Archive for November, 2012

Run, Ed, Run… while you still can! After the last Mayoral election cycle, in which a committee was formed (Progress For All) to coax the then-interim Mayor into running as a full-term candidate, but was not technically affiliated with any candidate, the Ethics Commission is pushing new legislation that would regulate such committees. This would still need eight votes from the Board to pass. This is tough for me on an emotional level, as I was planning the Run, Panda, Run campaign next election cycle.

In today’s CEQA news: people still disagree on how to change the rules regarding environmental appeals. Also, this morning I woke up and it was foggy.

The City Insider team give us a brief rundown of Rose Pak’s interview on KQED and describes how she thinks of herself as just a regular gal.

Do you know of an apartment that could be rented to a person who has served their country and has fallen upon difficult times? Please call Bevan Dufty. He wants to hear from you so the City can continue doing some very important work for some of our most honorable - and frequently most ignored - citizens.

In the wake of some high-profile incidents surrounding tankers and the Bay Bridge, the Harbor Safety Committee is promulgating some new rules to help make sure that the bridge and the tankers don’t get to sneak off and nuzzle each other again. Especially when it’s foggy…

Hey, Marc and Lynne Benioff: THANK YOU. Nice work.

The plans to turn the old Schlage Lock site into housing and shopping and such are in need of just one key component. Yep, the usual one.

The Chron’s Marisa Lagos, with an assist from our very own Alex Clemens, takes a look at the Board’s new make-up and considers what it will mean for decision-making at City Hall.

Folks, listen up! The San Francisco Food Bank still needs about 1,000 turkeys to meet the holiday demand. Mayor Ed Lee has announced he’s donating 100 birds this week. So the real question is can you match/beat the Mayor in donations?

As you know (or should know), we rarely break our “no blog posts on Suspects” rule. This, however, is one of those rare exceptions. We think it’s simply too good a political crash course to pass up. Not that we expect everyone to agree with everything herein, but it’s a fresh and clear eyed look at things…so yeah, we’re breaking our rule for it.

Three years ago, the folks at Barbary Coast Consulting who bring you Usual Suspects each morning were a bunch of carefree, late-night-having, burning-the-candle-at-both-ends folks. As you may be aware, those halcyon days have come and gone. In the space of three short years we’ve gone from being a company with zero children to a company with SEVEN. Seven children. Seven! (We’ve hired one of them as Office Manager and another one as a web designer, but that’s another story.)

And the most recent addition: Gigi Dino Rossi has joined our company family, and is snuggled with her mom and dad as they take some well-deserved time with their new little nugget. Congrats can be sent to your pal Jaime Rossi at rossi@barcoast.com - but don’t expect a quick response. He’s busy being wrapped tightly around Gigi’s little finger.

San Francisco - ever the pioneering city - is going to become the first city to cover gender reassignment surgery for the uninsured. Supervisor Scott Weiner introduced the legislation and the Health Department is currently designing a program to treat the patients.

Facing the prospect of a fine to the tune of $5,500 a day (yeah, that can add up real quick), the Academy of Art University has met some benchmarks set by City officials, which will suspend the fines. For now.

Mayor Ed Lee pens an opinion piece in today’s Examiner extolling our fair city’s commitment to building sustainably.

Well here’s a twist you may not have expected, it turns out that the Oakland Police Officers Union may actually support the federal takeover of their Police Department. It seems they don’t have much faith in the department’s leadership.

Heather Knight recaps last week’s elections and comes to a very serious conclusion: San Francisco is filled with a unique crop of voters. Unique in a good way. (Note: a certain founder of Suspects may be quoted in the article.)

Our fair city charges on (heh!) in its quest to develop the Bay Area as the electric vehicle capital of the world.

Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island residents and businesses look to be living in the Dark Ages, enduring a record 42 blackouts so far this year.

Aaaaand it’s done. Supervisor David Chiu locks in another term as Board President. The Chronicle Editorial Board is pleased with the outcome and Rose Pak, notsomuch.

So, you may have noticed but San Francisco wasn’t the only place holding elections. There were also some State and Federal races as well. Spoiler alert: President Obama will be President for four more years.

Missed yesterday’s deconstruction of the election? Well, we can’t reproduce David Latterman’s slides here, but we’ll link to the Guardian’s blog post on What Happened. Smart crowd, that SPUR group. Smart indeed.

As mentioned (see top left bock), the not so small matter of RCV and outstanding ballots mean some races are still too close too call. So what’s next?

The Examiner tells us that after two solid weeks of counting ballots, the final seat on the City College of San Francisco board of trustees will go to incumbent Chris Jackson.

With tens of thousands of Vote By Mail and provisional ballots still being processed by the tireless Elections team, here’s where things stand:

Eric Mar wins District 1, David Chiu wins District 3, London Breed has a statistically insurmountable lead (barring meteors or magic tricks) in District 5, the District 7 race is a tossup, with FX Crowley leading Norman Yee by a narrow margin, David Campos wins District 9 and John Avalos wins District 11.

Incumbents Sandra Lee Fewer, Rachel Norton, and Jill Wynns regained seats on San Francisco’s Unified School District’s Board of Directors, while newcomer Matthew Haney will take the fourth open seat.

The race for City College of San Francisco’s board of trustees is tight - Steve Ngo and Natalie Berg are likely to be returned to office, and challenger Rafael Mandelman appears to have won a seat. The battle for the fourth seat is a tight one, with incumbent Chris Jackson leading newcomer Amy Bacharach by a slim margin.

Finally, Props A, B, C, D, E, and G have passed, while Prop F failed.