Sophie Maxwell

'It's On Like Donkey Kong': San Francisco Politics Illustrated

​When Supervisor Chris Daly last night punctuated his promise to Board President David Chiu that he'd "haunt him politically" by uttering "It's on like Donkey Kong," he transcended the bizarre and entered the sublime. He caused a legion of hardened City Hall-watchers to say something they never th ... More >>

Is Car-Sharing Business Coming to Garage Near You -- Even in Your Building?

Now he can set up a car-sharing network right in your apartment. Or can he?​Come January, a new statewide law will allow you to adjust your insurance to use your car as a shared vehicle. Meanwhile, legislation coming up at tomorrow's Board of Supervisors meeting will more easily allow you -- or yo ... More >>

SOMA Pot Club Surprised to Learn of Ban on SOMA Pot Clubs

The city would prefer HopeNet's Steve Smith -- and his buddy -- to stay right where they are. And only there.​South of Market's been a de-facto "containment zone" for medical cannabis dispensaries for a variety of reasons: The still-gritty neighborhood has cheaper rents, more vacant storefront ... More >>

What's the Beef with Vegetarianism?

Carnivores get mad about meatless Mondays.

Outraged Carnivores To Boycott San Francisco Over 'Meatless Mondays'

When you take away food like this, the terrorists win​Colorado Bank VP: "I've attended my last meeting In San Francisco!" Illinois Financial Adviser: "I"m going to start conducting my business meetings in Napa Valley!"As official exhortations go, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell's recent non-binding Meat ... More >>

It's Your Friday Morning News Quiz!

Another week in the books here in San Francisco...​By now you should be well acquainted with the drill. Answer all the questions right, mail us a perfect score, and we'll give you a prize. Nice! 1. Who is Gregory Giusti? A. The Cal State East Bay professor charged in a bevy of child porn/molestati ... More >>

Supervisor Suggests Eating Less Meat, FOX Commenters Lose Their Shit

​So, FOX Nation seems to have the scoop on a new local government entity: The San Francisco Food Police! It's like the fashion police, but with less telling you not to wear leggings as pants and more telling you to eat local. (But seriously, what WOULD the San Francisco Food Police do?) The level- ... More >>

The ABCs of Ditching School

Schools are trying to contain their truancy epidemic. How're they doing? Just ask the students smoking pot less than a block from campus.

SF Gov InAction: Mayor and Supervisors Still Not the Get Along Gang

  Oh bleary eyed passengers on San Francisco's ship of fools: I have to say I'm getting quite the kick out of my vacation. Last week I went a whole six days without thinking of Sean Elsbernd!  Honestly, life is too short to think about Sean Elsbernd. I don't know how he does it. Instead ... More >>

Committee Assignments are Here! Which Supes Got Screwed?

But that's a loser committee!​The day the board president hands out committee assignments to the city supervisors always feels just a bit like junior high school. Who's the new boy? Who got all his electives? Who's stuck taking woodshop in seventh period? Who'll sit at the cool kids' table? Who'll ... More >>

Supes Lambaste Academy of Art at Hearing -- Whether They'll Deliver More than a Tongue-Lashing Remains to Be Seen

​Elisa Stephens had an admission to make today. "We have made a few mistakes," she said at a public hearing regarding the controversial housing practices of her family's for-profit Academy of Art University. And that, claim the Academy's many critics, is one hell of an understatement. For d ... More >>

Pension tension: S.F. spikes retirement pay

Bayview Activists Threaten To Recall Sophie Maxwell. Yes, Again.

