SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Salesforce founder Marc Benioff is doubling down on his support for President Trump - even welcoming National Guard troops in San Francisco. Benioff told the New York Times he would support President Trump sending troops to the city. MORE: A look at change in Silicon Valley as tech industry shifts to support Trump State Senator Scott Weiner reacted to Benioff's statement on X:
"When a city that has given them so much now is facing a budget deficit of $800 million in the next two fiscal years, what did Airbnb do? They filed lawsuits against us so they don't have to pay their fair share," said San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, speaking in front of the company's headquarters at a Wednesday press conference announcing the boycott campaign.
After moving to the Bay Area in 2007, Meghann Adams bounced around: Oakland for a few months, the Mission for a year. Before the 42-year-old found her current home, she said, lowering her voice: "I lived in Noe Valley for a year... It's not me." So, four years ago, she moved back to the grittier, working-class Tenderloin, where she'd felt more at home.
If you go up the Grand Staircase to the second floor of San Francisco City Hall and then make a right, you will find a graveyard outside the office of District 1 Supervisor Connie Chan. Each tombstone is marked with a Halloweeny riff on the name of a former district supervisor. Is it an homage? Is it a threat? "There's a lot of stuff going on, so it's nice to have a little levity," said Robyn Burke, one of Chan's legislative aides.
"If you know you need to get off of and away from drugs, you shouldn't be forced into housing where drug use is allowed and where recovery is not supported," he said. "Some folks won't go into housing because they know that it actually is dangerous for them because they're still experiencing an addiction. ... This isn't about having zero tolerance to drug use. It's about having environments where recovery is explicitly supported, and that is the goal."
The gloomy mood that settled over the Bay Area in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic is finally showing signs of breaking. A new survey of residents across the region found nearly half agree the Bay Area is headed in the right direction, up from 38% last year and just 29% in 2023. The annual poll conducted by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, an economic think tank, seeks to capture the tenor of the times.
Police said that on Sunday, Sept. 28, a victim walked into the Park Police Station in Golden Gate Park to report that earlier that night, "an incident occurred with the suspect known to the victim," according to police spokesperson Officer Eve Laokwansathitaya. "The victim had no reports of injuries at the time," Laokwansathitaya said, but police found probable cause to arrest Alessandria.
ICE is already stopping people at the airport, including people who have a legal right to live in the United States: Eric Lee wrote in a post on X that his client, 40-year-old Tae Heung "Will" Kim, was taken into custody at the airport last week when he returned from his brother's wedding in South Korea. According to the post, Kim spent more than seven days at an SFO detention center without daylight, sleeping in a chair and having no access to an attorney.
The company has a high-powered lobbying firm, Lighthouse Public Affairs, on a $10,000 monthly retainer, Ethics Commission records show. And the Planning Commission just voted to approve a plan to build a 104-foot tower with 12 new antennas in the middle of the residential neighborhood of Diamond Heights. The "monopole" would soar over existing trees and create a major new element on the skyline in a part of town where most construction is limited to four stories.
District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder walked out of the elevator on the sixth floor at 630 Sansome St. on Thursday morning and through the security checkpoint to become the first city supervisor to visit the ICE detention facility since the Trump administration began its immigration crackdown this year. The inside of the ICE headquarters, where immigrants are taken for processing after being arrested outside of the courtrooms below, was nearly empty with the only visible ICE official sitting behind the front desk.
Christopher White, the current head of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, got his start in advocacy 20 years ago when an inattentive driver turned left in front of him on Arguello, sending him careening into the windshield. Since then, Arguello has remained on San Francisco's high-injury network. A teenager was badly injured there in 2022. Cyclist Ethan Boyes was killed on Arguello by a drunk driver in 2023.
I hear Jimmy Kimmel needs a job. He may not currently live in District Four and I'm not sure how soon he can move here. He may have to commute for the first few weeks, until he finds suitable and affordable housing. But the mayor could conditionally offer the position to the just-banned talk show host, if Kimmel promises to fly into the city at least once a week for a Board of Supervisors meetings.
(Editor's Note: Rowena Brown, who was sworn in as the At-Large Oakland City Councilmember in January of this year, is already one of the most effective and hard-working members of the Oakland City Council. Members of our team in the East Bay have seen her step up, time and again, for everything from helping save the city's fire stations to ensuring support for Oakland Pride.
Advocacy group members and union construction workers cheerfully toted signs that read "Cities are not Museums" and "Affordable Housing Can't Wait." As they see it, the city's failure to build housing at scale for the past decades has contributed to the city's affordability crisis, and the solution is to build at scale - which the zoning plan will enable.
Late Sunday night, negotiations between Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City) and Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), the legislation's author, wrapped up over details in Senate Bill 63. The bill would authorize Bay Area transit agencies to place a measure on next year's ballot to address long-term funding shortfalls. The completed negotiations led to a special meeting of the Assembly Transportation Committee earlier today, where SB 63 received final passage on an 11-5 vote before heading to the full Assembly floor.***
Chiu's office also accused the nonprofit of hiring family members, including children of the executive director and vice president of the board, violating an anti-nepotism provision in a city grant agreement. Separately, San Francisco's Office of Labor Standards Enforcement started its own investigation after receiving complaints from employees who claimed labor violations. The city suspended funding for Providence to operate the Oasis Hotel and its other programs and threatened to debar it, permanently cutting off future funding.
