Archive for September, 2010

As Supervisor David Chiu’s legislation requiring party promoters to register with the City, the owners of Cafe Cocomo decide a certain kind of music won’t be served up at their club any more.  In related news, Tupac and Biggie were nonplussed.

After weeks of waiting, refreshing the SF Department of Elections results page every 10 minutes, looking for lost ballots (which ended up in a pond), sleepless nights, and emotional breakdowns, we finally know who the four new members of the Board of Supes are.  But do you really know them?  The SF Bay Guardian sits down with the four new Supervisor-elects and sets the record straight: what do they plan to address in Room 200?

ABC7’s Carolyn Tyler has video of Mayor Gavin Newsom’s comments about a slice of the federal stimulus package, culled from a Chron endorsement interview.  Said comments apparently made their way across the country to the White House Briefing Room (apparently through a series of tubes, out of which I am reliably informed that the Interwebs are built) so that Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs could shrug and grin and say “ehhhhh, no big deal.”  Check it out!

In efforts to generate revenue for SFO, a plan has been put forward to increase advertisements at the popular spot.  How much advertising is too much advertising?  The Chron tells us more.

Some BART officials think a little more advertising could go a long way to raising some cash for the transit agency.  Which means you will have to exercise even more restraint from buying that iPad that has been staring you in the face all week.  Good luck!

The BAR chats with Barbara Garcia to talk about the Affordable Care Act and San Francisco nonprofits. It’s not the shortest read, but an interesting one. Then again, if you expected a chat about the ACA and our city’s nonprofits to be brief… you should probably move.

…is another man’s canvas.  Literally.  Public art projects throughout the city are falling victim to art of a different kind, and city officials and art aficionados alike are scrambling to remove the graffiti.

The San Francisco Unified School District is considering building dorms… er, affordable housing… for its teachers in the hopes of encouraging them to stay in the city for more than the average three to five years.  Just think, you could live AND work with all your colleagues!  Sounds like a reality show in the making, eh?

San Francisco to the federal government: You got served!! In the effort to improve pipeline safety, City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit on Tuesday to force U.S. regulators to provide better oversight on California’s pipeline system. The Chron and Ex provide the details.

A group of below-market-rate homeowners is suing the City after they’ve discovered the program doesn’t work quite how they expected.  Turns out they can’t sell their home for nearly as much money as they’d like, or even pass them on to their higher-income kids.  Isn’t there some sort of saying about always reading the fine print…?

The San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau reports that the number of business travelers to San Francisco has steadily declined.

BART reports that the Clipper card’s oddities are really conveniences  - depending on how one looks at it…

For those of you who don’t get the Sunday Chronicle delivered to your doorstep, I’ve got some news for you.  In this Sunday’s edition, Matier and Ross tell us about how California Democrats are mobilizing for the upcoming electon, Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado’s personal flight patterns, the big Oracle party, and the BART light rail connector to Oakland airport.  Meanwhile, Willie Brown discusses the shrinking number of undecided voters in the governor’s race, more on the Jerry Brown-Bill Clinton flap, a visit with Al Sharpton, Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier’s next political move, a dinner with Assembly Speaker John Perez, and a big thumbs up for “The Tillman Story” and “The Town.”

The Examiner reports that hundreds of businesses are violating labor laws, primarily restaurants.  Pretty unsavory…

In response to a North Beach market’s non-compliance with Planning Department permits, Mayor Gavin Newsom has assembled a task force to investigate claims that business owners are not disclosing what they should really be selling.

OK, it’s unlikely that any of you actually said exactly that.  (Most of our readers dropped out of grade school and probably don’t know how to pronounce big SAT words like ‘disgruntled,’ or even what they mean.)  But perhaps some of you noticed that most of the big stories of the day are commentary-free on this foggy Wednesday morning.  The headlines are there, sure - but where’s the quick, caffeine-fueled repartee that we’re used to from Libby and her gang of merry pranksters?  Well, almost all of you know that Suspects is written by a crew of folks who are not only elbows-deep in politics every single dingle day, but also work as advocates at Barbary Coast Consulting.  And since we want Suspects to be a good resource for our entire political chattering class, and not a place we use just to pimp out the views of our clients, we’ve got a set of rules we follow when the media writes a story on a project we’re paid to work on, and those rules call for us to pretty much shut up.  Curious to learn more about our self-imposed gag rule?  *Click here*.  And thanks for reading…even when there ain’t much to read…but we promise the links work, so go forth and click away…

The San Francisco Bay Guardian decides it’s time to talk about both kinds of residency requirements (you know, both what the actual laws on the books say, and What They Believe Should Be Required) - and the Weekly also goes into depth about one particular candidate who’s running for D10 Supervisor.

Remember the wheelchair ramp that the BoS approved to have installed in its chambers? Well, the good news is that it’s FINALLY being installed.  But of course, with every piece of good news comes a piece of bad news.  We learn that the construction and installation process is expected to take up to 10 weeks and force the Board to meet off-site (for a high price!).

Anyone, it turns out, if you’re willing to pay!  The Bay Area is about to get its first express lane later this week when the carpool lanes on I-680 are opened up to any driver willing to plunk down a few bucks - or pick up strangers on the way to work the old fashioned way, of course.

The Examiner takes an in-depth look at the quality (or lack thereof) of the city’s Section 8 public housing.  According to a recent investigation by the feds, 89% of local units didn’t meet federal standards, leaving their occupants frustrated and housing advocates a wee bit peeved.

Yesterday, the Government Audit and Oversight committee put their support behind a law that would require City departments to provide all information to be posted on the Internets.  Data lovers: start your mouses (or smartphone apps)!

The Board of Supervisors will soon review San Francisco’s whistleblower policy and whether tattletales should continue to receive a hefty chunk of change for ratting out those who pay fewer property taxes than they are supposed to.

The San Francisco Fire Department honors their colleagues who were lost during attacks on the World Trade Center nine years ago.