Jim HerdSupervisor Sophie Maxwell -- she of the Barack Obama purse -- gets a warmer reception here from Nancy Pelosi than she is currently receiving from activists in her home district​Supervisor Sophie Maxwell's vote to help the Navy circumvent a citizen's advisory group has gotten the usual susp ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Supes Vote to Give Cats, Entertainment Commission Claws

  I'm worried about the supes. Are they feeling all right? Are they eating enough protein? Are they celebrating legal weed a little too early?I'm concerned because there's a federal holiday -- Veteran's Day -- right in the middle of the week, and it's the only day the supervisors are takin ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: City Brings Hammer Down on Anti-Prostitution Program, Then Forms a Glee Club to Sing Social Services to Sleep

  I've had a really busy few weeks, and I haven't been able to catch up on any of the new fall shows yet. So I tried to cram a lot of television in this weekend while writing SF Gov InAction. Just so you know. Monday, Oct. 19, 10 a.m. - Public Safety Committee Somebody has to sa ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Your 'Labor Day' Guide to What the F*#@k Happened in the Last Eight Months

With a federal holiday appears on the calendar, city hall's motto becomes: "Ask not what your country can do for you, but how much time off you can take from your country". In this particular case, The supervisors like to celebrate Labor Day by pretending to have labored, while their staff likes ... More >>

No Smoking: City Attorney Announces Settlement to Shut Mirant Potrero Power Plant 'Irrevocably' By 2010

Joe EskenaziCity Attorney Dennis Herrera delivers the big news, backed by (from left) PUC head Ed Harrington, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, and former Board of Supes President Aaron Peskin​The answer has been revealed to the "mystery settlement" announced yesterday by City Attorney Dennis Herrera ... More >>

Pride Rides: How Will Our Elected Officials Be Cruising This Weekend?

Bevan Dufty's sweet ride...In case you missed the proliferation of rainbow flags and the huge influx of prideful people heading into our fair city, things are ramping up for the big Pride Parade on Sunday, June 28.As the knives begin to come out behind the scenes in the city's simmering budget battl ... More >>

Once Again, Sophie Maxwell Pulls Football Away From Progressives

Supervisor Sophie Maxwell recused herself from holding the football todayCity Hall Johnny-on-the-Spot Chris Roberts is the first to report that the supes today passed a series of extremely tenant-friendly rent laws. We'd explain them to you, but since Mayor Gavin Newsom is all but certain to smite t ... More >>

Market Watch: Real Estate Division Feeling Heat over Alemany

With great produce comes great responsibilityWe reported this week that the city's Real Estate Division, roughly 10 months after engineering a hostile takeover of the United Nations Plaza antiques market, had fallen a cool half-million short of its revenue projections from the new business. This was ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Mandatory Composting Gets Some New Sponsors. Which Bin Do We Put 'Futility' In?

I hope you'll forgive me if I keep this week's Gov InAction curt: I told WAY too many David Chiu jokes over the weekend, and now I'm worn out. I've got to remember to pace myself. However, in case you're wondering, here's how many David Chius it takes to change a light bulb: • None: Aaro ... More >>

Union President: Supervisors' Resolution Supporting Alleged Cop Killers is 'Spitting in the Face of Every Cop in San Francisco'

The Ingleside police station, where Sgt. John V. Young was killed in 1971The president of San Francisco's police union railed against supervisors Eric Mar and Sophie Maxwell today for their sponsorship of a resolution asking that charges be dropped against the seven men charged with killing a city p ... More >>

Terminus: Progressives Stymied as Supes Can't Muter Votes to Reject Muni Budget

Today's very special noontime Board of Supervisors meeting clocked in at an extremely svelte 50-odd minutes. But, as was always the case in the ongoing wrangle over the Municipal Transportation Agency's budget, you could have boiled the whole thing down to a momentary exercise: Clerk: What'ya think, ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Madatory Composting -- And Your Mother -- Are Back In Town

Well, that's the thing: I thought my mom would know the Snuggie was a gag gift, but she actually thought it was a real gift. So here I'd planned this completely ironic moment, and she was starting to tear up. She actually said "It looks so comfortable, and I get so cold in winter!" Shit! So what ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Toxic Babies Are Not an Option!

Sometimes ... and I want to make it very clear that this is not drug-induced ... I don't think San Francisco is a real city at all. I think that maybe we're a Lego city, populated by Weebles. It makes as much sense as anything Sophie Maxwell's said lately. Why would I think this? Well, h ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: What Kind of MONSTER Wouldn't Get a Candle Permit? Plus: Save the Budget Analyst!

