Beautiful people out there, and it was a love fest, Kerr said. Music playing, everybody marching peacefully. Everyone I saw 100% loves our country. And as is our country's custom, if you don't agree with what your government is doing, then you peacefully protest, and that's how it should be. We are the democracy, we the people.
We have to live with it forever, so I felt like maybe we should give input on what we like and do not like. Maybe the wolf will pull off her head and it will actually be grandma. That's not going to happen, but I like to grab onto some optimism.
We appreciate that your office is considering a local ballot measure to fund Muni via a parcel tax. Even if a regional funding measure passes at the ballot, Muni will still face a growing annual deficit of over $150 million. The stakes could not be higher. San Francisco's economic recovery, climate goals, and basic mobility for working people all depend on a stable, well-funded public transit system.
Saturday's No Kings! demonstrations are tomorrow and I will be at the San Francisco march, screaming my head off. As Barbara Ehrenreich said, it feels good to get together with other people and yell! So c'mon, everybody, show up, and do the same-if the spirit so moves you. Jump up and down if you're hopping mad. Link arms and kick. If you don't want to scream your head off, maybe you want to dance your ass off.
The company that won the $5.9 million contract, OpenGov, had significant ties to Lurie: Advisory board member Katherine August-deWilde is a major donor to and sits on the board of Tipping Point Community, the foundation where Lurie served as CEO until 2019 and board chair until 2023. She and her husband donated $60,000 to a pro-Lurie PAC in the 2024 election and $100,000 to Lurie's inauguration. Its co-founder and former chairman Joe Lonsdale and CEO Zac Bookman are both major donors to Tipping Point.
"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.
