board of Supervisors now more moderate

David Chiu Makes Committee Assignments That 'Complete the Coup'

Is the Coup Complete?​Former supervisor Chris Daly noted on his Facebook page that the "coup is complete," referring to the new committee appointments for the Board of Supervisors.Board president David Chiu on Tuesday afternoon announced the new sitting members of the seven Board committees, makin ... More >>

League of Pissed Off Voters Has Some Questions for Ed Lee

We're Progressives and We're Pissed Off​You know it's never going to turn out well when politicians piss off the official League of Pissed Off Voters. The group, which comprises voters ranging from their late teens to early 30s, fired off a letter this morning to members of the Board of Supervisor ... More >>

David Chiu Won't Be District Attorney

Supervisor David Chiu won't be prosecuting anyone anytime soon​These days, Supervisor David Chiu is just full of surprises. First, he stunned attendees of Chris Daly's farewell roast by showing up, less than 24 hours after Daly excoriated him as the anti-Christ of San Francisco progressive politic ... More >>

Gavin Newsom Could Delay Swearing-In. But Why?

Should he stay or should he go? ​The Chron this morning summarized a legal memo that backs up Mayor Gavin Newsom's oft-repeated threat of delaying his exit as San Francisco mayor if he's not satisfied with the Board of Supervisors' choice for his successor. The "Will he or won't he?" makes for gre ... More >>

Elections Overtime: The Races That Haven't Finished

...And we're counting​Funny thing about Instant-Runoff Voting: The results often aren't so instant. A number of elections around the state are still undetermined. What does the future hold? Gnashing of teeth, threats of litigation, and, of course, counting, counting, and recounting. In an Instant- ... More >>

Supes Races Too Close to Call

Four supes-to-be will be 'crowned' on Friday, leading to a memorable weekend. Their identities are not so clear. ​It's going to be a hell of a weekend for a quartet of San Franciscans. While the vast majority of San Francisco votes have been counted, late absentees and others will keep the city fr ... More >>

San Francisco Besieged by Tons of Political Junk Mail

Crap​A colleague recently plopped his accumulated political mail of the last three-odd weeks down on our desk. Campaign fliers alone stacked more than an inch high and weighed around a pound. The voter information pamphlet for the city and state nearly tripled the poundage. That's a ton of politic ... More >>

Senate Votes Against Taking Up DREAM Act. Local Students Bummed.

Nope. Not today. ​The U.S. Senate today voted against taking up the the defense budget bill -- curtailing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's last-minute plan to tack on an amendment to give illegal immigrants who go to college or into the military a chance at citizenship. The Wall Street Journal ... More >>

Target Targeted By Angry S.F. Supervisor Candidates

Everyone loves the dog. Everyone hates his employer. ​When candidates running for the Board of Supervisors were asked what they thought about Target's plans to open a pair of San Francisco outlets, their opinions were like discount footwear at the big box store: plentiful, hard to miss -- and unco ... More >>

Pelosi's Visit: Speaker Speaks Softly, Plugs Children, Walks Out Fast

Chris Roberts/The SnitchCares about kids!​Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi provided we miserable media wretches a small spark of excitement Monday morning when she visited San Francisco City Hall for a rare visit. Her focus: "Our children, our children, our children."In between ... More >>

What Drinks Will Ace Barkeep Chris Daly Come Up With Next?

A progressive pour​All kidding aside, we hear Supervisor Chris Daly is a hell of a bartender. So when he opens up his office on Friday as an alcohol-laden cash-generator for the Coalition on Homelessness (5 p.m. first drink) -- greatness may ensue. Daly is talented enough at slinging the booze tha ... More >>

S.F. Democrats Play Game of Telephone Over Non-Existent JROTC Recall Effort

Tonight's Democratic County Central Committee meeting features a resolution that seems to have expired in relevance not long after it was put to paper.DCCC Chairman Aaron Peskin put forth a resolution, to be voted on at tonight's session, over "threatened recall campaigns" against school board membe ... More >>

JROTC under fire in S.F. schools

The Ackerman Election

The school board races focus on a superintendent's future and progressive versus downtown political infighting. Kids aren't much mentioned.