Monday, April 6 11 a.m. - Public Safety Committee Who watches the watchers? Why, the Public Safety Committee does. Every other week. Its recent agendas haven't actually involved DOING much -- there's not much legislation coming out of these meetings -- but they've been crammed with hearings ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Another Battle in the War on Fun, Children, and Food Made with Real Organic Cruelty

Monday, March 23, 10:30 a.m. - City Operations & Neighborhood Services Committee It's hard to figure out what Sophie Maxwell and Gavin Newsom have in common. Sophie, after all, is a black woman who doesn't like technology but will answer her land line to talk to friends and critics alike, ... More >>

SFEC Wants More Power to Regulate Nightclubs

EKAphotographyAs reported yesterday in the Chronicle, the SF Entertainment Commission is seeking greater authority to regulate nightclubs. New legislation, written by the commission and introduced by Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, proposes doubling the area outside a venue the clu ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Supes Huddle in Closed Session to Gossip About Catholic Church and Landmark Trees

I wish I were a supervisor. Then I could have only three meetings this week. I kid, of course: It's hard work pretending to take this stuff seriously. Monday, Feb. 22 10:30 a.m. -- City Operations & Neighborhood Services Committee If I had to pick one word to describe this meeting, it wou ... More >>

SF Gov InAction: Supes Stand by Each Other After Little John Avalos Has His Bar Mitzvah

This is the week the new Board of Supervisors goes from JV to Varsity. I know it felt like they'd hit the big time before, what with hundreds of people crowding the hearing rooms to yell at them about stuff they hadn't done -- but that's just the crowd getting fired up by San Francisco's airheade ... More >>

How Could Progressive Coalition Shatter? Let Us Count the Ways

Will it be the House of Harmony or the House of Pain? The answer is: Yes. Progressive Supervisors banded together last week to elect a compromise-candidate Board President, which raises a crucial question: "Since when have progressives compromised on anything?" In a town that views compromise ... More >>

SF Government InAction: We blame everybody. EVERYBODY!

By Benjamin Wachs San Francisco has managed to come out of the most hopeful election in US memory more divided than ever. It’s not because Prop 8 passed – everybody loses at some point in a Democracy. It’s because our search for someone to blame has now got us hating each other even more ... More >>

The Failed Experiment

The Class of 2000 made San Francisco its political petri dish.

SF Gov InAction: Superheroes, Stereotypes, and all of San Francisco to become One Giant Tourism District!

SF Gov InAction: Supes Divide the City Amongst Themselves, have Big Plans for 19th Avenue, Try to Ban Smoking in Small Steps

SF Government InAction: Supes to "Commend" Department Head Accused of Sexual and Religious Harrassment...

SF Gov InAction: Supes to Investigate Crucial Wooden Decks, Celebrate Sea Otters, and Look like They're Reading Reports

Public Power Grab

Why some "progressives" are putting energy into a bad idea.

How San Francisco got might be getting its groove back to fight summer homicides

It was the best of metaphors, it was the worst of metaphors: what we can learn from “1858 Black Exodus Commemoration Week”

Is San Francisco Seeing a Spike in Firearm Clumsiness?

Not for Sale by Owner

Visitacion Valley might have its dream transit village in a few years, if only Ingersoll-Rand will get out of the way

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, February 9, 2005

The Lifesaver

Shawn Richard got the city to give jobs to alleged gang leaders. If anyone can make such a program work, it's ...THE LIFESAVER

Letters to the Editor

Week of November 5, 2003

Dumping Sophie

On the heels of Gov. Davis' recall, angry constituents are trying to oust Supervisor Sophie Maxwell

Land Ho

A new deal with the Navy means S.F. supervisors can finally consider accepting part of Hunters Point Shipyard

Dawn of a New Day

People say the events of the past two weeks will change us. Here are a couple of places to start.

Gray Skies

If Gov. Davis has his way, California soon will have dozens of new power plants -- a lot of them in the wrong places, some of them unnecessary, and very, very few of them based on renewable energy

Shame and Courage

The Navy's unconscionable nuclear recklessness and dissembling at Hunters Point should draw the attention of Congress